SYW Association Pictures - Part I

My Battle of Zorndorf game - Minden Miniatures

CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE

The Seven Years War Association held its 34th annual convention over the weekend of April 5th through April 7th at the Waterford Estates Lodge in South Bend, Indiana. There were 23 games hosted by a very talented group of game judges spanning the years 1703 to 1781. 

I hosted the Battle of Zorndorf game on Friday and Saturday with the Prussians winning convincing victories on both days. It was their cavalry that made all the difference in both games. I also had a dealer booth for the Fife & Drum and Minden Miniatures figures and I enjoyed chatting with old familiar customers and cultivating a few new ones with some free sample figures.

I have a lot of photos from the convention, so I will break up the recap of the convention over two or three posts.

Let us take a look at some of the convention games with the picture captions telling the story:

Jude Becker's Marlbourian game set in 1703. Combat General rules were used.

A closer view of the superb terrain and figures in Jude Becker's game.

Dean West's 15mm Battle of Breslau, using his Final Argument of Kings rules.

Paul Petri's Battle of Chotusitz using Volley & Bayonet rules and well painted 1/72 plastic figures.

Marshal Maurice de Saxe arrives onto the battlefield with his escort of uhlans.
Ed Phillips created this vignette using largely Minden Miniatures figures.

18th Century medical ambulance vignette by Ed Phillips.

The Redoubt d'Eu at the battle of Fontenoy. This was a spectacular looking game with excellent terrain and lots of the Crann Terra Miniatures War of Austrian Succession figures. Kaiserin Krieg rules and around 1,000 miniatures were used in this game.

The French defenders of Fontenoy.

The British and Hanoverian battalions getting ready to attack their French adversaries at Fontenoy.

Tod Kershner's version of Fontenoy, using 20mm plastic figures and his Age of Reason rules.

A close up view of one of Tod's British cavalry regiments.

Tod's rendition of the town of Fontenoy. I really really like the look of this town,
especially the windmill in the center of town.

A picture of my Zorndorf game, using Minden Miniatures figures.

Russian Horse Grenadiers and Cossacks attempt to hold the Prussian Puttkamer Hussars at bay in the battle of Zorndorf.

Many of the convention attendees arrive on Thursday evening to set up their games for the next day, set up dealer booths, or simply to socialize and catch up on the doings of long time friends. Since the venue is booked for Thursday through Saturday, we had a couple of games scheduled for Thursday evening - this being done for the very first time in the history of the convention. Paul Petri really stepped up by hosting two games on Thursday, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. It was a great  idea to take advantage of the open time and space to run a game. I hope that next year there will be a few more Thursday games.

The quality of the terrain and figures plus some challenging game scenarios were very impressive to me. A couple of games really checked all of my boxes including Jude Becker's Marlboroughian game, Steve Dake's 40mm FIW on the frontier game using 40mm Triton figures, and both of the Fontenoy games. I was very busy running my game and manning the dealer booth at the same time, so this limited my wondering around time during the convention. Thanks go to my nephew, Alex Akers for assisting me in both the dealer booth and judging the game. This way, we always had one of us in both places at the same time.

Steve Dake's Pontiac's Rebellion in 40mm using the Triton Miniatures figures.

40mm fort in Steve Dake's game.

Triton 40mm Indians are brought to life under the skillful brushwork of Steve Dake. The word "awesome" is used a lot, but these figures truly are AWESOME!

Late Saturday afternoon, we held a panel of old Grognard association members in which the history of the of SYWA was discussed along with their philosphy on rules writing and development. The panel consisted of Ken Bunger and Bill Protz, both of whom were instrumental in starting the SYWA, Tod Kershner, author of "The Age of Reason" and many other historical era rules, Dean West of Johnny Reb and Final Argument of Kings rules, and me. A lot of good discussion, ideas and history were exchanged back and forth during this session.

Professor Fritz does a little bit of 'splainging in front of the crowd.

After a break for dinner, we returned to the convention hall to play in some light hearted and fun skirmish games. Tom Miller/Dan Hoodin hosted an old school French and Indian War game using Charge rules. Thom Osborne put on a really small skirmish game set during the AWI using Forager rules. Each player managed 3 or 4 figures and each figure had its own unique personalty/skills/traits that made the game fun. Ken Bunger hosted a large Tricorn game with 28mm figures and the Battle of Breslau continued on from the afternoon game.

