Dave Stiffler heads a whole row of Revolutionary War veterans.	Rob Doane and Bob Jamelli do battle in the Mulligan Round.
Ah ... tweezer games ... I remember those.	Tommy Miklos mans his tweezers vs Chuck Stapp.

22 of the 27-player field entered the Mulligan Round; the Battle of Eutaw Springs. In what continues to be one of the most balanced scenarios in the series, the Americans won five games, lost four and tied two. American winners scored substantial victories by Champ Easter, Bruno Sinigaglio and Tommy Miklos and marginals by Chris Easter and Andy Maly. British wins included a substantial victory by Rob McCracken and marginal wins by Dave Stiffler, John Vasilakos and Rob Doane. The Mark Miklos-Rob Schoenen and Chris Byrd-Chris Storzillo matches ended in a draw. The mechanism to advance a player out of a draw was superior Army Morale. On that basis, Byrd and Schoenen became eligible for Round 2 while Miklos and Storzillo would have to fight in Round 1.

Seven of the 11 defeated players and five new faces joined for a repeat of the Eutaw Springs scenario in Round 1. The action again proved to be balanced with the British scoring three wins and the Americans two. Chris Storzillo and Derek Pulhamus had substantial British victories while Chuck Stapp's Redcoats won marginally. Mark Miklos and Dale Long led their American forces to marginal victory. Bill Watkins and Kaarin Engelmann fought to a draw with the latter's superior Army Morale breaking the tie as she advanced to Round 2.

The Round 2 game was the newest offering in the BAR series; Germantown. Five hours were scheduled for this round. 15 of 17 eligible players returned on Friday morning necessitating the first and only bye of the tournament. It went to the defending champion, Rob Doane. Play balance was again the watchword as the Americans won four games to the British three, although all the British wins were substantial compared with one substantial and three marginal wins for the Americans.

Winning as the British were Dave Stiffler, Champ Easter and Chris Storzillo. American winners included Rob McCracken, the only substantial winner, and Chris Easter, Bruno Sinigaglio and Mark Miklos with marginal wins.

Rob Doane returned from the bye to join the seven Round 2 winners as the quarterfinalists met to contest the field at Saratoga, flagship game of the series. Here, each side won two games including the only Decisive victory in the tournament as Chris Easter's Americans captured the British baggage train on the next to last turn for a Decisive victory over Chris Storzillo. In a rematch of last year's Final, Rob Doane again defeated Champ Easter for the other American win. In the British victories, Miklos and Sinigaglio bested McCracken and Stiffler respectively.

The four fought the battle of Monmouth Courthouse in the semifinals and five hours were again allotted for this round. Sinigaglio's Americans held off a furious attack by Doane's British to preserve a marginal victory with precisely the three VPs needed to achieve it. On the other board, Miklos and Chris Easter fought to a draw. Each player was awarded 1 Tournament Point. When added to the Tournament Points that the players had collected throughout play, Chris' cumulative total was 10 while Mark's was 8. On that basis, Chris Easter advanced to the Final to meet a waiting Bruno Sinigaglio.

Play balance was certainly in evidence as across all offerings the Americans enjoyed a slim 14-12-4 edge. It doesn't get much better!

The Final was Pensacola, sixth game in the series and the second one to model a siege and assault situation. Each player favored the Spanish so there was a bid for sides. Bruno prevailed with a bid of 4, lowering the Spanish at-start Army Morale by four points for the privilege of playing that side. The game was remarkable for many reasons. The weather was wet for almost the entire strategic (siege) phase of the game. The game begins with clear weather on Turn 1 but it began to rain with the first weather check die roll and players did not see the sun again until Turn 13. Included were no fewer than three storms. Spanish progress was slowed to a crawl as they tried to advance their Corduroy Roads and dig their redoubts. Progress was so slow in fact that Chris' British elected not to play an aggressive raiding strategy, relying instead on the weather to impede the Spanish.

Once the Spanish siege batteries were emplaced, they failed miserably. Not a single hit was recorded as Bruno attempted to breach the walls of the three British fortifications. Ironically, Bruno played the "Heavy Spanish Guns" card that would have given him a +1 DRM on the damage table had he been able to hit with those batteries.

Offsetting the bad weather and the lack of effectiveness of his siege guns was the amazing accuracy of Spanish mortar fire. Bruno hit eight out of eight times which led to several breaches otherwise denied to him by bombardment. Had this been Vegas he would have walked away a millionaire having passed eight times in a row.

Chronologically, Bruno's Spanish landed unmolested on Turn 1 and he deployed the Principe Regiment and the Habana Garrison to the Red Cliffs Fort inset map to silence the batteries there prior to the arrival of his Turn 7 reinforcements. He needed several turns to eliminate Major Pentzel, having first maneuvered him out of the works and then chased him across the inset map. There were several "Pins" in the combat results which forced Chris to lose British Army Morale each time he broke Pin; circumstances which would later come back to haunt him.

