WACCon 2012, held last weekend at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle, was a great event. It featured 20 boards over the four rounds, with 46 players participating, including five Weasels and three of our ex-pats.
In the second round, Cockerill and I played on the same board, along with ex-pat Adam Berey. Nate topped it, while Adam and I finished third and fourth. Prokes finished fifth on his board, while Lokken was eliminated on his.
The tournament offered a buffet dinner between rounds on Saturday. The meal was great.
In the third round, Prokes was Germany to my England. I stabbed him to seize the board lead, but he had his vengeance, helping to ensure that Adam Silverman topped instead. Prokes was eliminated on the last turn of the game, while I finished in a tie for second.
Cockerill has another good game in the third round, finishing in second. Lokken was also in that game and finished fourth.
Lokken skipped the last round, and he and Burgess, plus Lokken’s girlfriend and Burgess’ cousin, went up to Vancouver to spend a few days skiing. Prokes was eliminated in his game.
Cockerill and I both qualified for the top board. He was in third place going in and drew Italy. I was in fifth and got Germany. Board assignments were random. I was happier with mine than Nate was. The other players were Edi Birsan in Austria, Chris Brand in England, Andy "Buffalo" Bartalone in France, Brian Shelden in Russia (filling in for Adam Silverman, who was unable to play in the final round), and Adam Sigal in Turkey.
Unfortunately, that’s about as good as it got for Cockerill and me. A costly Russian misorder in Spring 1901 and then a bad guess against Turkey sped up the resolution in the East. That freed Birsan to push against both of us.
A couple of bad choices by us encouraged his. Nate retreated A Trieste off the board in Spring 1902, expecting to rebuild it as a fourth fleet, but Birsan walked into Venice in the Fall instead. Then I built a third fleet instead of a more useful army. With only three armies, one of which was in Holland, I was an appealing target for and Austria with a bunch of armies with nothing much to do.
So, by 1903, the West was forging a stalemate line, which we did. Adam Sigal eventually stabbed Birsan and marched to a pretty easy board top. He won the game and Best Turkey with 13 centers. Brand and I tied for second at six, Buffalo had five, Birsan finished with three, and Cockerill had a lone unit in Tunis (an army, ironically).
The best country award went to:
- Adam Sigal
- Buffalo (who had the highest composite score.)
- Nate Cockerill
- Adam Silverman
- Chris Brand
- Jim O’Kelley
- Edi Birsan
Yeargin finished 9th; Berey, 14th; MacDonald was 25th; Lokken, 34th; Prokes, 36th; and Burgess, dead last at 45th.
The standings and supply center counts for each game can be found here.
I think I can speak for all the Weasels when I say it was an outstanding event. Our traveling crew were great ambassadors for our club and WDC. A ton of players told us they planned to attend. I hope you’ve made your plans to do so. August will be here before you know it.