Alex and I played in the Charge game set somewhere on the frontier during the French and Indian War. Alex played the French and I had some Indians. A British foraging party was ambushed by the French and Indians and then we carried on towards the fort/supply base of the British, who were seemingly protected by a couple of warships, one huge and the other smaller.

I was holding my Indians back a little bit after conducting a successful ambush of the foraging party. At this point two kids about 12-something joined the game and added more Indian warbands to the game. They rushed forward down the road and when they reached the clearing in front of the warships, they surged forward to charge the British garrison. This spurred me out of my lethargy and I joined in the charge towards the British regulars. In short, we made short work of them. Kids have a contagious energy in games and they really made the game work because they had no fear.

Saturday Night Charge Game set during the FIW

Tom Miller's terror of the Great Lakes - a large tall ship armed with cannon having a  range of 6 feet.

Herb Gundt and Ed Phillips have a good laugh during the Saturday Night Skirmish Game

Exceelent terrain in Herb's skirmish game

I was glad to see some games on Saturday night because in recent years, members were bugging out on Saturday afternoon rather than staying over for the evening session. As far back as I can remember, Saturday evening used to be when the best of the best games were scheduled for prime time viewing and playing. Also light, fun skirmish games were presented as a sort of after-dinner apertif. Somehow this tradition has withered away, but I am hopeful that we will see more skirmish games in the evening with more people staying at the convention for Saturday evening.

I will post another thread showing more pictures of the Fontenoy game of Fogleman/Goetel which featured hoards of Crann Tara War of the Austrian Succession figures as well as pictures that I took during my two Zorndorf games.

Stay tuned for more and do come back again for Part II.

A Couple of Quickies

I'm m at the Seven Years War Association this weekend and there are a lot of quality games no fun scenarios. I just want to post a couple of pictures whilst on the road. I will post a more detailed report Sunday evening.

We Are Off to The Seven Years War Association Convention!

Der Alte Fritz is force marching his way to South Bend, IN and the SYWA convention.

I have my Ford Explorer packed to the rafters with a combination of Fife & Drum/Minden stock and all of the terrain and figures that I will be using in my two Zorndorf games. You can look at the new SYW Russian figures and AWI Mounted Militia figures that have been recently added to our ranges of figures.

CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE

Russian Shuvulov Howitzer in action at my solo play of Zorndorf earlier this year.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the SYW British and Hanoverians in their barracks and they were joined by some of the AWI cavalry (although the new American Mounted Militia will be at the show).

AWI Hessians - these have been based since this picture was taken last year.

I will be setting up my dealer booth this afternoon and then set up the table for my Zorndorf game. I will be ably assisted by my nephew, Alex, so that one of us will always be at the dealer booth whilst the other is running the game or sight-seeing in the game room.

The convention is being held at the Waterford Estates Lodge in South Bend, Indiana on Friday and Saturday April 7th and 8th. If you are in the area, please feel free to drop in and have a look, do some shopping or even get into at game. Our group is a very friendly and sociable lot and we warmly welcome newcomers, so do drop in.

I will try to post some pictures over the weekend, but the portable Blogger ap is not very useful on the road, sad to say. Nevertheless, I will be doing a full post about the convention, probably on Sunday evening. So stay tuned.

I Am Packing My Bags!

I have been bagging Minden inventory over the past couple of weeks, almost nonstop, so it seems. I am happy to say that most of the "bagging and packaging" of figures is largely completed. Now all that is left is to tidy up some loose ends such as printing and laminated my QRC charts for my rules and updating my catalog handouts.

The pictures below illustrate some of the packing and organized chaos that has taken over the Man Cave. Saturday evening I completed the tear down of the Zorndorf terrain and packed it up into boxes. The trees alone take up five boxes. The foam insulation boards are seated under my game mat in order to create contours.

All of the Minden inventory is getting bagged and transferred to traveling bins
to use at the SYW Association  Convention next week.

This year I am not bringing the rolling plastic drawers (6 drawers stacked atop each other) that normally hold my bagged stock, instead, replacing them with flat sweater boxes that I can lay out on the dealer table -- this actually reduces the footprint of the stock containers and also makes it easier for customers to inspect and look at the figures that they are hopefully interested in purchasing. I will take pictures of my dealer booth after it is set up so that you can see what the final product looks like.

My Russian army is packed away in three storage bins, ready to travel to South Bend.

The Definition of Insanity is...

