Part I

We tied our third-best attendance record for Battles of the American Revolution at the WBC this year with 31 players participating.  Among those were eight new, unrated players which speaks to the continued popularity of the series.  Also participating this year were six of the top ten AREA rated players which made for good leavening within the field.

I conducted a scheduled demo (since AGM Rob “Cappy” McCracken was an unfortunate late-scratch and couldn’t attend) as well as two 1:1 tutorial for individuals who couldn’t make the demo.  Among these folks, two showed up to play.

We ran six Heats to qualify eight players for the single elimination quarterfinals.  In-all, 52 separate games of BoAR were played from Heat #1 through to the Final match.  It was a long week for those players who committed wholeheartedly to the event, including the three players who had selected BoAR as their WBC team game.  On the other hand, the Swiss-Heat format provided others with maximum flexibility to come and go as their overall schedules allowed.  It was a nice mix. 

While some battles/scenarios proved to be more balanced than others, in the aggregate the Americans won 23 contests while the British won 25.  Four contests ended in a draw.  That’s pretty good play balance overall.

Heat #1 attracted the most players, with twenty-two individuals facing off in eleven matches.  The game was “Lee’s Advance” at Monmouth Courthouse.  Five American and four British players won their games while two games ended in a draw.  Considering the command & control rules that the American player must contend with, this ended up being a more balanced scenario than one might have expected.

All victories in this scenario, no matter the side played, were Marginal.  British winners included Bruno Sinigaglio, Curtiss Fyock, Bill Morse, and Tim Miller.  American victories were recorded by Dave Stiffler, Mark Miklos, Don Hanle and the Reverand Fathers Todd Carter and Eric Tolentino.  Draws were recorded between Andy Maly and Frank Sinigaglio and between Charles Orndorff and Ed O’Conner.

Matt O’Conner, Todd Treadway, and Jerry MacLaughlin were new players who joined us in this Heat.  Long time friends of the series who had fallen off the active list, Ric Manns, Bill Beswick, and Ed O’Connor, were heartily welcomed back into the fold.  It proved a good omen to have such a strong turnout for the first Heat.  We were off and running.

Heat #2 was “Knyphausen’s Feint” at Brandywine Creek.  Seventeen players showed up necessitating the first bye of the tournament which was awarded to Father Todd.  In total, five byes were awarded this year.  Per WBC etiquette, byes are awarded to past champions present in descending order.  Once all of those who are entitled for one take a bye, it is next awarded to the players with the most tournament points in descending order.  No one may have a bye more than once until all other eligible players do so.

Play balance skewed in favor of the Americans this time.  They won six of the eight matches.  Only Frank Sinigaglio and Don Hanle managed to win as the British.  It is feared that the “code” has been broken for how to win as the Americans in this scenario.  As such, it is unlikely that I will be using Knyphausen’s Feint in future tournaments. 

In brief, forming a hedgehog, or defense in depth, around Proctor’s Battery with a stack of units and a good leader in the battery hex itself should do the trick.  Unless the British take the battery the Americans will win a Decisive victory regardless of casualties.  Of course, they still risk losing Substantially by taking so many casualties while defending that their army morale falls to zero, which is in fact how Frank and Don managed their victories. 

We were happy to welcome another new player in this round, Bruce Cota.  Meanwhile Dave, Bruno, Mark, Curtiss, Bill, and John Vasilakos pocketed their American victories, each of which was Decisive except for John’s which was Substantial. 

There was one outcome worth further note.  In the match between Don, the eventual British winner, and his American opponent Chris Mlynarczyk, Don was tracking a British Decisive Victory because he was simultaneously occupying both Proctor’s Battery and the American HQ hex.  Chris, whose army morale was resting on 1, launched a forlorn hope attack to reoccupy Proctor’s Battery.  The attack failed, predictably, and with it his army morale fell to zero causing an immediate Substantial defeat but preventing Don from earning the eventual Decisive victory.  Chris went on to demonstrate this spoiling tactic twice more in the tournament, denying opponents a Decisive victory by intentionally breaking his own army’s morale.  He walked away from the Con with a new nickname, Chris “Substantial” Mlynarczyk.

