AWI 250 project

Next year will see the 250th anniversary of the shot that was heard around the world, and in preparation for a series of anniversary games I have been working on some small, simple scenarios to play with my brother-in-law.

I've initially gone for the One Hour Wargames format to make a short game that we can play a couple of times in an evening and still have some time left over to argue about how it might have gone differently.  Concord is a tough place to start; what kind of result could be counted as a win for the Crown forces?  If they had arrived sooner, without the rebels being tipped off by their network of spies, then they might have recovered some supplies or captured Adams and Hancock, but that depends on factors that would not be played out on the tabletop.  In some ways a search of all the places of interest followed by an orderly withdrawal is as good a result as could be hoped for.

Lexington presents a better scenario for a tabletop battle.  The outnumbered British must keep marching toward Boston, rarely having time to halt and return fire, while the rebels cause as many casualties as possible.  Can the Crown forces reach Charlestown before dark in a state of effectiveness?  Unfortunately the outcome will depend more on lucky or unlucky dice than any cunning plan or wise choices by the commanders.

Instead of these, I started with the first battle that I learned about at school: the incorrectly named Bunker Hill.  The plan was to capture Bunker's Hill, but all the fighting was about Breed's Hill on the way.  Both commanders had choices about the placement of their forces which can significantly affect the outcome.

Opposing forces deployed and ready

I've tried to follow the format of OHW, so that forces could be generated randomly, but also identified the forces that were involved historically (allowing for significant artistic license to fit within a small table and 6 units).  As we tackle more battles the file will grow into a complete scenario book.  The latest version is available [here].

The scenario map

I played the scenario solo a few times to develop it, then Trevor came round and we played twice.  On the first outing Trevor took the rebels and moved his skirmishers back to the North of Charlestown, while placing the artillery and line troops in the redoubt.  My Crown forces advanced within range of the redoubt and halted to fire, clearing the redoubt in a few turns before advancing to complete their mission.

Skirmishers in Charlestown

On the second attempt Trevor put his skirmishers at the South end of Charlestown, with two infantry units in the redoubt and his artillery back on Bunker's Hill.  This time a continuous fire on the Crown forces, focused on a single regiment at a time, saw my regiments break and run one by one without clearing the redoubt.

I'm going to say that this is ready for us to use next June.  I'll keep thinking about how to make a playable game out of Lexington and Concord while I move on to the next campaign.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

New recruits for the AWI

 I've just painted and based two more regiments for the AWI.

38th Foot

The 38th Foot uses up the remainder of a set of Revell (Accurate, Imex) redcoats that I had already started for my other Crown forces.  The regimental colour is modelled with too small a flag, so I've done the union flag in the corner to the correct size and most of the yellow area must have been shot away in action.  

The king's colour is painted freehand on a piece of 80gsm printer paper.  The ensign is converted from an awkward pose of a man stabbing downward with a bayonet, holding his musket overhead.  I cut off his hands at the wrist and gave hime new hands by sticking some tissue paper around a straightened paperclip (the flagpole).

The light company was already painted for use in the amalgamated light battalion.  They are a slight conversion from A Call to Arms British infantry 1775.  The original models look like the Light Dragoons fighting on foot, with a central ridge on their helmets and a horsehair crest.  I trimmed that off and stuck a bit of it to the side of the helmet to make the plume on a light infantry cap.  The plume is black (pre-Paoli) but would be dyed red later in the war.

As always, the photographs show a host of problems with the painting.  Some are due to my eyesight & standard of brushwork (e.g. the wonky white ribbon around the edge of the hats), while others are just steps that I missed (e.g. the unpainted crossbelts on the back of the ensign carrying the King's colour).  I don't work from a checklist, so the decision that a miniature is "finished" depends on whether I can remember or see anything more that needs to be done.  They certainly won't win any prizes, but will be fine on the table.

1st Maryland

The 1st Maryland are also Revell redcoats, given that the uniforms were so similar (and many of them stolen from supplies intended for the Crown forces).  The two giants of men in the command group are taken from the Italeri set for Washington's army.  I'm trying to use them for variety where their size may not be noticed.  A separate unit of all Italeri figures would stand out even worse on the table.

The photograph shows a shockingly slapdash job of painting them, which is mostly down to my eyesight at the time.  If I could have seen the models this well, I would have fixed some of the horrors in the paintwork.

