15mm AWI Armies for Sale

Update: Sold!

EDIT: Asking $1450, including shipping in the US.

As some of you know, my wife and I are remodeling an older home and plan to move in by the end of April. We're excited to be moving to a much nicer part of town, but we're also giving up 800 square feet of space. So some of my armies are going to have to go. I'll be selling off painted and unpainted figures over the next couple of months, so watch this space.

First up is my 15mm Battle of Freeman's Farm collection. I painted these back in 2004, when the British Grenadier rules first came out. I based these armies on the Freeman's Farm OOB, then added quite a few units to enable me to play other battles. With these forces you can play most of the scenarios in the British Grenadier scenario books.

This collection won "Best in Show" at my local IPMS convention. So not only are these award winning figures, they've done better than anything else I've ever entered.

Americans

The Americans have 174 close order infantry, 26 skirmishers, 2 guns with 8 crew, 9 mounted generals with a dismounted flag bearer, 4 mounted cavalry, and 10 casualty markers.

Minifigs Skirmishers

Minifigs Cavalry, Minifigs and Old Glory Generals

The cavalry are painted as Lee's Dragoons

Old Glory's Benedict Arnold with a couple of staff officers

Minifigs Riflemen and Light Infantry

Here's a close up of that shot torn flag.

Minifigs Continentals

Minifigs Artillery and Musket Miniatures Minutemen

Grasshopper Gun

Six Pounder

Old Glory Militia or Ragged Continentals

Musket Miniatures Casualties

British Army

My British army is the largest, mostly because I wanted to field correct troop types for each battle. There are 214 close order infantry, 15 skirmishers, 9 guns with 36 crew, 9 mounted generals with a dismounted flag bearer, 8 mounted cavalry, and 11 casualty markers.

Minifigs Skirmishers, Queen's Rangers on top, Butler's Loyal Americans on the bottom.

Minifigs Line Infantry

I painted accurate regimental designs on backpacks.

More Minifigs Line

Jeff Valent Line

Minifigs Scottish Infantry

Minifigs Grenadiers on top, Musket Miniatures grenadiers on bottom

Musket Miniatures Grenadiers

Backs of the Minifigs Grenadiers

Light Infantry, Jeff Valent on top, Minifigs on bottom.

Back View of Minifigs Light Infantry

Minifigs Light Dragoons

Minifigs and Old Glory Generals

Minifigs Artillery. There are three 12-pdrs, four 6-pdrs, and two 3-pdrs.

Because artillery uniforms were almost identical in all armies, these British guns can easily fill in as Hessian or American artillery.

Musket Miniatures British Casualties

Hessians

The Hessians have the smallest force, but it's enough for Freeman's Farm, which means it's enough for almost any battle but Trenton. There are 90 close order infantry, 8 skirmishers, 2 guns with 8 crew, 2 mounted generals, and 7 casualty markers.

Minifigs Artillery and Jager

I always thought the jager looked cool with their purple turnbacks and facings.

Minifigs General and Jeff Valent Grenadiers

Old Glory Line Infantry

These are the three regiments at Freeman's Farm. I painted a couple extra stands to fill other OOBs.

Old Glory and Musket Miniatures Casualties

So there they all are. It's a total of 609 foot figures, 32 mounted figures, and 13 guns. If I were to sell these at my current commission rates, the set would sell for around $2700. I realize that these are not up to my current standard, though, so I don't expect them to fetch quite that much.

If you're interested in making an offer, email me at smacphee at frontier dot com. I'll wait a week or so to see what offers come in. If you know someone who might be interested, please pass the word along. I'd like to find these a good home.

Book Review: Luzader's Saratoga

I have had my eye on this title for a couple of years, ever since my gaming group started our own Saratoga project, building armies around the OOB for Freeman's Farm. For some reason, the Saratoga campaign just never made much sense to me. I had seen a few documentaries on it and read accounts of the campaign in general histories of the war, but the narrative always eluded me. Maybe I didn't have the geography quite clear, or maybe I didn't understand the ways events influenced each other.

Everything gelled for me when I listened to the Teaching Company's course on the American Revolution. The lecturer, Dr. Guelzo, finally put it all together. It's amazing what a good teacher can do. Still, a half hour long lecture can't possibly cover the campaign in the same depth as a book. Enter John Luzader, former staff historian at Saratoga National Historic Park. This book is the product of a lifetime's research, and it shows.

Luzader begins with sketches of the campaign's major personalities. From there, he gives a brief background to the campaign, discussing Carleton's 1776 attempt to force the Champlain-Hudson corridor and Burgoyne's pitch for a 1777 campaign. The campaign narrative which follows contains a large digression on the intrigue in the American high command which saw Schuyler replaced by Gates. Luzader concludes the book with a series of appendices, fleshing out his conclusions by weighing conflicting primary and secondary sources.

I was expecting the book to contain detailed accounts of the campaign's various battles, and was slightly disappointed to find their coverage uneven. Probably this is because the evidence is just not there for some of the fights. This is a minor criticism, though, since all the battles are clearly presented and Luzader explains how each shaped the campaign.

I love a good controversy, and Luzader confronts them all. He addresses the soundness of the British movement from Canada and untangles just where blame for the British defeat should lie. He judges the merits of the various American commanders, concluding that Gates has been unfairly criticized for his conduct of the Saratoga battles. Luzader's judgments on Arnold, Stark, and Schuyler all go against the grain of mainstream historical opinion, but Luzader grounds his arguments in such careful inspection of primary sources that I am convinced he is right.

Almost every military history book has something to contribute to its subject. It is rare, however, that I set a book down convinced that it is the definitive account of its subject. Luzader's Saratoga is one of those rare books. If you have any interest in the Saratoga campaign, surely one of the more decisive campaigns in American history, you'll want to read this book.

Quick Peek

I can't paint all that much with my broken leg, but I have gotten a little work done. Here's my progress on the 18mm Blue Moon ACW figures. I'm nearing the end on my first batch of 60.