A robust twenty-seven players entered this year’s Battles of the American Revolution (BoAR) tournament, including three fresh players who had attended the demo on Monday night. A total of forty-three games were played. Overall, the King’s arms prevailed in twenty-one contests, or 49% of the matches played. American or Allied forces won eleven matches (26%) while another eleven matches ended in a draw.
Heat 1 was the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Seventeen players signed in, including fresh players Garrett Cimina, David Gates, and John Sy. We were happy to welcome these gentlemen to our group. Also joining in Heat 1 was Jim Tracy who last competed at WBC in 2018 and had since fallen to the AREA “Inactive List.” It was great to see Jim back in the fold.
In this Heat, the British won two substantial and five marginal victories. The only American victory was marginal when Dave Stiffler defeated David Gates. With a sample size of ninety-one tournament games, the British win this scenario 60% of the time while Americans win 37%. This year it would seem the King’s forces upended the statistical averages. Given the odd number of players, we saw our first bye of the tournament. In descending order of past champions present, the bye was refused first by Father Todd and then by Dave Stiffler. Mark Miklos accepted it.
Heat 2 was the Next Day Scenario at Saratoga featuring American ammunition depletion. Fifteen players came to play, and so this time Father Todd accepted the bye. In the contests that followed, three British players, Bruce Cota, Bruno Sinigaglio, and Curtiss Fyock each won substantially. The other four matches were adjudicated and resulted in draws. In all but one of those adjudications, the draw results did not affect the overall tournament rankings up to that point. The only person whose ranking was impacted was AGM Don Hanle who fell from 8th to 11th place after the Heat was tabulated. Notwithstanding the impact on his own ranking, Don voted along with the GM and the other AGM in favor of the adjudication. This was a selfless act and one worthy of a true gentleman.
Heat 3 was the Short Campaign Scenario from Brandywine Creek. Eleven players answered the call, and Dave Stiffler accepted his bye. Once again, British players dominated with three substantial and one marginal victory while only Duncan McGill’s Americans managed a marginal victory against Chris Mlynarczyk. The British win this scenario 75% of the time and so their 80% pace this year was just north of par.
Heat 4 was the Eutaw Springs Historical Scenario. Seventeen players showed up, and Bruno Sinigaglio accepted the bye. While the campaign game of Eutaw Springs is superbly balanced, the historical scenario is a bit less so with the British having a historical 2:1 advantage in victories while 17% of the matches end in a draw. This year we saw three draws but only one British victory in which GMT’s own Andy Lewis defeated Jim Tracy marginally. The remaining four games were all American substantial victories, turning the cat in the pan.
Heat 5 was Germantown. A bit of player fatigue had settled in by Thursday morning as only six stalwart individuals came to play. The scenario proved to be balanced as Don Hanle and Tim Miller fought to a draw while Mark Miklos’ Americans defeated David Gates marginally and Father Todd’s British defeated Curtiss Fyock substantially. For comparison, the historical data over fifty-eight tournament games of Germantown has the Americans winning 52% of the time and the British 38% of the time. Ten percent of the time Germantown ends in a draw.
Fans of the BoAR series, and of Germantown in particular, will know that in this game there is the chance that, under certain circumstances, an American friendly fire incident may occur and if it does, it may lead to a spreading panic in the American army that often has dire consequences for the American player. In the three games played in this Heat, the brigade commanded by General Adam Stephen, part of Nathaniel Greene’s column of reinforcements, did not trigger panic. In fact, in only the Hanle-Miller match was a friendly fire check even taken and it did not result in panic. In the other two games, General Stephen’s wanderings were harmless and away from the American front line.
Heat 6 saw a bit of a rebound in player-participation with ten players eager to play the final Heat in the tournament, Lee’s Advance at Monmouth Courthouse. British players were unsuccessful this year despite a historical average in this scenario of victory 35% of the time. Instead, two Americans won marginally while three matches ended in draws.
After six Heats, the top-eight players entitled to advance into the single-elimination quarter finals were Father Todd with twelve tournament points, Mark Miklos with nine tournament points and eighty six army morale points, Bruce Cota with nine tournament points and sixty six army morale points, Don Hanle with eight tournament points and ninety army morale points, Dave Stiffler with eight tournament points and seventy army morale points, Duncan McGill with eight tournament points and sixty two army morale points, Jim Tracy with six tournament points and eighty one army morale points and Bruno Sinigaglio with six tournament points and twenty nine army morale points. As you can see, except for Father Todd running away with the ranking in first place, all other qualifiers were close. Only three tournament points separated them and where those were tied, cumulative army morale points served as the tie breaker.
Regrettably, neither Duncan nor Bruno could continue in the quarter final round due to other commitments. It became necessary to pull two alternates up to fill-in. The first of these was Tim Miller, who with five tournament points was the number nine seed and the first alternate. Tim willingly stepped up. After that it was a bit more challenging because the players who placed tenth through twentieth had either already left WBC by Friday, had other obligations at the Con, or were players who only joined us for a single Heat with no intentions to play on. Thankfully, Marty Musella, the twenty-first seed was available and willing to play. You will soon read about the irony in this decision.
And so, our final pairings for Howe’s Grand Assault at White Plains in the Quarter Final were Father Todd vs. Marty Musella, Mark Miklos vs. Tim Miller, Bruce Cota vs. Jim Tracy, and Don Hanle vs. Dave Stiffler.
Next Week: WBC Battles of the American Revolution Tournament AAR Part 2!
Author: Mark Miklos
