New Organization

Since I have changed a lot about this project I have also changed the organization. Each unit will represent a brigade and each figure represents roughly 50 men according to Edwardian Splendour using this figure ratio each inch (or cm in my case) is roughly 50 yards meaning that a mile is about 3ft (or again in my case 36cm).

I have halved the ranges for firing to 12cm for muskets (still about 600 yards) and 18cm (900 yards) for rifles. This will work fine on the table, but muskets and rifles of the day could only reach about a third of that range. They will fire as laid out in the rules.

Artillery are all classed as muzzle-loading solid-shot-firing guns, this means they will have a range of 36cm.

British Army (Total)

1x Guards Brigade (1000 men) 20 figures

1x Grenadiers Brigade (1500 men) 30 figures

1x Light Brigade (1500 men) 30 figures

6x British Line Brigades (1500 men each) 30 figures each, 180 figures total

4x Hessian Line Brigades (1000 men each) 20 figures each, 80 figures total

1x Hessian Grenadier Brigade (1500 men) 30 figures 

1x Highland Brigade (1500 men) 30 figures

1x Queens Rangers (500 men) 10 figures

1x Jagers (500 men) 10 figures

2x Cavalry (500 men each) 10 figures each, 20 figures total

8x Artillery (1 battery each) 1 gun and 3 crew each, 8 guns and 24 crew total

Grand total - 444 foot, 8 guns, 20 horse

It might be a bit heavy on the cavalry but I wanted to represent both regiments present in North America and I wanted them, if they were used, to have a chance of making an impact.

American Army (Total)

20x Continental/State Line Brigades (1000 men each) 20 figures each, 400 figures total

2x Combined Light Brigades (1000 men each) 20 figures each, 40 figures total

4x Militia Brigades (1500 men each) 30 figures each, 120 figures total

2x Riflemen (500 men each) 10 figures each, 20 figures total

1x Cavalry (500 men) 10 figures

11x Artillery (1 battery each) 1 gun and 3 crew each, 11 guns 33 crew total

Grand total - 613 foot, 11 guns, 10 horse

The combined lights are made up of 2 figures from each brigade, technically giving each brigade a strength of 1100 men. Militia brigades were always on the larger end so I made them the same size as a British line brigade. I wanted to keep it light on cavalry, that seems to be something that the Americans were always lacking. I gave them more artillery to make up for the fact that they have lower morale grades.There is probably more riflemen than would ever be historically present but again I wanted them to have a presence on the field.

Long Break and Further Changes in the Project

Besides this, I have a Civil War Project, a Franco-Prussian War project and a generic colonial project that uses 25mm figures.

In doing some research for the Civil War project and trying to figure out what I'm going to do with that I came across a set of rules called Edwardian Splendour: A Kriegspiel for Toy Soldiers. The game is meant for 54mm figures set in the 1850s - 1910s, but with some minor provisions it could be bent for use with the American Revolution.

I plan to use this set of rules for several reasons, first they're fairly simple. All combat and morale is simple and straight forward. The figures are based individually, with the idea being that it evokes the looks of those games fought by HG Wells over a hundred years ago. It also covers rules for solid shot and shell firing and differentiates between breech loading and muzzle loading guns.

This way I can also use this one set of rules for all of my projects.

This being said I have decided to change the scale of my AWI project. I will now be using 10mm Irregular Miniatures figures based on 15mm by 15mm bases and use the Edwardian Splendour rules but use centimeters instead of inches.

The scales are different too, each unit will represent a brigade and when the entire project is finished I will have 27 units of British and 40 units of Americans.

As for the paint schemes I will have that ready for the next post with all 67 units uniforms being laid out.

Final Decision on Basing

So after a while of debating and researching I have come up with a basing system that I will use for this project. I have also decided to change figure manufacturer from Irregular Miniatures to Baccus6mm, because they have more variety, though they do come in packs with command figures, so I might have many more extra figures than if I had stayed with Irregular.

First it will depend on how the troops fought during the war, of course, in my research I've found that many of the British units fought in a loose order formation, including the light infantry, who were used mostly as shock troops much like the grenadiers. To reflect this I have decided to base all British Infantry on 20mm x 15mm stands with six figures per stand, these troops will be treated as loose order figures for movement and shooting. Frontages of units are listed below.
Line/Guard Infantry (flank companies stripped) 160mm
Highland Infantry 200mm
Grenadiers/ Light Battalions 180mm

Hessian soldiers, as far as I can tell, kept tighter packed ranks and there fore will have six figures mounted on a 15mm x 15mm base. Since Jagers fought in loose skirmish formations, each company will be mounted as skirmishers on a 30mm x 15mm base. Frontages are listed below.
Grenadier Battalion 120mm
Musketeer Battalion 150mm
Jager Battalion 240mm

The Queen's Rangers fought much like the British so they will be mounted as British Infantry in loose formations, this will give them a frontage of 160mm.

All artillery will be mounted on a 30mm x 30mm base, giving the battery a frontage of 60mm.

