Battle of New Orleans PART ONE (Dominion wargame)

Over the last six months I've been raising two small armies, one French and the other Spanish Empire. The collection is a mixture of metal and plastic toy soldiers, and the portrayals cover troop types operating between the period 1880 to 1930. Keen to incorporate these in my on-going Dominion Campaign, a dice was thrown to judge their participation. A score of ONE would see these nations declaring an alliance with the United States, and a declaration of war against the British Empire, with potential attacks on Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, and British West Indies. A score of SIX would see an alliance with the British Empire. I can confirm the dice score was a FIVE, a demand being sent to the American Congress for Louisiana to be transferred to France, and Florida transferred to Spain. But no formal alliance with the British Empire. With negotiations having failed to find an agreement, a Franco-Spanish army (everything I could muster) was landed near the city of New Orleans. For the American side, dice were thrown to determine the forces mustered for the defence of New Orleans. OK, unhappy with the number of regular troops, only seven formations (perhaps they've all gone to Canada?), I allowed additional dice for the contribution of local volunteers, this gave a further eight formations. The defenders rightly include a fair number of artillery units.

Here are some photos of the initial set-up, Franco-Spanish side.

And here is the United States defending forces.

MGB

Footnotes. Appropriately, the French and Spanish battalions have been increased to twelve figures by drafting smaller units, that sounds authentic to me! For morale purposes, I see no obligation to reduce the morale rating for American National Guard troops, the Americans were at their height of patriotism in this period, and fighting on their home ground too, thats my view.

NEW ADDITIONS

With the arrival of some new-cast figures and lots of spares from REPLICA TOY SOLDIERS, I've been able to complete a number of war-game units.

Have just increased one French battalion to twelve figures, a mixture of original Britains and some reproductions, about half kindly furnished by Paul Watson. Another battalion, marching with shouldered rifles, is just waiting for some cast heads to complete, but four will be serving in the above game.

Some TRAIL ARMS have allowed six more Spanish Cazadores to take to the field, completing their battalion.

Here's another French regiment marching, in tunics, may well increase these to twelve.

MGB