Another OOHHH, Shiny moment.

Having heard a rumor about a set of Dark Age Skirmish rules from the Land of Lard, I reached back into my cabinet and reexamined my 10mm Dark Age figures. I have a Norman and Anglo-Danish army that I have started to paint and base for "This One's Split." I was wondering if they could server double duty but quickly dismissed the idea. Sticking with my main scale I decided to jump into this in 15mm. Cruising the internet I found a miniature company that is local to me! Splintered Light Miniatures (http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/).

They produce 3 Dark Ages lines: Post Romano-British, Early Saxons and Early Scots/Irish. Having read the Cornwall Arthur series, I was entranced by the Early Saxons. I wanted to create a Saxon raiding party. I contacted SLM and told the owner about what I was looking for. He made a custom skirmish pack for me and allowed me to specify the contents. For $20.00 I received over 25 miniatures. 2 bowmen, 2 with javelins, 11 medium infantry with spears, 4 armored spearmen, 3 armored men with swords, 1 armored musician, 1 armored standard bearer, and one armored guy with a big axe.

Since Armor and swords were marks of wealthy men, I figured that they would be fairly rare. I will be treating the fellows with swords as Big Men. One has a Sutton Hoo type helmet which was nice to see. I wanted a group that was mostly unarmored spearmen. With SLM's help, that is exactly what I got. I am very pleased. This will definitely derail my painting plans over the holidays.

I will be spending some more at SLM in the future to be sure. One thing I really like is the Personality packs that they have. The Saxon pack contains a giant of a man and some shamans/wizard types. It looks like the Sutton Hoo helmet fellow was from this pack so that was a nice bonus. It also has some other infantry poses that are not in the other packs. Great variety all around. Perfect for skirmish armies. The standard bearers for the Saxons have some sort of dead animal skull on a stick to wave about and inspire the troops with. Another bonus pack that they have that I did not get was some War Dogs. They might end up on a future wish list.

My plans are to create two Saxon Raiding parties. One that is completely unarmored and this one. Then once those are painted up, I will get a Post Romano-British infantry only force. (Can't assume Arthur and his knights are everywhere after all.)

SLM also has some Dark Ages buildings for your skirmishers to defend or attack. Very nice miniatures and worth checking out.

Google Analytics & Other nonsense

While reading the "This One's Split" blog a few weeks ago, I learned about Google Analytics. Absolutely nifty little tool. Using this, you can track how many people actually visit your blog. Saturday November 21st seems to be a banner day as I had 6 visits! Whoo Hoo!. :)

Anyway, it is a very clever tool that would prove to be really useful for someone who gets significant traffic to their blog or any website and it is absolutely free. Thank you Google.

Anyway, enough of that. I have just purchased from TheWarStore.com, two finished river sections of terrain (JR Miniatures - muddy river). I have a home made bridge section that was about 11" long that looked just silly with just felt on either side of it to serve as a stream or river. Now I have a mighty river for my gaming table of a whole 31.5" in length! Hmm.... I guess I know what to ask Santa for this year.

They seem to be nice sections that should match up enough with my home made piece and will look much better than the felt I had been using. Once Thanksgiving is over, I will try to get a game in at home. Something just to use my AWI items with again and to keep up the enthusiasm for the follow up for This Land Divided.

So here is my question for my faithful readership (yes, all 6 of you), what do you believe is the most essential piece of terrain that you have/use on your wargames table? Which piece do you find makes it on to the table time and time again?

Lancashire Miniatures Arrive

I just received my miniatures from Lancashire (http://www.test.gtns.co.uk/). they are rather nice models.

The first pack is: ARC9 Light Infantry/ Mounted in Hunting Shirts.

There are four models in two poses. The first pose is a man with slung rifle holding a sword out in front of him wearing a tricorn hat and a hunting shirt. The second is a man cradling a rifle in a round hat. Both are nice poses but have some flash on them that will need to be corrected. They look very compatible with my Freikorps mounted infantry.

The second pack is: ARB10 Southern Tories.

The southern Tories have ten miniatures in just one pose. The pose is well done of a soldier marching at shoulder arms. Again the hats seem a bit larger than they should and ride rather low on the miniatures head.

The third pack is: ARB11 Tory Command.