Heat #3 was “Chatterton Hill” from the newly released volume X in the series, White Plains.  Seeing competitive play for the first time, we were all anxious to discover its play balance, and it didn’t disappoint.  Tim, Matt, Jeff Lange, and Chris Storzillo all won Decisively as the Americans while John and Don won Decisively and Bruno and Father Todd won Substantially as the British.  In this Heat we again had 17 players and Mark got the bye.  This scenario is reminiscent of the Freeman’s Farm scenario in Saratoga.  It is short and sharp and tense right down to the final die roll in most cases.

Heat #4 was “Rhode Island.”  This time fifteen players wanted to compete, and another bye was warranted.  It was taken by Dave Stiffler thus leaving seven matches to be contested.  Play balance ruled again as the British won four and the Americans won three of the matches played.  New players Rory Aylward and Mark Paulette joined us for this round. 

American winners were John and Don who posted Substantial victories and Mark whose Americans won Marginally.  On the British side, Bruno and Bill won Substantially and Tim and Charles won Marginally.

Heat #5 saw us revisit the Monmouth Courthouse battlefield to fight the “Holding Action.”  Once again, fifteen players joined us.  Bruno received the fourth bye of the tournament after which the rest of the contenders were paired up in seven matches.  The British had the best of it winning four times.  There were two draws.  The Americans only managed one win when Tim defeated Matt O’Conner Marginally.  The British meanwhile tallied two Decisive wins by Mark and Father Todd, a Substantial win by Dave, and a Marginal win by Don.  John and Ric fought to a draw as did Bill and Charles Orndorff.  In this Heat we welcomed yet another new player, Alex Nesenjuk.

Heat #6 was our last Heat and it featured “Howe’s Flank Attack” at Brandywine Creek.  It is interesting to note that the conditions for an American Decisive victory are in many ways like those in Knyphausen’s Feint, yet the outcomes in this scenario were diametrically opposed.  Rather than the Americans scoring the preponderance of victories by simply holding on to the Birmingham Meeting House, it was the British who prevailed in four of the five matches played.  This strikes me as curious.  The Birmingham Meeting House may be slightly more approachable than Proctor’s Battery and it is true that the British forces making this attack represent the bulk of the elite units in the British army while those in the Knyphausen’s Feint scenario are more mundane.  Nevertheless, with the code having been broken in Knyphausen’s Feint I was expecting similar results here.  Given that the opposite occurred, it remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

To accommodate five matches, the last bye of the tournament was given to Don since eleven players wanted to compete.  We also welcomed our final new player, Scott Beall.  Curtiss was the lone American winner by defeating Father Todd Decisively (having held on to the Meeting House.)  Bruno, Bill, and Mark all won Substantially as the British while Frank’s British won Marginally. 

The stage was now set to identify the top-eight players who would advance to the single elimination quarter final round.

Quarter Final rankings were as follows: Bruno Sinigaglio with 18 tournament points and 117 points of cumulative army morale.  Next came Mark Miklos, also with 18 tournament points and 114 cumulative army morale.  Don Hanle was the third seed with 17 tournament points.  The fourth seed was Bill Morse with 11 tournament points and an army morale of 112.  John Vasilakos was fifth with 11 tournament points and 86 army morale and Dave Stiffler was sixth, also with 11 tournament points and cumulative army morale of 76.  Rounding out the top eight were Father Todd Carter with 10 tournament points and Tim Miller with 9 tournament points.

When the list was posted, Bruno announced that he could not advance.  The QF round would commence at 9:00 AM on Friday morning.  That same day, Bruno was the GM for Queen’s Gambit that was scheduled to start soon after our QF round.  Furthermore, he had at least two other QF rounds to either GM or play in as the day progressed.  His bandwidth was stretched too thin.  Those familiar with Bruno’s duties at WBC can well-imagine how tired he was by this point, responsible as he was for running the entire Grognard sub-Con within WBC, playing in many-many games and trying to also invest in BoAR.  So, it was with the deepest of regrets, and with the understanding of our group, that he stepped aside to make room for the first alternate.  That player was the ninth seed, Curtiss Fyock whose score was 5 tournament points.  Curtiss was a solid point ahead of the next three potential alternates, all of whom had 4 tournament points each and 24, 23, ands 20 army morale points respectively.  They were Chris Storzillo, Matt O’Connor, and Jeff Lange.

