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.