I Have Set Up My Trenton Winter Terrain - Wowzers!

 

The town of Trenton, New Jersey on Christmas Day 1776
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Yesterday I decided that it was time to bring all of my Winter terrain for my Battle of Trenton wargame and see how it all looks out on the table. I was pleased to discover that I probably have all of what I need now and there are only a few pieces that I would want to have when I run the game. The Trenton game will be hosted at this year's Seven Years War Association convention in South Bend, IN at the end of March 2026. I will run the games again at Historicon in July 2026.

Here are some pictures of the table layout. Nearly all of the buildings were made by Herb Gundt. Herb also made the road segments, stands of trees and post and rail fences. The game mat was made by The Terrain Guy (no longer in business).

You Tube video link added: Battle of Trenton video

Looking down King Street on the left and Queen Street on the right. Alexander Hamilton's artillery 
battery is seen in the distance as it is ready to roll round shot down King Street towards the Hessians.

Overhead view of Trenton taken from one of the Montgolfier Brothers' hot air balloons.

Looking along Queen Street in the background we see (left to right) the Post Office and the Printer's Store 
from Williamsburg and one of the taverns from Williamsburg on the right.

The large stone house is actually a model of the Chew House at Germantown, Pennsylvania.
The Williamsburg Courthouse model is on the right.

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A Hessian 6-pound cannon sets up in the middle of Queen Street

Looking down King Street towards Hamilton's Battery

General George Washington watches the Delaware and Maryland regiments on the march.

Hamilton's Battery as Washington looks on approvingly.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures of the miniatures, which do not seem to photograph very well on a white background. I am still working on my photography technique for Winter pix and hopefully I can post some better looking pictures in the coming days,

I created a short 4-minute video tour of my Trenton game table and I posted it on my Facebook page. It is also posted on the Facebook group AWI Historical Wargaming FB Group

I will try to upload the video to my YouTube page so that I can provide a link for your viewing.

UPDATE    the YouTube video link is now added:   Jim's Trenton Video on YouTube

Winter Snow and Winter Roads - Trenton Project Begins

 

What does an 18th Century road look like in the Winter? How about like the path shown below at our local dog park:

This is probably the look that I would like to achieve when I make my own roads.

As  you can see it is a stew of black and white. The black is the underlying dirt/mud showing where many a foot has trod and the white is the snow. It is a pretty interesting looking pallet of neutral colors. The brownish dead brush grass and the black bark on the distant trees conveys a rather cold and shivering feel to it. 

Here is Don Troiani's version of a winter road showing the American army on the march to Trenton. I'd imagine that there would be more black footprints in the snow after 3,000 men and horses walked over the ground.

Here are a couple of pictures of my new Winter snow basing. What do you think?

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Farewell 2025 and Happy New Year 2026

 

Well here we are winding down the year 2025 and all in all it wasn't a bad year. I will do some sort of year in review post within the next several days. Some of the highlights include traveling to Las Vegas (my first visit there) to see The Eagles concert in the awesome Sphere. The Eagles are all in the 78 years to 80 years age range so I don't imagine that they will be playing too many more concerts. With that in mind, Mrs. Fritz and I are planning a return visit to Sin City and The Sphere to see the Eagles one last time. We also made a trip to San Fransisco to visit some relatives that are, shall we say, a decade older than the oldest Eagle (looking at you Joe Walsh).

I made two trips to HMGS conventions in Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Historicon in July and Fall In in November. I hosted four games at Historicon featuring my 54mm Hannibal collection; three games at Fall In with my 40mm Sharpe's Adventures In Spain games, and three more Hannibal games at Little Wars convention in April 2025 (in the Chicago area).

My major game project for 2026 conventions will be the Battles of Trenton and Princeton to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution.

In situ terrain exploration to determine the color of roads during the Winter, giving me ideas for some Winter terrain projects for 2026.

Happy New Year!

Fritz

Merry Christmas From Mr. and Mrs. Fritz

 

Mrs Fritz, der Alte Fritz and our hounds, Bella the Golden Retriever and
Angie the Doggie (Black Lab mix) wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.

Best wishes to all of my blog readers and followers for a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday Season and a Happy 2026.

I am grateful for all of the support that this blog and I get from my readers. It seems that at every war game convention several people will introduce themselves to me as blog followers and they tell me how much they enjoy this site, especially as they follow the progress of the various projects that I do, from start to finish. It is always great to meet you in person.

I hope that everyone got the present that they wanted and that you were surrounded by family and good friends.

Mrs. Fritz and I attended church service last evening at the local Episcopal Church and wow do they put on quite a spectacular show. The building is a stone structure that looks like something one would see in the English countryside. 

It is laid out in the form of a cross with the alter at the intersection of the cross. The high roof is supported by lots of exposed wooden beams that give it an Old World charm. The picture below gives you a sense of how the interior looks, although it does not show the two seating areas to the right and the left of the central alter.

Add in lots of pagentry ( I refer it to "Roman Catholic Lite") and red poinsettia flowers and you can't help but feel the Christmas Spirit.

vv

Cyber Monday Sale continues the Black Friday Sale Through December 6, 2025

 

We are extending the 20% discount on all items purchased through the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store. Several of our long time customers could not place their order before the sale period ended and so I extended the 20% discount for one more week.

Web Store Link

Enter the coupon code Concord2025 when you check out with your shopping cart to receive your 20% discount.

We want to thank everyone who took advantage of the sale to build up their SYW and AWI armies.

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Black Friday WEEK Sale - 20% Discount

 

Minden Miniatures Swiss in French service for the Seven Years War.

Guilford Courthouse battlefield park

It's that time of year when we eat lots of turkey and think about buying stuff. Lots of stuff. Lots of miniature figures, and lots of Fife and Drum Miniatures.

This year's Black Friday sale starts today and runs through November 30, 2025 so you don't have to join the maddening crowd and only buy online on the actual Black Friday day.

Enter the coupon code:

Concord2025

When you check out with your shopping cart on the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store

Fife and Drum Black Friday Sale

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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.