The command pack has two drummers, two officers and two standard bearers. The officers are holding their swords out in front of them. The drummers are holding their drums. The standard bearers have a cast on standard poles. The metal is very soft on the standard poles which might prove difficult later on. The hats are pulled low over the eyes of each of the miniatures. This is the opposite issue than the OG Militia drummer has with his hat pushed far on top of his head as if it were several sizes too small. there is little to no flash on the miniatures and they seem to have very nice detail.

The fourth pack is: ARA1 Militia

11 miniatures were included in this pack. Three are loading weapons, three resting on them, three cradling their rifles and two advancing. They come in five different poses and have several different hats. The detail is less pronounced compared to the Tory militia but still quite nice casts.

Overall view:

This was money well spent. The figures look like they would be very compatible with my existing Old Glory miniatures. At least much more so than the Freikorps infantry miniatures. I will try to get some pictures done tonight to give a better idea of what these miniatures look like. The mailing time took slightly longer than Freikorps but not by more than a couple of days. I am definitely going to be going back to Lancashire again. My only gripe is that they do not have any artillery - just crew.

FreiKorps Order Arrives

Again, I am very happy with these miniatures. The personality pack is very nice. Why they depict Greene reading a book, I am not too sure. The Gates figure is very nice with his hand out pointing to something important, I am sure. The American Colonels pack has two figures with Tricorns and one with some cavalry looking hat. The British Colonels are very nice indeed. Two have their swords out and look very commanding. These will make their way to the painting table in short order. Problem is, between now and Christmas, I doubt there will be much painting time and even less game time.

Hopefully I can get some more work done on the follow up to "This Land Divided." I have 14 scenarios blocked out and three of them are complete. The text is pretty much complete. All that remains is the order of battle for the engagements and maps. That and not getting distracted by another period - say Dark Ages - while Richard keeps churning out more and more excellent work on Lard Island.

Lancashire & Freikorps Miniatures

I just placed an order for some of their miniatures. I am getting a pack of their Southern Tories and Tory Command. I am also picking up some of their Rebel Militia and Mounted infantry. Reviews of Lancashire on DeepFriedHappyMice.com are not that flattering but they do have things that few other manufacturers have.

Between my Lancashire order and the Stone Mountain order I should have plenty of Rebel Militia infantry. I will have a total of 12 mounted infantry. I am just hoping that the Lancashire mounted infantry will not be too out of place with the Freikorps mounted infantry. The Freikorps mounted troops for the AWI are bigger than their infantry counterparts.

I did get a few more Freikorps miniatures. I picked up some mounted Colonels for my Rebels and British and one of their personalities packs (Greene, Gates and Washington). Interesting selection in that pack. Not sure why they would not have put in Sumter or Marion instead of Washington or even Benjamin Lincoln.

This leaves me with nearly a complete rebel force for the Southern theater. I have some more work to do for my Loyalists but they are coming along. What I would like to do is obtain some British Legion Cavalry and a few guns to round everything out. The British Legion cavalry should not be an issue as everyone seems to have these in 15mm. But Galloper guns are another story. I know that Minifigs makes them but they are in a large bag when I only want one or two per side. Artillery was generally rare in militia battles so having a huge pack of them does not make sense. Anyone have a spare galloper gun laying about their bits box?

Stone Mountain Miniatures

I managed to get a hold of a brochure of their AWI offerings. It seems that they have a nice variety of things that would be useful for the Southern Campaign. This pictures of the miniatures in the two page flyer look promising and the prices seem very reasonable.

They are packaged with 21 troops, 1 officer, 1 drummer and a flag bearer to a pack for $7.25. I will have to give their militia a try. You are also able to order individual figures as well for $0.35 per foot figure. Cavalry comes in a package of 12 miniatures for the same $7.25. Only British or American Dragoons are available though.

Interesting to note is that they have an officer looking figure looking through a spyglass. I will probably try to order that miniature whenever I get around to placing an order.

The one thing that they and most manufacturers lack is mounted infantry. It seems only QRF and Lancashire Miniatures offer those. QRF's mounted infantry is four figures to a pack with only one pose in the pack. I have not been able to order the Lancashire ones yet so I have no idea how well they would do.

Rebel Militia

Well a productive weekend has seen me finish the current Rebel militia that I own. I have them based to use for both Sharp Practice and Taxes, Tea & Tories. I now have four regiments for TTT: a South Carolina Regiment, a North Carolina Regiment and two generic militia regiments. I have not found an image of a Georgia militia flag yet to use.

