Welcome to part five of Picking My Battles, a continuing series of articles on selecting, planning and executing a wargames project. These articles started as a way to talk through the different battles I was considering, but will now follow my process in planning the scenario and armies I will need.
A map of the battle from The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 by Benson J. Lossing.
I actually made up my mind on which battle I wanted to model months ago. In the meantime I’ve been focusing on a WWII project that will be officially complete later tonight. I’ve already started assembling a box of Victrix British Peninsular Center Company figures. I’m enjoying the process with a few reservations, which I will discuss in a later post of this series.
After reading through my source material and considering the advice of others I’ve decided to pick Lundy’s Lane as the battle I will model my forces on. In the end the deciding factor was the size, having multiple brigades per side, and the relatively even strength between British and Americans.
My biggest concern was that the battle wouldn’t be representative of the period due to the large amount of night fighting. Ranges will drop significantly and rules will be needed to represent both sides being unable to see their opponents. Instead of making this a problem I’m seeing it as an opportunity to create some interesting variants. I will be able to play the battle as it occurred and also ask “what if?” For example, what if the battle took place in full daylight? Would the Americans have been able to take the British guns, prompting Drummond to launch rushed counter-attacks that wasted his forces and lost him the battle?
I have only a rough idea of what I am doing at this stage. I haven’t decided which rules I will use for the game, or thought very hard about the terrain I will need to build. So far I am building the 89th Foot as a start to the project. I am also planning to use it in a collaboration game of LaSalle at the club, so I’ll get some use out of the miniatures right away.
I do have some goals that I should outline as a reminder while I build my plan.
- Recreate the Battle of Lundy’s Lane in 1:10 scale.
- Build each unit as a mini-diorama.
- Complete my first unit by the end of September 2010.
My next step is to create orders of battle for each ruleset I’m considering for the project: Republic to Empire, Black Powder and Cousin Jonathan.
Tyler
Hi Tyler,
When you complete your armies for Lundy’s you can basically do most of the other battles in this war with them since this battle was one of the largest. Many years back we did this battle in the scale you are going to attempt. We used a heavily modified version of Johnny Reb II for it. Actually send me an email and I can show you some photos of my buddy’s huge 1812 army. He’s painted in 15mm all regiments that were in North America during the war at a 1/10 scale. I should see if I can find a copy of the rules too.
Hi mate,
Although I do not know a great deal about this war I am still very fascinated by it. The fact that the British continually defeated the French but yet suffered defeats and set backs against the Americans whom were much less professional astounds me. I hope you get this project done because I intend to re-fight it also one day. I will watch closely.
Regards,
Shane
Leaders make a huge difference. By 1814 the US was better led and better trained. Drummond made some bad tactical decisions during Lundy’s Lane.
Also, don’t forget that Lundy’s Lane, one of the largest battles of the war, featured ~6,000 combatants. Salamanca, one of the more important battles of the Peninsular war, featured 100,000.
If Drummond commanded the British at Salamance that also would have been a terrible defeat.
I am also doing Lundys Lane forces in 15mm. Minifigs do a great 1812 range including militia in top hats and all the artillery and rocket troops. Vaubanner Graphics in Canada do all the flags for Lundys Lane in 28 and 15mm. I have bought some and they are very good
regards
John