A short time ago,Battlefields magizine ran an article which mentioned in passing how rare were the independent brigade to division actions beloved of wargamers, and how little they resembled real battles. I enjoy Battlefields, but I did go into one of my several-month long slow burns. Finally, I sat down and began combing my shelves for these "atypical" battles. I also tightened the requirements somewhat. As "classic" wargame rules center around 1:20/1:25 organization, and in my experience wargame armies tend to peak around 500 castings, I set a minimum Or 2,000 men (100 figures) Per side, and a maximum of 12,500 (500 figures) for the larger, excepting rear-guard actions where the total number of attackers is largely inrrelevant,as they can seldom all be employed. (I might also note that 500 castings is about the most 25mm soldiers which can be employed on a 5' X 9' table. These are probably related phenomena). In order to ensure that these were real battles and not just shadow-boxing, killed and wounded must represent at least 5-10% of at least one side. No sieges or storming actions were included. Still too easy. In order to really narrow things down, I restricted myself to the era of classic "horse & musket" to exclude the many and well-documented battles of the English and American Civil War. This leaves me with actions pretty well restricted to the "period" of Peter Young's Charge, and to battles which could be fought out with 25mm castings on a 5' X 9' table: about as tight a definition of a "toy-soldier battle" as can well be devised. So far, the list is as follows:

WYNENDAEL(R)	28 SEP 1708	6,000 ALL VS 24,0000 FR
SHERIFFMUIR	13 NOV 1715	3,000 ENG VS 6,000 JAC
BITONTO	25 May 1734	12,000 SP VS 9,000 SP
WILMANSTRAND	?? AUG 1741	6,000 SW VS 10,000 RUS
VELLETRI	11 AUG 1744	6,000 AUS VS 6,000 SP
PRESTONPANS	21 SEP 1745	2,600 JAC VS 3,000 ENG
HENNERSDORF	23 NOV 1745	2,600 SAX VS 5,000 ENG
FALKIRK	17 JAN 1746	8,000 JAC VS 8,000 ENG
CULLODEN	16 APR 1746	5,000 JAC VS 9,000 ENG
LAKE GEORGE	08 SEP 1755	3,800 BR VS 2,000 FR
MEND	05 AUG 1758	4,500 ALL VS 5,000 FR
SANDERHAUSEN	23 JUN 1758	5,500 HES VS 7,200 FR
FT TICONDEROGA	08 JUL 1758	12,000 BR VS 3,000 FR
CROWN POINT	08 SEP 1755	3,800 BR VS 2,000 FR
PLAINS OF ABRAHAM	01 AUG 1759	4,500 BR VS 4,400 FR
ST FOY28	APR 1760	3,600 BR VS 4,000 FR
BUNKER HILL	17 JUN 1775	3,500 USA VS 2,200 BR
FREEMAN'S FARM	19 SEP 1777	3,000 USA VS 2,600 BR
GERMANTOWN	04 OCT 1777	11,000 USA VS 9,000 BR
BEMIS HEIGHTS	07 OCT 1777	9,000 USA VS 5,000 BR
CAMDEN	16 AUG 1780	3,000 USA VS 2,400 BR
GUILFORD COURTHOUSE	18 MAR 1781	4,400 USA VS 2,200 BR
EUTAW SPRINGS	08 SEP 1781	2400 USA VS 2,000 BR
ST CLAIR MASSACRE	03 NOV 1791	2 000 USA VS 2,000 IND
RACLAWICE	03 APR 1794	6,000 POL VS 5,000 RUS M&OOB
FALLEN TIMBERS	20 AUG 1794	3,500 USA VS 2,000 IND
ALEXANDRIA	21 MAR 1801	13,000 BR VS 12,000 FR
MAIDA	04 JUL 1806	5,200 BR VS 6,400 FR
ALTENZAU,M(R)	26 OCT 1806	2,000 PR VS 14,000 FR
EL-HAMAD	21 APR 1807	2,300 BR VS 8,500 EGP
REVOLAX	27 APR 1808	4,000 RUS VS 8,000 SW
ROLICA(R)	17 AUG 1808	13,00.0 BR VS 2,500 FR
GAMONAL	10 NOV 1808	11,000 SP VS 9,000 FR
CACABELLOS (R)	03 JAN 1809	4,000 BR VS 14, 000 FA
ALCANIZ	23 MAY 1809	8 000 FR VS 9,000 SP
MARIA	15 JUN 1809	12,600 SP VS 8,300 FR
GEFREES	08 JUL 1809	6,5000 FR VS 8,500 AUS
COA (R)	24 JUL 1810	5,000 BR VS 24,000 FR
BANOS(R)	12 AUG 1809	3,000 LLL VS 12,000 FR M
GEBORA	19 FEB 1811	12,000 SP VS 7,500 FR
BAROSSA	05 MAR 1811	5,300 BR VS 7,300 FR
YECLA	11 APR 1813	4,500 FR VS 3,000 SPM& OOB
BIAR (R)	12 APR 1813	2,200 BR VS 6,500 IN M & OOB
LEITSKAU	27 AUG 1813	5,000 FR VS 20,000 ALLM& OOB
GOHRDE(R)	16 SEP 1813	3,500 FR VS 13,000 ALL
SCHESTEDT	10 DEC 1813	9.000 DAN VS 10,000 ALL
CHAMPAUBERT	10 FEB 1814	4,700 RUS VS 4,900 FR
CHIPPEWA	05 JUL 1814	2,700 USA VS 2,100 BR
LUNDY'S LANE	25 JUL 1814	2,500 USA VS 3,500 BR
BLADENSBURG	24 AUG 1814	6,500 USA VS 5,000 BR
GODLY WOOD	11 SEP 1814	3,200 USA VS 5,000 BR
NEW ORLEANS	08 JAN 1815	4,400 USA VS 4,000 BR
MAIPU	05 APR 1818	6,000 REV VS 9,000 SP M&OOB
PANTANO DE VARGAS	05 JUL 1819	2,000 REV VS 2,200 SP
ALIWAL	28 JAN 1846	13,000 BR VS 18,000 SIK
RESACA DE LA PALMA	09 MAR 1846	2,000USA VS 4,500 MEX
BUENA VISTA	23 FEB 1847	5,000 USA VS 16,000 MEX
CERRO GORDO	18 APR 1847	8,500 USA VS 12,000 MEX
CONTRERES	20 AUG 1847	4,000 USA VS 7,000(?)MEX
CHRUBUSCO	20 AUG 1847	4,500 USA VS 5,000(?)MEX

