Every year or so, we find out that our little blog has entered a list or climbed up a few ranks. I am always interested in these lists, as frankly I put a lot of time and effort into the blog, spending hours each week writing and editing content, and feel very proud of its presence on the internet and in our hobby and it is nice to receive some recognition for that work. About a week ago, I received an email from Feedspot that informed me that The Players’ Aid Blog had again appeared on their Top 100 Best Board Game Blogs to Follow list. As I opened the email, I found that we had moved into the #12 spot (moved up on the list since 2025 when we were found in the #20 spot). There are a lot of very well known and well followed blogs on that list and I was very surprised to see us move up to nearly the Top 10.
So what the heck is Feedspot? Feedspot is an online data base that categorizes global media outlets and content creators to make them easy to discover, follow and contact for those that utilize their services. From their site, you can access the creators by following them, emailing them or viewing their sites. Their lists cover things such as media outlets including blogs, podcasts, magazines and news websites as well as creators on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
Here is a look at a picture of the listing for The Players’ Aid:
As I was reviewing the list this year, I noticed a few things. First off, the data that they were using for our social media only included our Facebook, Twitter (X) and Instagram social media platforms. We also are active on Blue Sky and Mastodon. I also noticed that their reported numbers of subscribers was a bit off as we have 3,921 Followers on Facebook (they reported just 3.7K), 8,749 Followers on Twitter (X) (they reported 8.2K) and we have 1,258 Followers on Instagram (they reported a higher rounded off total of 1.3K). Not a big deal but not quite accurate!
Second, they referenced this concept of Domain Authority in their list and I had to do some research to better understand what this metric was measuring. What I found out was that Domain Authority (DA) is a metric that predicts how well a website will rank in search engine results pages (SERP’s) and is measured on a scale of 1 to 100 with higher scores indicating greater ranking potential. This DA is influenced by quality content that is shared and creates backlinks to the content. The Players’ Aid DA is currently at 37 (was at 36 in 2026). Some other relative DA scores on the post were Inside GMT at 36, Space Biff at 37, The Dice Tower at 49, Shut Up & Sit Down at 55 and Board Game Geek at 82.
The other wargame content creators that appeared on the list included Beyond Solitaire at #23 (great work Liz!), Clio’s Board Games at #40 (great work Clio!), The Boardgames Chronicles at #41 (great job Michael!), Big Board Gaming at #55 (I like your stuff Kevin especially the new WARNO feature!), Dude Take Your Turn! at #61 (way to go Dave!) and Board Game Meeple Lady at #62 (awesome BGML!).
I don’t put a lot of stock in these type of lists but was honored that we appeared on it. I know that I care greatly about our corner of the interweb and our little blog and love providing new and fresh content to be consumed by those that follow us. I also see what we do as somewhat of a service as I try to make sure that wargamers know about the products that are incoming and in spreading the news about new publishers, particularly smaller publishers, new games and new crowdfunding campaigns.
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For those that don’t know, the World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) takes place every year in late summer and is held at the beautiful Seven Springs Mountain Resort in southwestern Pennsylvania. WBC is a national, even international, event where players come together to play games both competitively and for fun with other gamers. The competitive side of the games include everything from tiddly winks, to Robo Rally, Diplomacy and to heavy wargames including many from one of our favorite publishers GMT Games including games such as Combat Commander, Empire of the Sun and Panzer. Also at this convention, the initiates of the Battles of the American Revolution Series gather to hold a competitive tournament competing for the Golden Tricorne (this award doesn’t exist as I just made it up but maybe Mark Miklos will figure out how to get this accomplished!).
Each year, series designer Mark Miklos writes a fairly in-depth and lengthy After Action Report that he posts in various locations on the interwebs including on Facebook, the Consimworld Forum folder for BoAR and on GMT’s website on their InsideGMT blog. This year, Mark has again agreed to share his AAR with us to post here on the blog for our readers to enjoy.