In addition to the infantry, I finished four mounted infantrymen and three casualty figures. I am looking at getting some additional mounted infantry from Lancashire's line to supplement these and a pack of mounted colonels form Freikorps.

Speaking of Freikorps, this shot shows the size difference between Freikorps and Old Glory. The Freikorps officer looks like the son of the drummer. I am not too wild about the drummer as he looks like he is about to loose his hat at any moment.

Next step is to hose down the whole lot with some matt varnish to protect and dull down the shine from the dip.

After that, I have a Freikorps Officer for my Lauzon's Legion unit to finish painting and about 50 Old Glory Provincial troops to paint. I need to find some decent standard bearers to use for the Provincials as the OG pack only included officers, and buglers in the pack as they were light infantry in round hats.

Also I managed to finish my submission for the Winter Lardy special. Believe it or not, it features Continentals and British Regulars.

Painting Progress

Today was fairly productive. I managed to finish off my AWI Rebel Militia. I have finished off the pack of Old Glory Ragged Militia. They were fun to paint. I also managed to complete the four mounted infantry from Freikorps as well as two figures from the Militia command pack from Freikorps. Excellent figures but diminutive in comparison to Old Glory.

The standard bearers I gave a generic South Carolina flag for one of them, a North Carolina militia banner (hornet's nest) to another, and a "Son's Of Liberty Banner" to the third one. I want a Georgia militia banner but I have no clue of what one would look like.

My next task is to start on some Loyalists. I have a pack of Old Glory British Light Infantry that I am using for them. The Old Glory Light Infantry did not come with standard bearers though. I need to figure out how to make one up.

This One's Split

My attention has once again been diverted. Derk has been working on some fantasy rules called "This One's Split." (see his blog: http://thisonesplit.blogspot.com) What interests me is that these seem to be a Lardy interpretation of what can be usable Dark Ages rules. Many moons ago, I purchased some Saxons and Normans in 10mm

I have started work on them again to get in a test game between my Normans and Saxons. While originally purchased to use with the Vis Bellica rules, I am basing these for This One's Split. So far I have three bases of Saxon Huscarls painted so far and three more bases of Great Fyrd as well. I am putting four bases of archers and another two of slingers on painting sticks.

For my Normans, alas, nothing is painted.

More AWI

Well I just received my Lauzon Legion command figures from Freikorps. There are 4 miniatures in the pack. Each is a single cast with the rider cast onto the horse. The pack consists of a bugler with a tricorn hat, an officer with drawn sword pointed in front of him and two men with an arm held out with nothing in the hand. These I guess they are standard bearers without guidons. They could also be used as lancers if one makes some lances.

Overall, I am very happy with the miniatures. They look very compatible with my Old Glory Lauzon Legion. I think I will convert one of the standard bearers to be an officer for my lancers. According to a reenactors site, the Legion did not have standards.

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.

ACW Cavalry

I have been reading two books lately: "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series I - Volume V" prepared by Ltc Robert N Scott (1882) and "Cavalry Tactics as Illustrated by the War of Rebellion. Part I" by Captain Alonzo Gray (1910). These two books are both availible on Books.Google.com.

They give many examples of the small skirmishes involving cavalry and how they were employed. Captain Gray gives an interesting review of the employment of cavalry weapons of the revolver and saber. The Saber is a shock weapon that after the initial round of combat is less useful. The revolver appears to win in every encounter between saber and revolver. He extends his analysis to those of the early plains engagements prior to the American Civil War.

My question is, how many people actually use cavarly formations in their games other than a line formation? Does anyone move their cavalry in column formation and switch to line to charge?

Mud and Blood Terrain

Well I decided to try to create some trenches. Equipped with the handy dandy guide provided in the recent Lardy special, I have purchased some foam and some thin plywood at my local Lowes. I am gaming M & B in 15mm but decided to go with the 2' by 2' squares for the trench complex. My next step will be to draw out the trenches. My thoughts are to do two squares of trench lines and two of no mans land. The No man's Land will have some shell holes connected by some impromptu trenches to give my Germans some cover.

Anyone have a good reference for what French Trenches looked like?

ACW Drill for SP

Well a little surfing turned up an interesting site: http://www.10thpa.com/DrillCo1.htm. This shows marching drill, Firing Drill and Skirmishing Drill.

