AWI basing

[argsilverson]

My son has ventured in some new era for us.
He is currently involved painting some British AWI infantry, 28mm Foundry ones.

Since we are a bit amateurs in the era, we would like to ask the following questions:
1.- What is sutable bases dimension, single mounted or multiple ones?
2.- your reccomendation for  best rules

Thanks to all

[warrenpeace]

Depends on whether your son wants to game the bigger battles of the war, such as Brandywine or Monmouth, with formed units, or if he wants to fight skirmish level games such as those depicted in "The Patriot."  One of my friends intends to fight mostly skirmish level games, so he bases his figures on 25mm square steel bases.  If he wants to move the figures in groups or represent a larger scale battle, he can just set the ferrous metal based figures on magnetic strips 50mm wide and however long he wants them to be.  We recently used magnetic pieces the size of business cards for this purpose.  That's what I would recommend.

For rules, some people use Brom's Standard Rules for many periods including AWI.  It is similar to The Sword and the Flame colonial rules but for larger scale battles.  I think it might be a free download at the Jackson Mississippi Wargamers home page.  If it's skirmish scale gaming he wants to do, then he could adapt The Sword and the Flame for muskets or could adapt Sharpe Practice, the rules meant to recreate the adventures of Bernard Cornwell's Napoleonic Sharpe series.  The weapons are about the same for AWI.

The north is where many of the famous and decisive actions occured.  However, your son might want to consider setting his action in South Carolina.  There was a huge number of small actions and battles there, many of them small clashes over individual farms or plantations.  If I were doing AWI, and I'm thinking about it, then I'd seriously consider setting my campaigns in South Carolina.

[Lowtardog]

As Warren says is he after pitched battles type of game or smaller skirmishes? that could lean to single or multi basing. or you could do square single bases as Waren says and use for both.

This very ground is a nice squasi skirmish set for FIW but covers regulars and you could add in militia and indans to your games (think the Gibson film Patriot)

[Wolf 359]

I use both 28mm and 40mm for my FIW/AWI gaming. Both are based on round washers for skirmish action, ehich is my primary gaming choice. However, I have square metal basing available for the occasions when I play games with formed units. I like the flexiblilty that the magnetized bases give to the gamer.
  British Grenadier is an AWI rule set I played that was decent, and Guns of Liberty! are popular. And with This Very Ground, it does invoke The Patriot, but think The Last of the Mohicans.

[Mad Doc Morris]

There's not much to add to the previous comments: Eventually it all depends on your choice of gameplay.

For myself, as I'm primarily interested in batallion tactics of this period, I've opted for multibasing. It's rather generic with infantry based in 4x4cm squares of 4 miniatures (2 for light infantry/skirmishers) and cavalry in 5x5cm squares of 2 mounted figs. (For examples see my BLOG.) Massed skirmish won't be a problem either - rules like "This Very Ground" are played with single based miniatures formed into units. Regulars are fielded in dense formations, only light infantry or real skirmishers come in open order. That's easily depicted by the fewer miniatures I have on my light troops bases. If the bases are placed more randomly there's no real difference to single based minis. Hence I would recommend multibasing in most cases, if you're aiming for games with more than 30 miniatures per side and if you like possibilities for diorama building on larger bases.