18th Century Wargaming in 3mm

Our friend and long time customer Pat is considering a venture into 18th century wargaming using our miniatures. I invited him to join us on this blog and we could work through his thoughts and approach.

Other folks have expressed interest and had questions on approaching this era, so it seemed that blogging it would yield results.

A list of his initial thoughts -

I have long been interested in the American Revolution as well as the War of 1812.
The War of 1812 is especially interesting, as the units were often small, troop quality was quite variable, and the units themselves were quite colorful.
British units would be easy. The same figures used at Waterloo would fit, any War of 1812 battle.

• 1812-1813  ->  Stovepipe Shako for both US and British Regular forces. Canadian Militia as well as late War US militia.
• 1814-1815 -> Belgic Shako for Regulars of both sides.
• Cavalry (not a lot in 1812, actually) you may use light dragoons in Tarleton or dragoon helmets.
• The British light dragoon regiment in Canada wore a uniform very similar to that of late war French chasseurs a cheval.

The tricky bits....

• Most US frontiersmen, US mounted rifles (frontiersmen), Some US militia (top hats), and  Indians.
• Let us hope some one in Poland is working on these, and Tricornes, too!
• But you can do a lot of 1812 action with what IS available.

Now, one needs to select a rule set. For me, I can't but Minis until I know how many I'll need for the bases that I need to use for battles.

• Base size (I was thinking) is driven by rule set.  After considering quite a few, I stopped, and thought again.
• Why do I want to play in 3mm?  Because it's less work to paint, for sure. But also as the units on the table can look very nice.
• I have seen several photos of Napoleonic and ACW battles with 3 mm units. The long lines of forces look VERY much like contemporary drawings. That is what I want to see also.
• So, I decided to think about, what would look best?  How many bases would I need for the battles I wanted to fight?
• I researched several of the battles of 1812. Most are 3500 - 2000 per side.
• So, if you use a base == 100 men you need 35 of each side, roughly.
• 200 men cuts that in half, which seems about as low as I would like to go.
• If you split the difference, that is about 26 bases per side.
• That seems OK, and fits in with several of the rules I have been looking at.
• For the War of 1812, you MUST have some command rules, and often the smaller force had much the better generals than the larger side.

Here's a start. I very interested in where it leads.