This was a special year for American Revolutionary War gaming at the World Boardgamiong Championships. Our Battles of the American Revolution event nearly drew record attendance. Thirty three players, one short of the all-time high, battled across eight classic Rev War battlefields. Our numbers included seven new players from among the fifteen who attended our demo on Sunday evening. In addition to the gaming itself, this year’s BoAR event included three special activities to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary: a seminar, a trivia game and a party. Each will be described below.
We were given a dedicated space for the entire week in the Foggy Brews unlike in year’s past when we had to compete for table space in Winterberry. This year we hung flags and banners, played period music, and in general had an 18th century refuge to further enhance the special mood and vibe.
Two heats were played on Monday. Heat 1 was the Chatterton Hill scenario from the Battle of White Plains. Twenty two players competed as we kicked off the week. Because White Plains is the most recent volume in the BoAR Series it has a short competitive record. Nevertheless, the outcomes this year were telling. Each side scored four decisive victories with the British adding another three substantial ones. This is a 57% winning percentage for the British which closely approximates the 60% edge that the British have had in this scenario based thus far on twenty four tournament games.
Heat 2 was the old classic, Saratoga. Sixteen players squared off in this one. We played the campaign game with this year’s British players dominating. They scored four substantial victories to two. Each side added one marginal win as well. Ten players returned on Tuesday morning to face off in the full Brandywine Creek campaign. The optional “Muddying the Waters” intel rules were not used. It was great to see this big battle on the table. I took the approach this year of selecting larger games that typically are used for a final and instead used them during the heats. Outcomes in this battle were comparable with the Americans earning one decisive and one substantial victory while the British earned two substantial and one marginal win.
Eleven players showed up for the Battle of Germantown on Wednesday morning necessitating the first and only bye in this year’s tournament. It was given to yours truly as last year’s champion according to standard WBC protocol. The remaining ten players earned one American substantial victory, one British substantial victory and one British marginal victory. The other two games witnessed the first draws in this year’s tournament as John Vasilakos and Bruno Sinigaglio completed a game of maneuver in which neither earned a VP. The match between Chris Mlynarczyk and Frank Sinigaglio was a little more robust with Chris’ British earning two VP’s and Frank’s Americans earning three.
Our final heat, played on Thursday, was the full Monmouth Courthouse campaign. This is another big game which was nice to see played by twelve players. The British swept the field with one decisive, one substantial, and one marginal victory. The other three games ended in a draw: Charles Orndorff and Bob Jamelli (3 VP’s each), Tim Miller and Randy Collard (3.5 VP’s to 1 with Tim missing a marginal win by one-half VP), and John Vasilakos and Father Eric Tolentino (1 VP to none respectively). After the heats we advanced the top eight players to single elimination beginning with a quarter final round. The top seeds were Miklos (17 tournament points), Father Todd Carter (15 TP and 83 cumulative army morale points), John Vasilakos (15 TP and 10 cumulative AM), Young Rob Doane “The Good” (10 TP), Tim Miller (7 TP), Charles Orndorff (4 TP, 74 AM), Chris Mlynarczyk (4 TP, 49 AM), and Bruce Cota (4 TP, 20 AM). Bruce was unable to play and so the eighth seed was offered to the first alternate, Jim Dauphinais (4 TP, 19 AM). Jim was also unavailable and our second alternate, Jeff Lange graciously stepped up (2 TP, 32 AM).
The game was the first day at the Battle of Newport. The full two-day battle of Newport had been played three previous times as a final with the Americans winning all three. Interestingly, in the Day 1 action, it was the British who won three, two decisively and one substantially, while the Americans managed one substantial victory when Father Todd’s Americans defeated Chris Mlynarczyk. It was now on to the semifinals. To fit the semi-final and the final into a single day I selected short games which were welcomed after the string of long contests at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Newport.
Thus, our semifinal was the Guilford Courthouse historical scenario. Here John Vasillakos’ British won a solid marginal victory over Father Todd’s Americans, 5.5 VP’s to 1. Meanwhile, Rob Doane’s Americans won marginally over my British. In our match the VP’s were tied at 3 each, but the British need a margin of +2 VP’s to win, otherwise the Americans do.
