Presumably, if you are reading this you either: A. already wargame this conflict and want affirmation, B. are considering wargaming this conflict, or C. clicked on the wrong article and are just realizing your mistake. Having said that, let’s quickly review some reasons why you may want to wargame the “Second American Revolution.” First, you want a new opponent for your British Napoleonic army. Second, you live near one of the battlefields. Third, you attended a reenactment and thought it was interesting. Fourth, you like small scale, skirmish games and the idea of using such a wide variety of troop types (regulars, militia, rifles, natives, marines etc.) in a wide variety of terrain strikes your fancy. Fifth, you are a Canadian wargamer, eh?. Sixth, you march to the tune of a different wargaming drummer. Whatever the reason, here are some thoughts I’d like to share with you. Lost Conflict The War of 1812 seems to be a lost conflict to wargamers. The popular gunpowder wars (measured by availability of figures, rules, books, and articles in print) are the Napoleonic wars, the American Civil War, and World War II. There are probably more gamers enjoying the Seven Years War and the American Revolution than the War of 1812. I’d guess that 1812 is just behind the Mexican-American War and the Russo-Polish War in popularity. There was a short-lived burst of wargaming popularity in the early nineties as rule sets and some 15 and 25 mm figures hit the market. And those wonderful wargaming “glossy” magazines even had an article or two on the war. But that fleeting moment has passed and only time will tell if 1812 will break into the mainstream of wargaming popularity or disappear entirely. Of course, there really is enough to sustain the period now. I haven’t seen many 15mm figures still on the market but there are 20 and 25mm figures available. Also there are uniform guides readily available so you can accurately paint a wide variety of troop types. And perhaps most importantly, the last ten years has seen a large number of scholarly and popular books on the subject. I say this is most important because much of what appeared in wargaming journals over the last 15 years was somewhat inaccurate and misleading. But there is certainly enough out there for gamers to recreate scenarios and come up with accurate orders of battle and correctly painted figures. I hope to publish a book review in this journal each issue to help readers select a book based upon the content. How about organizing your 1812 armies? There is a wide variety of troop types and uniforms, not too dissimilar from the American Civil War but certainly not as rich as the Napoleonic wars. On the British/Canadian side you will find red coats, green coats faced yellow, black, and red, and even gray uniforms. You will also find highlanders in trews and caps. On the American side, coats can be blue, gray, black, white, brown, and drab with facings of red, green, yellow, and black. Then there are the multitude of regulars and volunteers in fringed hunting shirts and a variety of headgear (shakos, round hats, slouch hats, coonskin hats etc.) And both sides called up the local militia in civvies. Each native wears his own unique clothing and coloring. The point I’m trying to make here is that your wargaming army can be built with no two units uniformed the same and you will still be historically accurate. In fact, many volunteer units and some regular battalions have companies in different uniforms. [More on that in future articles.] Another kind of neat thing about wargaming 1812 is the scale. When I started serious wargaming about thirty years ago, I gamed with HO scale figures and battles were small. Regiments had maybe twenty to thirty figures and battles had five or six regiments on a side. As the years went by, scale seemed to grow as figure sizes decreased. Napoleonic wargames had battalions of 9 or 12 figures, in 15 mm scale. But these battles were corps sized or larger. It wasn’t important how you handled a company or battalion. A figure to troop ratio of 1 to 60 was common. You needed that to fight even a piece of Waterloo, much less Leipzig. My 1812 army of 15mm figures always struck me as wrong. The Battle of Chippawa in which there were no more than ten units on the table was swallowed up in the terrain. Now I find myself returning to my earlier habits. I now paint up large 25 mm figures [Connoisseur, Wargames Foundry, Old Glory etc.] and mount them singly. Some battles are in a ratio of 1:5 but mostly I use 1:10. I put magnetic strip on each figure’s base and then place figures on an assortment of steel movement stands. A sixty man company is represented by six figures together on a single base. This lets me easily remove casualties but maintain unit integrity. I choose to put 5 privates together with an officer, NCO, or musician in a company. Company groupings are historically accurate as many 1812 battles show companies acting independently. I want to be able to split off a company from the parent regiment quickly and easily and this mounting arrangement lets me do so. I might also add that as the eyes got weaker, I was losing all appreciation for 15mm figures. Subtleties like facing colors were lost to me. These large 25s make a big difference. Part of the satisfaction of wargaming is the strong visual appeal. [If not, then let’s return to boardgaming.] I also use a variety of poses in a battalion and even in a company. I used to insist that every figure in a battalion was the same identical pose but I am much more relaxed with variety now. Then I remembered why I used to do that. My Napoleonic French and Russians had so little to distinguish between regiments that differing poses between regiments served the purpose of quick identification. And manufacturers now (particularly Old Glory) make it easy to enjoy a variety of poses. Another reason why I returned to larger figures is so I can recreate some of the smaller battles and skirmishes of 1812 and still have a lot of figures on the table. You may just want to do “big” battles like New Orleans, Bladensburg, and Lundy’s Lane. But you may find the smaller ones just as satisfying. And this makes your terrain pieces a little more relevant. You can fit a company in a blockhouse, for example. I also like the “what if” battles. For example, I came across the American strategy for the campaign of 1815 which might have resulted in that battle for Kingston, Montreal or even Quebec City. Remember that the American Army was certainly more capable in 1814 than in 1812. My research also turned up evidence of a very real fear that the British would land on Long Island and threaten New York City directly. That would be one seriously large battle indeed. And some day I am going to fight the Battle of Plattsburgh. You know, when Prevost didn’t lose his nerve and sent those thousands of Peninsular War veterans against a slender American defensive force in a number of small earthen fortifications? So, there you have it. I hope these thoughts on this under-appreciated conflict have sparked an interest. More next issue. Back to Table of Contents -- War of 1812 #1 Back to War of 1812 List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Rich Barbuto. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com