"organizing armies" Topic

Just curious how do you set up your armies? So your starting a new collection…you buy the figures collect research and painting information. Where do you go then? Do you follow order of battles slavishly, or paint what you like?
With my crimean war armies I based them on historical order of battle for the Alma. Russian 16th division, British 1st and Light division. For Rev War this time I went with theater c.1780-81. The British follow the Camden battle OB but also get the Guards brigade and von Bose. In Rawdon's loyalist brigade I use the New York Volunteers in place of North Carolina loyalist as they were in that area and I like them. Americans get Greene's army for continentals and paint up a ever changing pool of militia units. BTW I use a standard number of figures in all my armies.

Pick the North or the South and start with that. I am partial to the Southern Campaign, because you have cavalry, state troops, Over Mt Men, all sorts of militias, Loyalists (mounted and foot) Hessians and so many others to choose from. That's just my take on things. You may differ.

Let's just go with the South for the sake of organizing units.
Pick the ones that were in the most battles. Many of the same troops fought in different battles throughout the Southern Campaign.
Continentals have the spectacular Maryland/Delaware troops
bolstered by the Ex-Continentals of the Virginia state troops/militia. Plenty of VA/SC/NC/GA militia men to represent, but these are basically interchangeable.
Frontiersmen, backwoodsmen and over mountain men can be thrown into the mix, finishing up your infantry.

William Washington's Cavalry, aided by Mc Call's Mounted Militia will do you just fine.
A couple of Grasshopper guns and 2 or 3 other artillery pieces and your finished with the Americans.

For the King, we have 23 rd, 33 rd, Guards, 71 st Highlanders, British Legion foot, Hessians and various Loyalists like the Queens Rangers.

On horse, Bloody Ban and his merry men, 16 th and 17 th mounted and one or two Loyalist scouts/militia.

3 and 6 pounders, some artillery crews and you're ready for business.

For the North, I think you have to go by Campaign. The terrain is different and there are plenty of "one and done" units. Too many, for my personal taste. Maybe someone who favors the North will chime in.

That's my advice. Make of it what you will.

I paint the units in the AWI that I like. Although I keep adding new units all the time. I already have 18 various mounted units and well over 120 foot units as well as artillery. I can do battles in the North or South. Many more to add yet.

Jim Purky wrote an excellent article on this for WSS a couple of years back. There are merits in both the generic and specific orbat approach. Personally I prefer the latter, as there is such a choice of figures available now that you can recreate particular units in a way you couldn't when I first started out with the period 12 years ago, so if you're a purist you can "get it right". That said, there are lots of regiments and units that made "guest" appearances and if you make a list of which regiments fought in which battles you see a lot on the British side that only feature a couple of times. That means that the orbat approach can take a LONG time. Then again, there is a hard core of battalions on the British side that served throughout the war – like 71st, 33rd, 23rd, Hessian jaegers etc – so one approach is to do those first.

I organized by campaign. First the South then Saratoga. Next is Philly and Jersey. There is no reason from having the correct figures for any unit. The variety available now is just amazing. As far as figure scale goes, this period is perfect for 25/28mm.

I've acquired a couple collections of painted figures and haven't added a single figure I painted myself, so I make do with what I've got.

I prefer rules that allow units to be different sizes, so my units have maximum sizes based on how many painted figures in the same uniform I possess. Many of my miniatures came from games with fixed unit sizes, so there are some small units in my army. I usually make those crack units, and it helps if they're wearing the right uniform for the role (grenadiers, Highlanders, etc.).

I don't have enough figures (or players) to slavishly follow most historical orbats, but in truth I actually prefer to play "plausible what ifs" for anyway. I usually build a scenario by basing the terrain and OOB on a historical battle, adjusting to fit my table, my miniatures, the players, and the tactical puzzle I'd like to present my player-commanders. Sometimes the "adjustments" distort the battle so much that the resulting scenario is unrecognizable, and sometimes I'm playing a far-fetched "what if" just to create a particular situation I want to play. In those cases, I try to write a good briefing to assist suspension of disbelief.

- Ix

I'm another who picked a campaign first.
I like the Philadelphia campaign battles and armies so started there. If it's a labour of love then there are so many options in 28mm AWI to make the armies look authentic.

In saying that, not many people are going to check out the facing colours and criticise you for using 1776 uniforms in 1778.

