GMT-West 2003 DIF Event
Debriefing Report
First, a big thanks to the 21 players who participated in the 2003 GMT-West
DIF Aces' Campaigns for making it a great success by flying in at least one
mission.
After putting up the tally sheets on the walls, the DIF table was in continuous
action from the start on Friday morning until Sunday afternoon, with either 6 or
8 players in each game. The only time I managed to leave the table for any
length of time was to get something to eat on Friday and Saturday nights.
A total of 43 missions were played over the 3 day period (total includes 20
games that were played as part of the two-man team tournament event). I played
in the most games with 23. Doug Sun was second with 21, followed by Larry
Davidson (20), Martin Scott (19), Larry Mull (18), Nick Markevich (17), Chris
Lefevre (14), Andy Tuttle (13) and Tony Curtis (10) as players who played in at
least in 10 missions.
For this weekend, we experimented with the "Markevich Campaign Rotation System"
where missions were played following the campaign schedule in order of the year,
i.e., 1941 West, 1942 Pacific, 1943 East Front, 1943 West Front, and 1944
Pacific. So each campaign year had about the same number of missions played in
it, about 4 or 5. To my surprise, this worked without any fuss from the players
and saved some time by not having us debate which campaign to in fly next. We'll
use system again next year.
On Saturday afternoon, the two-man team doubles tournament got underway and the
#1 and #2 seeded teams were eliminated by the #8 and #7 teams in the first
round. Then these teams went on to beat the #3 and #4 seeded teams in the
semi-final round. The event was finally won by the surprising 8th seeded team of
Doug Sun and Larry Davidson. Doug and Larry beat the other surprise team, the
7th seeded team of the Mull brothers (Rob and Larry) in the finals, 3 games to
none. As the winners, Doug and Larry were awarded autographed Rodger MacGowan
DIF poster art, Zero T-shirts and GMT games, Sweden Fights On and
Barbarosa to Berlin. My thanks to for GMT for donating the prizes. (And I
thought this was going to be the year Martin and I would win it all. Oh well,
like the Cub and Red Sox Fans say each year, wait 'til next year! I just hope we
don't have to wait +58 years until we reach the DIF finals!)
The regular Aces' event top scorers were Martin Scott, Nick Markevich and Larry
Davidson. All three had 5 kills made by one pilot. Martin Scott's 5 kills were
made by his 1942 30-kill Japanese ace, Shitaro Mendo. Martin won the book
Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45 by Henry Sakaida.
Nick Markevich's 5 kills was also made by a continuing ace, his 1942 Japanese
ace, Takeo Sashimi, now with 15 kills. Nick won the book Flying Aces -
Aviation Art of WW2 by James Kitchers and Bernard Malty.
Larry Davidson's new Luftwaffe pilot Hans Schmidt took top honors in the 1943
Eastern Front campaign with 5 kills. Larry was awarded the paperback, Luftwaffe
Fighter Aces by Mick Spick.
Chris Lefevre (Chandler, AZ) had the top 8th AF P-47 pilot, Jim Wilder, with 3
kills, bringing his career total to 12. Chris won the paperback, Thunderbolt
- P-47 by Martin Caidin.
Considering the Soviet Air Force only shot down 8 planes all weekend, Doug Sun's
pilot Gennady Tartakovsky's 2 kills was quite an accomplishment to become the
Soviet top scorer. Doug's ace now has 7 career kills.
My pilot Hans von Volkswagen took top Luftwaffe pilot honors in the 1941 Western
Front campaign with 3 kills in 5 missions.
Andy Tuttle was the top 1944 American Pacific ace with 3 kills by his P-47D
pilot William Harrison. Andy won the paperback, Aces - True Stories of
Victory and Valor in the Skies of WW2 by William Yenne.
Nick Markevich's pilot, Hiyo Nagato, was the top 1944 Japanese pilot with 4
kills. Nagato was eventually killed on his 4th and last mission of the weekend.
Honorable mentions goes out to Martin Scott's son, Chris, age 10. Chris named
his American P-40 pilot Chris Scott. His pilot was the top 1942 American pilot
and he is off to a good career with 3 kills in the 1942 Pacific campaign.
The top RAF pilot was tied at 2 between Markevich's Paddy Griffin (POW - shot
down and captured) and Tony Curtis' Basil Rathbone.
The top 1943 Luftwaffe West pilot was tied at 2 between James Jones' Wolfgang
Petersen and Larry Mull's Leo Muellenbach.
All previous non-ace player pilots who reached 5 kills also received the new "I
Became An Ace" t-Shirt that has on its front side the Ace card drawing from the
Zero card deck but with a Hellcat instead of the Warhawk. Charles Ryder was the
first recipient of the new version when his 1942 Japanese pilot, Hiroshi Sulu
got two kills to reach 5. Other winners in order were James Jones (Wolfgang
Petersen, '43 West Front), Nick Markevich (Hiyo Nagato, '44 Pacific), Martin
Scott (Fritz Leiber, '43 East Front) and Larry Davidson (H.Schmidt, '43 EF).
If the weekend returns to a 4 day event, I tentatively have planned for next
year the return of special Friday evening bomber mission. This would be a
smaller mission (7 players) with each side having secret victory conditions and
special fog of war surprises for both sides.
For any DiF players, if you like playing DiF all day like I do,
consider making the trip to Goleta or to Consimworld Expo in Tempe next year.
I hope everyone enjoyed it and the new players had fun learning how to play DIF.
I hope to see everyone again, plus some of the old regulars who couldn't make it
(or who couldn't stay for the whole con - you know who you are) as well as new
players in 2004.
Mike Lam, The GMT West DIF Flight Coordinator