Epic Revolution, Part 11c: Heck! Designing two Armies!

Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel zu Eisenbach. Warlord Resin figure from the Epic Battles: Revolution Commander's pack.

On to the cavalry! Oh . . . it's the American War for Independence (AWI)! If you want to deploy a lot of cavalry for the AWI, you are better off doing some of the raids or smaller actions. My previous collections of 28mm AWI had more cavalry as I deployed Butler's Rangers, American Continental Dragoons, the British Legion and Lee's Partizan Legion (plus militia) on daring raids and actions. For the scale of battles I am doing, I will not need copious amounts of cavalry on the gaming table. But using the Warlord Games Epic Battles: Revolution range may pose a financial issue for British Cavalry.

Colonel Banastre Tarleton.

I understand the limitations and challenges in producing sprues. It is a lot easier if a period has a wide variety of figures allowing smaller sprues to be produced or more figures of 1 - 3 units on a larger sprue. With the small amounts of cavalry, and the variety of other units, the British Cavalry was relegated to the Hessian Army sprue. As a reminder, I'm planning on focusing on forces for the Southern Campaign. In order to get the mounted element of the British Legion (or paint them as the 16th Light Dragoons) and the 17th Light Dragoons I would need to buy the Hessian & Allies box or one of the larger bundle boxes. I am not prepared to do that yet and may look for alternative figures. It's not an issue for me for the Americans as there are enough figures to represent the American cavalry. My cavalry will be represented as either 1 stand of cavalry or 2 stands for a larger element. 

Head swap to give some variety to the American Cavalry.

On to what I am planning on building!

The 1st Maryland Regiment of the Continental Line.

My forces will be (for the most part) be based on the units that fought during the Southern Campaign on  the free sprues from Wargames Illustrated, the Continental and British Army Brigade Boxes, the Highlander pack and the Commanders pack all from Warlord Games.

British Army:

Commanders: 6 British Commanders and 1 Hessian.

British Line: 4 Regiments.

Highlanders: 1 Regiment.

Hessian Line: 1 Regiment.

British Light Infantry: 1 unit of Highlander light infantry.

Hessian Jägers: 1 unit.

British Grenadiers: 1 unit. (Wargames Illustrated bonus!).

Hessian Grenadiers: 1 unit (Wargames Illustrated bonus!).

Indian Warband: 1 unit (Wargames Illustrated bonus!).

Artillery: 1 gun.

Light Infantry from the 71st (Frasier's Highlanders) Regiment. Warlord Games resin. I need to repaint the leather straps black.

American Army:

Commanders: 7.

Continental Line: 2 units and maybe a third.

Militia: 4 units. One militia unit may find itself as a Loyalist unit from time to time.

Rifles: 1 unit.

Cavalry: 2 units or 1 combined unit.

Artillery: 1 gun.

I'm holding on to the British Light infantry (10 figures) for now as I am convinced that the British Legion infantry, at least at Cowpens, for light infantry caps. How I'm going to get the rest that I need I haven't figured out yet.

The technique I use when painting an army (or two) when I have all or most of the figures is adopted from Bruce Quarrie's Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature:

1. Line Infantry.

2. Artillery, Cavalry or Specialty Unit.

3. Line Infantry.

4. Repeat.

I'll be doing the above and also alternating between the British and Americans and also other projects I am doing.

 

Epic Revolution, Part 11b: Designing an Army

Extra figure for options that came with the Warlord Games Epic AWI Highlander pack. There are extra figures which allow you to build options with your forces. I used this figure to figure out how I would paint the 71st (Frasier's Highlanders) Regiment of Foot for the Southern Campaign.

Okay! Let's dive into Converged units (British Light Infantry and Grenadiers), Rifles, Indians and Jägers. As with my previous post, I'm more concern with the footprint and impact on the battlefield. As a result, all of my Converged units, Rifles, Indians and Jägers will be two stands with the recommended 5 figures for each stand. That works out because that is what I have!

Jägers.