Although each regiment that I paint is as "accurate" as my feeble research can make it…..
Few of then play their actual counterpart in a battle on my tabletop.
"In tonight's game, the part of the 2nd Brigade of Guards will be played by the 64th Regiment of Foot. And now for a word from our sponsors."
Even if I do paint the 23rd Regiment, which uniform? 1775 at Boston? 1776 in New York? 1777 in Philadelphia campaign? 1780? In the South? Are you going to paint them all?

And what if one contingent of jaegers had crimson waistcoats and another straw? Or scarlet? Or just plain red?
Are you going to paint all possible minute variations or have a nice jolly group of 15 jaegers?

My approach with the British was to paint whichever regiments that I fancied, while at the same time doing the LI and grenadiers for each. This gave me "bonus" battalions of converged flank companies.
Who but a wealthy nut who can afford all variations worries if he has the "correct" companies in his converged battalions?

My point is to paint enough British to fight battles. Don't get hung up on whether the 3rd Foot actually appeared at White Plains. At least you will have a redcoat regiment to fight!
Are you going to forego fighting Cowpens just because you have the 23rd painted but need the 7th? I certainly hope not.

As for German auxiliaries, don't let the fact that you painted Hessians preclude you from using them as Brunswickers.

As for Highlanders… I'm afraid that here you must drawcthevline. At the very least the regiment must be wearing a bonnet.

100% agreement with Winston. Exactly what I did with my own collection.

Except most of us would take a lifetime to paint a collection that size. You probably took about a week – probably as a break from knocking out the entire orbats for every major nation in the SYW.

You industrious bar steward. ;^))

Totally agree with Winston….If you have the time and money to do every regiment in every battle..so be it. Otherwise do the regiments you like.
Pete

I say I go generic and much of my army is. Certain uniform color combinations or clothing styles were sufficiently common that figures can be used to represent a number of different units. For example if I was doing Guilford CH, the First Maryland would be made drawn from the pool of generic blue coat faced red continentals while the Second Maryland would come from the pool of generic brown coats faced red.

However I am also developing certain specific units selected because they fought at a number of different actions in my theatre, because they represent unique troop types or because of iconic status. The 71st fought in most of the major actions in the south from Savannah in 1778 through Guilford CH in 1781, so I am doing a battalion of these. And what would the Southern campaign be without the British Legion horse and Washington's dragoons.

No matter what system you use though, I suspect you will need to resort to Winston's stand in system for some units.

I follow John the OFMs advice on getting generic units painted and on the table, it's a great guide for getting some balanced forces painted and on the table.

Another second for Winston's/John's advice. I take the same approach with my ACW armies. No one has ever complained that the figures don't match the year and theater regardless of what battle is being fought.

Yup, generic for me as well.

There are just so many units that fought in just 1 or 2 actions.

I go the Generic route with most of my militia, somewhat with my Continentals and uniformed Loyalist units, to a point. If there was a particular unique uniformed unit then they need to be painted and on the table.

I have to admit that I used Hessians for Brunswickers. No one knew but me or at least they didn't say anything. They have become my generic Germans.

British units are unique enough for the Southern and Saratoga campaigns to have separate units. In the past we couldn't portray these as accurately as we would like.

Now there are, mostly thanks to the Perry's,a wealth of figure types to portray individual units and/or uniforms unique to a specific campaign. This is especially true for the British. Why not take advantage of this? Even if you are just mixing them in.

It maybe the difference of ones level of interest in the period. If one is heavily into other periods, then generic may work better for you. If this is your only or primary period, then these are truly great times.

Ive just started painting a lot of militia for the continentals, I have two box sets of continentals in the wings, but I don't have a plan in stone for them yet. I think they will likely wind up as generic blue coats with red facings, that way they can be used to fill in many different roles. My militia is mostly in hunting frocks so they can be for north or south, I am also trying to reconstruct my militia into a particular company from the battle of long island, I plan on giving each figure a name off the company payroll for use in skirmish games.

As for my redcoats, far all of my British units are from the perry box set, I plan on starting by painting one box set in each facing color, then I am buying more command sprues so I can divide the 36 figure box set into two 22 figure regiments (with the same facing color) or alternate what regiment the privates are in.

My first has always been to decide on a set of rules first. It will let you know organization and how many castings you will need per unit.
Since I have tended to write my own 'old school' style rules since the 1980s, I already know if I am going mass, tactical or skirmish level of combat.

Then I decide on a reasonable casting company since I have to field all sides for play testing.

I have already done the OBs and uniform research while I was writing the rules.