FIW wagon train

FIW wagon train
silly question of the day..... I'm trying to work out a basic OOB for the devils hole scenario what sort of armed escort would you give to a wagon train as a % of the total to give a good game. The wagon train will be outnumbered by about 16 to 1,and is not expected to survive but will earn victory points for each wagon that gets through, and or each man that escapes the ambush. Im planning on arming the teamsters as I believe that they would be armed. but what would you arm them with?

Having read what happened to them, motorbikes sound good. I would suggest smoothbore muskets and a tomahawk. As teamsters, they would not be likely to be riflemen (ie marksmen). In terms of numbers, maybe two men per wagon plus a command group?

Tel i would arm them with muskets and/or pistols and axes for melees. I would agree with Ronan, two figures per wagon would probably seem about right. Simon

Cheers Ronan .. sounds good to me silly question 2 .... would it still have been fusilliers who would have undertaken this role or would escort duty by this period of time have been performed by the likes of the Grenadiers.

thanks Simon I missed your reply as I was writing my reply to Ronan.

Fusiliers were originally brought into play to protect things that might go boom. What is your baggage train carrying? My gut feeling is that average squaddies would be guards. Just a guess though. I think fusiliers had outgrown their artillery train guarding duties by this stage of history as regiments like the RWF were catching bullets in the line just like everyone else.

ARRR... I see . I remember reading about the fusilliers bieng formed to protect the baggage train I was not awaire that it was for the artillery train. Cheers... Will give it a few line troops then. further reading from a few online sources give the bagage train at a strengh of 26 inderviduals including the Porter Master John Stedman who hightailed it out of there. So a Waggon train of 4 to 6 carts and a few loaded mules with 2 troopers per waggon should work great.

This from Wikipedia Various forms of flintlock small arms had been used in warfare since the middle of the 16th century. At the time of the English civil war (1642-1652) the term firelock was usually employed to distinguish these weapons from the more common matchlock musket. The special value of the firelock in armies of the 17th century lay in the fact that the artillery of the time used open powder barrels for the service of the guns, making it unsafe to allow lighted matches in the muskets of the escort. Further, a military escort was required, not only for the protection, but also for the surveillance of the artillerymen of those days. Companies of firelocks were therefore organized for these duties, and out of these companies grew the fusiliers who were employed in the same way in the wars of Louis XIV. In the latter part of the Thirty Years' War (1643) fusiliers were simply mounted troops armed with the fusil, as carabiniers were with the carbine. But the escort companies of artillery came to be known by the name shortly afterwards, and the regiment of French Royal Fusiliers, organized in 1671 by Vauban, was considered the model for Europe. The general adoption of the flintlock musket and the suppression of the pike in the armies of Europe put an end to the original special duties of fusiliers, and they were subsequently employed to a large extent in light infantry work, perhaps on account of the greater individual aptitude for detached duties naturally shown by soldiers who had never been restricted to a fixed and unchangeable place in the line of battle.

Will give it a few line troops then. further reading from a few online sources give the bagage train at a strengh of 26 inderviduals including the Porter Master John Stedman who hightailed it out of there. So a Waggon train of 4 to 6 carts and a few loaded mules with 2 troopers per waggon should work great. I have a feeling that it wasn't at all unusual for train masters to hire their own "muscle" to protect the wagons - a sort of 18th Century Halliburton (and about as efficient and reliable). Given the military reductions after the F&I War, and the shortages of troops at the outbreak of the Rebellion, you could justifiably use a load of militia figures to "ride shotgun".

In the ECW at least, the flintlock musket seemed to be a marker of the better trained foot - both in the companies of artillery train guards as noted above but also for units for detached action. Presumably more reliable men were chosen to use the more expensive weapons. There is at least one firelock equipped Royalist company that seems to have functioned almost as a 17th century 'Special Forces' unit, being used for noctunral assaults on fortified places & the like ( & mentioned in Barrets 'The Cavaliers IIRC).

I have a feeling that it wasn't at all unusual for train masters to hire their own "muscle" to protect the wagons - a sort of 18th Century Halliburton (and about as efficient and reliable). Given the military reductions after the F&I War, and the shortages of troops at the outbreak of the Rebellion, you could justifiably use a load of militia figures to "ride shotgun". The small pieces I have since been able to find, make no mention of troops with the baggage train so a Militia Guard would proberly be more acurate. Stedman did allow a small fort to be built and garisoned at the location of his storehouse and house... but I cant see the british allowing a civilian to command any troops with the baggage train. As Stedman was in command of the baggage train on the fatefull day and there is no mention of any reguler Officer bieng killed, one can draw the conclusion that it was most likely guarded by militia.

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