The stage was set for the final pitting John Vasilakos against Rob Doane at the Battle of Eutaw Springs. Over the course of 225 competitive games of Eutaw Springs, the Americans have won 89 times, the British 90 times, and 46 contests have ended in a draw. Since this was the final, however, victory in a draw would be awarded to the player with superior army morale at game’s end. There was no bid as each player got their preferred side, John the British and Rob the Americans. John formed his line forward, anchoring it between swampy ground on his left and the blackjack oak on his right. Rob’s approach took advantage of surprise, initiative, morale, and momentum and he was able to capture a British Regular plus Major Marjoribanks. This gave Rob 2 VP’s to John’s 3 for holding the British encampment. Rob’s gambit was then to slowly fall back, preserving the draw and his now superior army morale, which would be all he would need for victory. John, of course, pursued. In the end each player scored 4 VP’s, but John’s army morale had fallen to 8 while Rob maintained a robust 14 army morale points. Victory for the Americans marked a fitting conclusion in a year of celebration for the 250th anniversary of independence. Congratulations to both Rob and John for an exceptional week of competition and a hard fought final contest. I finished 3rd, Father Todd finished 4th, Tim Miller was 5th and Charles Orndorff rounded out the top six. This year’s final was videotaped by WBC. An overhead camera rig was set up above the Eutaw Springs big board game set prior to play. Audio was recorded. We are all anxious about the chance to watch it when it becomes available and I will share that information with those who may be interested.
Custom “Gaming the American Revolution WBC” Dice Tray made by John Olson awarded as an extra prize for the tournament winner.
We let out all the stops this year in honor of the 250th. First up, on Tuesday evening, we enjoyed a one hour talk by designer Bruno Sinigaglio who spoke to us about the Battle of Cowpens. Cowpens is the first game in our new series, Small Battles of the American Revolution or Small BoAR. Bruno described the battle in detail and how he adopted its elements into the new design wherein he lowered the scale to 1/8 that of a full BoAR game; making a hex 25 yards instead of 200 and a strength point 12 men instead of 100. At that scale, muskets as well as rifles have ranged fire and artillery can fire across the board. This level of granularity allowed Bruno to introduce other elements as well such as placing cavalry in a reserve status that enables them to charge after the normal movement phase has ended. Bruno had an audience of twenty two who paid rapt attention while he shared several PowerPoint slides to enhance his talk. The timing was perfect because we were able to announce that Bruno and I were receiving our proof copies that very week which would be waiting for us to review upon returning home from WBC. This means all those who preordered on GMT’s P-500 will very shortly be receiving order fulfillments. It was a fitting way to kick off our agenda of special events for the week. On Wednesday evening we played Rev War trivia pitting the Bloody Backs against the Yankee Doodles. We had 11 players on each team plus several interested observers who came just for the fun. A spokesperson for each team was asked to put on a uniform, British Regular or Continental courtesy of our friend and reenactor, Chris Mlynarczyk. In each round they would come forward with their team’s written answer on a whiteboard. Nine rounds were played, corresponding to the years 1775-1783, followed by a bonus round. Questions for each round progressed in point value and difficulty. In the bonus round the teams were allowed to bid from among their accumulated points. It was nip and tuck for a while until the British broke through earning a 5 point answer that put them in the lead. They would never look back. In the bonus round the Americans bid it all while the British bid conservatively to protect their lead. Every member of the winning British team received a first day of issue, commemorative envelope from the USPS that featured a postmark of April 19, 2026 stamped Concord, Massachusetts. Each envelope also had affixed to it a commemorative stamp from the five battle series designed for the 250th by the USPS: Lexington & Concord, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Valley Forge, or Yorktown. It was a lot of fun and a great way to rev things up for our final event, our 250th anniversary celebration and party on Thursday night.
