I had a lot of fun organizing and running the initial 2024 DC Victory Open. I’d like to thank all of those who helped out with this effort.
First, thanks to the Georgetown University Wargaming Society for sponsoring the event and to Sam Buan, the student who took the lead on this effort. I’d also like to thank Jon Manley, who transported all of the materials needed for the game (cards, figures, etc.), and to Fantasy Mountain Gaming for purchasing those game sets. I’d also like to thank Hannah Manley for helping Jon with the organization of game materials and for support throughout the tournament. Sean Howley and Justin Hasty provided local support and helped scope out locations for the tournament and for dinner on Saturday evening. Many others, including Dan Winnowski and Sam Edelston, participated in helpful discussion during planning of the event.
Finally, I’d like to thank all of the participants for taking a chance and attending this first-time event. We had 22 participants on Saturday (including 5 Georgetown students) and 20 participants on Sunday. The experience levels ranged from never having played the game to WBC champions. In addition, I’d like to thank all the participants for playing quickly during the weekend (only one game did not finish in the allotted 45 minutes) and for helping immensely with set up and take down throughout the weekend.
I was very happy with the venue – the campus of Georgetown is beautiful and it’s always fun to visit Washington, DC. In addition to the tournament games, we had fun playing overlord matches on Saturday evening (although I was pretty tired). Many of the players also went out to dinner together on Saturday evening, which was a great time.
Congratulations to Jeff Hunt, who had a great run through the tournament. We had several very experienced players, so his 6-0 record is particularly impressive.
Overall, the reaction to the tournament has been overwhelmingly positive. Both the organizers and GUWS are pleased with the event, so plans are already in progress for the Autumn 2025 event. Some improvements that are already being considered include the following:
1. I'd like to have a PowerPoint presentation set up for next year so that we can go over the history of the battles and see the standings and the timer on the screen.
2. I'd like to have scenarios on the Battle of Metz be the theme for next year. I've already started researching these, and I hope to have some scenarios for you to playtest in a few months. This is particularly meaningful to me, as my grandfather was a doctor in the 95th Infantry Division (the Victory Division) and was in Metz 80 years ago.
3. If we continue to have overlords, it would be great if someone other than Jon or me can provide the maps, figures, etc. We already have one volunteer to help out with this
4. Finally, if you have the talents to help get a website for the tournament up, I'd really appreciate it. Also, any ideas about how else to promote the tournament or any additional connections we can make in the DC metro area would be awesome.
Now, on to the summary of the event. We concentrated on D-Day scenarios this year. These were scenarios updated by Richard Borg to use more recent rules, including supported armor and infantry, terrain control rules, landing craft, big guns, British Commonwealth rules, armored cars, and Hobart’s funnies, among others. These scenarios were originally released for the 2014 WBCs.
We had maps and booklets printed up, which were given to all participants. I do have some extra maps and booklets, which will be available for purchase (while supplies last) at future US Open tournaments and DC Victory Open tournaments.
The scoring for this tournament emphasized match wins, and we played 6 Swiss rounds. Thus, players were matched against other players with similar winning records throughout the tournament.
Some other tournaments utilize total medals (with an emphasis on winning objectives) for determining the tournament winner. However, I’ve seen players at these tournaments delay winning the game/match in order to get more medals. This seems contrary to the spirit of the game, so we decided to use this alternate measure. I’ll discuss this a bit more after going through the round-by-round results.
Round 1: Pegasus Bridge
Five sweeps and 6 splits. Allies won 13 games, and Axis won 9 games. Three matches were decided by only one medal.
Round 2: St Mere Eglise
In round 2, there were two family feuds, as Jon Manley played his daughter Hannah, and Chris and Matthew Miller faced off. Shockingly, 10 of the matches were sweeps, with only 1 split result. The Allies won 12 games, and the Axis won 10 games. The only split was between the Millers, with Chris getting a 2-medal win over his brother.
Round 3: Sword Beach
Round 3 saw 4 split matches and 7 sweeps. Allies won 11 games, and the Axis won 11 games. Jeff Hunt won a close contest against Joe Harrison 12-9, and Sean Howley won 12-8 against Thomas Runge-D’Amore to set up the Table 1 matchup for Sunday morning.
Round 4: Gold Beach
Five sweeps and 5 splits. The Allies won 13 games, and the Axis won 7 games. Jeff Hunt held onto his spot at Table 1 with an 11-9 victory over Sean, and Chris Miller suffered his only loss of the tournament 12-5 to Dan Winnowski.
