2021 North American Masters Tournament Report

	2021 North American Masters Tournament Report With Chris Fretts The 10th Annual North American Masters Tournament was held on October 23-24 in Indianapolis, Indiana at Family Time Games. Battlefront, Battlerankings.com and Able Kompanie put together the weekend of events including a Side Tournament held on Saturday.  Shane Priddy, Family Time Games store owner was the TO.
Invitations were sent to the top 25 players listed at the end of the season on Battlerankings.com and 18 players accepted that invitation. Players came from across the US. Due to Covid Travel restrictions, we did not have any Canadian players this year.
The Format Each year Battlefront comes up with a unique and challenging format for the Masters Players. This year’s format was designed by David Griffin, former event organizer for Battlefront. 2021 N.A. Masters Format: Midwar 84pts. Six 2:45 minute Rounds. Each player picks one nationality and design 6 lists with the following restrictions: Each list must have four (4) distinct degrees of difference from any other list: Different cards = 1 item (only 1 counts) – Formation CC do not count for the purpose of determining differences.   Different Formation  = 1 item Different platoon = 1 item Examples: A.)  Removing a line platoon of Shermans and replacing it with an ally platoon of Shermans or a support platoon of Shermans IS NOT a degree of difference. B.)  Adding an additional Rifle Platoon to a US Rifle Company DOES NOT count as a degree of difference.   C.)   Removing a single platoon (Shermans) and replacing it with two different platoons (AT guns and planes) can be considered two degrees of difference D.) Same Formation from two different books DOES NOT count as a degree of difference when considering for Different Formation: A Panzer III Company from Iron Cross compared to a Panzer III Company from Ghost Panzer.
Special Rules After matchups are announced and terrain is discussed, players share their lists with their opponent.  Both players will secretly select and then reveal their list choice simultaneously. Going into the round, if one of the players has a higher total of victory points, the player with the higher total of victory points will announces his list he then starts counting out loud to 10 (should be 10 seconds), the “challenger” can change his list choice before the ten seconds are up. If the new list is not on the table by the end of the counting, the challenger’s original list will be played. As games get played, any list that wins (score a 6,7 or 8) a round, that list cannot be used for the rest of the tournament. Take it from your list stack and put the list away.

2021 Masters Players

Players & Nationality Played –in order of finish Keith Gilmour – German Chris Jackson - German James Copeland - British William Brown - German James Best Jr - Soviet Joe Lewis - Soviet John Meier - German Andrew Hopson - Soviet Igor Torgeson - British Michael Krahn - Italian Chris Fretts - Soviet James Best - British Tyson Swigart - German Ian Gall - Soviet Preston Jacob - Soviet Tom Burgess - German Ed Hall - German Nathan Krahn - German We ended up with no one playing US in this format. Several, including myself, tried but none of us could come up with six lists that met the requirements and we felt would be competitive.  Click here to view the player army lists... Thanks to our list-checkers Patrick Barkuloo and Scott Atchison

And here is some info I put together from the Tournament Results: Stances Chosen by all Players - 108 total choices over 6 Rounds Attack                 72 times    67% Maneuver           16 times    15% Defend                20 times    18% So players preferred to Attack by a wide margin. However, as you will see below, the proportion of Wins was similarly distributed across the Stances.

Stances chosen by Top 5 Players -30 total choices over 6 Rounds Attack                 21 times    70% Maneuver           2 times      7% Defend                7 times     23% Top 5 players tended more toward Attack and Defend but not too different proportionally compared to the total field.

Wins by Players based on Stances Chosen – 54 Games played Attack Wins                 36 Wins of 72    50% Maneuver Wins          5 Wins of 16      31% Defend Wins               10 Wins of 20    50% Note: 3 out of 54 Games Timed Out Players choosing Attack and Defend each won exactly 50% of the time. Players choosing Maneuver won at a slightly lower percentage of the time.

Missions Played Counterattack             7 games    Wins – Attack 5, Maneuver 1, Timeout 1 Dust Up                        7 games Meeting Engagement – both chose same stance Scouts Out                   6 games Meeting Engagement – both chose same stance Dogfight                       5 games Wins – Attack 2, Defend 2, Timeout 1 Fighting Withdrawl   5 games Wins – Attack 3, Defend 2 Bridgehead                  4 games Wins – Attack 1 Defend 3 Free for All                  4 games Meeting Engagement – both chose same stance Killing Ground            3 games Wins – Attack 2, Defend 1 Spearpoint                   3 games Wins – Attack 2, Defend 1 Encounter                    3 games Meeting Engagement – both chose same stance Contact                         3 games Wins – Attack 3 No Retreat                   2 games Wins – Attack 1, Defend 1 Encirclement              1 game Wins – Timeout 1 Gauntlet                       1 game Wins – Maneuver 1 Note that 20 of the 54 Wins were in Meeting Engagements (Free for All, Dust-up, Encounter, Scouts Out) where the two players both took the same Stance.  In 16 of those 20 wins, both players chose Attack.   So the 4 Meeting Engagement Missions accounted for 16 of the 36 Wins for those choosing the Attack Stance.  Only 4 times total did both players pick Maneuver or Defend.

Saturday night players had a group dinner at a Hibachi restaurant - something of a Masters tradition.  The extended meal time and large tables allowed for lots of time to chat about the day’s games and the coming day’s competition.

And after 6 Rounds, we had a Winner!  Keith Gilmour, playing Germans won the Tournament with 5 wins and 39 Victory Points His path to victory was as follows: 8-1 Win attacking James Best in Dogfight 6-3 Win attacking James Best Jr. in Counterattack 3-3 Draw against James Copeland in Counterattack 7-2 Win against Andrew Hopson in Dust Up 7-2 Win attacking Chris Jackson in Dogfight 8-1 Win attacking Joe Lewis in Killing Ground Thanks again to Battlefront, Battlerankings.com, Able Kompanie and our host, Family Time Games for a great weekend.  We all look forward to Masters 2022!