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