French & Indian War, British Provincial Cavalry

 

New unit finished is a dinky little 6 figure cavalry unit for the Seven Years War / F&IW in North America. These figures were a bargain blister picked up at Foundry headquarters in Nottingham, so were unlabelled, but I thought they might do for a SYW British light dragoon regiment. However once I had checked with my reference books my plan was derailed as I confirmed that the figures were in fact a mix of cavalry figures from the American War of Independence range.

Many months later I came across a discussion about small American provincial cavalry units on TMP. Details were sketchy except they were probably very low in numbers and likely used for courier duties. Uniform information included green coats and leather caps and this sounded close enough to what my figures were wearing to justify their use. Although this makes the unit quite a way towards the "ImagiNation" end of gaming, I am not too worried and I don't think it will greatly unbalance the SYW in North America games that we  play.

My uniform choice for this unit was red coats in imitation of the British light cavalry units that had recently been formed rather than green as I will use them for various units not just Pennsylvania Provincials (who wore green.) I gave them green facings though, which always looks good with red coats!. Buff coloured small clothes were chosen to give the riders a SYW look in contrast to the white that was more common for the later wars. Unfortunately the horses with these figures came in just 2 poses but with a nice bunch of pouches, saddlebags and blankets that make them look nicely campaignie and non-standard. With these and the horses in different colours I don't think the lack of pose shows up too much.

I did consider finding or converting some more figures to make the unit up to a full strength (in Piquet terms) of 4+ stands. However this might make the cavalrymen too powerful and distort the tactics of a North American battle in the Seven Years War. So I have stuck with 3 bases, and their general will just have to use them with care or risk them being shot up by almost any opposition they encounter.