The Tri-Pack I package mentioned below, covering four Battles of the American Revolution by GMT, went to the table last night for a face-to-face game.

Saratoga was my first exposure to this system a looong time ago and here, in this re-printed collection, it gets a new scenario that just covers the fighting around Freeman Farm. It is four turns long, so seemed the perfect re-introduction to the system for both of us.

By the end of play, we had this rather straight forward system under our belts and had an enjoyable couple of hours of gaming.

The only thing that didn't tickle our fancy was the 'Tactics Matrix' - during each close combat, each player secretly selects a tactic such as Skirmish, Withdraw, Echelon attack etc., from a list of 8 possibles, though only 4 are available to all battles, others need additional elements such as a leader and an open flank.

Anyway, having chosen, you compare tactics and you end up with a die roll modifier or a withdrawal. Neither of us saw any advantage to the rule; it held the element of Rock, Scissors, Paper and took time to consider the tactic and then calculate, and for what seems like not enough difference to matter compared to the input, Getting a possible DRM for a combat that in any case is using a D10, which itself is arguably a swingy device, is something I can let go by.

So we abandoned the rule and played quite happily without it, as indeed I always have in the past. Of interest is that Tri-Pack II comes with a 'solo bot' card to help choose the tactics and there is a lot of randomness in that, so I feel justified in abandoning the mechanic.

In our game, it looked like the British were going to overwhelm the American forces and were poised to capture the important American held objective, when on the 3rd turn a goodly number of American reinforcements arrive just in the nick of time to rebuff the British assaults ..... but there was not enough time to see the Americans counter-attack and take objectives that they needed.

So this small action looks like each time it is played, neither side is likely to win big and that the matter might settle on casualty victory points alone. The winning of course didn't matter, it was an enjoyable couple of hours pushing counters and the scenario has set us up for bigger things. Look forward to more.

After my recent moans about a game dragging on for longer than my sore back wanted! I have taken four different rule books to the table to see whether any suit me better.

I think it is important that the scenario should not be too ambitious to keep the game shorter, but sitting on top of that, rules need to be not only streamlined, but designed to make a smaller game with fewer units interesting, primarily by being a little dynamic in nature and disrupting predictable play.

The testing resulted in a very lengthy article which is best hosted over on the Battlefields and Warriors blog rather than here. 

Link

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2025/08/comparing-some-black-powder-period-rules.html

Above - a house with grounds counting as a single built-up area and to the right, the same base serving as an orchard.

The area within the confines of the wall is roughly 8" x 6". The walls are from Pendraken Miniatures (straignts and corners) and the base is the heavy card cover of the 1st Edition Black Powder rulebook, which is thick and light and hasn't warped.

The internal grass surface is from a matting bought in a craft shop and it has been applied using that foliage glue that goes on white like PVA, but dries clear and stays very tacky - It is used to put foliage onto tree branches, but works well here as it didn't seem to over-wet the card base.

Basing texture plus flocking has gone around the outside and the trees are home built with Woodland Scenic kit. The building is  resin from the superb Battlescale range, also sold by Pendraken.

I was going to fix the trees in for an orchard base and add extra flock to the grass mat area, but I think there will be more versitility with the trees being separate and having a base that can also represent walled grounds .... I am thinking about a compact feature here for Epic Pike and Shotte, whenever that materialises.

One of the advantages about making it just an orchard and fixed trees is that the piece can be handle without touching the trees themselves, which I don't feel are very robust. With the trees tightly packed, I won't try and shove figures in there, they can rest on an off-table template that represents the orchard.

Quite a few of the Rapid Fire Reloaded scenario books use orchards.

As mention a few days ago, after playing the small and contained trial action with the 28mm Wars of the Roses figures and the Irregular Miniatures rule set on cards, I took everything to the full table to play a bigger battle and put the rules under a bit more pressure.

This would be a replaying of my throw down scenario that I used to test the Hail Caesar rules some time ago. Using the same scenario would also give me a chance to compare the two systems.

Anyway, that game has been played and game notes, pictures and conclusions have been posted over on the Battlefields & Warriors Blog for those interested.

Link;

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-battle-for-skenfell-mere-1471-again.html

Having recently bought the new Tri-Pack 2 for the American War of Independence, containing the battles of Germantown 1777, Monmouth 1778, Newtown 1779 and Oriskany 1777, I have been lucky enough to acquire a pristine unpunched copy of the now out of print, Tri-Pack 1, which adds the battles of Guilford, Saratoga and Brandywine, plus the bonus game of Eutaw Springs, which falls from the Guilford campaign.

I had forgotten that when this came out (2017), it also had mounted boards.

So now between the two Tri-Packs, the boardgame collection has gone from having no AWI games, to having 8 solid battles, bound by a common set of rules.

The game scale is an hour per turn and units are regiments. I look forward to breaking into these.

Looking through my Epic Revolution box from Warlord Games, I note they give scenarios  that cover the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Guilford Courthouse, configured to use with their Black Powder rules. The Rebellion supplement also has a Eutaw Springs scenario, so I should have a fair bit of crossover between the boardgames and figures sets. It will be interesting to compare the figure scenarios to the boardgames scenarios once I get all of this up and running. 

Hi Steve (W), this is the sort of thing that I was talking about. I painted 15 Landwehr cavalry with a view to going with the official basing of 3 bases with 5 horse per base.

