I asked AWI student Ed Wimble for a few pointers on the history before attempting his 1777 Year Of The Hangman. He notes the following Continental Army (according to général Knox, secretary of War, report to Congress, 1789). (militia not included) 1775 27,443 1776 46,891 (Washington had maybe 2,500 regulars at Trenton this year, so it had shrunk some.) 1777 34,820 1778 32,899 1779 27,699 1780 21,015 1781 13,292 1782 14,256 1783 13,476 How does this translate into blocks? And, at the same time, how large was the concurrent French commitment (which was, of course, smaller)? One should also note that these numbers are not necessarily present with their units. Two-thirds may be a more realistic estimation, since they also have to account for sick, furloughed, prisoners, and parolees. One problem with "Liberty" is that the US Army was essentially destroyed in 76 (disastrous campaigns for New York and Canada), and that Washington essentially had to recruit it anew. It should be a strict measure of morale how many blocks he could raise. But morale has nothing to do with the game. The Battle of the Saints: This essentially put the kibosh on any further French aid being sent to the colonies (but it was too late to halt the political momentum in Parliament). It is interesting to follow the debate over on the "Liberty" folder about French "entry" in that game. In that Rodney could have just as likely pulled a Saints out of his hat earlier than later (and almost did), yet there is no debate about French "exit" or even a mention of its possibility. Heck, it could have pre-empted French involvement altogether. Didn't Weigley write something about this? Liberty Review and Analysis Review Mark Kwasny’s Thoughts on British and American Strategy History in Translation Optional Rules Prisoner Exchange: Up in Smoke Back to Perfidious Albion #104 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. 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