Project 1777: Next Steps

What Do We Need? More Troops! When Do We Need Them? Now!

So, I've been working out what figures I'll need for Project 1777. I took stock of what I already have, made a rough estimate of what more I'd need, and put in an order with a couple of suppliers to fill in most of the gaps. Perry Miniatures are wonderful for Rev War, but they are missing a few things. 

They started the line, as I understand it, to complement the work they had done before with Wargames Foundry. So they didn't rush to do basic things they had already done, like standard British infantry in the early war clothing of the 1768 Warrant. Also, they don't sell artillery pieces as stand-alone items, so if you want such and such a piece, you buy the set of artillerists and gun that feature it. And while they do most of the types of guns seen during the war (3 pounders, 4 pounder, 6 pounders, howitzers, even a 24 pounder siege gun), they don't do a 12 pounder field piece. So I also had to make small orders with other makers, including with Front Rank (now owned by Gripping Beast), who do a handsome 12 pounder. 

I also wanted to fill out a few of my older units, built with Front Rank figures. I had built them back int he day to fill slots in an OB (also 1777, as it happened) for gaming with my friend Rocky's Fortunes of War rules. Those involved considerably smaller units, based in one rank, so if I were to make those units of to Carnage & Glory's preferred two-rank basing, I'd need more figures to match the old ones I'd used.

And I also needed to evaluate the bits and pieces I've assembled, partly secondhand, to see what would be suitable. After my initial foray with Front Rank (whose figures are good-solid, beef-fed fellows, very stocky, and tend to lean forward a great deal), I'd tried out Redoubt Miniatures, whose figures have character and at the time had the benefit of being cheap. They have stopped producing their Rev War line, so I can't fill in any of those units, and at some point I'd rather like to replace them and sell off my Redoubt units, as they are rather cartoonish figures. But at the moment, they make a good half of my Continentals, and I have 40 British infantry in the "cut down" uniform assumed by much of the army for the 1777 campaign. They're not handsome, but there are a lot of them and they're easy to paint up.

Here are two batches of them, one unprimed and the other with six colours on, almost ready to be based.

Two things are brought home by making up a list of what units I need to build and what figures I'll use for them. One is that, while the British OB is mostly a matter of what units (and officers) started out the 1777 campaign and which were added up to the evacuation of Philadelphia and the battle of Monmouth, the American army is much more ... changeable. The British army used more or less the same organization throughout, but the Americans, I presume because of their enlistment system and the resulting variable strength of their units, made substantial organizational changes from 1777 to 1778. So I'm going to proceed on the basis of 1777 and then see what changes need to be made for 1778 when I get there.

The other realization this process brings home is the sheer scope of the project I've taken on. the British and American armies are both over 15,000 men (the British closer to 20,000), which will mean over 300 stands of troops. At the moment I have the equivalent of about 50. Lots of work ahead!

Project 1777: A Return to Blogging

Back to the blog! Onward for victory!

After about a year away from the blog, I'm returning to a project I started back in 2016: Project 1777. This is a series of posts about an an effort to recreate the battles of Sir William Howe's Philadelphia Campaign of 1777 during the American Revolution. I had originally enlisted the support of my friend Mr Invisible for this project, but he dropped off this project, entranced by other periods, so this will continue to be a solo project for now.

American general officers from Perry Miniatures 

When I blogged last on the project, I had delivered some notes on the Forage War in the Jerseys, outlined where the war stood at the beginning of the year as well as a precis of the first small battle of the campaign and a short piece on recreating the latter as a wargame. From there I had provided a precis of the next battle in the campaign, that of Short Hills, set out a brief overview of the American army, and began on a deeper dive on the American forces with a piece on the Pennsylvania Division's first brigade, then one on its second brigade. Next up was going to be an article on Nathanael Greene's Virginia Division as one of five more blog posts planned to cover the Continental Army of 1777. I expected the description of the Crown Forces to consist of as many as nine posts (one for each brigade, one for the elite battalions, and one for the army assets). Along with all of those, there will be posts on the other initial engagements of the campaign (Staten Island, Couch's Bridge), the incidental and hypothetical combats (Paoli, Whitehorse Tavern, Matson's Ford, Whitemarsh, the storming of Redbank), and the main battles of the campaign (Brandywine and Germantown). The latter probably deserve several posts as we look at the different sections of the battles. In addition, I see I need to go back through the existing posts and do a little editing, correcting some typos, replacing images that have been lost, and so forth.

Officer, trumpeter, and trooper of the 16th Light Dragoons from Perry Miniatures

While I'm working on the blog, I also need to build up my miniature forces. I've been collecting both 15mm and 28mm figures for the period, but I have to admit that the 28mm figures produced by the Perry brothers are my true love for the period. Wargames Foundry has some of their earlier sculpts that are also handsome. I have a small supply of Redoubt figures (not very good), Old Glory figures (not awful but not great), and Front Rank (fine sculpts, but all very portly and with a tendency to be sculpted leaning forward as if walking into a heavy wind). In time, I'd like to replace all the latter with Perry figures, either from Perry Miniatures or from their old Wargame Foundry line. Fife & Drum also makes handsome figures for the period, but due to the style of their sculpting, they are not suitable (IMO) to be fielded with any of these others. They also have a very limited range, compared to others (their WAS/SYW lines, and their Jacobite and other figures, sold under Crann Tara, are much more extensive), and they are quite pricey.

So, I'm starting with the figures I have, trying to build up slowly to the forces for the full 1777 campaign, while focusing first on the troops engaged in the initial battles of the campaign.

I'm also experimenting with several rule sets. I began by assuming that I would use Carnage & Glory, which is still my favourite. It does have a few issues, though, especially the overhead time required to set up a game; sometimes it would be nice to be able to pick up and play a game somewhat quickly. Of the "manual" (i.e., not computer based) rules that I've seen designed specifically for the American Revolution, British Grenadier seems like the strongest contender, while Blackpowder has the advantage of being simple to teach and learn and a set that can be used for a variety of different periods.