The game was slow moving through Turn 6 due to weather (two storms and three turns of rain) when Chris played "Indian Atrocities in Louisiana." The New Orleans Militia left the map and Spanish Army Morale suffered a -1 adjustment.

The Spanish recovered the Army Morale point by playing "Spanish Fue de Joi" in celebration of their victory in Nicaragua. The British countered by playing "To-Arms!" and brought the Pensacola Militia into the game, deploying at Fort George rather than at the Governor's Plantation.

On Turn 7 the Franco-Spanish fleet arrived but Chris played "French Demand Coup de Main." Needless to say, the Spanish forces were in no position to launch the assault and had to reduce Army Morale by 1.

On Turn 9 Chris successfully rolled for American POWs to enter the game. This is the first turn they can be rolled for and he gleefully sought to place them on the map. Alas, Bruno countered with "HMS Hound Receives Faulty Intelligence" and the POWs were removed to Jamaica, which is what happened historically.

On Turn 10 Bruno made his fourth attack on Major Pentzel in the insert map. The first three attacks had resulted in Pin but this time Pentzel was disrupted, however at the cost of a step loss to the Principe Regiment. Also on Turn 10 the British launched the first raid of the game. They sortied adjacent to Fort George and attacked an unescorted Spanish artillery battery. The cost of the capture was dear, however, as the British howitzer that had accompanied the raid suffered a step loss before it ever swung into action.

On Turn 11 Major Pentzel was finally captured having failed his one and only attempt to leave the inset map by morale check. Bruno's two units now began the long march back to the main map and it would be several game turns before they re-joined the action.

The British played "Intelligence Coup" on Turn 12. Chris looked at the top three cards in the RE deck and took one into his hand.

Turn 13 saw the first clear weather since the game began and with it the first of Bruno's amazing eight-in-a-row successful mortar shots. It breached the wall hexside between Fort George and the fort's earthwork extension. Army Morale for both players at this point in the game sat at 14 with Bruno having gained and Chris having lost to that point of balance. Spanish VPs were 1 12 for the Pentzel capture and the howitzer step loss and British VPs were 1 for the Spanish artillery capture.

On Turn 14 Bruno played "Major Espionage Event" and randomly discarded a card form Chris' hand. It turned out to be the "French Siege Train," a card Chris could not use and one Bruno would have liked to possess. Bruno's mortar scored a second hit and breached another hexside of Fort George, fronting the approach of the Spanish forces. This breach was immediately repaired by Chris playing "Picks & Shovels." More decisively, perhaps, Bruno's mortar shot also reduced the massive 10 SP British battery in Fort George to its reduced side!

Turn 14 was active for both players. Chris launched his second raid, a diminutive affair in which one group of raiding Indians descended form the north map edge to exert a ZOC over the Corduroy Road so as to interdict Spanish siege bombardment. The impact was short lived; however, as Bruno's second Corduroy road was completed to the junction with the main road, thus opening supply to the siege guns on the very next turn. IN addition, Spanish forces enveloped the Indians forcing them to retreat behind Spanish lines where they were systematically eliminated.

On Turn 15 the British Army fatigued. Although Chris reduced Spain's Third Brigade Artillery, he suffered from Bruno's third mortar hit which caused a one point loss of British Army Morale and the aforementioned raiding Indian was eliminated causing a further loss in morale.

On Turn 16 another mortar shot resulted in a renewed breach to Fort George in the same hexside that Chris previously repaired. In addition, the Soria Regiment disrupted the King's Florida Rangers. Coup de Main occurred automatically according to the Turn Track. Since only one fort had been breached during the strategic portion of the game, Bruno's Spanish suffered a -1 adjustment to Army Morale. On this turn the Hibernia Regiment burned the Governor's Plantation garnering another VP for the Spanish and a loss of Army Morale for the British. A fifth mortar shot eliminated the Negro Volunteers and breached a hexside in the Prince of Wales Redoubt. During Spanish Defensive Fire the British Marines were eliminated.

On Coup de Main Turn 2 Bruno's mortar hit for the sixth time causing a loss of 1 Army Morale, something the British Player could ill afford at this juncture. Spanish forces maneuvered for the close assault and the British used interior lines to shift strength among the three works.

The assault was finally launched on Coup de Main Turn 3 with a combined attack on both Fort George and the Prince of Wales Redoubt. Chris played "Chaos on the Battlefield" requiring all attacking units to make a pre-attack morale check. Normally this card has decisive effect on breaking up an attack. Not one of Bruno's units failed the morale check and they all went in with cold steel. British Army Morale sat at 7 the moment the assault was delivered.

