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. 

catching up: early Autumn 2016

While I haven't posted recently, I've not been neglecting my wargaming entirely. :-)

Black Powder AWI at Army of Central Maryland

I recently ran a Revolutionary War game at the local club using the Black Powder ruleset; I'll soon have a post about that and some related games I'm planning.


A few weeks before that, I also ran a Rev War Black Powder game at a friend's house, mostly as a trial and to gain familiarity with the rules.

Black Powder AWI at Peter's

Before that, I've played a good deal of Advanced Squad Leader (three games in a month, which is kind of a record for me),

ASL with Gorkowski

ASL with Fortenberry

ASL with Frum

 played Red Poppies: Ypres Campaign with the designer,

Gorkowski explains my cruel but inevitable defeat.

 played Star Wars: Armada with my best friend while his teenaged son refereed (with lots of heavy sighs at our adult ineptitude),

Star Wars:Armada with Peter

played a British Grenadier scenario of Frayser's Farm,

Burgoyne's British let loose a volley.

and refought the battle of Vendôme with Bruce Weigle's excellent 1871 rules at the author's house.

Another of Bruce's incredible battlefields.

I also took a day off work last week and had a full weekend at Fall In. I played four different games: two Carnage & Glory games set in the Polish Commonwealth (17th century),

My Russian nobles about to kick Polish husaria ass!

one medieval game with Bob Bryant's new small-battle Clans and Companies rules, and a final Carnage & Glory game set in the American Revolution. I had several other games on my list to try to get into, but none of them panned out, alas. I also did a bit of shopping for an upcoming project.

I'll try to arrange for a few posts to summarize these exploits and get a few more photos up. Needless to say, I've also been continuing to read and learn about the 1777 Philadelphia campaign and to enlarge my Rev War research library.

I've also expanded my board wargame library a bit and taken up two new sports, curling and German longsword fencing. So, it's not like I've been sitting on my duff. :-)

Catching Up: Late Summer 2016

Sur Dynasty forces sweep towards the Mughal army. (Author)

Nearly two months later and while the summer feels like it's dragged on forever, the end is in sight!

I was able to got to Historicon this year for the first time in forever. I had a blast, playing a Carnage & Glory scenario of the battle of Camden run by David Bonk and Bob McCaskill, an Et Sans Resultat scenario of the battle of Vitebsk run by the author, David Ensteness, and a Pike & Shotte game (Providence at Panipat, a battle in 16th century India) run by John Shirey.

Punic War battle in Triumph! WAR. (Author)

I also played in two mini-tournaments of Triumph! WAR, the new ancient/medieval wargame from the Washington Grand Company. One campaign was set in the First Crusade, the other in the Punic Wars.

I did a good deal of shopping, met up with a few old (and new) friends, and generally had a good time. Now that I know it's not as hard to get to or as difficult to navigate as I thought, I will be back more often.

I've made it to two more game days with the DC Conscripts, the local ASL club. In one I got in a couple of scenarios from the late Ian Daglish's Scotland the Brave scenario pack (StB8 The Lost Platoon, StB3 Seaforth Objective, and StB2 Cameronian Crossing). At the other, Stephen Frum gently and politely hammered me into the ground as we played BoF4 About his Shadowy Sides.

Americans (left) advance toward the British (right). (Author)

And I did get a little Rev War miniature gaming in; Mr Invisible and I made it up to Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie to meet some of the local Marines (British Rev War, not modern USMC :-) for a playing of the battle of Bemis Heights with British Grenadier. Mr I. faced off more or less opposite me, he commanding the American right and center and me the British center and left. I bloodied the nose of one of his militia brigades as it thrust forward, but we Brits had to give up a great deal of the ground to find a position safe enough to defend, and I'm not sure we would have been able to hold on, as the American left was setting up to give us a walloping blow on our weak right side.

In other Rev War news, I've been reading away and taking copious notes, and I hope to have another couple of posts on Project 1777 available shortly. One of the surprises at Historicon for me was picking up the range of Rick Priestley's new games (Black Powder, Pike & Shotte, and Hail Caesar) after, I admit, poo-pooing them for some time. They're not the most simulation-y or period-tailored sets of rules in the world, but they are fairly easy to learn and provide both a simple framework and enough widgets to hang on it that I'm impressed by what I have seen of the period supplements. I enjoyed the one P&S game that I played, and I look forward to trying out several more scenarios with these rule sets. I think their breadth of scope and shallow learning curve will make them popular among my friends who like military history and enjoy playing games but who are not rules junkies or interested in/prepared to learn more complex games with many more moving parts and details to keep track of and consider.