Historicon Report Part One

 

His Nibs at Historicon with his Battle of Trenton game
Best of Show Award winner at this year's Historicon

I returned home yesterday from the Historicon convention and I'd like to report that it was successful show for me on a number of levels.

My Battle of Trenton game won the Best of Show Award for the convention and I am very honored to have been considered amongst many other worthy war games. I also won a PELA award for my game. PELA = Pour Encourager Les Autres (for the encouragement of others).

The Best of Show Award presented to me for my Battle of Trenton game.

The convention theme was the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution and birth of the United States so of course I had to select and AWI game to host at the convention. I was looking to do something different this year and get away from the large multi-table games with 54mm soldiers. I wanted to do a game on one table this year so that I wouldn't have to pack everything into the back end of a truck to haul it from Chicago to Pennsylvania.

So I selected the Battle of Trenton on Christmas Day Eve in 1776 because it was possibly the turning point in the American Revolution. Combined with the Battle of Princeton several days later, historians call this time The Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution. I hosted four Trenton games and one Princeton game over the period Thursday through Saturday and all of them were booked full with 8 players for each Trenton game and 7 players for the Princeton game.

Here are some pictures of my Trenton game.

For me, the main thing for a convention game is to have all of the player slots full or close to full. For example, I could have easily run the Trenton game with 6 players (or even 4!) rather than the 8 listed on the program.

Two of my four Trenton games were a "what if" alternative history called "Now Let's Go Surprise Mr. Washington". The premise was that Colonel Rall of the Hessian garrison at Trenton took the rumors of an American attack seriously and so reinforcements from nearby Bordentown, NJ (Hessians) and Princeton (British flank company troops) had arrived at Trenton prior to the start of the battle. Washington wasn't expecting the Trenton garrison to be reinforced so the Americans had a more difficult time securing a win. My recollection is a bit foggy but I believe that the British/Hessian army won at least one of the alternative history battles.

The other two Trenton battles followed the historical orders of battle and both games were American victories. In the final Trenton game, the outcome depended on one Hessian regiment escaping the town over the Assunpink Creek Bridge. Whoever moved first on the next turn would be the winner, so rather than run another game turn, I had both sides roll a D10 die and whoever won that got the initiative first. Had the Hessians won the die roll, they would have been able to march the regiment over the bridge to safety and a game win. If the Americans won the initiative die roll, they would have moved first and charged into the rear of the Hessian regiment that was trying to march over the bridge. This would have destroyed the Hessian unit, resulting in an American victory.

The Americans won the initiative die roll and so I ended the game there declaring an American victory. That was a fun game with the outcome coming down to a single roll of one D10 die.

The Battle of Princeton game was a decisive American victory. The Americans had a substantial advantage in numbers ( 4 brigades of infantry) over the British (3 regiments plus an assortment of light companies and grenadier companies and dismounted dragoons). The Americans used their numbers to break through the center and right flank of the British army. The British held sway on their left flank and so that contingent probably would have retreated back to Princeton.

The Battle of Princeton game that I hosted

As you can see from the game pictures, the games featured the Winter terrain that I have been featuring on this blog over the past several months. One doesn't often see a game with complete Winterized terrain so this sort of made the terrain stand out from other games.

Much of my terrain was inspired by Pat Smith's book, "Setting the Scene -Winter Terrain". Pat has a blog called Wargaming With Silver Whistle and he wrote two books, one covering Mediterranean terrain and the other covering the Ardennes terrain for the Battle of the Bulge. He provides step by step instructions for making roads, trees, ice streams and snow covered buildings. This book was very handy and it gave me the confidence to give it a try.

I met some interesting people at the show:

Der Alte Fritz meets Goober the Traveling Bear

Fritz and Kevin of The Chuckleheads group discussing strategery.

Fritz and one of his Fife and Drum customers

I big thank you goes out to my many blog readers who took the time to stop by and say hello. It is always nice to match up a face with a name and your many kind comments give me the encouragement to keep on blogging about the hobby.

I also want to thank the 40 people who played in my five games during the convention. They were all gentlemen and really got into playing their roles as American generals or Hessian officers. This is what makes the games fun for me.

I will post several more Historicon reports over the course of this week so that I can spread out the pictures over several days.

Thank you for reading and following my blog. I am honored by your support.

