A Revolutionary Project!

Battle of Freemans Farm near Saratoga

Back at the beginning of this year I mused about future projects, having two different ideas in mine. One was Dark Ages: The Last Kingdom, 1066 and all that - Normans, Saxons, and Vikings, etc. The other was the American War of Independence. Obviously, the Revolution won out. There were a number of factors contributing to that, but with the 250th Anniversary of the Revolution, starting this year, it won out. Destiny is all!  :-)

Having decided that, the next question was the organization of the units. I wanted to keep the units small (the actual units in the AWI *were* small anyway), to keep the cost, painting time, and storage space needed for the project manageable (famous last words, right?). I settled on 12 figures for most infantry units, 6 figures for the very little cavalry that fought in the war, and 1 gun with crew for the Artillery units. 2" square bases will be used for most (already obtained from Litko).  I decided to shoot for about 18 Infantry units, 3-4 Cavalry units, and 4 Artillery units a side - with command and sundry, on the order of about 300 figures a side. I also decided that the focus would be on the war in New England, and the mid Atlantic, at least initially, especially the Saratoga Campaign of 1777. Reference materials began being delivered to my door on a regular basis, as well as cataloguing available online resources. 

The figure scale would be 25/28 mm; that was a given from the start. Then there was the matter of which manufacturer(s) to use. The main candidates were the extensive range by Perry, Brigade games, and Fife & Drum, all of which seemed like they would be reasonably compatible. I considered Old Glory as well, but I wasn't sure they had an AWI range, and for once I wouldn't be fielding enormous armies. The Old Glory AWI is rather obscure in its placement in their on line catalogue (I just found them last month, and are not well illustrated. Alas, Old Glory has stopped attending Historicon, so an in person. The Fife and Drum figures look great, but their AWI range is small. Complicating this was the whole Tariff nonsense (don't get me started!). I wound up getting a test order from Perry  in May (see the Q2 expense report earlier this month), and a selection of figures from Brigade Games when I was at Historicon in July. That was quickly followed by the decision that I would use Perry for all or most of the British infantry (and Hessians and Indians), plus the cavalry and Artillery, whilst Brigade Games would be used for most of the American infantry. Orders went out in August just under the wire for the tariff nightmare to both manufacturers, and also Adolfo Ramos for the flags. Whew!

How about rules? My preferred Field of Battle rules will work just fine for this era, with some nice period wrinkles; Jared and I played the Battle of White Plains with FoB2 (very near the site of the actual battle) ? 10 years ago.  The planned organization would work perfectly for those rules, too. I enjoyed Chris Parker's "Big Battle" Lion Rampant battle at HAVOC, and doing much the same thing with Rebels and Patriots should work with this organization, too. I also have Eric Burgess' Guns of Liberty, and there is also Live Free or Die from the little Wars TV guys, among others.  Plenty of viable choices!

The first few units are preparing to march off the painting table shortly. The tea has been dumped in Boston harbor, and chapters of the Sons of Liberty are springing up all over the 13 colonies!