Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames

The American War of Independence

Teaching the Colonials a lesson...

This is probably my oldest 25mm period, and until recently it showed. Being the first "proper" 25mm army I painted (and my painting standard was a lot lower than it is now) then they all look a little .. er .. basic! Therefore I'm replacing and repainting almost all of them before they see the light of day again. My figures have also suffered from being kicked around, rebased and generally abused over the years, and my two armies were in desperate need of refurbishment! The other problem is that since I first bought into the period so many new and better figures have come out that I couldn't help buying replacements. All I need to do now is to finish painting  my AWI lead mountain! Actually, I've just started the process, and my first 100 or so colonial militia are finished and ready for battle. By late 2006 both of my armies should be ready to take the field again.

Actually, most of the early stuff landed up going to a "Bring n' Buy", as I've been convinced that the British (and their Loyalist supporters) opted for round hats and shortened jackets pretty early on in the conflict - by the Summer of '76 at the latest. This means that unless I plan to refight Bunker Hill or Lexington, then my Old Glory or Front Rank figures in their tricorne hats aren't much use. That said, whatever the purist say, I'll be damned if my British Grenadiers will be trading in their bearskins for slouch hats. There are limits, old chap!  

The period is a great one to game in 25mm, because the armies are relatively small, the units had such great uniforms, and the disparity in unit morale was incredible. I wrote an Osprey campaign book on Guilford Courthouse, 1781, so consequently I'm basing my armies on those that participated in the Southern Campaign. I've also trekked all round the battlefields, which helps make it more immediate than the battles fought in upper New York.

That said, Saratoga, the New York Battles, Trenton and the Brandywine all have their own appeal, but I might try talking other gaming buddies into building up brigade-sized units of brown-coated Continentals, Burgoyne expedition British regulars (with their funny caps) or New York Loyalists supported by Indians. Aw, what the hell. I'll probably get round to doing them as well - some time!

While my original army was a mixture of Old Glory and Dixons, most of my figures now come from the ranges of Perry Miniatures and Foundry - with a few of my older Dixon figures mixed in where I can. The Perry twins produce some incredible figures, and their American War of Independence range really has to be seen to be believed! I've now started the business of painting my way through my AWI lead mountain - the first units of which are the colonial militia at the top of the page. After all, they're the boys you'll need a lot of - even if they don't hang around the table too long.  The great flags are from GMB Designs. Since then I've added guns, units of riflemen, and two cavalry units (3rd Cont. Dragoons and Lee's Legion). I'm also added a brigade of four Continental line regiments - Maryland and Virginia regiments.

In the past I've used Patriots & Loyalists, which have always produced enjoyable games... especially when Washington or Cornwallis get killed trying to save the day. However, I've also used British Grenadier. They're the AWI variant of General de Brigade, Dave Brown's Napoleonic set. After all, it makes sense if I use the same basic rules system for four of my five Horse & Musket periods. They were heavily influenced by another good set - Andy Callan two-page set Loose Files & Scramble, which can still be found on the Web as a free download. However, as British grenadier have a few quirky elements such as Disruption Points, we also use Die Kriegskunst (our Seven Years War variant), which works much the same but produces a slightly quicker game. All we do is keep British Grenadier's 1:20 figure ratio.

More recently, we've tried a game with Black Powder, and really liked the rules. I can see this set becoming our new rules of choice...

Watch this space for updates as the restoration project takes place! Now that the militia are done I'll start work on the Continental regulars. So far the only games we've played have involved Dougie Trail's Prussians masquerading as Hessians, so we now need some dedicated British opposition for my American militia to run away from!

The Grenadier is painted by Dave Imrie by the way, who's caught the AWI bug.  The Hessian von Bose Regiment, my 71st Highlanders, and the Hessian Jagers are the only elements of my old British AWI army which I kept. The rest of the old stuff went to the wargame show bring n' buy / flea market. Since then I've been building the armies up again, concentrating on the Americans as Dave Imrie has British, and Dougie Trail's Prussians can double as Hessians when needed. Actually, I now have about 200 Americans, so I'm about to make a start on a file-box of unpainted British figures. You can't have enough lead...

For an example of American War of Independence games, see Journal 10 , Journal 15 , Journal 17  , Journal 19  , Journal 20 ,  Journal 36 

Journal 42 , Journal 43  and Journal 44  (the last three using Black Powder)     For a 15mm game, see  Journal 21

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