Fife and Drum Miniatures Challenge Coin

 

Since it is the 250th Anniversary today of the Declaration of Independence I want to introduce the Challenge Coin that I will be handing out to players in my games at Historicon. These are 1.75-inches in diameter and are colored in enamel. The front side features the Fife and Drum logo and the reverse mentions the anniversary of the United States.

Post-Historicon I plan to give away free coins to Fife and Drum and Minden customers for all orders of $50.00 or more. If these are well received then I will make another challenge coin with the Minden logo.

Happy July 4th Holiday to all of my blog readers.

Jim

SYW Village in Silesia Under Attack

 

I posted these pictures on Facebook on my own page and several other 18th Century wargaming pages and thought that they are worthy of showing on my blog. The pictures were snapped in May 2022.

The Austrian and Prussian figures are based for my War of the Austrian Succession armies. Yes, I have separate armies for the WAS and the SYW.

The stands have a frontage of 60mm and a depth of 80mm. This provides enough depth on the stand to protect the figures (specifically their muskets) 8h a firing line configuration. It also allows me to put a third rank of file closers behind the two ranks of rank and file soldiers. Here I place the drummers in the corners of the battalion line, as they should be, as well as an assortment of NCOs and officers. Click on the pictures for a larger and closer view to see the basing format that I am using for these armies.

Here are some more SYW pictures that I am posting for Stokes. :)

I like to place various buildings and towns in the corners of my game table so as not to disrupt the playability of the battle. The village in these pictures includes some Ian Weekley thatched houses and a church that was made by Herb Gundt.

His Royall Nibs, King Frederick II of Prussia.
Minden Miniatures

The village blacksmith

The back table of the picture shown below. Ian Weekley models in the corner
surrounded by the Russian army (boo, hiss).

Two villages in the corners on the front and back table.
It is fun to set these up as dioramas.

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Maurice de Saxe in his carriage

 

French marshall Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy with his Uhlans de Saxe escort
Minden figures all sculpted by Richard Ansell.

I was browsing through my photo library today and I came across this wonderful photo Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. The marshall was suffering from gout on the morning of the battle and so he traveled around the battlefield in a wicker carriage. His Uhlans de Saxe bodyguard escorted him during the battle.

The uhlans and the Maurice de Saxe personality figure are available in the Minden Miniatures figure range. The wicker carriage was made by Westphalia Forge in a joint venture with Minden Miniatures back in 2016 or 2017, thereabouts. I only have about 8 to 10 sets of the carriage/Maurice/a pair of horses with uhlan riders. The uhlans with the lances are sold as a different pack of figures.

Fife and Drum webstore link to Maurice personality figure

I have a modest SYW or WAS army that I have been building over the years, but it has yet to fight a table top battle for me. Perhaps I should take care of that after the Historicon convention is over. 

Minden Miniature Cuirassiers du Roi

Minden French Fusiliers painted as the Royal DuPont regiment.
These figures are in another collector's army and were painted by "Mischa" in Germany.

Minden French Fusiliers painted by a customer in the UK

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British Artillery Vignette for AWI

 

Minden Miniatures Agricultural Workers Set figures carrying ammunition 
from a British ammo wagon

I am working on several vignettes to include in my Historicon games in July. The components of the ammunition cart vignette are not all painted or based yet, but I wanted to show a work in progress photo.

It is difficult taking good pictures on winter terrain. Everything is too dark even though I am using extra lights to improve the lighting.

British battery of 6-pound guns

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Prussia Forever by Lady Butler?

 

Prussia Forever !  (painted by Der Alte Fritz)
The charge of the Zieten Hussars
Minden Miniatures figures

Today I was scrolling through some of the pictures in my iPhotos library (there are nearly 28,000 pictures in all) and I found this one in my album of "Favorites". It is my recreation of the famous painting by Lady Butler called "Scotland Forever!" which features the epic charge of the Scots Greys at the battle of Waterloo in June 1815.

Instead of British Napoleonic figures I used Prussian Seven Years War hussars from Minden Miniatures.

Inspiration: the original painting of the charge of the Scots Greys at the 
Battle of Waterloo by Lady Butler

Here is an overhead view of the figures that I set up for the photo shoot a few years ago. The figure leading the charge is Hans von Zeiten, Himself, and he is one of the special personality figures that are available in the Minden Miniatures range of Seven Years War figures. The H2 von Zieten Hussar Regiment leads the charge. I added some H5 Black Hussars in the background to pad out volume of cavalrymen to make a better picture.

