The force currently consists of 3 units of British Regular Foot, a company each of Grenadiers, light infantry, Virginians, Rogers Rangers, Settlers and a 6 Pdr. Royal Artillery piece. The two bands of Iroquois complete the force. I have two more guns and and crews to paint, another 6pdr and a howitzer. General Braddock and Aide comprise two mounted figures on a single base. I will be adding a second standard bearer figure to the 42nd foot and 1st foot, and also plan better quality flags from GMB for all units.
As forces engaged were small by European standards I tend to think in terms of individual companies operating in largely wooded terrain in a slightly looser order than normal. The figures are mostly by Front Rank but with a smattering of Warlord Games metal figures. The blue coated figures represent the Virginia Regiment, commanded by no less than young George Washington who proved to be a remarkably courageous officer under fire, who narrowly escaped death on more than one occasion. He was however refused a commission in the regular British Army, something he never forgot.
I'll feature the French forces in a subsequent post, they are of similar composition being mostly French regulars with Canadian and Indian allies.
WW1 Air war game - can anyone help?
Recently over on Steve the Wargamers blog he recalled a game that pitched German and British WW1 aircraft - Airfix of course - against each other using tall wooden flight stands. This happened to be a game that also caught my imagination around the same time, and I was lucky enough to be able to construct numerous flight stands in my school woodwork classes. This would have been around 1972 to 1974 and we have been trying to recall where the article would have appeared at that time, I have read back through lists of both Airfix Magazine and Military Modelling from that period but can find no reference to it. Don Featherstone and Mike Spick have been mentioned but I can't find anything with diagrams or photos showing how the game was played. I did find the photo below over on TMP forum, it's very similar in construction with it's altitude marks on the upright dowel and wooden collars that slide up and down, although as I recall my stands were only around 4 feet tall. The aircraft itself fitted on a thin extension dowel and the model could be placed in climb or dive mode etc, very much as seen in the photo. The aircraft had varying move distances and turning circles and machine guns of various types, the aim being of course to shoot down the enemy in a dog fight by inflicting damage points as you manoeuvred your aircraft to gain an advantage. This would make a fantastic 'nostalgia' project for me on the blog, and I would love to put it together again, so if anybody can help with references etc I would be most grateful.
Image from TMP forum showing a very similar game in progress, but it seems to be on a larger scale.
Lee, could it possibly be in the old 'BATTLE' wargamers magazine - I remember buying my first copy in 1976 and it seemed to be a well developed magazine by then .... very similar to Pratical Wargamer magazine, but that of course came in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteHello Norm,
DeleteI will indeed check out 'Battle' magazine, I had forgotten about that one but did used to buy it regularly. Thanks, I'll report back!
Hi Lee - I played this about the same time (1972/3) and it was loads of fun! Unfortunately I can't remember who produced the rules but I think they came with perfomance sheets for each aircraft type. It was a school friend of mine who had the rules and built the stands so I have nothing in my old rules folder. I hope you find out what the rules were because its bugging me now!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian, sounds like the same game certainly and I recall the performance charts for different aircraft. Could it have been the 'Paragon' rules mentioned below? It does ring a bell.
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ReplyDeleteYour British and allies are magnificent, 'Lee! I'm also very impressed with how quickly you've brought them altogether. Fantastic work.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Matt, it's quite a compliment coming from you!
Deletehttps://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54676/paragons-new-aerial-dogfight-rules-1916-1918
ReplyDeleteI think what you describe sounds like the Paragon aerial combat rules. see if these fit the bill, but what you describe does sound like the game I used to play in the late 80's
Thank you very much AKI, that does indeed sound familiar, you may well have solved it for me :) I'll do a bit more digging now I have something to work with.
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