A total (so far) of 63 battles. Four of these are included in Featherstone's Battle Notes for Wargamers, which is probably confirmation that they are just about the right size for 1:25 gaming. For all except those noted "M", I can pull at least sketch maps off my shelves, and sometimes good scaled maps with contour lines. For all except those noted "OOB" I have or feel sure I can obtain an order of battle. Note that in a few cases. I have violated my own criteria a little: Altenzaum and Cacabello are Poorly documented, and may not have had enogn casualties to justify inclusion. I decided to leave them as striking examples of successful rearguards. In most of the others, the defending force failed to make a clean getaway, and was pretty badly chopped up. Aliwal and Buem Vista are slightly too large on the losing side, but both were good close-fought tabletop actions, worth stretching my own criteria a bit to include. I am not, of course, an expert on every battle included but it seems on a casual reading that they were all potentially winnable by either side, except for the rearguards, marked (R), where success for one side would consist of stalling the enemy and getting away reasonably intact. On the other hand, I omitted the well-documented Battle of Blauberg, which met all cntena, but where the defending Dutch/South Africans had no reasonable chance.

Let me emphasize three things; first. this was shelf-combing, not through research and I suspect the hisiones of Latin America and of India hold many more I simply won't find soon. Second, there are plenty of good horse & musket battles too small to be included. If I kept my 100-casting minimum and 5(H) casting maximum. but lowered my representation to 1 :10, I'd pick up a very large number of American Revolution and War of 1812 actions. 11 broke my heart not to include Cowpens or the Thames, for instance. Nor would they be all. At 1:10 a number of Napoleonic actions in 1809 Germany become feasible, and I suspect I'd pick up some Mexican-Amencan War engagements in the west, not to mention San Jacinto and several engagements in the Irish risings of the French Revolution.. Third, these are not ''terribly obscure battles,'' nor tembly unimportant ones. About a third of them should be known to anyone with even a passing interest in military history. and about fifteen even to the general public. The wargamer acting as one of these commanders is standing in the shoes of Greene. Arnold,Cornwallis, Scott. Taylor, Wolfe, Montcalm or Jackson. If I drew up a similar list for 1:50, I would, by depmition have bigger battles, but I wouldn't necessarily have better-known or more important ones. A funkier point: someone once described the world of anthropology as being divided into lumpers" and''splitters.'' The lumpers tended to make more allowance for individual variation and to see fewer types. The splitters, of course, saw their divisions. and accordingly more species. The same can be said for wargame rules. I think sorting out battles by size makes a strong case for the lumpers among us. Obviously local conditions need to be reflected in game conditions, but does amyone seriously believe that different game mechanisms are needed for, say. Bunker Hill and New Orleans? or Resaca de la Palma and Aliwal? I believe amy battle on this list could be fought to a historical conclusion in a 'scnpted" demonstration game, using rules templated from. and not much more complicated than "False Against Steady Troops or ''Disperse Ye Rebels". Anyway, I'd like to give it a try Meantime. can anyone lend a hand with those missing maps and OOBs?

Further note: while some of these battles are terribly one-sided in naradve and casualties. It's worth noting that the type of engagement was not notably so. Fallen Timbers, for example. had very few American casualties and many Indian losses. The same with Tippecanoe and the Thames. But are the battles inherently different from the defeats of Braddock, Harmar & St Clair? The same British expeditionary force that looks so invincible at Bladensburg looked rather more vulnerable against some of the same militia at Godly Wood, and distinctly off' against a similar scratch force of Americans at New Orleans. Most of the Spanish vs French Peninsular War battles were distinctly lop-sided, but Maria and Baylen are reminders of what could be accomplished by Spanish commanders who used their strengths and remembered their limitations. We can always create a balanced game with identical armies and mirrored terrain. But I'd prefer an interesting game to a precisely balanced one any day, and I can think of no more necessary test of a rules set than a scripted refight of a historical engagement. Besides just putting together the list has gotten me thinking of several armies I don't have and isn't the part of the fun?