And Now Onto Something Completely Different: Trenton Project

 

General Nathaniel Greene consults with John the OFM about what game 
Der Alte Fritz should host at next year's Historicon.

Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach. You can feel it in the air, Autumn's out of reach...

So it is on to the next thing.

Now that Fall In 2025 is behind me, it's time to turn my focus on my next project for 2026. I have decided to do the AWI battles of Trenton and Princeton for my Historicon Project. Next year's Historicon theme will be the American Revolutionary War (or AWI, if you must) since it is the 250th anniversary of the war.

General George Washington decides on the next project for 2026
Fife and Drum Miniatures from my collection

I already have all of the Winter terrain and mats needed for a wintery looking tabletop, complete with snow. One would think that I already have the figures that I would need for the game. You would think.

But noooooo, I want to create two completely new American and Hessian armies with Winter snow bases. This entails upwards of 500 painted Fife and Drum Miniatures figures that I will need in the game. Don't worry, I have enough time to paint all of the figures.

I like to view every year as a "war game project". Each year I choose a new topic, turn it into a project, and then totally immerse myself in said project. I am good at that. The Project also has the benefit of making the Winter shorter as I break down time into one month at a time. It's January - good - paint 90 figures this month; February - what's next on the  painting table? March - SYW convention is on at the end of this month. April - Little Wars convention at the end of the month. And so on and so forth.

Here is my contemplated order of battle for a six player game for the Trenton scenario. I'm using a figure ratio of approximately 10 to 1 for my forces (one figure equals ten real soldiers).

American Forces at Trenton

Advance Guard - Brigadier General Adam Stephens (549)

2 units of Virginia Continentals, 24 to 30 figures each

Knox's artillery will also command the artillery

Major General Nathaniel Greene's Division

Sterling's Brigade - B.G. Lord Sterling (673)

2 by 30-figure units of Continentals (Delaware and Virginia)

Mercer's Brigade - B.G. Hugh Mercer (838)

2 by 30-figure Connecticut Continentals and one 24-figure Maryland unit

Fermoy's Brigade - (628)

2 by 30-figure units of Pennsylvania Continenals

Sullivan's Division

St. Clair's Brigade

3 by 20-figure New Hampshire Continentals

Sargent's and Glover's brigades were deployed covering the exit roads crossing Assunpunk Creek and so they were not in the central part of the action. Accordingly, I am not going to paint these two brigades for the project.

Hessian Order of Battle

Grenadier regiment Rall (512) = 1 unit of 50 figures

Fusilier regiment von Lossberg (345) = 1 unit of 30 figures

Fusilier regiment Knyphausen (429) = 1 unit of 40 figures

Jager Company (50) = 1 unit of 12 figures (taking 12+45+29 = 86 men from the three line regiments and adding them to the 50 jagers = 136 men = 12 figures).

Summary

Thus there is only one Hessian player and five American players in the game.

I will need to paint 318 Americans and 132 Hessians which totals 450 figures for the project. These numbers do not include artillery crew for the American army.

If I can paint at a pace of 90 figures per month then it will take five months of painting figures for this project. This takes me from December to April.

If the pace falls to 60 figures per month then it will take seven months to paint all of the figures. This takes me out to June which is cutting it close if I'm running the game in July at Historicon.