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CWF Game Cast Episode 62: The Battle of Abington

CWF #62: The Battle of Abington Download (784)

Host Jonathan J. Reinhart releases a short show. The episode begins, unusually, with Dispatches from HQ. This is the LAST episode before Jonathan’s move. New episodes will officially commence on September 1st, but might appear sooner if possible. After the move the show will have one other change. It will now be a bi-weekly hour long show.

No Badger No Gnome, Drew McCarthy’s revitalized gaming podcast, will hit this RSS feed after the move. Jonathan will be a co-host along with Slandy Cherflis.

The bulk of this episode is devoted to the Battle of Abington. This was a custom scenario created by Adrian Benson for Cort, Jonathan, and he to play with Warlord Games’ Black Powder rules. The trio met at Battleground Games & Hobbies in Abington to play using the models they have finished painting.

The Whiz, on Rte 9 East in Westborough, is moving two miles closer to Rte 495. To lessen their move burden they are discounting everything in store from 15-50%. My friend Murf and I went to the store to see what we could buy. I purchased a lot of Dystopian Wars products including the Prussian Empire Battle Group.

Wasting no time I began to paint one Reiver Class Cruiser and one Arminius Class Frigate. Since it was late at night and with the recent craziness it wasn’t possible for me to spray prime the models (it won’t be possible for a few weeks). This resulted in an aggravating problem.

Applying Chaos Black onto the resin models, by hand, saw the models drinking the paint like a dehydrated man coming out of the Sahara. I simply could not believe my eyes. After awhile, their thirst quenched, the paint went on more or less normally. Perhaps spray priming will solve the problem. But, maybe someone has a suggestion?

Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth was absorbed in the latest dispatches. The 22nd Massachusetts Brigade assembled at their camp where supplies trickled in. The civilian leaders were slow to dispense the necessary funds to equip his brigade with the armaments, clothing, food, baggage, and gun powder he needed to get the men ready for battle.

One of the dispatches warned of a British probe south of his position at a small town named Abington. It was mostly farm country but a small cadre of stores was hidden in the town along with an artillery battery promised to his brigade. The artillery must not fall into enemy hands!

Once he finished reading, a plan began to formulate. Colonel Abraham Turner would force march the 43rd Volunteers. With luck and some help from Providence they would secretly arrive before the British, meet up with the 132nd Continental Artillery, and defend the town. The detailed orders were drawn up immediately. Colonel Turner, blowing his nose on his handkerchief, entered the General’s tent to receive the orders. Immediately after he gathered his men and set off.

Only through the intercession of friends at the state house did General Washington even allow the 132nd to remain in Massachusetts. With a little more help they would be permanently detached to his brigade along with the already promised Continental infantry. Turner may not be the best for the job but he is certainly courageous and smart enough to adapt to the changing battle conditions. If only his men liked him better they’d march off a cliff at his order. General Hawkinsworth mused they would, in time, grow from merely respecting Turner to something more. War changes men….yes it certainly does, he thought.

Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth, commander, of the 22nd Massachusetts Brigade is prepared to devise a cunning plan that will push the Redcoats back into the ocean and, hopefully, send them packing to their mad King George. If only he could get his men to follow the plan it will be a smashing success.

As you may guess by that horrible attempt at fiction I made progress today to create a hybrid historical/fictional setting for my AWI army. This was first described in War of American Independence – Black Powder Style. Many thanks need to go to Tilman who recently prodded me to design support for my fictitious paint scheme. Thanks also need to be given to Henry Hyde for sharing the secrets to injecting personality into a campaign like he did with The Wars of the Faltenian Succession.

The 22nd Massachusetts Brigade

Why 22nd? Why not 91st or 43rd? I like the number 22. No other reason than that. I chose Massachusetts because I live there and my army is a militia army. What that means for army composition is a majority of the units will be militia with some Continental Army units tossed into the mix.

Composition

I decided to create a predominantly infantry brigade. There will be four infantry regiments, mainly militia but with some Continental Army, plus two artillery batteries of one gun apiece, and one cavalry regiment.

Breathing Life into Pewter

Each regiment and battery needs leadership. In Part VII and Part VIII of The Wars of the Faltenian Succession (see early issues of Battlegames Magazine for details) the topic of adding personality to an army is covered. The way this is handled in that campaign is by naming the commanders and creating ratings for each commander in certain attributes. Intelligence, Initiative, Courage, Charisma, Strength, and Health are produced by rolling a percentage die (d100) and writing down the result.