Here is a close up view of the "Heroic Zieten" figure from the Minden range.

Heroic Zieten Personality Figure   (PER-011 stock number)

PER-011 "Heroic Zeiten" personality figure from Minden Miniatures

This exceptionally animated figure was sculpted by the late Richard Ansell as part of a Kickstarter campaign that we did a long time ago. An individual donor's award at a high level was the ability to have several figures of his choice sculpted for him. He chose this highly animated hussar officer leaping into a charge as his figure of choice. In my mind, this is probably the best figure in the entire Minden Miniatures figure range.

So that is the story behind this exceptional figure and he looks quite spectacular when painted and leading the charge of Prussian light cavalry into a tabletop battle.

Lt. Colonel Charles Mawhood

 

Lt. Colonel Charles Mawhood
Fife and Drum Miniatures

Here is a picture of the command stand for the British commander at the Battle of Princeton, Lt. Colonel Charles Mawhood (pronounced "Ma-Whooo-D"). One of the books that I read mentioned that his dog accompanied him into battle. 

The mounted officer is the Fife and Drum Miniatures Briish mounted officer wearing a round hat. The dog is from one of the Perry Miniatures AWI vignette sets of figures.

I have not done the snow basing for the command stand yet.

Click on the link to the brief biography of Mawhood on wikipedia.

Charles Mawhood Wikipedia bio

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Perry 16th Light Dragoons, Dismounted

 

Perry Miniatures dismounted 16th Light Dragoons

I needed some figures for the 16th Light Dragoons at the Battle of Princeton, and since Fife and Drum does not make these figures, I purchased the dismounted figures from Perry Miniatures. Yes, Old Fritz does use some of the Perry AWI figures from time to time in his collection. They are a tad more robust than my figures, but to my eye the two ranges fit together quite nicely.

Note: Fife and Drum does have the mounted versions of the 16th LD, but not the dismounted or foot dragoons. Early in the AWI there was actually a battalion of dismounted dragoons, or foot dragoons, comprising the 16th LD. There weren't sufficient horses transported from England to the Colonies when General Howe's army landed in New York. Undoubtedly the plan was to secure the mounts in the Colonies.

At any rate, these are fun figures to paint and there is a nice variety of poses, four in all. They will be fighting for King George at Historicon this year when I host The Battle of Princeton.

Perry dismounted 16th Light Dragoons
Colonial Williamsburg gunpowder armory made by Herb Gundt.

Here is a picture of the armory that Herb Gundt made for me. It hasn't made it 
out on the table for very many games so I thought that I should post a picture of 
this fine work of art. It is modeled after the building in Williamsburg.

I have been busy painting figures for a small British army at the Battle of Princeton scenario that I am running at Historicon this year. There will be more pictures posted over the next several days.

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New Winterized Roads for Trenton Game

The town of Trenton, NJ in the winter

 

After looking at various pictures of winter terrain, specifically the roads, I decided to change the look of my roads from a light brown under color with snow flock to a black underfloor with snow flock. I think that the black roads give the desired effect of a cold, dark and freezing winter environment.

Closer view of the streets with the black and white snow motif 

A view of my game room

Battle of Princeton table top mock up

I have two game tables in my basement and now that Trenton is nearly buttoned up, I am turning my attention to the terrain and figures for my Battle of Princeton game. This one features my colorful Redcoats against the Continental army.

This is not the final tabletop set up, just a mock up to give me an idea of the spacing that is needed for the game. I only have one table at Historicon so I will have to tear down my Trenton game and then set up the Princeton game on the same table. Thus I will be able to use all of my winterized trees and roads in both game.

The pictures below show the brown roads that I previously had. You can compare the brown and black styles by clicking on the pictures in this blog post

The British 27th Regiment using Fife and Drum "Continentals" figures in tricorn hats for the British.

Battle of Princeton: the Clarke Farm. Both sides will fight for control of the farm area.

A small detachment of British 16th Light Dragoons

The 42nd Highlander Regiment
Fife and Drum Miniatures

I am not using British regiments that are specifically set for the British order of battle at Princeton, but rather, I painted units for which I already had the GMB Designs flags in my stock of flags. And of course, I had to have the 42nd Highlander regiment in the game.

I recently purchased some of the Perry dismounted 16th Light Dragoons to use in the scenario since Fife and Drum Miniatures doesn't make these particular figure - yet  LOL!

