As most of you know, this year’s RevCon was a special one. We simultaneously celebrated our 20th anniversary and the 250th anniversary of America’s Independence by not only enjoying a week of competitive Rev War gaming, but also an agenda complete with special events to mark the occasion.
This year there were 22 unique BoAR players and 30 RevCon players overall. Among our BoAR group, 2 were new players and 3 players matriculated off the AREA Inactive Player List and back into the camp of the Active.
On Monday, February 23, we kicked off RevCon with two Heats of BoAR. In the morning, seventeen players showed up for Heat 1, the Battle of Eutaw Springs (campaign scenario.) As last year’s BoAR winner, I received the first bye, leaving eight matches to be played. The Eutaw campaign has been played 217 times in tournaments with the British winning 40% of the time and the Americans winning 39% of the time. Historically the Eutaw campaign ends in a draw 21% of the time. This year’s American commanders, however, surpassed the historical average winning 63% of the matches. Three of those matches were won marginally while two were won substantially. Two British players won, one marginally and one substantially. One game ended in a draw.
We had fifteen players for Heat 2 in the afternoon, the Battle of Rhode Island. With another odd number, the next bye went to the next most recent past champion in descending chronological order, Dave Stiffler. Rhode Island is still relatively new in the series and has only been played in competition thirty-four times. Nevertheless, it too is well balanced with the British winning 53% of the time and the Americans 47% of the time. Despite its history, this year was very nearly a clean sweep for the Crown Forces who took four marginal and two substantial victories. Only Duncan McGill’s Americans managed a marginal victory against Bruce Cota.
On Tuesday, our day began with 1775 Rebellion by Academy Games. Fifteen players competed in this single elimination event. The winner was Nathan Wagner who earned fourteen RevCon points and took an early lead in the hunt for the George Washington Award. “George” is the grand prize awarded to the player at the end of the week who has earned the most points across all the games played. Second place, and 12 RevCon points went to Duncan McGill.
The third Heat of BoAR was played that evening, and it was the Lee’s Advance scenario from Monmouth Courthouse. This time twelve players showed up and no bye was needed. In this scenario, the historical record suggests that the Americans win 38% of the time, the British 31% of the time and a draw occurs 31% of the time. This year, the Americans won 50% of the matches, all marginally, while 33% ended in a draw. Only Dave Stiffler recorded a British marginal victory against new BoAR player Nathan Wagner.
On Wednesday, our agenda began to take on some added flavor as we began to introduce some of our special anniversary events. We started the day, however, with competition in Worthington Publishing’s Freeman’s Farm 1777. Nine players showed up and so Game-Master Jeff Lange, Sr., stepped back to play as a spoiler-only, leaving four matches to proceed. Dave Stiffler won and earned 12 RevCon points and I came in second, earning 10. At least two of the games came down to a final morale check on the last turn, including the deciding match between Dave and me. That’s the measure of a good game system.
At 6:00 p.m. we were treated to a briefing on the Battle of Oriskany by Emeritus Professor Dan Hanle, recent Dean of the College of Strategic Intelligence at the Defense Intelligence University. Don talked about the challenge faced by the British high command in the Oriskany campaign to keep their Indian Allies engaged and, on the field, and how he addressed those challenges in his re-design of the game for BoAR Tripack II. I’m confident in saying that there were over 35 people in his audience, and everyone enjoyed the presentation. Positive feedback rolled in for the rest of the week.
After the talk, we played Heat 4 of BoAR, the Freeman’s Farm scenario from Saratoga. This gave players the opportunity to experience this fight through the agency of two distinct treatments, the Worthington design in the morning and the BoAR design in the evening. Fourteen players contended and once again, no bye was needed. Historically, the British have had a slight edge in this one, winning 56% of the time to 44% for the Americans. Our American commanders beat the odds, however, winning five of the seven matches. Both British wins were marginal by Bill Morse and Dave Stiffler over Father Todd Carter and Rob McKinney respectively.
On Thursday we played our last BoAR Heat in the morning, the full campaign game of the re-designed Battle of Oriskany that Professor Hanle had briefed us on the night before. We had six players and the British made a clean sweep. My British and Dave Stiffler’s British each won substantially. Dave’s victory was over designer Don Hanle! Duncan McGill’s British won decisively by capturing Fort Stanwix against his opponent, Bruce Cota. In none of the three games did the action exceed the first day’s combat and so we never got to experience the Interphase Table events or the arrival of the relief column commanded by Benedict Arnold. All of the British players were able, however, to experience the new Indian Will mechanisms introduced in the new design.