In the fighting around the Prince of Wales Redoubt Bruno was compelled to use his at-start Momentum chit. In the re-roll, a Spanish stack under de Galvez reduced the Third Royal American Regiment and killed the British Commander, Campbell. To add insult to injury, the re-roll allowed Bruno to regain the spent Momentum chit. The British were now wavering!

In Fort George the Civilian Volunteers were captured for failure to retreat. British Morale fell to 3. Predictably, it was here that the Spanish player got a back-to-back move and sealed the fate of the British in Florida.

The Spanish Sappers entered and burned the Indian Village. During the ensuing morale checks two of the remaining four British-allied Indians quit the field. The mortar hit on its eighth consecutive shot requiring the British howitzer to take a morale check that it passed.

With the British Army Morale at 3, Bruno went for the trifecta; a rifle shot eliminated the previously reduced Third Royal Americans, Bruno played "Spoiled Rations" to further lower British Army Morale to 1 and for the coup de grace, he attacked and captured an unsupported British garrison artillery lowering British Morale to 0 and giving Bruno a Substantial Victory on Coup de Main Turn 4.

Bruno Sinigaglio completed a 14-year quest to win the BAR event at WBC and did so smartly, coming back form a low at-start Army Morale and hampered as he was by foul weather. In retrospect, the British may have been better served to prosecute a more aggressive raid campaign and not rely so extensively on the weather but that is for the next contest of champions to model.

Thanks to my AGMs Rob McCracken and Dave Stiffler without whose able help I could not run this event.

John Vasilakos does battle with the Molly Pitcher of WBC.	A kiosk and then some ...
The finalists get to play on the BIG board.	GM and series designer Mark Miklos oversees his finalists.

The Battles of the American Revolution PBeM tournament concluded on June 1, after two years of sustained hostilities over the course of 36 games fought by 23 entrants. The Final pitted Bill Byrne against Chris Easter in the Battle of Saratoga. These players had previously met in round 4 of the tournament at Monmouth (Holding Action scenario) and battled to a draw. Both players got their preferred sides with no Army Morale impact.

The British (Easter) enjoyed clear weather on Turns 1-2 allowing for a rapid advance and reaching the Freeman's Farm area by the end of Turn 3. Byrne was careful not to expose the Americans to the initial overwhelming superiority of the British forces and formed a defensive line at the south edge of Freeman's Farm, protecting the Middle Branch Ford. Turns 4-8 were a classic dance of maneuver as both sides sought a weak spot to exploit. There were a couple of minor skirmishes and several volleys of rifle fire exchanged to little effect other than the British capture of the Middle Branch Ford on Turn 6. The Americans deftly deployed their forces taking advantage of 1) the strength of Arnold combined with Morgan/Dearborn and 2) using the terrain by anchoring their left flank in proximity to Bemis Heights.

On Turn 9 the Americans were able to successfully attack the Hessians on the British left flank and inflict a step loss on v. Specht infantry. This was the first casualty and VP score of the game other than the British capture of Freeman's Farm. Turn 10 saw both sides form solid lines and ended with the situation as follows:
British VPs = 1.0 Army Morale = 12
Americans VPs = 0.5 Army Morale = 13

The British had held the initiative throughout until Turn 11. Behind on scoring the Americans had no option but to attack the well formed British line. Gates finally did release as the Americans advanced which helped protect their flank as Arnold advanced. The Americans were forced to attack at relatively poor odds resulting in no losses and each side down another Morale point. The more critical result, however, was that Dearborn was disrupted with Arnold and had to fall back off the main line.

The British Turn 11 counterattack was certainly not a sure thing. They could not afford to fall back with only a 12 VP lead. Any withdrawal would risk their control of Freeman's Farm and although attacking at better odds than the just completed American assault, it would likely result in a weakening of the British line as the forces mixed. That said, the British attacked in force and took advantage of the better odds and DRM modifiers to exact a toll on the American forces. As the turn ended, the British had secured another VP (two each 12 step American losses) as well as disrupting Morgan's rifles and effectively taking them out of play for the final turn.
British VPs = 2.0 Army Morale = 13
American VPs = 0.5 Army Morale = 8

The final blow was dealt as the British took the initiative on Turn 12, securing a double move against a very weakened American line. The British again attacked in force knowing that both Morgan and Dearborn were out of play. The results were not as dramatic as the previous turn but further strengthened the British control of the battlefield. As the day ended, the British held the upper hand with a hard fought marginal victory.
British (Easter) VPs = 5.5 Army Morale = 14
American (Byrne) VPs = 0.5 Army Morale = 8

The other laurelists were Dave Stiffler, Jim Tracy, Rob Doane, and Adam Deverell in that order.