For my purposes the result is below (many thanks to my wife for helping to name the commanders):

Commander	Int	Init	Cour	Cha	Str	Hlth	Role	# of Men
Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Hawkinsworth	99	13	87	1	68	54	General	Himself
Col. Thomas Bradford	84	5	12	53	95	55	Infantry	16
Cpt. Roger Ayer	61	99	62	68	98	63	Artillery	4 & gun
Cpt. Thaddeus Glockenspiel	55	83	26	96	74	42	Artillery	4 & gun
Col. Abraham Turner	55	64	74	12	89	20	Infantry	16
Col. Samuel Hitchins	27	58	87	9	28	97	Cavalry	12
Col. William Tinselbrock	21	45	8	79	8	99	Infantry	16
Col. Enoch Smith	15	3	84	46	86	43	Infantry	16

(Int=Intelligence, Init=Initiative, Cour=Courage, Cha=Charisma, Str=Strength, Hlth=Health)

The more I treated these names as real people the more they actually came alive. Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth is a military tactician and strategist of the highest order. Massachusetts Bay is lucky to have him creating military strategy for the 22nd. But, once the plan is planned he’s more likely to sit still perfecting his plan than actually enacting it. Nathaniel isn’t afraid to lead from the front but his men hate him for it. They think he’s nothing more than a pencil pusher who has no place in the front lines. Everything he tries explodes in his face. He’s can handle the rigors of warfare, the training, the marching, the tireless activity. But, he doesn’t like to do any of that.

Each commander has his own story to tell. Colonel Thomas Bradford is liked by his men for his willingness to debate ethics day after day after day after day. Captain Roger Ayer has the strength of eight oxen and routinely pushes his 6pdr into place all on his own instead of waiting for help from the crew. Captain Thaddeus Glockenspiel is beloved by all in the brigade but is secretly afraid of combat. He joined the artillery corp in the hopes of killing all the redcoats before they get too close. Colonel Abraham Turner is always sick. He wheezes, coughs, sputters, sneezes, and exudes disease. His men hate him for his stupidity and his illness. Colonel William Tinselbrock is a weakling that turns tail at the slightest breeze. Lastly, Colonel Enoch Smith. He’s dumber than a brick, needing tons of time to understand the simplest order. As soon as he knows what needs doing he’ll fight to the death with his brute strength and glass jaw.

The 22nd Massachusetts is nobody’s idea of the ideal fighting machine. They’re inept, prone to idleness, arrogant, and timid. Their faults are many. Can they overcome these faults and give freedom to everyone in the 13 colonies? Let’s hope so.

Artillery Crew at the Ready

At last it was time for my reward. I painted another group of six militia (article coming soon) finishing off my first militia regiment (excluding command). Now my 6pdr cannon would be given to its crew. The four crew members are Perry Miniatures AW101 Continental Artillery firing 6 pounder as is the 6pdr from the Artillery Barrage at the Ready article.

The artillerymen are the first non-militia models I painted for my army. Painting Continental soldiers require a different tact than the militia. For starters they have a uniform. Using Tarleton’s Quarter as inspiration I devised a plan. Cohesiveness is very important to make the army look like it belongs together. Joining the disparate militia and regular soldiers in a unified appearance was made easy with a standard color palette. Blue, Brown, and Green are the primary three colors that appear on all of the figures. Some models have blue coats and green pants. Others have Brown coats and blue pants. But all of them have blue, brown, and green on each model.

The Continental soldiers would have a modified uniform. Their coats, shirts, etc would be blue. The trousers are brown and accessories will be green unless another color is more accurate. For example, obviously wooden accessories will be painted in brown instead of green. My standard base coat, ink wash, and drybrush hi light method was also used. All paints are GW.

Brown
Khemri Brown-Gryphonne Sepia-Graveyard Earth
-Used on Pants

Calthan Brown-Gryphonne Sepia-Dessert Yellow
-Used on wooden pole to swab the gun

Blue
Mordian Blue-Asurmen Blue-Ice Blue
-Used on Coat/Shirt

Green
Knarloc Green-Thraka Green-Goblin Green
-Used on all accessories

Flesh
Tallarn Flesh-Ogryn Flesh-Elf FLesh
-Hands and faces

White
Skull White-Badab Black-Skull White
-Used on chest straps

Grey
Codex Grey
-Drybrushed onto hats and boots to provide shading.

The models were finally protected with a coat of gloss varnish followed by Testor’s Dullcote. You can see pictures below of the pre-varnished models followed by the completed battery. My apologies for the poor quality.