Thanks to Ken Guttermuth, we had signage located around the Seven Springs campus advertising our special events. All were welcome. Participation in the BoAR tournament was not a prerequisite. There were attendees at Bruno’s talk and at our trivia game who were not BoAR players. Likewise, over 50 people came to our party, several of whom saw our signs and were inspired to participate. We served an enormous cake, once again courtesy of Ken Guttermuth. A cash bar was opened directly adjacent to our venue in Foggy Brews just for the occasion. We had period music, remarks, readings, and a reminiscence to our fallen comrades who were not there to celebrate with us. There was a rousing three cheers for General Washington, and even a bit of a sing along where we repeated the refrain, “Hurrah, our country forever hurrah” to the song “An American Frigate” about John Paul Jones and his victory over Serapis in the English Channel. They could hear us in 1776! It was a terrific night, every morsel of cake was eaten, and one or two attendees even got emotional, and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. This was a terrific WBC. Forty two total games of BoAR were played, likely enough to maintain our status as a Century event at the convention. Special thanks to all those who helped to make this year’s event memorable: Ken Guttermuth for the space, the signs, the cake, and all his full-throated support along the way, my AGMs Dave Stiffler and Rob Doane, Dave doing double duty by reciting and leading the cheer for Washington during our party, Jeff Lange for running a companion event in our Rev War space, Freeman’s Farm 1777 by Worthington Publishing, Tim Miller for designing our Gaming the American Revolution logo and banner, Chris for the use of the uniforms at trivia, Bruno for agreeing to break away from his GM duties to give his talk, and to my wife Darlene who was our hostess at the party.
One more thanks must be mentioned. Grant with The Players’ Aid dropped by one afternoon to interview me. He took videos of our decorated room and we discussed several things. I was able to elaborate on our special 250th events. We discussed Volume 11 in the BoAR Series, The Battle of Green Spring. I had my prototype with me, did a short show and tell, and updated the status of the project. We discussed GMT’s upcoming Rev War 250th anniversary event in Camden, South Carolina in September. Grant was also kind enough to inquire about my book, Liberty! A Military History Survey of the American Revolution which incidentally has just gone to the printer as of this writing. Grant is such a gracious host and so easy to talk to. We laughed a lot and probably digressed too much but once we get going, the sky is the limit. It was very kind of him to fit us into his demanding schedule at WBC and to give BoAR so much publicity. At some point soon this video along with his entire WBC 2026 exposé will be up on YouTube for anyone interested. Two down, one to go. We pulled out all the stops at RevCon during Prezcon in Charlottesville last February. Now, at WBC we once again gave it our all to celebrate the 250th. We have one last event on the horizon in Camden in September and I hope to see many of you there. “Hurrah, our country forever hurrah!”
Thank you to Mark for this great insight into the tournament. We appreciate the work he puts into this tournament each year and for his grace in meeting with me while I was at WBC this year. I look forward to the upcoming Rev War 250th Anniversary Event in Camden, South Carolina in September.
Klassiker, Debüt, Neuauflage: Das NSV-Neuheitentrio im Herbst
Mit drei Herbstneuheiten zeigt NSV in den kommenden Wochen die ganze Bandbreite seines Würfelspiel-Programms: QWIXX EXPRESS bringt den Verlagsklassiker als temporeiches Duell auf den Tisch, LIGHTNING CITY: TOKYO markiert das Debüt von Autor Jannik Auth und verbindet Stadtbau mit Risiko, und SPLITTER² kehrt zur SPIEL in Essen als erweiterte Neuauflage mit vier Spielvarianten zurück.
Bei den drei Titeln ist für jede Art von Spielerunde und Erfahrungsstufe etwas dabei: ein schnelles Zwei-Personen-Duell, ein taktikgeprägtes Roll & Write und ein kompaktes Würfelspiel für große Runden. Damit erweitert NSV sein Programm gezielt um Titel, die leicht zugänglich sind und zugleich auf verschiedene Arten Abwechslung bieten.
Alle einsteigen in den Qwixx-Express!
Auch nach fast 15 Jahren gehen unserem Autor Steffen Benndorf die Ideen für Qwixx nicht aus. Das neue Grundspiel QWIXX EXPRESS schließt eine Lücke im sehr beliebten Subgenre der Zwei-Personen-Spiele.