Cavalry are mounted on a 20mm x 15mm base with three figures per base giving a regimental frontage of 240mm.

For the American army, line infantry and militia are based on 15mm x 15mm bases with six figures to a base, in close order, much like the Hessians. Light infantry are mounted like the British lights with six figures on a 20mm x 15mm. Frontages are below.
Foot Regiment 120mm
Light Battalion 80mm
Militia Battalion 75mm

Cavalry are mounted like British cavalry on 20mm x 15mm bases giving a frontage of 80mm.

- Dan

My AWI Project

Hello everyone! My name is Dan, I'm a freshman in college and a part time wargamer and American Revolution reenactor. My favorite part of history is early US, from early settlement up to about the early 1800s. I also enjoy reading about the Napoleonic Era and the American Civil War, so there may be posts on those two eras from time to time, but this blog will mainly deal with the American Revolution and the project I plan on starting in the upcoming months.

I have put my initial ideas on a post of the same name over at The Miniatures Page, but since making that post I have made some minor tweaks to my plan. To begin with lets start with scale.

I have decided on 6mm; It is affordable and, since my painting skills are still in their infancy, easier to paint than 15mm or 10mm which were the other scales I was planning on going with. I looked at using 25mm plastics, but looking at the Plastic Soldier Review showed little in the way of AWI or even 7 Years War troops. So 6mm it is. I plan on using Irregular Miniatures 6mm 18th Century line.

Now for Organization of Forces. I have decided that 6 men (or one strip of figures from Irregular) will be a company.

British Regiments (this includes Guards Regiments) 8 center companies, 1 light company and 1 grenadier company
Highland Regiments 10 center companies (based solely off the fact that they tended to be larger units)
British Combined Battalions (Grenadiers and Lights) these units will have the flank companies of the British Regiments evenly split among them (about 9 companies a piece)
Cavalry Regiments 3 Squadrons (each squadron will have about 12 figures)
Hessian Regiments (including Musketeers, Fusiliers, Grenadiers and Jagers) Line will have 10 companies (to represent that they were larger regiments) Grenadiers and Jagers will have 8 companies
Ranger Battalions 8 center companies (most likely will be rifle armed)
Artillery Batteries 2 guns and crews, toying with the idea of having a howitzer for every 5 guns

The overall organization will be based on Brandywine (11 September 1777) which is one of my favorite battles to read about, in part because I live close to the field itself. This whole project was done with the Philadelphia Campaign in mind.

1x Guards Brigade: 2x Guards Regiments, 2x Combined Light Battalions, 2x Combined Grenadier Battalions, 1x Artillery Battery
4x Line Brigades (each of): 4x British Regiments (stripped of flank companies), 1x Artillery Battery
1x Reserve Brigade (or Highland Brigade): 3x Highland Regiments, 1x Artillery Battery
1x Hessian Line Brigade: 4x Line Regiments
1x Hessian Grenadier Brigade: 4x Grenadier Regiments
Unbrigaded Units: 1x Cavalry Regiment (with dismounted troopers), 1x Ranger Battalion, 1x Jager Battalion

So this gives the British army a total force of 35x foot units, 1x Cavalry unit, 6x Artillery Batteries or in terms of men 1,788 foot, 36 mounted, 12 guns

Now for the Americans the organization is slightly different.

American Continental Regiments 8 center companies, 1 light company
Combined Light Battalions will be composed of the light companies of the units in their parent divisions
Militia Battalions 5 companies (these units were smaller and will have a larger number of units in each brigade)
Cavalry Squadrons will generally have about 12 figures (Continental cavalry units were not that big at Brandywine so I decided to only use squadrons for the Americans)
Artillery Batteries same as with the British, do not think I'll be using any howitzers in this army

The overall organization will have the units placed into divisions as they were at Brandywine

5x Division (each of): 1x Artillery Battery, 1x Combined Light Infantry Battalion 2x Continental Brigades (each of): 2x Continental Regiments
1x Militia Division: 1x Artillery Battery, 2x Militia Brigades (each of): 6x Militia Battalions
1x Reserve Division: 1x Cavalry Brigade: 4x Cavalry Squadrons

So this gives the American army a total force of 37x foot units, 4x Cavalry units, 6x Artillery Batteries or in terms of men 1,440 foot, 48 mounted, 12 guns

Using this system of organization I can use the system that John the OFM suggests over on TMP. Link here: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=253118

The plan right now is to buy a division or so of Americans and a brigade of British every month once I finish my research and finish writing the set of rules I want.

I wanted to go with an old school style rule set, but not as bloody, my problem right now is finding the balance, it seems that the rules turn the battle into a bloodbath in the first couple turns after contact or they don't have enough to them and fighting is slow and grinding and combat isn't really decisive.

So this is the plan thus far. I will post more as I continue with this project (I'm hoping that having the blog will keep on track and actually finish it). Next time I will post how the units will be painted.

-Dan