Wargaming the American Revolution

 

I have embarked on a new wargaming adventure.  For many, many years I have been drawn to this period.  It is a very structured period.  It is a very environmentally clean period if that makes any sense.  The uniforms are colorful and there is a wide range of units to choose from for color and character.

My only problem was settling on a scale and manufacturer.  My first inclination was to go with 25mm figures and bring back some of the old flavor of wargaming.  But they are really too large these days.  So that left me with 15mm figures.  I put out an order for some essex AWI figures and I am very impressed!  But this one of those periods that has very colorful uniforms and I am not a good enough painter to do them justice.  The 15mm guys are big enough to have all the glorious detail and small enough to do in my wargaming space.

But then I took a serious look at Scruby’s N-Scale figures.  The line is not really large but the necessary figures are there.  So I put out a small order just to see.  And am I impressed!  They are perfect for what I am looking for!  They are small enough so I can get the effect I want and large enough for very basic detail which is good enough for me.  I may try to do hat trim but I kinda doubt it.  Using the old 3-foot rule, I actually don’t want a lot of detail because it will just be too much going on.

I don’t want really animated poses either.  To me this is a very sedate period so advancing and standing at attention are just fine.  It also gives me a very traditional wargaming look.  I will mount them 10 figures to a stand and that will be a battalion.  The stand is 1.5”x1”.  Everything will be mounted on that stand.  Ten infantry, 5 cavalry, 2 guns.  Each battalion will have a national flag for a standard as well.  The only exception will be leaders who will be mounted singly on a 1 inch square stand.

For rules I will use the game “Hold the Line” by Worthington Games.  This is a really great game for the period.  I think they capture the feel of the period and don’t get bogged down in rules details.  The game flows smoothly and shouldn’t take but an hour or so to play a game.  I am using a hex board with 1.5” between sides.  With the point up the 1.5” stand fits perfectly and I get the massed line look that I am looking for.  It won’t even require much of a playing area.  I can play out the scenarios on a board of 9×13 hexes!  But I have a hex board of just about 2’x3’ so I have room to play with the rules a little to give me a lot of space.

For the campaign element, I will use the old Avalon-Hill game 1776.  This is one of all-time favorite board games and I have all the add-ons and expansions along with the 3rd Edition rules.  I am figuring that one strength point in that game will equal a battalion in the tactical game.  I am mainly interested in the northen campaigns and the middle states campaigns so I won’t use the entire map.

So there it is!  My plans in a nutshell.  I will update this as I get everything put together.  I have 4 battalions of infantry primed and put on popsicle sticks all ready to be painted so I will have a lot to say when I finish them.

The Challenges of Hex-Based Terrain

 

Okay…I’ve just about given up!  I finally have reached a point in my wargaming where I have the setup I have always wanted.  Many people use a hex board as I do but they usually use a somewhat large 4” hex where I use a 1.5” hex.  In my 1.5” hex I can fit a 1” square base perfectly.  Upon that 1” stand are mounted my figures, usually 4 to a base but I am thinking about 6 for my American Revolution stuff.  More on that later.

Anyway…I found a wonderful source for hex shaped wooden bases ‘cuz here is what I wanted to do.  I wanted to make hex-shaped elevations so, from Litko Aerosystems I bought 3mm thick wooden bases and glued two of them together to give me 6mm elevation pieces.  I picked 6mm because it’s almost half of my 15mm figures height so the elevation works fine.  Currently I have a hundred of these elevation tiles.

I then bought 0.08mm thick hex stands from them.  These I spray painted blue for river hexes and tan for road hexes.  Then I spray painted them green and glued a tree on it so I have tree hexes.  So I have just about everything!

Just about…I also want walls and fences and hedges that conform to hex sides.  Well, guess what!  I can’t find them anywhere!  If anyone actually reads this blog and can help I will surely appreciate it!  I hae even looked into custom built pieces but I can’t find someone who does that sort of thing. 

So forget it…I will keep hoping but I will just have to make do I guess.

Talk to y’all later.

An Evening at the Senior Care Center

I went to a very interesting little seminar tonight.  It was about writing your life’s story.  It was a giant ad campaign for the Care Center but that’s alright.  It was not a hard sell and I don’t blame them at all for what they tried.  That is a very competitive market I would think. 

There were around 20 people there and I was probably the youngest among them.  But what an interesting group!  One of the first things we did was make a list of ten things about ourselves.  No mention was made of the fact that we would then be asked to share this list with everyone.  Would that have made a difference?  Probably not to me, but to some it probably would have.  And there was no pressure to read aloud your list.  But I found it very interesting that, by the end of the readings, and I was the last, we seemed like a closer group of people.  And all we did was share some things about ourselves.  I enjoyed that part very much.

There was a couple there who had been married for 61 years!  They were so cute together!  They actually finished each other’s sentences without thinking about it.  He was a retired banker and his wife was a real estate agent and, of all things, a building contractor!  She seemed so petite but I cannot forget that she is also a Texas lady and they can be pretty tough.

There was another woman there who told us that she had been severely ebaten by a former boyfriend and was still recovering emotionally from the experience.  By the time the presenter got to me I was the last one and one of only three men in the room.

This seminar was a great motivating experience for me.  But I must remember that I can’t write my completed life story.  I still have a chapter or two to write.  But I could write about it to this point and follow up with a sequel later.  I very much would like to do that.  I also want to share this experience with my parents and family.  Everyone can benefit by writing their life story down.

I will enjoy thinking about this for awhile now.

My First Post

This is my first ever posting to a blog.  I have resisted this form of communication because of a somewhat haughty attitude towards the written word.  But I must, as we all must, face the inevitable pace of progress.  It may even be fun.  We’ll see.