Round 5: Omaha Beach
At this point, Jeff Hunt was the only player who hadn’t lost. Thus, the entire field was rooting for Dan Winnowski in his match against Jeff. After losing 7-3 (down 14 figures) in the first game, Jeff pulled out a 7-3 victory as the Axis with an incredible figure differential of +23 to win the match on figures.
There were 3 sweeps and 7 splits in this round. Allies won 3, and Axis won 17.
Round 6: Juno Beach
After Round 5, Jeff Hunt and Matthew Miller were in first and second, respectively. Overall, there were 7 splits and 3 sweeps. The Allies won 13, and the Axis won 5 (two unreported). In this round, Sam Buan and Joe Cox tied outright (medals and figures were both tied), and Dan Winnowski lost another close match by 5 figures to Sean Howley.
At Table 1, Jeff Hunt beat Matthew Miller 11-9 to finish the tournament undefeated, which is an amazing accomplishment.
Since Jeff Hunt won all of his matches during his impressive 2-day run, he won the tournament and took home the bronze soldier trophy. Chris Miller won 5 matches, so he took second place. Five players had 4 wins each, so we needed to go to the tiebreaker to determine third place. Both Justin Hasty and Sean Howley had 64 total medals (Matthew Miller had 61, Jon Manley had 56, and Sam Arther had 55). However, Justin was +14 in medal differential, while Sean was +13 in medal differential, so Justin claimed third place.
Sam Arthur won 4 matches and was the highest placing Georgetown student.
As mentioned above and in other posts, some other tournaments use total medals to determine the winner. If that had been done in this tournament, Jeff Hunt would still have won with 66 total medals. Then, there would have been a 3-way tie between Justin Hasty, Sean Howley, and Dan Winnowski. Dan lost two matches by figures; thus, his finish was not indicative of how well he played.
If total games won had been the tiebreaker, instead of total medals, we also would have had a different result.
Overall, I’m pleased with how the scoring worked out, and I’m confident that the best player won the tournament. Chris Miller benefited from winning several close matches, and players who had close losses suffered. We will continue to think about the tiebreaking procedure for next year, but I’m content to have matches won be the first criterion.
Thanks for reading this far. Please reach out if you have any feedback, comments, or suggestions regarding the tournament this year or future tournaments.
I hope to see everyone again next year and hopefully we will have even more participants.
First, thanks to the Georgetown University Wargaming Society for sponsoring the event and to Sam Buan, the student who took the lead on this effort. I’d also like to thank Jon Manley, who transported all of the materials needed for the game (cards, figures, etc.), and to Fantasy Mountain Gaming for purchasing those game sets. I’d also like to thank Hannah Manley for helping Jon with the organization of game materials and for support throughout the tournament. Sean Howley and Justin Hasty provided local support and helped scope out locations for the tournament and for dinner on Saturday evening. Many others, including Dan Winnowski and Sam Edelston, participated in helpful discussion during planning of the event.
Finally, I’d like to thank all of the participants for taking a chance and attending this first-time event. We had 22 participants on Saturday (including 5 Georgetown students) and 20 participants on Sunday. The experience levels ranged from never having played the game to WBC champions. In addition, I’d like to thank all the participants for playing quickly during the weekend (only one game did not finish in the allotted 45 minutes) and for helping immensely with set up and take down throughout the weekend.
I was very happy with the venue – the campus of Georgetown is beautiful and it’s always fun to visit Washington, DC. In addition to the tournament games, we had fun playing overlord matches on Saturday evening (although I was pretty tired). Many of the players also went out to dinner together on Saturday evening, which was a great time.
Congratulations to Jeff Hunt, who had a great run through the tournament. We had several very experienced players, so his 6-0 record is particularly impressive.
Overall, the reaction to the tournament has been overwhelmingly positive. Both the organizers and GUWS are pleased with the event, so plans are already in progress for the Autumn 2025 event. Some improvements that are already being considered include the following:
1. I'd like to have a PowerPoint presentation set up for next year so that we can go over the history of the battles and see the standings and the timer on the screen.
2. I'd like to have scenarios on the Battle of Metz be the theme for next year. I've already started researching these, and I hope to have some scenarios for you to playtest in a few months. This is particularly meaningful to me, as my grandfather was a doctor in the 95th Infantry Division (the Victory Division) and was in Metz 80 years ago.
3. If we continue to have overlords, it would be great if someone other than Jon or me can provide the maps, figures, etc. We already have one volunteer to help out with this
4. Finally, if you have the talents to help get a website for the tournament up, I'd really appreciate it. Also, any ideas about how else to promote the tournament or any additional connections we can make in the DC metro area would be awesome.
