"Unit size for AWI in Blackpowder" Topic

Could anyone please give me an idea of how many figures are in an average unit for AWI using the Blackpowder rules? Is the average unit a company?

It's whatever you want it to be. Blackpowder is a fairly abstract game. There's no ground scale or time scale (as I recall). That being said, based on the sample AWI game in the rule book, I would say a unit is a regiment of about 250-300 men. The authors like to represent "average sized" units as 6 bases with 4 figures on each base (so 24 figures) although they sometimes represent average units with 6 bases of 6 figures each (36 figures).

What Dave said. The whole point of BP is to do away with strict unit size/basing/frontage requirements so gamers with disparate collections can play together.

Also, are you planning to play in 28s? 15s? 6s?

From the photos I'd say in 28 an average unit is mostly 6 stands of 4, with small units being 4 stands and large units being 8 or more….

Nice thing about these rules though is you could go with 4,5 and 6 stands or 3, 4 and 5….etc.

In Black Powder, I always think of the avewrage unit as being a battalion (or equivalent).

Yeah, there is no strict size per say. I have 16 man regts. (28mm). 1 man represents 20 men so we are talking about a 320man regt.

Again, the nice thing about it is you bring your 16-fig units and I bring my 24s. We call them both "average" size and the game works just fine.

in the Rebellion source book for BP, the author often has his average units around 6 inches long, with the average unit usually being a regiment. However for some battles this scales up to battlions.

how many figures you have in 6 inches is up to you. if i ever get around to it, i'd would probably do either 12 (two ranks) or 18 (3 ranks) on 25mm bases.

with the average unit usually being a regiment. However for some battles this scales up to battlions.

At least as far as the British army is concerned, "regiment" and "battalion" were effectively synonomous.

In Rebellion I used a variety of standard sizes. Depending on the scenario these might be companies, grand divisions, battalions or brigades.

Steve

This is what I use for 15mm because it looks nice to me:

standard regiment: 5 stands of 4 figures so command stand is directly in the middle

Large regiment: 6 stands of 4 figures.

Boy, what a reaction – so many helpful posts. Don't you just love TMP!

Many thanks to all that replied.

I play with "Battalion" size units ranging from 6-12 individual figs (Skirmishers) and Line Inf Units of 12 figs up to 24+ figs (small unit to large units) attached on bases from 4 figs to 6 figs.

SFC Retired

My suggestions are:

Foot
Tiny – 6
Small – 16
Standard – 20
Large – 24

Horse
Small – 6
Normal – 12
Large – 16

I prefer two-gun batteries as singke guns look too lonely!

What battalions would be regarded as small or large?

I'm guessing the French would be large but would also the combined British and Grenadier battalions? What about the guards?

Likewise I take it Rangers would be small?

Unit size will depend on the specific battle, so you really need to check orders of battle. French won't necessarily be large as regiments were composed of two four-company battalions, assuming the flank companies were detached.

There nothing generic about the AWI :-)

Gnu2000 – Depends which French you are looking at. The corps under Rochambeau at Yorktown consisted of two-battalion "regiments" of about 1,000 men in total; St Simon's units from the Caribbean were at a much lower strength again, around 400 men per battalion. Both of these totals included the flank companies, which tended not to be "converged" in the same way that British/Loyalist, German, or American flank companies were.

The regular French units at Savannah were a "picked" bunch, with often just the two flank and two (below-strength) fusilier companies in a single battalion.

Yes Supermax, hence "nothing generic". The French, as per your post, never seem to have fought two AWI battles with the same structure! Savannah, La Vigie, Yorktown Redoubts, etc , all different and so really not easy to make generalisations. Certainly not that French battalions should always be "large" in Black Powder as The Young Guard asked above.
Cheers!

As mentioned BP is a bit abstract. Depending on the scenario a unit can represent a company, battalion/regiment or Brigade.

We have been playing BP AWI for awhile and choose to conserve figures. We use a 1.5" x .75" base with two figures.

Small unit 12 figs
Standard unit 16 figs
Large unit 20 figs

You do not remove casualties in BP so this gives us a good look with a 6" frontage for standard units in line.

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Gnu2000 – sorry, my comment was aimed at Young Guard, not you.

My mistake!

No worries, it was an informative post!