Last night I did an experimental packing of my car/vehicle to see how much space it had - none actually - in the hope that I would not have to rent a commercial van. Alas, no. The combination of carrying dealer stock and terrain items for my wargame proved to be too much for my van. So it's off to Hertz or Enterprise car rental today to book a vehicle for the weekend. The alternative is to severely cut back on either my stock or downsize my game, but neither of those seem like viable options.

Going forward, I think that I have to choose a lane and stay in it: either be a dealer at the show or just be a game judge/host. Doing both is starting to wear me out. I am very tired right now, having worked on convention preparations almost non-stop since last September. Too much hobby ruins the hobby for me. I look forward to the convention, but I also look forward to it being over so that I can resume a more liesurely pace to my hobby activities.

Some Changes in the Future

After I return from the convention I plan on repainting the game room and maybe replacing the old worn carpet with something new. I'm thinking of a color scheme of cream-yellow with white woodwork trim. The light grey commerical carpet does a wonderful job of hiding the dirt that accumulates so I will probably use a similar type of carpet in the new upgrade. The Man Cave is in bad need of an upgrade, having served me well for these last 14 years. 

As I was moving tables around, thinking about how to get all of "the stuff" away from the walls and into the center of the room in preparation for the painters, I decided to reduce the size of my game table from 6ft x 15ft to 6ft x 12ft. The extra table space is nice, but I often don't use it or need it. Reducing the table size will open up the sitting area of the room where I can sit in a comfy old stuffed chair and ottoman while reading Duffy and sipping on a single malt Scotch and wearing comfortable slippers and a smoking jacket, etc. (more likely, Diet Coke and sweat pants and worn out running shoes, but that doesn't present an attractive picture now, does it?)

Fife & Drum Web Store Announcements

I want to give my blog readers a heads up on some changes that we are making on the business side of things over at Fife & Drum and Minden Miniatures. These include a change in the way that we will package our AWI figures as well as an expected price increase across both figure ranges. 

Also, in case you missed previous announcements on the new additions to the AWI range, I am reposting them today for your information.


PACKAGING  CHANGE FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION FIGURES, EFFECTIVE MAY 1, 2018
Please note that as of May 1, 2018 the figures from the Fife & Drum American Revolution (or AWI) will no longer be sold as single figures. Going forward, the figures will be bagged in product codes of 4 to 8 figures for infantry and foot figures, which is the same packaging that is already in use for the AWI Hessians and all of the Minden SYW figure ranges. Some of the AWI cavalry figures will continue to be sold as single figures as will the personality figures.

PRICE INCREASE EFFECTIVE MAY 1, 2018
There will also be a moderate increase in prices for the Fife & Drum/Minden figures going into effect on May 1, 2018. We have not increased our prices since 2012, but regretably we need to catch up with the increased cost of operating our business since that time. 

Infantry figure packs will increase from $16.00 to $17.00 for a pack of 8 figures. Commensurate price changes will be made to the packs with smaller numbers of figures.

Cavalry figures will not change in price, thus remaining at $6.00 per horse & rider set or $12.00 in packs of two figures and $18.00 in packs of three figures.

Artillery equipment and wagon prices will not be increased.

Any orders received before then will  be priced under the old packaging and price list.
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MOUNTED MILITIA FIGURES ADDED TO THE AWI RANGE (FEBRUARY 2018)
We have added six packs of the new American Mounted Militia figures to the web store. Click on the American Revolution pull down menu and select British and Continental Cavalry to find the product codes:
AC-023 Dragoons in Hunting Shirts
AC-024 Mounted Militia in Tricorn Hats
AC-025 Mounted Militia in Brimmed Hats
AC-026 Mounted Militia in Brimmed Hats turned up on right side
AC-027 Mounted Militia Officer
AC-028 Mounted Militia Regiment Pack - includes all eleven of the mounted militia figures at a discount price

SOUTH CAROLINA CONTINENTALS ADDED TO THE WEB STORE (JANUARY 2018)
We have added four packs of the new South Carolina Continentals (wearing leather caps) to the web store. Click on the American Revolution pull down menu and select Continentals and Militia to find the product codes:
CA-019 South Carolina Command (4 figures)
CA-020 South Carolina Standard Bearers (2 figures)
CA-021 South Carolina Continentals Marching (8 figures)
CA-023 South Carolina Continentals Skirmishing. (4 figures)

Casualty Counters, Chickens and a Man in a Hurry

Casualties, chickens and one guy in a hurry.
Click to enlarge all pictures.