Matt won the GM special prize for best performance by a non-AREA rated player.  I was happy to present him with a walking guide to the Liberty Trail in Boston and a bag-o-buttons with assorted collectible BoAR buttons from past tournaments.  We hope he makes BoAR a regular part of his WBC schedule in the years to come.  He’s a good, intuitive, and courageous player.  Thanks to his dad Ed for bringing him!

With Curtiss in the mix, the pairing for the QF round was Mark vs. Curtiss, Don vs. Tim, Bill vs. Father Todd, and John vs. Dave.  The game was the historical scenario from Eutaw Springs.  For players who own White Plains, you will notice a replacement counter for Eutaw Springs on the counter sheet.  It is “McCotry’s Rifles” which now replaces the previous S.C. Militia Rifles unit.  McCotry’s abilities have been plused-up.  He is now light infantry, moves 5 MP, and is a Partisan, just like Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox.  We used this new counter in all QF matches.

When the dust settled over the battlefield and the black powder smoke had dissipated, British arms were found to be victorious in three of the four matches.  While not uncommon, it was surprising given the historical record that demonstrates Eutaw to be arguably the most balanced scenario in the entire BoAR line up.  Tim’s Americans preserved national honor by defeating Don’s British Substantially.  Meanwhile Mark defeated Curtiss, Father Todd defeated Bill, and Dave defeated John, all with Marginal British victories.

The Semi Final was the granddaddy of them all, the Battle of Saratoga, where the Americans won both matches Substantially.  Father Todd defeated Tim and Mark defeated Dave.  I can only speak in detail about my own match against Dave which I feared I would lose from the starting gun.  To begin with, Dave and I tied during three rounds of bidding since we each wanted the British and neither of us moved off a bid of 1 army morale point.  It went to die roll, Dave won it, and got the British unadjusted (They start with superior morale.)  Next, I rolled clear weather for the first game turn which meant no fog for either of the first two turns, a definite advantage for the British.  Next, Dave went “student body center,” pouring all his units into Freeman’s Farm by the most direct route, forgoing the wide arc around the British right and only sending de minimis forces down the River Road.  Next, Morgan’s rifle unit was disrupted in early combat, failed to rally on its first attempt and was out of action effectively for several game turns.  The British took the farm and as I struggle to form a line, it was overlapped on both ends continuously by the ever-pressing British.  Somewhere along the line I caused a step loss to one of his units, but the score remained 2.5 to .5 and I was feeling desperate.  Even if I could contest the farm by projecting a ZOC into it, he would still have a full 1 pt lead in a game where only a .5 VP advantage is enough to win.

And then I got Gates to release on the very first turn of eligibility with a roll of zero!  I had prepositioned Gates’ men to take advantage of release, should it occur, and they pressed forward with a Huzzah to the relief of their comrades.  They couldn’t quite reach the front so General Arnold pulled the front back about a hex row so that both wings of the army could combine in one, long beautiful line of battle.  Gates also sent a feint along the River road sufficient to draw a few British units back into that sector.  Combats occurred, and the next thing we knew, the American’s were up 3 VP to 2.5 with an army morale advantage of 15 to 8 (the British were Fatigued.)  If memory serves, the Americans had the next initiative and were facing three separate 1 SP British units.  Seeing the writing on the wall, Dave offered an honorable surrender and Gates who, being a civilized general schooled in the traditions of the British army, accepted it (although rumor has it that this act caused a heated argument back at American HQ between he and General Arnold.)

Friday ended and 51 games of BoAR were in the can.  We were at last down to the Final that would pit Mark against Father Todd.  Stay tuned for more in Part II of this AAR…

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Next Article: WBC 2023: Battles of the American Revolution After Action Report — Part II