Let's look at some strengths of British Converged units in the Southern Campaign and the numbers can be seen as approximates;

1. At Cowpens for the British Light Infantry Battalion: 16th Regiment (41 men), 1/71st (35 men), 2/71st (34 men), and the Prince of Wales American Regiment (25 - 50 men). This will give us about 135 to 160 men.

2. At Guilford Courthouse:

    a. Jäger Company (84 men).

    b. Guards Light Infantry Company (70 - 90 men).

    c. Guards Grenadier Company (70 - 90 men).

My line battalions will be 3 stands in size and the Converged British units will be 2 stands. The light infantry and jägers will have 5 figures per stand while the grenadiers will be in close ranks (20 figures) on their stands. In addition if I decide to deploy a Hessian Converged Grenadier battalion they will be mounted just like their compatriots in the British grenadiers. The number of figures is mainly for easy identification.

The light infantry from the 71st (Frasier's Highlanders) are making progress. The challenge at this scale were the wings which are fortunately nicely sculpted on the figures.

American rifle armed infantry come in two varieties: Units that fought in line and units that fought as skirmishers. Militia can be a mix of rifles and muskets so when fighting in line, they will be 3 stands; if fighting as Rifle units and/or skirmishers they will be organized like the British light infantry.

American militia and rifles.

For the sake of simplicity and realistic foot print (and because that's how many figures I have) will be represented like the British light infantry and rifles. They will be used in fictional scenarios in the South.

The figures for the Native tribes look pretty good in this scale.

At first I was surprised with how many commanders came with the sprues and then I remembered how many commanders for my planned games I'll need. In addition to an army commander, I will need brigade (or independent commands like the British Legion or Lee's Legion) commanders. Many brigades may only be two battalion/regimental sized units. For example, let's look at Guilford Courthouse again:

1. British Army:

    a. Army Commander: Cornwallis.

    b. The Brigade of Guards.

    c. Webster's Brigade.

    d. Leslie's Brigade.

    e. British Legion and Advance Guard.

That's at least 5 mounted command figures and I might even try to add some mounted officers to the strips.

The Epic figure for Tarleton (in the middle and made from Warlord Resin) is, in my opinion the best figure in the Commander's pack.

2. American Army:

    a. Army Commander: Greene.    

    b. Maryland Continental Brigade.

    c. Virginia Continental Brigade.

    d. Lee's Partizan Legion.    

    e. Butler's North Carolina Militia.

    f. Eaton's North Carolina Militia.

    g. Stevens' Virginia Militia.

    h. Lawson's Virginia Militia.

    i. Washingon's Cavalry.

    j. Continental Light Infantry and Rifles.

That's, um, 10 commanders unless the NC and VA militias have only one commander.

American commander based on Daniel Morgan's uniform as a Colonel.

Next: Cavalry (oh boy, short and sweet), my army organizations and how I'm going to paint them.

Hessian commander.

Epic Revolution, Part 11a: Designing an Army

Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel zu Eisenbach leads the Musketeer Regiment von Bose forward.

For me, half the fun of doing a new project is designing army or armies that I am going to paint and game. Warlord Games did a good job of hooking me in to doing the American War of Independence (AWI) again with their Epic Revolution range of figures. As a Military Historian, Infantry officer and hobbyist, I've had a personal and professional interest in the AWI and especially the Southern Campaign.

Major General Nathaniel Greene.

To help build my armies, I was "hooked" into buying two copies of Wargames Illustrated that came with a free Epic Sprue (marketing works!) and they were both the Hessian sprue. In addition I have the Continental Army Brigade and British Army Brigade boxes, the Highlander blister pack and the Commanders box.

Lieutenant Colonel John Howard prepares to lead the 1st Maryland in a dramatic charge.

Always a good idea is to figure out rules you are going to use. I am not a fan of rebasing figures, so I like to have various rules that I can use with the same units or use rules that have no requirement to rebase figures. The rules I'll be using for the AWI will be WoFun Minatures (download link) free American Revolution rules based on the time tested Warmaster system. In addition I will be using one of my favorites One-Hour Wargames. I may purchase the rules Black Powder Epic Battles: Revolution! Rulebook but that's a decision for the future.

The one and only!

Fun, fast and furious - AND THEY ARE FREE!!!

