This year's participation fell to 20 participants, as many of the usual suspects were not able to attend, including designer and three-time defending champ Mark Miklos.  So, this was an opportunity to crown a new champion.  About half of the participants were newbies to the system and had attended the Demo preceding the 1st round.  It was very pleasing to see all of our veterans being patient and helpful to the new players and demonstrating the true meaning of good sportsmanship. 

Due to having so many new players, we had to dispense with playing Savannah for the first round and went to Eutaw Springs instead. Seven of the games were Eutaw Springs and three were Saratoga.  The pairings were random as the AREA website was unavailable and had not been updated in over a year.  Most of the veteran players drew the new, less experienced players anyway.  Of the seven Eutaw games, there were only two American victors, Paul Stoecker and Ric Manns.  Bruno Sinigaglio and Andrew Maly were Decisive victors.  The three Saratoga games were all American wins.  John Vasilakos went down once again at the hands of Eutaw Springs. I think John is going to be defaulting to Saratoga from now on ;-)

Only four players opted to continue into Round 2 (six no shows) declined to play further, which promptly became the semi-final.  Guilford Courthouse was chosen as the scenario, with Andy Maly opposing Paul Stoecker and Ric Manns facing Dan Long.  Paul's N.C. militia did what they were supposed to do and fought to the last man giving of themselves for the sake of liberty.  Alas, victory and freedom were fleeting for the Americans losing on the tie breaker for Army Morale.  Dan Long's Americans suffered a similar fate, also being bested by the Army Morale difference tie breaker.

Round 3 saw the Final of Andrew Maly and Ric Manns, along with a consolation game between Dan Long and Paul Stoecker.  Both games were Saratoga.  The consolation game rewarded Dan Long with third place, as he beat the snot out of Paul's Americans who fell back to Bemis Heights and crumbled under the weight of the British attack.

Ric Mann's Americans fared no better, as many American units were captured.  At the outset the two sides swapped rifle fire gunning for Burgoyne and Arnold respectively, the game following history as Morgan tried the ungentlemanly, and some consider cowardly, sniper attempt on Gentleman Johnny.  However, this time the British gave as good as they got, with both leaders narrowly missing attempts on their lives.

Andy's British stretched the American lines to the West, until they were able to turn the left flank of the line.  Then, with momentum and high morale the British charged - taking the lives of Morgan's men and capturing three American units on the last turn.  Gates' only alternative was to lay down arms and concede defeat.  Huzzah!!  Huzzah!!

We look forward to seeing everyone in 2007, especially all of the new players.  A fun time was had by all.