Movement Trays

While finishing up Warner's Regiment, I've been playing around with ideas for movement trays. Each miniature has been individually based on a round magnet, which will allow them to be placed on trays without toppling over.

My first experiment was to add four magnets to a base, build up the ground around them, flock the base, and add miniatures. I don't really care for how this looks though. The men stand too high off the ground.

Troops assembled on movement trays. "Replacement Dot" on left.

Various experimental versions

My next attempt was to cut holes for each miniature base in a piece of styrene, add a metal bottom, then flock that. I like this look much better, with each man resting nicely in place on the ground. I made a couple of 2x2 trays and a couple of 2x4 trays in this manner. I think I'm also going to do a few 2x6 versions.

While I was working on movement trays, I decided to add a base to the casualty figure that I have. It works perfectly well without a base, just placed on terrain, but adding a bit of scenery dresses it up a bit. Along with that, I also played with the idea of a “replacement dot” that could be swapped in for a figure on a movement tray if the unit takes a casualty. I like how this looks, so I'll likely make a few others to keep on hand.

Sunday Morning Showdown

Gab and I had a (very) quick Wings of War game this morning.  as usual, she chose a pair of Rolands.  I decided to attempt a new strategy, and see if I could take her down with a pair of faster, more maneuverable planes, so I picked a couple of Sopwiths.

On Turn 1, her planes dove directly toward me.  I broke right, thinking that I'd try to use both planes to take out one of her Rolands, then move onto the next one.

Turn 2 saw us engaged.  Both my Sopwiths ripped into the Roland head on, but one of my guns jammed.  On the second phase, the Roland killed the pilot with the jammed gun, sending the plane down.

Phase 1 of Turn 3 saw the end of the game, as the Roland came around behind me, killing my second pilot instantly.

Daughter: 6
Daddy: 0

The German Flight

The Allied Team

Breaking Right to Flank

Contact With The Enemy!

 

Pilot Down!

An almost instant kill.

I'm being tailed!

Pilot Down! Again.

Another almost instant kill.

Seth Warner's Extra-Continental Regiment

I'm almost finished with my first set of AWI figures, very loosely based on my re-enacting unit, SethWarner's Extra-Continental Regiment of Foot.

The Regiment was originally raised in July of 1775 as a New York regiment, to be comprised of men recruited from the “Green Mountain Boys.” The original Green Mountain Boys were home-grown militia living in and around the New Hampshire Grants (today's Vermont). The Grants were in dispute between New Hampshire and New York, both of which claimed the land. The Green Mountain Boys fought against New Yorkers who were moving onto lands already granted to settlers by New Hampshire, in some cases burning homes and destroying settlements. In fact, when the Regiment was ordered to be raised by New York, several of the leaders had bounties out for their arrest, to be paid by the government of New York.

The Green Mountain Boys are probably most famous for their capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 at the start of the American Revolution. Led by Ethan Allen, the militia version of the Boys, along with Benedict Arnold, captured the Fort on 10 May, 1775 without a battle. Some men, under Seth Warner, then moved north down Lake Champlain to capture the fort at Crown Point.

The official 1775 version of The Green Mountain Boys was led by Seth Warner after the men chose him over Ethan Allen as their commander. The Regiment took part in the Invasion of Canada, seeing action around St. Jean and the Richelieu River. Allen, separate from the Regiment, actually made an attempt to capture Montreal and became a prisoner of war. The Regiment left Canada in November of 1775.

In January of 1776, the Regiment was once again activated to fight near Montreal, eventually acting as the rear guard for Benedict Arnold's army as they retreated from Canada in June of 1776. The next month the Regiment was re-authorized by the Continental Congress as an Extra-Continental Regiment. In other words, they reported directly to Congress, as opposed to any particular colony.

In 1777, Warner's Regiment took part in several engagements of the Saratoga Campaign, including the withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga, the rear-guard action at Hubbardton, Vermont, and the Battle of Bennington in Hoosick, New York.

Between 1778 and 1780, the Regiment was stationed in the Lake George area, mostly taking part in scouts and skirmishes with the enemy. After severe losses on 11 October, 1780 when Fort George was surrendered, the Regiment was officially disbanded on 1 January, 1781.

For these miniatures, I've painted them in the green-faced-red coats that were ordered when the Regiment was raised. These were originally Perry Miniatures British Infantry, sculpted with gaitered trousers. Warner's was actually poorly supplied, and spent most of the war in stockings and breeches, so this portion of the uniform is incorrect. Our re-enacting unit has evidence that the Regiment was issued both “hats” and “caps”, so I've modified a few figures to have jockey caps instead of riflemen's hats. Since I may use these for some demonstrations of field movements, I've broken the figures down like this:

Privates and Corporals – Riflemen's caps

Sergeants – Jockey Caps

Lieutenants – Tricorns, Muskets, Sashes and Sheathed Swords

Captain – Tricorn, Sash, and Drawn Sword

These pictures show two platoon (4 sections) of Weight Hopkin's 1^st Company, mixed in with some trees that I bought at the craft store. I have another 10 figures to finish painting up to represent Gideon Bronson's 2^nd Company. Warner's was in short supply of bayonets, so I removed the cast bayonets from all of the muskets to portray this.

 

The craft-store trees I dressed up a bit by adding bigger bases that I then flocked and scenicked. For the figures, I based them for two different games: Smooth &Rifled, which uses individual figures for skirmish games, and BritishGrenadier! which uses stands of 4 to 6 figures at a scale of 1 figure per 15 to 20 men. So, for small games, I'll have 30 men. For larger games, they can represent a Regiment of up to 600 men (the historical Regiment was about 500). I'm experimenting with movement tray ideas. Each figure has been glued to a magnet as a base. I then added magnets to a 30mm x 50mm rectangular base, which was then painted and flocked. This way the individual figures can be added to stands for easier movement when in formation. I'm not sure if I like how high they sit, so I may experiment with cutting round recesses into the movement tray instead of building up the layers.