Completed Miniatures

I am really getting into painting for the AWI. I have just completed my first of several militia units. I have based them on 1" square bases for use with Vince's "Taxes, Tea and Tories" from the 2006 Winter Special from the Too Fat Lardies. I also have a few individually based figures to use for casualties with Sharp Practice.

I still need to break out the Army Painter anti-shine spray. All of the miniatures are Old Glory and from their Ragged Militia/State Troops pack. I have another group of 15 men with two officer figures, two drummers and two standard bearers left in the pack. Once the rebels are painted, I will give some provincial troops a go.

New Toys

Just got in an order from QRF/FrieKorps. I had ordered a pack of American Mounted Infantry and a Militia command set.

The mounted Infantry come 4 to a pack. The horse and rider are of one piece. The figures look pretty good. All four appear to be the same pose - Rider holding the reins and a musket slung on their back. I want to eventually have a group of some 12 of these guys and 12 all the same would be disapointing. I will wait to see if Peter Pig will eventually do some mounted infantry.

The militia command set are very nice figures. 4 standard bearers, two officer looking fellows and two musicians. The officers look great. One is holding a musket and firing a pistol. Definitely will be a big man on my table at some point. The other is holding a sword with the point to the ground. A solid figure but nothing too exciting. The musicians are nice in that they include a fifer as well as a drummer. The fife player will go on the painting table tonight. The standard bearers come with separate flag poles. Until I see how well I can glue those on, I will hold off judgement on them. They should do nicely as they will have the flag on an angle and not the normal straight up and down pose that Old Glory has.

I am still waiting on my Lauzon Legion command pack from FreiKorps. If those officers are as nice as the mounted infantry figures, they will do quite nicely with my Old Glory Legionaires that I have already done.

Lessons Learned and Other Ramblings

Lessons Learned

In the game over the weekend, a breach-loading rifle is way too powerful to fully equip a single side with. If I ever redo the scenario "Escape from Jenkin's Neck" I will reduce the number of groups with this weapon and limit the rest to regular muzzle loading muskets.

ACW Stuff

Thinking of changes, I was looking at using scoped weapons for ACW variant of Sharp Practice. My thoughts would be to restrict them only to chosen men and to give them a single range band shift when firing. As a penalty, they must reload at one action slower than their rifle type. I also extended the maximum range band out to 48" to 58". Does this sound like a fair representation?

Escape from Jenkin's Neck - SP Game & AAR

Well it was great fun. Mark put on a fantastic game today. As usual, the terrain was fantastic. I was given command of the Lauzon Cavalry that I had just painted. My compatriot commanded the allied infantry - French and some late arriving Virginia Militia. Mark commanded the Chiswick brothers and their Provincial troops while another player controlled Alan Lewrie and his sailors. It was great fun even if it was a rather embarrassing loss.

Pictures have been uploaded by Mark and are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6mmgaming/sets/72157622413364342/

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Dear Sirs,

It is with great regret that I have to inform you of the loss of two of our finest officers of the legion. Just two days after the capture of the British army at Yorktown, it was made known to us that a group of British sailors and some Provincials had taken refuge at a nearby farm. The child of one of the ladies with whom we were familiar alerted us to the presence of these men.

Taking with us some cavalry (30) under the command of Lieutenant Jean LeCaire and Sergeant Moritz Koelsche and a force of infantry (48 men) under the able command of Captain Pierre Ducote, Lieutenants Phillipe LeCroix and Luc Maartin. We were to be joined by a local American company of Virginia militia under the command of one Captain Leroy.

Upon arriving at the outskirts of the farm, the cavalry was deployed in line, three ranks deep. The legion infantry was in column on the road. Lieutenant LeCroix immediately advanced down the road with two groups of infantry to discover more about the enemy's positions which he discovered to his detriment. It appears that the British have employed a new weapon that I have learned is a Ferguson rifle. An unsportsmanlike weapon that only such a crass people as the British would employ. Lieutenant LeCroix was under the direct fire of a group of 24 of the Provincials. Yet he held firm in spite of taking a wound while leading his men.

Captain Duote ordered Lieutenant Maartin to advance and support his comrade while moving the remaining group of legion infantrymen to rejoin LeCroix. Lieutenant Maartin also came under fire but was within range to exchange fire with the British.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant LeClaire moved his men to advance diagonally across the field. Half way in their advance, they too came under the fire from yet another formation of Provincial troops.

It was at this point that Captain Leroy and his Virginians arrived.

