Battle of Fort Johnson

Utilizing a variation of "The Men who would be Kings" the Centurions played through a scenario set during the South Carolina Campaign of the American War of Independence.

Photographs by Lawrence Newman

Music by the Old Guard Fife and Drums Corps

American War of Indepence Collection

I spent more than a few hours looking at my collection of painted figures for the American War of Independence on Saturday trying to figure out what the heck to do with all of them.

On the British Side I have
12 - British Guard Lights (Half Painted)
12 - British Guard Grenadiers (Half Painted)
40 - British Guard Infantry
40 - British Guard Infantry
40 - 4th Regiment of Foot
40 - 15th Regiment of Foot
40 - 20th Regiment of Foot
40 - 23rd Regiment of Foot
40 - 33rd Regiment of Foot
40 - 64th Regiment of Foot
40 - 71st Regiment of Foot – 1st Battalion
28 - 71st Regiment of Foot – 2nd Battalion
28 - 105th Regiment of Foot – Volunteers of Ireland
16 – Royal North Carolina Regiment
26 – Light Infantry of District 96
16 – North Carolina Highlanders
15 - Royal Scots Emigrees
24 – Queen Rangers
30 – Loyal Militia
10 - Starkloff's Troop of Light Dragoons
40 – Erbprinz Fusilers
40 – Von Bose Musketeers
12 – Von Bose Grenadiers
14 - Hessen Chasseurs
8 - Artillery Pieces and 32 Crew

On the Continental Side
16 – 1st Maryland
16 – 2nd Maryland
20 – 3rd Maryland
20 – 5th Maryland
32 – 1st Delaware
28 – 1st Pennsylvania
32 – 2nd Pennsylvania
32 – 1st New York (No Command and mostly painted)
16 – 1st North Carolina
16 – First Composite Light Battalion
12 – Second Composite Light Battalion
16 – Lee’s legion
16 – Armand’s Legion
15/18 – Backwoods Militia
15 – Virginia Militia
15/15/15/15 – North Carolina Militia
15/15/15/15/15/15/15/15 Generic Militia
7- Artillery Pieces and 28 Crew

I should note that I am in the process of Remounting the Figures and have thought long and hard about how they should be organised, after much debate I think I got the basing right when we chose Wilderness Wars and I am going to skip with that basing.

I guess I need more Continentals as they are outnumbered 3:2. I have the figures, heck I have two New York Regiments half painted and another North Carolina Regiment close to completed.

But the problem is what am I going to do with all those figures?

The figures are organized to play Wilderness Wars, by Normal Warfare. The problem is the flaw in the rules where the rules authors ignored the sizes of the Militia Regiments when creating the rules, thus you have one of two options the Militia Regiments will either rule the battlefield and there is nothing the British can do but run away OR the Militia Regiments are pointless.
After looking at the second edition and basically cringing at a number of the changes (the rules pertaining to Charging are very humorous one way or the other).

After much thinking and rehashing of ideas
I however have a hybrid Idea, which I am looking forward to trying out.
Currently you roll dice based upon stands; however I am going to roll combat dice based upon the number of figures. At Short Range you roll 1d6 per every four figures, at Normal Range 1d6 for every five figures, and at Long Range 1d6 for every six figures.
Casualties will be hits per stand 5 Casualties to remove a A Class stand, 4 B Class stand, 3 for a C/D/E Class stands and 2 hits for a skirmish stands regardless of rating.
Talking to Jim to get it on the Schedule.
Later.

Not as productive as I wanted to be.

I was not as productive over the weekend as I wanted to be. I cleaned and primed 20 AWI British with Command as British Independent Comapnies for AWI and 30 Figures in Hunting Shirts as the Viriginia Regiment; both units are for the French and Indian War.

In addition I finished up a company of 10 figures as Rangers for the French and Indian War. The figures didn't turn out to bad.

I used another technique for faces, I think I will use this method for a while. The Faces are completely painted "Dark Flesh" and than I add in a few spots of lighter flesh. It is not as clean as the method I used on the Compagnies Franches de la Marine however it takes about half the time and beyond 3 inches you couldn't tell the difference.

I think the unit is James Roger's Rangers but i will have to pull up the source material for me to know for sure.

Just to let everyone know I wasn't slacking completely, I also painted up a unit of Virginia Continentals for Fitz. Not exactly the greatest paint job as it was getting late on Saturday when I did these 12 figures. I used the 7th Virginia Re-enactors as a guide to paint the figures, so they don’t um match the descriptions in a couple of Ospreys, the one thing I didn’t do, and if Fitz wants to he can, is put hat tape on them, since neither the contemporary painting and descriptions list hat tape.

The Battle of Gordonsville

The battle of Gordonsville is a fictitious encounter during the early summer of 1781 in which George Washington’s Continentals give battle to Lord Cornwallis British forces.

The British were played by Fitz, Noel, and Jack while the Continentals were pushed Jim, Ray, and myself. The game was played on three tables with a two turn interconnection between the tables. The British find themselves between three Continentals armies. The main army of George Washington is made up of Lafayettes Light Corps and Lincolns Corps is on the Northern Edge facing Cornwallis main force with the Guard Brigade, Yorke’s and Dundas’ Brigades and the German Mercenaries. Lord Rawdon two Brigades are faced off against Count von Stueben’s Corp which is straggleing onto the battlefield on Table two. On Table three Tarleton’s three briadges of Loyalists are faced off against Chois’ Mixed corps of French and Continentals brigades.

In dawns early light the Gist's Maryland Brigade of Continentals look north at the massing British Forces across the field.

A look west along the French and New York lines against the British Loyalists.

Further along the line the Rhode Island Brigade looks north with the British Loyalist in Opposition.
On the northern side of the Battlefield the Continentals form the battleline.

The center of the Continental line is anchored by the Clinton's Marylan Brigade.

The western edge of the Continental line is made of 7 Battalions of Militia facing the German Mercenaries.

Lord Rawdon looks South at the Gist's Maryland Brigade.

A look at the Loyalist Battleline.

The German Mercenaries looking North at the Militia.

The Center of the British Line is the Guard Brigade. Two Battalions of Guard Infantry and a company of Grenadiers make a Rock of Gilbralter.

Yorke's Brigade has taken up position in the town of Gordonsville. Two stone walls tot he west of the town make a great defensive position, but Cornwallis is not known to be a defensive minded man.

Dundas' Brigade takes position on the right of the British battle line.