The 1st Maryland fought at Long Island in stolen British uniforms dyed brown with red facings.  In 1777 they switched to blue coats faced red, which they wore for the Philadelphia campaign.  The later standardisation of the uniforms for the continental army needed no change for them.  They also took part in the Southern campaign, including Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk Hill and Eutaw Springs.  The faults in my paintwork will spend a lot of time on the table to taunt me.

The Baltimore flag in this unit may not be correct, the backpacks are the wrong shape (although correctly painted in a red/crimson colour) and the reversed colours for the drummer are complete guesswork.  Photographs of re-enactors show the drummer in the same coat and facing as the rest of the regiment.

Next up will be some cavalry for the rebels, probably the 2nd continental light dragoons.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

AWI in a box (actually, two boxes)

Following last year's spate of "army in a box" posts, here's a quick look at my two forces for the American War of Independence (AWI).

click to enlarge

The units are intended initially for Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames (OHW) with the chance to expand them for other rules.  The basing is 4 men on a 4cm square MDF base, so that 3 bases would make a unit of 4"-6" frontage in OHW.  Other rules will work better with 4 bases to a unit, e.g. British Grenadier or a variant of any of Neil Thomas's other books (maybe starting with Wargaming: an Introduction).

My first scenario was Bunker Hill, a battle which actually took place at Breed's Hill, but this post is not going to be about all the myths and inaccurate history of the conflict.  The choice of units was focused on that battle, rather than a more generic set.

The crown forces comprise the 63rd, 43rd, & 5th foot, 4 bases of each plus a base of 2 light infantry skirmishers for their light companies.  The centre companies are Revell / Accurate / Imex redcoats, and the light companies are A Call To Arms 1775 light infantry.  The 5th are Airfix grenadiers, although their fusilier caps soon wore out and were replaced by regular hats as the conflict went on.  There's also a light company for the 38th foot; the centre companies of the 38th are still on my painting table.

A combined grenadier battalion with assorted facings was painted by someone else (OBE=Other Bloke's Efforts), as were the Hesse-Kassel Leib grenadiers.  The Hessians weren't at Bunker Hill, but I'll want them for later actions.  The 17th Light Dragoons and the 6- to 8-pounder gun were my own work.

In terms of an OHW scenario for Bunker Hill, the numbered reqiments and the grenadiers provide 4 units of infantry, the combined light companies 1 unit of skirmishers, and there is 1 unit of artillery on Moulton's Hill.

The rebels consist of 2 units of formed militia in their everyday clothes (mostly Revell / Accurate / Imex), 2 units of skirmishers in open order (mixed Revell & Airfix) and 2 regiments who have been (mostly) issued with uniforms: Colonel Sargent's Massachusetts (in green) and Stark's 1st New Hampshire (in brown with red facings).  These two units include a handful of Italeri figures, which are taller by a head than Revell (and the old Airfix models are smaller still).  I've tried to position them so that the height difference is less obvious.

In terms of an OHW scenario for Bunker Hill, Stark's men were there (although they didn't receive their uniforms until November 1775), along with a number of troops with no uniform.  There's also a 3-pounder gun with the Bunker Hill flag for the redoubt on Breed's Hill.  I think that's a Revell SYW Austrian gun on an Airfix Napoleonic French carriage.

The paintwork on these models is nothing to shout about. I have taken up miniature wargaming (and therefore the painting of toy soldiers) just as my eyes have started to need reading glasses.  Also, these are the "wrong" models (the AWI is not well covered in 1/72) and I'm using the wrong paints (cheap craft acrylics).  The fashionable scale would be 28mm or else 15mm or even 6mm.  I make no attempt at highlights by drybrushing; just a base coat and a wash of raw umber to darken the recesses.

As armies in a box, these are almost complete.  The rebels need a squadron of continental dragoons and there should be enough to play any of the scenarios in the book.  OHW has the player dice for the forces available (essentially a brigade or division), which can include up to 4 line battalions, 2 skirmish battalions, 2 cavalry and 2 artillery units.  The player will field four to six units from this selection in each scenario.  The AWI was notable for having a smaller proportion of cavalry or artillery than other conflicts, so I follow other bloggers in ruling that the second cavalry unit or second artillery unit is replaced by something else.  This approach also allows the replacements to represent something specific to this conflict, such as elite grenadiers, weaker militia, native warbands or riflemen.

KBO