Dusting off the AWI

Many winters ago, and after a Wargames Foundry Winter sale, I found myself with armies for the American War of Independence. It was a period I had some interest in and there was some interest in the period at my local club. i even expanded my collection with some Perry AWI minis. However, like many projects, it fell to the wayside as the gamers I played with changed games and periods.

I initially built a force for  Steve Jones' Bloodybacks and then later for Studio Tomahawk's first edition of Muskets and Tomahawks. I had the start of an American force and started a partly painted British force with native allies. When the Rebellion book came out for Black Powder, my interest was again piqued, but I had one major issue - the lack of an opponent. So my AWI forces have literally been on hold for several years.

Recently, a friend of mine wanted to get into Black Powder and was trying to decide a period to capture his imagination. David F and I discussed what he'd like to collect. Zulu War was mentioned, but it is a bit vanilla - the Zulus deserve more than two stat lines (but that's another blog). Napoleonics didn't grab him, nor ACW. More obscure (to him) ideas such as Franco Prussian War also drew a blank. So, what to choose…

David F and I also discussed doing Black Powder in Epic scale, but he wasn't sure he could manage the intricate painting required to to 15mm minis well. So then he hit on an idea. How about the American War of Independence? Now that I thought is something I can do.

So I've dug out and dusted off my AWI minis and taken a count of the painted (around two dozen), the partly painted (another two dozen) and the unpainted masses (more dozens!). I think I have enough to develop a decent-sized force for a game. David has chosen to be American, which is fortunate as my painted forces are British. I will keep you updated on our progress.