For gaming these days I am more interested in the unit performance than actual stats of muzzle velocity, how quickly and formation could move or how much water a canteen can hold and how much tobacco and rum was issued. As a historian it provides insight for gaming but minutia and details like that slow down a game. And it is a game! So . . . 

I get a movement bonus of 4 inches since my horse has iron shoes and my Sword of Justice (given to me by the King) makes militia wet their pants.

For the historically based battles I'll be gaming, most Regular British Regiments/Battalions, Continental Line Regiments/Battalions, Loyalist and grouping of Militia will have the same "footprint" as they all more or less performed the same way and had the same function on the battlefield. Except at the start of the war, realistically on the Hessians regiments and the 71st (Frasier's Highlanders) were anywhere near to full strength. For example, referencing Appendix A, Order of Battle from Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, by Lawrence E. Babits and Joshua B. Howard:

Some British Line strengths:

    1st Battalion Guards: 160 to 180 men

    2nd Battalion Guards: 160 to180 men

    23rd Foot: 238 men

    33rd Foot: 234 men

    Von Bose: 321 men

Some Continental Line/States Troops/Militia:

    1st Maryland: 350 to 400 men

    2nd Virginia: 400 to 450 men

    BG Butler's NC militia: 500 - 600 men from 10 County militias

    Pittsylvania County Militia: 150 to 200 men

    Amelia, Cumberland, and Powhatan (VA militia) County Militias: 200 to 250 men

For all intents in purposes, all of the above will be represented by 3 stands of infantry and only the quality of the units will be different.

For artillery, the British had 6 guns operating in 3 sections of 2 guns each and the Americans had 4 guns operation in 2 sections of 2 guns each. I figure one stand of artillery will represent 2 guns.

Continental Artillery.

Next: Light Infantry and Rifles, Cavalry, Commanders and what and which units I'm painting and how I determine which unit to paint next.

Epic Revolution, Part 10d: I forgot to Post the Continental Artillery

 

Well here is the Continental Artillery. One gun and Crew come with the Continental Brigade Army box (as does one for the British Brigade Army box). Having only gun suits me just fine right now as I need to focus on the infantry and the most I will need for the Southern Campaign is two guns if I want to place the guns in different places.

I did the basing technique that I used with the 1st Maryland and the rest of the Epic troops. The only difference is that I accidentally (whoops!) cut the pegs of the pieces when I removed them from the strip.

I was admiring my paint job (humble aren't I?) and I hadn't noticed that I had accidentally cut the pegs off yet. I need to cover up the holes that the pegs were supposed to go in; I used the technique that I use with slotta bases. I just use some masking tape or painters tape to cover the holes.

Then I looked at the identical frame, though in red, that is with the British Brigade as I was getting ready to prime the figures for the 33rd Regiment of Foot . . .

Oh the artillery does have pegs . . . 

Anyway . . . let's finish the base and get them on the table.

Still to come from the Brigade box are rifle-armed troops, a unit of Virginia State troops, Continental/Militia cavalry and 2-3 units of militia.

Pulp Interlude: A bug-eyed Monster

"For Heaven's sake Rachel! I told you to dress for the weather!"

 I grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard, H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Maxwell Grant and too many other pulp and adventure authors to count. Some of my most enjoyable games and campaigns involve elements of Pulp and Victorian Adventure. Some of my favorite rules for the genre are Astounding Tales, In Her Majesty's Name, Pulp! and Pulp Alley.

A mainstay and inexpensive resource for many figures of my figures is the Bones Range from Reaper Miniatures which are made with injected thermal plastic. I also think that this may be the first figure that I painted completely with Citadel Contrast paints. After looking at the pictures I am going to go back and lighten the rocks.

The Ankheg(?) from Reapers Miniatures (BWAH HAH HAH!)

"Spit out that Scotch you wee bastard!" Converted French and Indian War/Seven Years War highlander from Warlord Games.

A 28mm stalwart hero from Pulp Figures defends his lost love (also from Pulp Figures).

"Join the Army and see the Empire they said." A converted figure from Perry Miniatures with a GW Space Marine rocket launcher.