I didn't like that more often than not, they would be in line and that despite 15 horse, it looked a little 'thin', so I pinched my nose and jumped in with single basing for the cavalry!

This is an 80mm x 60mm base with just 12 horse, double ranked, but slightly misaligned to give a little sense of movement (I hope).

Having re-evaluated my table space, I may well go back to 2 infantry bases (from the previous 3) per unit, which would have a frontage of 120mm and better match with what I am doing with the cavalry.

Unfortunately the thing about basing is ...... I always change my mind and end up re-basing :-)

I need to do a French cavalry unit next to help keep this pair of 'Pocket Armies' balanced. I was going to do dragoons, but on checking the Epic battle set, there are French lancers in there, which I had forgotten about.

Having got a bit fed up painting the Epic, I gave myself a week off, but not wanting that break to grow into 'a thing' I put the French Lancers on painting sticks yesterday and I am back on it.

Irregular Miniatures have a set of Ancients rules published in 1989 that are still available and which are presented in half a dozen index sized cards. On one side of each card are the rules and on the other, examples of those rules. Each card covers a different part of the sequence of play.

A couple of months ago I tested them against a small situation involving the Epic Punic Wars figures from Warlord Games.

Here I test them in a contained situation with Wars of the Roses figures, just to see how well the rules stretch forwards to 1485.

There is a bit of a write up and some pictures over on the Battlefields & Warrior Blog.

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2025/08/irregular-miniatures-card-rules-from.html

I picked this up at Waterstones (UK dedicated book store) as it has a fairly tight focus and drills into the detail of the Militiamen, which will help pad out my 'lack of knowledge' of the period.

Part of the blurb on the back of the book says 'but in the South a different kind of warfare was afoot. Local militia, sometimes stiffened by a small core of the Continental Line, played a pivotal role.'

This is exactly the sort of thing I am looking for, especially for when I start out on the painting thing and the forces will be small while I get going. Just initially browsing through the book, I came across an account of the Battle of Blackstock's Farm and that looks a great place to start things off.

The Osprey format is there with nice colour plates of uniform and information about equipment, training and life on campaign.

Irregular Miniatures created a set of rules for Ancients in 1989 which where delivered on what amounts to half a dozen index cards. The front of the card has the rules and the rear has examples. Each card covers one part of the sequence of play.

A couple of months ago I highlighted the rules being used with the Epic Punic War figures. I noted that the amongst the examples the term Billmen is mentioned and the rules allow for cannon, so assuming that the rules will stretch to 1485, I have started to trial them.

I should have something written up, with a few photos, in a couple of days. 

I like to see situations unfold in a boardgame that could create a scenario to take to the figures table. Having just bought the Warlord Games Epic Revolution set (AWI), it brought into focus that my boardgame collection is shy when it comes to American War of Independence games, so I order the new Tri-Pack II package from Second Chance Games, which is a re-print of four previous single games, brought under one cover and given hard mounted boards.

The four battles are Germantown 1777, Monmouth 1778, Newtown 1779 and Oriskany 1777.

This is the ‘Battles of the American Revolution’ Series by GMT, which I have owned before and sold because I was not keen on the swinging results that a D10 combat system brought.

However, I might be changing my mind on such things. Eagles of France does something similar with 2D6, but I have always thought of that system as removing you, the commander, from micro managing the action. So we have the player giving out the general order that might be something like ‘attack that hill over there’ or ‘take that settlement’, but once those wheels are in motion, the commander (player) would have little influence over the actual fighting, the local colonels would be doing that and so perhaps swinging results better reflects that and the frustrations / hopes of the more senior command levels.

Anyway, it is a fine looking game, though it joins many fine games, all begging to be played!

As an aside, I recent bought the Monmouth Courthouse  1778 book from the Osprey Campaign Series, so that should help me put the meat on any scenario building bones that may happen.

The first reinforcement for the Epic Napoleonic Pocket Army rolls of the painting sticks and ‘ride’ into barracks.

This is a unit of Prussian Landwehr cavalry that will make 3 bases.

I will be using 55mm x 25mm MDF bases to replace the 60mm x 20mm plastic bases supplied with the Warlord Games Epic figures as they better accommodate the depth of the horse models and allow the bases to butt-up to each other without horse tails getting in the way!

The reason why I have taken this picture before basing is that I was looking for a pose that I can use to try and paint the unit going into action with either watercolours or oils (I will probable try both) - a tough subject and it is years since I painted, but I thought I would have a crack anyway.

I have a painting on my wall of 14th Cuirrassiers moving up to the front during the Danube campaign and it rather inspires me to have a go. 

To keep the two Napoleonic armies better matched, I will now need to give the French a cavalry unit, perhaps some dragoons. Once done, I will re-run the Gilly game, giving each side the extra cavalry unit, which will allow the scenario to have closer ties to the historical situation.

I started these figures with contrast paint, hoping for a faster painting rate and the completed them with traditional acrylic, but overall, I done think it made that much difference and I like the look less. I will play around with this a little more to see whether there are some Contrast colours that are worth keeping.

I recently saw a very good painter do French artillery and he only used a Contrast paint on the woodwork of a cannon carriage and standard acrylic for everything else and it looked bang on.