Der neue Aufbau bringt frischen Schwung in den bekannten Roll-&-Write-Mechanismus, bleibt vom Spielgefühl her aber klar seinen Wurzeln treu. In dieser Duell-Variante spielen beide Personen gleichzeitig mit einem eigenem Würfelset. Wer mit dem Ergebnis zufrieden ist, stoppt die Runde. Die andere Person darf weiterwürfeln, riskiert dabei aber Minuspunkte. So entsteht ein direkter Wettlauf, der den schnellen Einstieg ins Spiel mit spürbar mehr Tempo und Druck verbindet.
Wolkenkratzer bauen im fernen Japan
Mit unserer zweiten Neuheit LIGHTNING CITY: TOKYO veröffentlichen wir das Spieledebüt des jungen Autors Jannik Auth. Es entführt die Spielenden ins ferne Japan. Die Metropole Tokio bildet den idealen Rahmen für ein strategisches Würfelspiel, bei dem Planung und Risiko eng miteinander verbunden sind. Im Laufe des Spiels baut man rundenweise neue Hochhäuser. Die vier Farbwürfel im Spiel stehen dabei für verschiedene Geschäfte, die in die Hochhäuser einziehen. Wer die Räume so geschickt platziert, dass sie die Regeln auf den Wertungskarten bestmöglich erfüllen, sammelt Punkte. Darüber hinaus verfolgt jede Person einen individuellen Auftrag, der ihr weitere Punkte bescheren kann.
Das alles ist aber nur eine Seite der Medaille. Nach jeder Wertung folgt eine Gewitterphase, in der sich nach und nach ein Unwetter über der Stadt aufbaut. Schlägt der Blitz in ein ungeschütztes Gebäude ein, wird es zur wertlosen Ruine.
LIGHTNING CITY: TOKYO passt ideal in die EXTRA-Kategorie, die wir Anfang des Jahres neu definiert haben. Seine Mischung aus Glück, Taktik und Risiko richtet sich besonders an geübte Spielefans. Jede Partie verläuft aufgrund der vielfältigen Wertungs- und Auftragskarten anders. Der Wiederspielwert ist dadurch sehr hoch.
Splitter² = Splitter in vier Versionen
Als drittes bringt NSV mit SPLITTER² eine umfassend überarbeitete Neuauflage des Würfelspiels von Stefan Nikolic heraus. Neben der ursprünglichen Version enthält die zweite Edition nicht weniger als drei neue Varianten. Das Grundprinzip ist bei allen gleich: Die gewürfelten Zahlen werden symmetrisch auf dem Spielblock eingetragen, während Ketten aus gleichen benachbarten Zahlen Punkte bringen.
Darauf aufbauend bringt jede Variante eine eigene Herausforderung ins Spiel. Variante B verlangt durch eingezeichnete Wände stärkeres räumliches Denken, Variante C belohnt exakt passende Zahlen in zusätzlichen Regionen, und Variante D hat sogar eine kooperative Komponente. Mit Hilfe von Papierfliegern schickt man seinen Spielnachbarn Zahlen zu – zumindest imaginär.
Durch die Variationen gewinnt das Spiel deutlich an Abwechslung, bleibt aber schnell zugänglich. Das macht SPLITTER² mehr denn je zu einem guten Tipp für große Spielegruppen, denn wie bisher können bis zu 12 Personen an einer Runde teilnehmen.
QWIXX EXPRESS ist für 2 Personen ab 8 Jahren geeignet und dauert etwa 15 Minuten. LIGHTNING CITY: TOKYO eignet sich für 1-12 Personen ab 10 Jahren und dauert etwa 30 Minuten. SPLITTER² ist für 1-12 Personen ab 8 Jahren geeignet und dauert etwa 15 Minuten.
QWIXX EXPRESS (und die passenden Ersatzblöcke) sowie LIGHTNING CITY: TOKYO sind ab Anfang September im Handel erhältlich, SPLITTER² folgt Ende Oktober. Alle drei Spiele können auf der SPIEL in Essen vom 22. bis 25. Oktober ausprobiert werden. NSV wird dort in Halle 6 an Stand B410 vertreten sein.
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