Twenty-six players participated in RevCon at Prezcon last week. Advanced forecasts of an impending snowstorm that ended up hitting the mid-Atlantic region mid-week coupled with unplanned illnesses down the stretch kept at least four players away. Nevertheless, those who did attend had excellent experience during our 19^th– annual RevCon.

While GMT’s Battles of the American Revolution series continues to be the flagship event at RevCon, this year’s agenda saw three other games being played as well. The first of these was New York 1776 by Worthington Games which was played on Wednesday.

Eight players contended for the winner’s plaque with Pat Mirk finishing 3^rd, Ken Gutermuth finishing 2^nd, and Tim Miller finishing 1^st to take the early lead for the George Washington Award with twelve RevCon points. The George Washington Award is given to the player who accumulates the most points among all the games played throughout the course of the week. RevCon points are awarded as follows: 1 point for entering an event, 2 points for each victory, and 3 points, 5 points and 7 points respectively for 3^rd place, 2^nd place, and 1^st place finishes.

Eight players also competed in Liberty by Columbia Games, played on Thursday. Here, 3^rd place was secured by Tim Miller, 2^nd place by Tyler Sastre, and 1^st place by Rob Taylor. With a 1^st and 3^rd place finish under his belt, Tim Miller’s trajectory toward the “George” was outpacing the competition.

The final game in the non-BoAR line up this year was 1775 Rebellion by Academy Games. It was played on Friday and drew a field of thirteen players. Pat Duffy was the winner while Rick Kirchner came in 2^nd and Alexander Lange came in 3^rd. Although Tim did not “win-place-or show” in this contest, he did win a match and came away with 3 more points to add to his total, making 21 points through three games. His nearest competitor was Pat Duffy with 16 points.

Each of the previous three games mentioned was played using a single-elimination, continuous play format. Battles of the American Revolution, on the other hand, was played using a series of six Heats which began on Monday and continued throughout the week. Eventually, the top eight players from the Heats made the cut to the quarter-final round.

Two novel approaches were taken in this year’s BoAR tournament. First, each battle was selected in chronological order as it occurred during the war. Next, and more significantly, players were randomly assigned a side upon registering for the event and were asked to play that side all the way through the tournament. Thus, even though one had an opponent across the table, one was in competition with everyone else playing the same side. This made for interesting play as the week wore on with players choosing to be either bold or conservative depending upon how other players playing on the same side were faring.

Heat 1 on Monday evening drew fourteen players. The game was the Chatterton Hill scenario from the Battle of White Plains. In this scenario a marginal victory is not available to either player. One must win either decisively or substantially by causing the opponents army morale to waver. As it happened, all games ended decisively with the Americans scoring five wins and the British two.

Heat 2 was Knyphausen’s Feint at the Battle of Brandywine Creek and here we also had fourteen players. Outcomes were a little more even with the Americans winning four games and the British three. The Americans had three decisive wins and one substantial while British players scored one-each; decisive, substantial, and marginal victories.

We had thirteen players for Heat 3, the Freeman’s Farm scenario from the Battle of Saratoga. This necessitated the one and only bye in this year’s tournament. It went to Mark Miklos, the most recent past champion present. All the ensuing six matches ended with marginal victories: four to the American players and two to the British players.

Heat 4 saw ten players fight the Battle of Germantown. The British won two marginal and one decisive victory while the Americans won two substantial victories. There were no American friendly fire incidents involving Adam Stephens’ Brigade, as can occasionally happen and which, when it does happen, can upend the American attack. Stephens’ Brigade did, however, march completely off the board in the match between Jeff Lange’s British and Charles Orndorff’s Americans.

Heat 5 was Lee’s Advance at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse where twelve players came to compete. The Americans won two marginal victories with the rest of the matches ending in a draw. Draws are occasionally possible in certain BoAR scenarios. Draws occurred in the Lange-Manns, Miklos-Taylor and Mirk-Cota matches as well as in the father-son match of Bruno vs Frank Sinigaglio.

The final Heat was the Battle of Rhode Island which drew ten players. The British side carried the day with four wins, two substantial and two marginals while Dave Stiffler recorded the only American win which was marginal.