The skirmishing drill looks like it will be easy to apply to the table top. The firing drill is interesting. There is fire by company/platoon, fire by rank, oblique fire and fire by file. Company/platoon fire would match rather well to firing as a formation in the existing SP rules. Oblique fire would allow a formation to fire on an angle rather than directly ahead. The fire by rank seems also easy to replicate as only one rank would fire per initiative at a time. The firing by file though would seem to be much harder. I was thinking that only 1/4 of the formation would be allows to fire per initiative. This way a portion of the troops will be able to fire at every initiative for muzzle loading rifle armed troops (most troops).

Any thoughts?

SP for ACW

Here is an old scenario that I have been kicking around for a while.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0ByQnHEtN0JwlZDA2ZWFjMjEtOWM1ZC00MWI3LTg4YjYtOWRlMzA0MDE2ZjM4&hl=en

This is a smallish battle between some regular Army US Cavalry and several groups of Confederate militia. This proved to be a draw for both sides but each side proclaimed that they won. Once I get around to ordering some Perry figures, this will probably be my first scenario I play.

I will probably include this in some form once I get to work on a supplement for the ACW. Take a look and let me know what you think.

This brings up something I am curious about. How to represent friendly fire on the table top. In 1861, it seems to be very problematic for the Union more so than the Confederates. several Yankee units had gray uniforms and several Confederate units had blue uniforms adding to the potential confusion. The Battle at Big Bethel is an excellent example of two entire Union regiments blazing away at one another before some officer restored order. How would one include this in a scenario where it could happen? Surely some restrictions to spotting.

SP and ACW

This week I have found a gold mine of Drill Manuals for the ACW on books.Google.com and www.archive.org. These are awesome sources for things well out of print and best of all - they are free downloads. Definite money saver there. They have both volumes of Hardee's manual for Infantry as well as the progression of Northern manuals as the war progressed. In addition to infantry manuals, they have some Cavalry manuals as well.

What was fun is that is lists out the proceedures for skirmishing and the formation to use. I think that a sample scenario set similar to what Rich did in Stout Hearts would be interesting to demonstrate the tactics that the sides would have been trained in.

I am planning to order some of the Perry 28mm ACW plastics for this period instead of my normal 15mm.

In looking at what I already wrote in the Ball's Bluff scenarios in the Summer 2009 Lardy special I was thinking about the Rebel Yell Card. Should this be more than allow a volley and charge? I have found numerous references to where Northern units (especially green ones) would panic at the sound of the yell and scamper off. Should we add a test to this? Say any troops that are Regular or less quality will take 1d6 of shock per group of rebels using the Rebel Yell card? Would that make it too powerful and unballance the scenarios?

Enough for now. Back to work.

Sharp Practice for the AWI

Well the scenario contest is over. We have seen the first two winning submissions. I can't wait to see the others. It is always interesting to see how other utilize groups and Big Men in Sharp Practice. The Shockley's Rockets scenario is a fun read and looks like a fun game. I will have to try this out at some point.

But I continue to think about using SP for the AWI. I started looking at the events of 1780 in South Carolina after the fall of Charleston. It has many actions that are perfect for SP. The Loyalist forces become stronger with more "regular" provincial units being present and almost no Continental troops present - I do love militia. So I once again decided to work on a scenario booklet. This will serve as a follow on to "This Land Divided."

The booklet will follow one of the featured heros of "This Land Divided" - Colonel Elijah Clarke. The Rebel militias of South Carolina were divided into several distinct commands. With Colonel Francis Marion in the Southern swamps, Colonel McDowell in the Northwestern part of the state and Brigadier General Benjamin Huger in the Northeastern part of the state. Colonel Clarke was part of Colonel McDowell's command and operated in the piedmont of South Carolina until he decided to retake Augusta, Ga.

I will follow Clarke around from the Fall of Charleston to his attempted seige of Augusta. The first scenario I have started work on is the Battle of Musgrove's Mill - August 18, 1780. This one should be an interesting battle as it is chock full of Rebel militia that is rather well led. It was an all volunteer force that included many of the Over the Mountain men that would later win at King's Mountain. A large number of officers volunteered for this attack on the British garrison at Fair Forest so there are more officers present than would normally be there with a group of its size.

The British/Loyalist contingent is equally interesting. There are some local loyalist militias and a large number of provincial troops. The Provincials were equipped and paid by the Crown so they were much more professional looking than the local militia or the Rebels. The tempation is to require a huge table to allow the forces to maneuver but that would not really recreate the battle very well. I am still tinkering with it in my head. So it is not quite ready for the light of day yet.