Last May I made a mould of a War of 1812 master figure that I had worked on off and on for several years, cast a dozen, and painted one sample. The rest have been in the painting queue ever since.
Recently Bob Cordery presented me with a copy of his new Portable Napoleonic Wargame and I've been waiting to give them an outing. The War of 1812 is about as close as my remaining collections get to Napoleonic so it seems like time to paint up some more Americans then give it a go.
Having read the rules over again, I am going to make two changes for the War of 1812.
The first is that while the British made good use of light troops, they had no rifle armed troops in Canada. I have decided to treat British light infantry, and native warriors as riflemen
The second change is due to there being no evidence of infantry in North America forming square when charged by cavalry. At Crysler's Farm, when the American Dragoons charged the flank of the British 49th Foot, these merely refused their flank and repulsed them with volleys of musketry.
Actually, there has been quite a bit written in the last few decades about cavalry vs infantry in the Napoleonic Wars indicating that squares were neither quite as universally employed as thought in the mid20thC nor quite as universally successful once you get away from the British experience. But I'll leave the European experience alone for now and for just the War of 1812 I will remove the square rules including the bonus for cavalry in melee with infantry not in square.
I'm looking forward to fighting Crysler's Farm using the PNW but first I have some figures to paint.
Hi Ross. I like your 1812 Sculpted and Cast Figures- well done indeed! Are they 40mm? All the Best. KEV.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev. They are 40mm.
DeleteRoss Mac,
ReplyDeleteThere were no rules for infantry squares in the original draft of the rules, but they were included after feedback from some play testers. Personally, I am not convinced that they were as effective as they are often cracked up to be, and there are plenty of examples of infantry in line seeing off cavalry.
All the best,
Bob
Bob, I'll worry about Europe if I get there. There were so few cavalry during the 1812 war and the terrain was so non-cavalryfreindly that any normal rules are not likely to apply. I have stumbled into a few other minor issues which I'll have to resolve.
DeleteRoss - Your comments in respect of musket-armed skirmishers vs rifle-armed is something that I have had to think about as well. I was very tempted to up the ranges, but I think your limiting the differential to offering rifles an advantage solely against other skirmishers is probably good and sufficient. Certainly some sort of role ought to be found for musket-armed voltigeurs, tirailleurs, jagers, chasseurs, grenze and the like.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping long before this to get some action in with Portable Napoleonics, but, apart from wistful wishful thinking, am finding the convergence of time and energy hard to achieve! But when I do, I'll be able to give more thought to my own experiences with the concepts.