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Fife & Drum British in 1768 Warrant Dress (?)

 

British 20th Regiment
Fife and Drum Miniatures

I decided that I would need several British Redcoat regiments wearing cocked hats for my Princeton 1777 game that I am running at Historicon this year. They had to be Fife and Drum Miniatures figures to maintain the consistent look of all of the figures in the game. While we don't officially have British wearing cocked (tricorn hats if you will) it occurred to me that we had something very close in appearance.

And that would be the Fife and Drum Continentals figures, as shown below:

British center company infantry from Fife and Drum Miniatures
These are actually some of the Continental figures painted in red coats.

To my eye, the Continentals look very similar to the British 1768 Regulation and so I thought that I would paint a unit of them in red coats and see how they turn out.

I think that they look pretty good as shown below.

I am no expert on the 1768 Regulartions uniforms other than to notice that they wore breeches and hosiery and some half-gaiters at their ankles whereas the early 1776 campaign uniform has them wearing the one-piece "overalls" and the tricorn hat. The Fife and Drum British wear the overalls but sport the round hat, which was more practical to wear in the field as it provided better protection from the sun. I noticed that the Continental uniforms of the 1776-1777 period look very similar to the early British uniform so I think that it is perfectly fine to use them as British soldiers.

Now we do have the British grenadiers that would be correct for 1776-1777. I painted a small unit of 16 figures using the Fife and Drum grenadiers in firing line poses. I don't see many AWI firing line painted regiments on the internet and my own unit of grenadiers are marching, so I decided to use the firing line poses for my winterized Princeton British Grenadiers.

British Grenadiers in bearskin hats
Fife and Drum Miniatures

In conclusion, if you are already using Fife and Drum Miniatures in your British armies and you would like to have some of the figures wearing the cocked hat, then consider using the Continental soldier figures in our figure range.

One of these days we will be adding "official" redcoats wearing cocked hats.

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I Like This Picture

 

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I was scrolling through my iPhotos library and this picture randomly popped up on the screen this morning .

The picture is from my 40mm Sharpe's Peninsula game at the Little Wars convention this past April. That's the convention where they stuck my game table in some far away back room that nobody could find. Grrr.

At any rate, the photo shows the Vistula Lancers riding down a company of the British 45th regiment that was attempting to withdraw across the Coa River bridge. Alas, they didn't make it. Some other Lancers are trying to ride down some other Redcoats, but they were made of sterner stuff and shot down the charging lancers to the man. A little help from some of Sharpe's riflemen helped too, although both Sharpe and Harper were either killed or captured during the game.

However, one way or another I suspect that Sharpe and Harper will march again.

New Products: Hessian Fusiliers and Continentals in Round Hats

 

Continentals in Hunting Shirts and Round Hats

We are happy to announce the addition of 14 new packs of figures for the Fife and Drum Miniatures American Revolution (AWI) range. There are 8 new packs of Continentals wearing round hats with some wearing uniform coats and some wearing hunting shirts.

There are also 6 new packs of Hessian Fusiliers wearing miter hats. These arrived just in time for me to paint a regiment for my Battle of Trenton game at this year's Historicon convention (July 15 - 19, 2026).

Here are the links to the Fife and Drum webstore where you can take a look at the new figures, and dare I say, order a few packs and start building your AWI regiments. Note that each Continental product code has pictures of the new figures whereas the Hessians do not yet have their pictures. I recently finished painting the Hessian samples and still must snap some pictures and upload them to the web store.

Hessian Fusiliers in webstore

Continentals in webstore

The new Continental in round hats

CA-029 Continental Command in Round Hats

CA-030 Continentals in Round Hats Firing

CA-031 Continentals in Round Hats Advancing

CA-032 Continentals in Round Hats ram rods

CA-033 Continentals in Round Hats cocking muskets

CA-034 Hunting Shirts with Round Hats, cocking muskets

CA-035 Pullover hunting shirt with round hat , firing

CA-036 hunting shirts open in the front and round hats, firing

New Hessian Fusiliers in Miter Hats

Note: no pictures yet, but coming soon!

HP-010  Hessian Fusilier Command, Standing

HP-011  Hessian Fusilier Command, Marching

HP-012  Hessian Fusiliers Marching

HP-013  Hessian Fusiliers standing firing

HP-014  Hessian Fusiliers 2nd rank for firing line

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