I spent last week in Costa Rica for my daughter's spring break so I lost a week's time for my preparations for the SYW Association Convention on April 5th and 6th in South Bend, Indiana. 

My Costa Rica Vacation

Not that there is anything wrong about taking a vacation in Costa Rica, in fact we had a good time with the weather sunny and in the 80-95F temperature range. We spent the first part of the trip in the Arenal area, which is where many of the volcanos are located. With the higher elevation, the temperature was mild (70-80F range). Our hotel had a large hot springs pool which was kind of nice.

The second half of the week was spent on the Pacific coast, where the air is drier and the temperatures are oven hot. I'm not one who likes to sit around the swimming pool roasting in the sun, so we went on three Eco-tours to see the countryside and the wildlife: sloths, various types of monkeys, Caymans and alligators, birds birds birds, and a few snakes.

Here are a few pictures of the wild life that we saw on our trip: 

Some Howler Monkeys have the right idea, take a nap in the trees.

A big old nasty Cayman sunning himself on the bank of the Canon Negra river.

Our riverboat nature tour.

Painting Challenge

I'm participating in a Painting Challenge with some of my friends and acquaintances and so I was finally able to enter some items in the Challenge. It is not a competition and there is no pressure to paint lots and lots of figures. The idea is to give one a short time goal in which to do the painting.

I finished 18 Russian casualty discs, one RSM Aide de Camp, one dead Cossack and one Hovels vignette of a farm girl feeding the chickens.

Mostly Minden casualty figures in green coats and Foundry Russian casualties wearing the red waistcoat.
The Cossack and horse are also foundry figures. 

Russian ADC/messenger - RSM figure mounted on a Minden horse - and the  Hovels farm girls

Casualty Discs

I use the casualty discs to represent the removal of figure stands during a game. Most of my battalions have 5 stands of 6 figures, so when there are 6 casualties on the stand, it is removed and replaced by a fallen soldier to mark the spot where the stand was remove. Over the course of the game, you can see where the battle is moving by looking at all of the casualty discs that are scattered across the table.

The casualty discs can also be used as "Victory Points" in my games. Each side gets a VP for each enemy stand that is removed from the game. For the cavalry, I use only one casualty stand to mark the place where a cavalry melee occurred.

The Full Russian Artillery Pix

Minden SYW Russian artillery battery complete with limbers and munitions wagons.
Please click or double click on all pictures to enlarge.

I have been working my tail off trying to get my Russian army painted and ready for this year's Seven Years War Association convention on April 5 and 6, 2018.

This week I finished four limber teams and a stand of artillery fusiliers for each of the four cannon models that the Russians will use in my Zorndorf game. I will let the picture captions tell most of the story.

I like to take the time to assemble and paint limber teams of four horses, the limber and the artillery train driver (the "driver" rides on a horse, not on the limber or wagon). I then add a stand of two figures representing the laborers or the trained artillery fusiliers, as the case may be. I used Russian artillery crewmen and placed muskets in some of their hands. Others hold ropes to drag the cannon back into position and several hold wood poles to use for who knows what - I just like the way that they look.

I also like to add a munitions wagon to the artillery battery. In this case, Ed Phillips hand built these colorful Russian wagons and I have eagerly added them to my artillery contingent. When you put all of the elements together, you can see that there is a lot of extra equipment located behind the cannons which would make it a bit of a problem to move through the battery.

Front view of the battery: two 12-pounders (left) and two Shuvulov Howitzers (right).

I also needed a new General Fermor command stand and so I painted and terrained Fermor and his staff over the past couple of days.

"Petr, look at the flowers, look at the flowers!"
General Willim Fermor (mounted, pointing) and two staff members.
I have no idea  what it is that they find so interesting.

Close up view of the battery depicts the stand of 2 artillery fusiliers standing behind the cannon, the munitions wagons for each of the two gun sections, and limber teams (4 horses and one driver). The battery commander is in the upper left hand corner of the picture.

A close up view of the Fife & Drum limbers and artillery train drivers. I used the Austrian driver as a Russian. The colorful munitions wagons were scratch-built by the talented Ed Phillips, to which I have added a pair of limber horses and a train driver.

Side view of the Russian battery. Sorry about the first cannon being a little bit out of focus. The Minden civlian laborers set No. 2 have been drafted into the Russian artillery corps. They are carrying a heavy box that is probably full of things that go BOOM!

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