American war of Independence any tips?

[kingsmt]

As I have advised you previously, pick a Campaign and base your troops around that.

Saratoga British uniforms are unique and never worn anywhere else, so be aware of that.
The '68 Warrant Uniforms were mainly worn at Boston/Concord/Bunker Hill.

As the War progressed, uniforms adapted and changed.
Shorter coats, round hats (with one side turned up) and "overalls', instead of stockings became worn.

The War in the South offers you many more choices. Especially, if you plan to use Cavalry!

Best advice,,,,,,Think before acting (or buying).

What do I want out of this?

[ulverston]

Thanks Kings you are of course correct. Having mentioned this to a mate who rarely games we may even try 6mm first.... its a great period to discover though and very new to me! Nothing seems the same in any year or location!

Thanks again for the help.

[Old Contemptable]

It is a really good period for 28mm. There are so many small to medium size battles that you don't need as many figures as you would with other horse and musket periods. There are quite a number of great figures available. I rather fancy Wargames Foundry, Perry Miniatures, Eureka and Fife and Drum. For someone just starting out, I would recommend building up generic regiments for the Americans. The American uniforms were in a flux throughout the war. So it is hard to pin them down. The previously mentioned TMP thread is a good starting point. I did up some generic blue faced red regiments. They can be filler for just about any year or campaign. From there you can add more specific unit uniforms for the campaign you are interested in.

The only thing that was less known about than American uniforms are American flags. I started out using Betsy Ross stars and stripes flags only to find out later that it never existed. The Betsy Ross stars and stripes flag is a myth. But I am not about to change them. I am just not going to add that flag to any more new regiments. There were probably no starts and stripes flags as we know them today until after the war. The advantage to this is you have a lot a leeway to do as you please with uniforms and flags as long as you stay period correct.

The British, Germans and French flags and uniforms we know a lot about. If you want to do the early war, siege of Boston, Lexington and Concord, then I would go with warrant uniforms. After that the British troops coming from Ireland and Nova Scotia would have the round hats with the black feather in them. They would have roundabouts or cut coats. I wouldn't get too hung up on that. Either one would work. Later when Clinton took over from Howe you would see new units wearing the tri-Croner hat.

The British modified their hats in different ways for the Saratoga and the later Southern Campaign. The Germans and French are going to be wearing their regulation uniforms throughout the war. Very similar to their SYW uniforms. Not all the Germans were Hessians. During the Saratoga Campaign the Germans were all from Brunswick. So there is some uniform variations but you could easily paint up some Hessians and use them as generic Germans. Loyalist units varied and there are some excellent sources in the Osprey Books and Mollo uniform book.

Here is a link to my Flickr page with photos of my AWI games.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59568506@N02/collections/72157720482428905/

[MaleGriffin]

Great pics of your troops and games! Thank you for sharing!

[Rogerc]

Loads of great advice already here.

I second picking a campaign and working on that. You can add bits that allow you to expand out from it.

For rules I am using Live Free or Die which are very good, I am also using Sharp Practice which needs much less figures, if you are building an army from scratch as I did then having a a smaller game to aim for then moving to larger games when you have enough helps with goals and getting maximum gaming from the figures. Have a think about whether the STLs are compatible with other ranges. Kings Mountain, Perry, Foundry and Eureka all work well together would be great if these worked with them too.

If you fancy a look there are some game reports on my blog here:https://gapagnw.blogspot.com/

If you want a really good idea of the differences in uniform the Don Troiani books are wonderful.