Now, on to the summary of the event. We concentrated on D-Day scenarios this year. These were scenarios updated by Richard Borg to use more recent rules, including supported armor and infantry, terrain control rules, landing craft, big guns, British Commonwealth rules, armored cars, and Hobart’s funnies, among others. These scenarios were originally released for the 2014 WBCs.
We had maps and booklets printed up, which were given to all participants. I do have some extra maps and booklets, which will be available for purchase (while supplies last) at future US Open tournaments and DC Victory Open tournaments.
The scoring for this tournament emphasized match wins, and we played 6 Swiss rounds. Thus, players were matched against other players with similar winning records throughout the tournament.
Some other tournaments utilize total medals (with an emphasis on winning objectives) for determining the tournament winner. However, I’ve seen players at these tournaments delay winning the game/match in order to get more medals. This seems contrary to the spirit of the game, so we decided to use this alternate measure. I’ll discuss this a bit more after going through the round-by-round results.
Round 1: Pegasus Bridge
Five sweeps and 6 splits. Allies won 13 games, and Axis won 9 games. Three matches were decided by only one medal.
Round 2: St Mere Eglise
In round 2, there were two family feuds, as Jon Manley played his daughter Hannah, and Chris and Matthew Miller faced off. Shockingly, 10 of the matches were sweeps, with only 1 split result. The Allies won 12 games, and the Axis won 10 games. The only split was between the Millers, with Chris getting a 2-medal win over his brother.
Round 3: Sword Beach
Round 3 saw 4 split matches and 7 sweeps. Allies won 11 games, and the Axis won 11 games. Jeff Hunt won a close contest against Joe Harrison 12-9, and Sean Howley won 12-8 against Thomas Runge-D’Amore to set up the Table 1 matchup for Sunday morning.
Round 4: Gold Beach
Five sweeps and 5 splits. The Allies won 13 games, and the Axis won 7 games. Jeff Hunt held onto his spot at Table 1 with an 11-9 victory over Sean, and Chris Miller suffered his only loss of the tournament 12-5 to Dan Winnowski.
Round 5: Omaha Beach
At this point, Jeff Hunt was the only player who hadn’t lost. Thus, the entire field was rooting for Dan Winnowski in his match against Jeff. After losing 7-3 (down 14 figures) in the first game, Jeff pulled out a 7-3 victory as the Axis with an incredible figure differential of +23 to win the match on figures.
There were 3 sweeps and 7 splits in this round. Allies won 3, and Axis won 17.
Round 6: Juno Beach
After Round 5, Jeff Hunt and Matthew Miller were in first and second, respectively. Overall, there were 7 splits and 3 sweeps. The Allies won 13, and the Axis won 5 (two unreported). In this round, Sam Buan and Joe Cox tied outright (medals and figures were both tied), and Dan Winnowski lost another close match by 5 figures to Sean Howley.
At Table 1, Jeff Hunt beat Matthew Miller 11-9 to finish the tournament undefeated, which is an amazing accomplishment.
Since Jeff Hunt won all of his matches during his impressive 2-day run, he won the tournament and took home the bronze soldier trophy. Chris Miller won 5 matches, so he took second place. Five players had 4 wins each, so we needed to go to the tiebreaker to determine third place. Both Justin Hasty and Sean Howley had 64 total medals (Matthew Miller had 61, Jon Manley had 56, and Sam Arther had 55). However, Justin was +14 in medal differential, while Sean was +13 in medal differential, so Justin claimed third place.
Sam Arthur won 4 matches and was the highest placing Georgetown student.
As mentioned above and in other posts, some other tournaments use total medals to determine the winner. If that had been done in this tournament, Jeff Hunt would still have won with 66 total medals. Then, there would have been a 3-way tie between Justin Hasty, Sean Howley, and Dan Winnowski. Dan lost two matches by figures; thus, his finish was not indicative of how well he played.
If total games won had been the tiebreaker, instead of total medals, we also would have had a different result.
Overall, I’m pleased with how the scoring worked out, and I’m confident that the best player won the tournament. Chris Miller benefited from winning several close matches, and players who had close losses suffered. We will continue to think about the tiebreaking procedure for next year, but I’m content to have matches won be the first criterion.
Thanks for reading this far. Please reach out if you have any feedback, comments, or suggestions regarding the tournament this year or future tournaments.
I hope to see everyone again next year and hopefully we will have even more participants.
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