While the cavalry advanced, they lost three horses and two men. Then, Sergeant Koelsche informs me, that Lieutenant LeClaire's mount was wounded. The beast launched himself forward with the Lieutenant waving his men on as he recklessly charged a group of British sailors behind a makeshift bulwark. His men gamely followed the Lieutenant and crashed into the enemy. Alas the cavalry were already in a shaken state before the reckless charge. They were repulsed by the sailors. All but the Lieutenant. LeClaire continued through the sailors into another group that appear to have been working on a boat of some kind. The last that was seen of LeClaire was him valiantly fighting for his life. His body was later recovered. From what can be determined at this time, he was able to take one of the sailors with him.

The Virginia Militia were nearly ignored by the Provincials until they were quite literally on top of them. Captain Leroy's charge was brave but ultimately doomed. One group assaulted the sailor's position that the cavalry had just failed to defeat and another charged the fence line. The defending Provincials drove off both attacks with horrible casualties to the militia that nearly evaporated into the surrounding swamps.

Captain Ducote had joined with Lieutenant LeCroix and had begun to get the infantry fighting again when another volley struck down the valiant Captain. Our forces withdrew from the field in good order and waited for reinforcements before returning for our dead. By this time the British had fled Jenkin's Neck.

Major Devareaux

Commanding

AWI Game Tomorrow

Well my miniatures are painted and I will be basing them tonight. I wanted to have them flexible enough that they could be used with the Taxes, Tea and Tories rules as well as Sharp Practice. My Lauzon Cavarly is now mounted on 1/2" by 1" bases that can be placed together to match up with the 1" x 1" basing suggested for TT&T.

I also managed to paint one of my militia big men. I am quite happy with how he came out. My debate now is do I spray with the anti-shine spray and dull the shine down or leave them as is. My wife actually like the look of them when they are shiny. I am not to sure.

Lauzon's Lancers

I think I am becoming a fan of the Army Painter dip based on the first 10 miniatures that I have painted and used the Army Painter Dip. These are Old Glory 15mm AWI French "Hussars". The first picture is the base paint job.

The second picture shows the same miniatures after painting on a layer of dip and allowing it to dry overnight. The figures are rather glossy as they have not been treated with the Army Painter Anti-Shine varnish.

I will apply the varnish later tonight and take another picture of these after they are based.

Army Painter Dip & Primer

I decided to try out the Army Painter Strong Tone dip and their Uniform Gray primer. I bought these and some of their anti-shine varnish from The War Store. It was delivered quickly. I will give it a whirl tomorrow with the Lauzon Legion lancers that I just finished painting this evening.

I'll post up some pictures once I see the results.

Painting Time Continued

The horses are now painted for 15 of the Lauzon's Legionaires. I started on the the lancers first and have gotten the light blue of their coats on.

I really like the Old Glory figures but the officer figures are indistinguishable from the rest of the troopers. The two buglers are rather obvious and there does not appear to be a standard bearer in the bunch. So to offset this, I looked around the internet for some command figs. First stop - Deep Fried Happy Mice. They have great side by side reviews of AWI, ACW and Napoleonic miniatures. Low and behold, they have painted examples of OG AWI cavalry. But surprisingly, they did not have a miniature manufacturer that I ended up buying.

I found that Freikorps does a 4 figure mounted command pack for Lauzon's legion. These will become the Big Men for this unit. Just one question here, did the Lancer officers carry a lance into combat or a saber?

For the scenario I wrote for the SP scenario competition, I need 30 troopers for the Lauzon Legion. Needless to say, by the 19th of September, I will not have 30 of these guys and their command done. Three groups of 30? What was I thinking. Standins will be needed. To finish off the unit, I will end up buying two additional packs of the Old Glory bags. This will give me 21 lancers and 21 hussars.

That will give me French cavalry with no infantry. That won't last long I am sure.

Next on the painting bench, once the cavalry is done, are some American Militia followed by some Provincial regulars.

Painting Time

It looks like I will finally get a game in. I will be painting up a unit of Luzon's Legion cavalry for the scenario. The scenario calls for 3 groups of 10 cavalry. I purchased a pack of Old Glory French Hussars with Command. This is a very interesting pack. It is perfect for Luzon's Legion in that it has both hussar and lancer figures (7 of each). It also has two buglers. I cannot distinguish the "officers" from the men in the pack and there is no standard bearer that I can find.

I will be basecoating these tonight if possible and start painting the horses by Friday night. With the long weekend, I am hoping that I can carve out some painting time. I need to find an appropriate light blue for the uniform jackets now.