Scoring in BoAR (which should not be confused with RevCon scoring mentioned above) is +4/-2 for decisive, +3/-1 for substantial, +2/0 for marginal and +1/+1 for a draw with cumulative army morale points and victory points used as first and second tie breaks if needed. After comparing scores among the British and American players, the top eight were selected from among the best four British and best four American players. For the British side, those players were Jeff Lange, Mark Miklos, Larry Burman, and Bill Morse. Larry had left Prezcon mid-week and so the first alternate moved up; Frank Sinigaglio. For the Americans, the quarter finalists were Dave Stiffler, Bruce Cota, Bruno Sinigaglio, and Tim Miller. Unfortunately, Bruno got sick as the week wore on and dropped out of the tournament after the Heats. Again, the first alternate, Charles Orndorff was able to move up.

The quarter final round was the Assault scenario from the Battle of Savannah. The British dominated with three marginal victories. The only America victory was substantial and scored by Dave Stiffler.

Taking the top two British and top two American performances from the QF round, our semifinal was set with Mark Miklos facing Dave Stiffler and Jeff Lange facing Bruce Cota in the Assault scenario from the Battle of Pensacola. Here, the Spanish (American) players won at both tables, so the question became, which Spanish player won by the greater margin and which defeated British player performed the best in defeat. They would become the two finalists. On the British side, that determination had to go to the second tie break which was victory points, where Mark edged out Jeff by 1.5 points. On the Spanish side, only the first tie break was needed and Dave edged Bruce by 2 army morale points. The outcome could not have been much closer.

Before the final began on Saturday afternoon, I checked all the arithmetic and discovered that no matter how BoAR ended up with respect to RevCon points, no one could catch Tim Miller and he was announced as the 2025 George Washington Award champion with a total of 28 RevCon points, counting those earned while playing BoAR.

Meanwhile, the 2025 final for BoAR was the Battle of Eutaw Springs using a match-play format where the battle would be fought twice with players switching sides. The best combined two-game score would win; game, set, and match. In the first game we kept the sides we had been playing all week. My British managed a marginal victory with a slash line of +2/14/4 compared to Dave’s slash line of 0/11/0.

As we prepared to switch sides for the second match, everyone around the table (we were playing on the Big Board Games 4’ x 6’ game board which does draw spectators) realized that I only needed to protect my advantage to win and that I did not need to be overly aggressive and risk losing victory in the jaws of defeat.  Therefore, as the Americans, I feinted toward the British camp in a standard opening and then began to pivot my line until it was 90° perpendicular to the original axis of advance. I anchored my right against swampy ground and held that flank with none other than Francis Marion’s Brigade (The Swamp Fox.)  Only his unit can traverse swamp hexes and so my right was secure. Dave pursued across a wide arch and on a couple occasions caught up to slow moving American units or unsupported artillery that could not keep up with my retrograde march. It was a close-run thing and we both kept a watchful eye on army morale which would decide the game.

I kept falling back and as luck would have it, I got a back-to-back initiative roll on the last game turn and was able to outrun the pursuit while eliminating his Loyalist cavalry in the bargain. Slash lines for game two were +2/13/5 for Dave and 0/15/1 for me. This meant that the two-game combined score was +2/29/5 for me and +2/24/5 for Dave, giving me a five-point army morale advantage and the win.

Coming in 3^rd and 4^th were Bruce Cota and Jeff Lange, respectively. The final George Washington Award standings were Tim Miller in 1^st with 28 points, Mark Miklos in second with 25 points, Dave Stiffler in third with 23 points, and Pat Duffy in fourth with sixteen points. Congratulations to all!

In this year’s tournament the Americans had an edge but only slightly. They won twenty-two matches while the British won eighteen, with four matches ending in a draw. Players seemed to enjoy the format and the unique challenges posed by playing the same side throughout the tournament. We may try this format again for our 20^th anniversary celebration at RevCon in 2026.

I want to thank this year’s GMs; Jeff Lange (1775 Rebellion), Tyler Sastre (Liberty) and Daniel Berger (NY 1776) and Dave Stiffler for being my AGM. I also want to thank Tim Miller, Chris Mlynarczyk, Charles Orndorff, and others for their help in the RevCon room, particularly when it came time to pack up. Of course, the gang at Prezcon, especially Kim and Ernie are always great to work with. Finally, thanks to the players who made the trek to Charlottesville this year. It is always a great reunion of friends!

Plan to attend in 2026 because not only will it be our 20^th anniversary but also the 250^th anniversary of American Independence. We are planning special things and Prezcon has already committed to giving us a larger room. Stay tuned for more information throughout the year.

Keep your powder dry, keep calm, and fix your Bayonets.

Mark Miklos

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