We wrapped up our day on Thursday with the second special event in this year’s agenda; a team game of Worthington’s Hold the Line using miniatures that we played for fun and not as part of the formal competition. I lined up five game boards end to end, created a flowing landscape to connect the boards together, and designed a scenario, the force mix and the initial deployments. Each team of four players elected their Commander in Chief and decided how to divide the game boards. The C-in-C rolled for initiative and variable action points each turn that he distributed to his subordinates according to the flow of the battle. Moves were timed using a chess clock. To say we had fun would be an understatement. In the end, the Americans won but just barely thanks to dominant play on one board by Nathan Wagner who alone racked up 5 VPs. We drank some excellent wine, ate pizza and everyone involved commented about making something like this a permanent RevCon feature.
On Friday morning, BoAR entered its single elimination quarter final round with the top eight players from the Heats. It came to pass that the fourth seed, Bruno Sinigaglio couldn’t continue because he had a 4:00 a.m. flight back to the west coast in the morning and even if he won the QF and the SF rounds, he would not be able to play in the final. Being a consummate gentleman, he elected to drop out so that one of the alternates could advance. Likewise, the eighth seed, Rob Taylor, had dropped out earlier in the week because of conflicts with other events at Prezcon. This meant that one more alternate would get the chance to advance. Finally, the number six seed was no show at game time. There were extenuating circumstances because this fellow had felt sick all week. One more alternative would get the nod.
With all that said, the eight quarter finalists were Dave Stiffler, me, Duncan McGill, Bruce Cota (alt), Father Todd Carter, Charles Orndorff (alt), Jeff Lange, Sr. and Nathan Wagner (alt). The game was Knyphausen’s Feint at Brandywine Creek. Father Todd, Bruce Cota and I all won decisively as the Americans by holding on to Proctor’s Battery at the end of the game. Meanwhile, Dave’s British won substantially over Nathan Wagner. These results set up a semi-final for later in the day that would pit Bruce against Father Todd and me against Dave.
But first, it was party time! At 3:00 p.m., we cut the cake and popped the champagne for our 20th/250th anniversary party. I was told there were 49 people in the room at one point. We had a few appropriate remarks and a tribute to our recently departed friend and fellow gamer, Bill Alerman, may he rest in peace. Many signed his memorial book which was presented to his widow Margaret who was in attendance. There was a recitation by Dave Stiffler taken from the lyrics of a commemorative song written in the period to celebrate Washington’s victory at Trenton. This was followed by three rousing cheers for General Washington. Three of us were in uniform, two Continentals and one British courtesy of Chris Mlynarczyk of the 1st Delaware Regiment. The room was festooned with banners and flags, and the spirit was lively and celebratory. It was a fitting interlude. Not a morsel of cake nor a drop of bubbly was left!
The day ended with the BoAR semi-final, the historical scenario from the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Fittingly, a perfect balance was struck. Bruce’s Americans won marginally over Father Todd while my British won marginally over Dave. The following day, Saturday February 28, would decide the championship between Bruce and me at the Battle of Saratoga.
Dave Stiffler took the notes and offered to write the narrative describing the Final so I will end my AAR here, pending his report.
This RevCon rivaled and likely exceeded the celebration we held for our 10th anniversary. Those of you not in attendance were missed. The good news is we are planning two more very special events to mark the 250th and we hope to see you at one or both. Next up is WBC in July where we will once again front-load the agenda with special events including a seminar on the Battle of Cowpens led by Bruno Sinigaglio, a trivia game between the Bloody-backs and the Yankee-doodles, and more cake and champagne among other things.
Our biggest event, however, is coming up in Camden, South Carolina, in September. This will be an all-GMT, all-Rev War games gathering to honor the 250th. Our venue will be Historic Camden. Our special events will include a reception in a restored eighteenth century tavern, a private tour of the Camden battlefield, and so much more. Tickets are only $76 and as of this writing, only 29 remain! Use this link for more information and for tickets: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1220-gaming-the-american-revolution-camden-250.aspx
I want to thank everyone who helped make RevCon 2026 so special and successful including our sponsors, Prezcon, GMT Games, Worthington Publishing, and Miller EG Design for our logo, posters, and banner. Rani Hobgood and Darlene Miklos for handling the refreshments and being our hostesses, Jeff Lange and Dave Stiffler for GMing, Don Hanle for his lecture, Chris Mlynarczyk for the loan of authentic uniforms, everyone who loaned me their copies of Hold the Line so that I could assemble five boards into a single, massive battle, and of course each of the twenty two players who attended this year. Without your steadfast support there would be no RevCon and frankly, no BoAR.
Author: Mark Miklos
