9th Annual Burning Wreck Barbecue: President's AAR

[Jim Aikens]

I'm pleased to report that we had 22 members, plus a cameo from Steve Thorne and Matt Morrocco's guest, in attendance for our 9th Annual Burning Wreck Barbecue.

Every single member was either on time, or was kind enough to text me their ETA, and came prepared with a German set-up and their gear. I want to thank you all for that. It allowed me to get the pairings started early, especially for the newer players who I knew could use the extra time.

Cold Crocodiles, our scenario choice for the day, worked out perfectly. All of the games finished between about 6:15 and 7:15. I separated out our newer/intermediate players and paired them separately, which allowed all the games to stay competitive throughout the day. Everyone had great things to say about the scenario, and how much they enjoyed it.

Dan Plachta's Germans defeated Jim Cotugno's Brits

Nadir Elfarra's Germans defeated Ed Esparza's Brits

Scott Thompson's Brits defeated John Lehman's Germans

Sal Palaez' Germans defeated Dave Lewis' Brits

Dave Dennis' Germans defeated Jimmy Hansen's Brits

Eric Visnowski's Brits defeated defeated Dave Rosner's Germans

Jim Aikens' Brits defeated Stance Nixon's Germans

Matt Cicero's Brits defeated Dave Nicholas' Germans

Eric Morton's Germans defeated Mike Soffa's Brits

Jaime Palaez' Germans defeated Matt Morrocco's Brits

And in the closest playing of this scenario I've ever seen, Jim Svette's Germans and Fred Timm's Brits fought to a tie, each ending the game with 86 points. Since the VC's state that the Brits have to have more VP's than the Germans at game end, Jim's Germans came away victorious.

For those keeping score, the final total was 4 British (attacker) wins and 7 German (defender) wins. The ROAR has this scenario as about 55% pro-British. Obviously, the 'set up in advance' format was a factor once again. The interesting part, however, was how different the German set-ups were. Some players chose an up-front defense, and other defenses were more in-depth. Clearly there's more than one way to play (and win) this scenario.

Jimmy Hansen, Jim Cotugno, Jim Svette, Dan Plachta, Dave Rosner and Sal Palaez won scenario packs at our end-of-the-day raffle.

And what's in a name? Of the 22 members in attendance, 9 were named James or David. And for the first time at a Club event, James outnumbered David (5 to 4) as the most popular name. And following the usual pattern, we also had 2 Matt's and 2 Erics, our other two 'most common' member names.

This year we ordered our pizzas from Costco, and that worked out extremely well (and about half the cost of last year's pizza order from Papa John's, and better quality.) 15 members and Stance's wife Cheryl made the trek to Fuddrucker's for dinner, where we enjoyed hamburgers and a great deal of camaraderie while watching the last 2 innings of the Cubs/Dodgers game.

I want to thank everyone who came and supported the event. Special thanks also goes to Matt Cicero for organizing the food, prizes and drinks. On a personal note, I want to thank Stance Nixon for a great game. I had a blast, and it was great to see everyone.

Last, but certainly not least: on behalf of the Club, I want to extend a warm “Thank You” to Stance and Cheryl Nixon for opening their home and hosting our event once again this year. We all appreciate your hospitality and making this event both enjoyable and affordable.

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