Little Wars Pix!

 

Carthaginians on the left and Romans on the right

Here are a few pictures of my Hannibal game Thursday evening. The game was a recreation of sorts of the Battle of Cannae. The Carthaginian players managed to successfully employ Hannibal's double envelopment strategy to win the game.

Cavalry battle on the Roman left flank. The outnumbered Romans held off the
Carthaginian allies - Numidian light cavalry - for nearly the whole game.

The battle lines close and come to grips. (Romans on upper right and Carthaginians
on the lower left)

The Carthaginian elephants on the attack!

Hannibal leads from the front.

Celtic cavalry rode around the Roman right flank and attacked the 
legions in the rear to seal the victory.

Italian allies find themselves attacked from front to flank.

Spanish infantry advance

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Little Wars Convention Starts Tomorrow!

 

Roman legionaries square off against Hannibal's Celtic troops.
John Jenkins Designs 60mm toy soldiers

Tomorrow, Thursday, sees the start of the HMGS-Midwest Little Wars convention from April 24 through April 27, 2025. The event is held at the Sheridan Hotel in Lisle, Illinois.

I will be running my 54mm Hannibal! war game on Thursday evening, Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning. 

A review of the sign up sheet indicates that there are plenty of opening in my Saturday morning game at 10:30AM. Click on the link below to travel to the Tabletop Events site for Little Wars and my game.

Hannibal! game link 

This afternoon I did several solo run throughs of the game and the rules to iron out a couple of wrinkles and I feel like I am ready to roll. The Thursday evening game starts at 7:00PM and hopefully the room will be open for setting up my tables around 4:00PM. It usually takes me about two hours to set up one of my 54mm war-games. Last year the hotel staff didn't take down tables for a previous event that day and so I couldn't start setting up my game until about 6:00PM for a game scheduled to start at 7:00PM. Hopefully such things have been ironed out for this year.

The Friday game is scheduled for 1:00PM and the Saturday game is scheduled for 10:30AM. If you are in the area then please stop by and enroll in the Saturday Hannibal! wargame. Or just stop by and say hello. I enjoy meeting my blog readers.

The Shot Heard 'Round the World - April 19, 1775

 

The British are coming!

Today, April 19, 2025, marks the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution on that same day in 1775. The picture above depicts the Americans getting the word about what is up. The picture below depicts a column of British soldiers on the march through the Massachusetts countryside.

British infantry on the march. Towards Lexington and Concord?

With the 250th Anniversary kicking off today, you can expect Fife and Drum Miniatures and this blog to be oriented towards the events and battles of the American Revolution (ok, American War of Independence, if you must, but please don't).

Fife and Drum Miniatures offers an extensive range of 1/56 scale figures (approximately 28mm in size) that covers the period of the war, albeit, we do not offer British figures wearing tricorn/cocked hats. Our British figures are kitted out in the campaign look of shorter tailed coats and brimmed hats, the latter of which were more practical on campaign. Have you ever worn a tricorn hat and tried to do the manual of arms without knocking off your chapeau? That's why the British (and we) present ourselves with the tricorn brim turned down. But I digress...

Patriot Day (month) sale is ongoing through April 30, 2025

This is just a reminder that Fife and Drum Miniatures (and Minden Miniatures) is offering a 22% discount on its products from April 12th through 30th of this month in 2025. To order, visit the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store (click on the link below) and enter the coupon code  Lexington2025  and your 22% discount will automatically be applied to your order when you check out.

Fife and Drum Miniatures

This is a really good way to kick off your start to building your American and British armies for your war games over the 250th Anniversary period 2025 through 2033, or if you already have armies and want to add to your existing forces.

The Spirit of '76 - Fife and Drum Miniatures

Men, if they aim to have a fight, then let it begin here!
(not quite Lexington Green, but you get the idea)
American militia form up to receive the British

I haven't been able to get around to creating a Lexington and Concord scenario for my game table and group of war game partners, because I've been engrossed in getting my Hannibal game set up and running for Little Wars 2025. LW starts next week on April 24-27 at the Sheridan Hotel in Lisle, Illinois. There will be a number of AWI games on the roster, and my HANNIBAL game. Stop on by and say hello.  I always enjoy talking with my blog readers.

Seven Years War Association Convention in 2026

It is not too late to start making plans to attend next year's Seven Years War Association convention on April 16-18 in South Bend, Indiana.

Here is the information that Ken Bunger sent to me about the 2026 show:

The 2026 Convention, closing in on 40 years of our convention, is confirmed for April 16-18, 2026.  The venue will remain the century center Convention facility in South Bend, IN  I'll send out more info as it becomes available.  NOTE: Easter is early next year (April 5) so the convention will be a little later than usual.  The date avoids direct conflict with other known conventions Weddings and football blacked out other spring or fall dates, so we are fortunate to have secured the April 16 date.

THE 250th ANNiVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THerefore, we will attempt to invoke an American Revolution theme next year. and will seek out speakers and new vendors in that regard.  Please let me know if you have thoughts or suggestions that might assist in that effort.  This is an excellent opportunity to more widely advertise our convention and expand our merry band.  Jim McIntyre has developed a new brochure that advertises our convention.  I'll send it to everyone when we get it in final form.

I will be attending the convention and hosting several games. I might even load up the track and bring the Fife and Drum and Minden Miniatures inventory to the show as a vendor/dealer.

 

Freeman's Farm war game staged at the Seven Years War Association convention
several years ago. Fife and Drum figures, of course.

I have been reluctant to take down the AWI terrain from our recent skirmish game that we played several weeks ago. The table terrain looks really good and it may well be one of my best efforts ever (or at least in my top ten). I staged several pictures of Saratoga British and their Indian allies on the table. They are shown below:

British flank company troops wearing the cut down jackets and hats
worn by Burgoyne's troops in the Saratoga Campaign of 1777.

Highlander flank company men. I paired one firing and one loading figure together.

More Highlanders on the edge of a cornfield

The Crown's Loyalist troops (Boo, hiss; or huzzah, depending on your point of view)
These are mostly American militia figures painted with green coats and buff facings.
The officers come from the British Fife and Drum figures.

Burgoyne's Mohawk allies. These were the last figures that Richard Ansell sculpted for me.

Indians taking cover in a cornfield. I like how this picture turned out.

More Mohawk allies, this time wearing hunting shirts.

British line infantry in Saratoga uniforms

Daniel Morgan's riflemen at Saratoga. These figures were sculpted to specifically be
Morgan's Rifles.

American militia. Sorry about the poor lighting in this picture.

New Hampshire regiments

Daniel Morgan directs his riflemen during the opening stages of Freeman's Farm

American Militia fight it out with some Brunswick troops

Brunswick grenadiers converted from FD Hessian grenadiers

Desperate action up close on the skirmish line.

Freeman's Farm terrain

More Freeman's Farm terrain

One of the New Hampshire or Massachusetts regiments.

General Burgoyne and his staff and senior officers

Benedict Arnold, back when he was one of the good guys at Saratoga.

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AWI 250th Anniversary Sale - 22% Discounts!

 

A recent AWI game set during the Saratoga Campaign of 1777.

American Loyalists in the service of the Crown

Click Pictures to Enlarge

This year, 2025, marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, or the American War of Independence (if you must) starting with the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" on that April morning of April 19, 1775.

Fife and Drum Miniatures will be celebrating our 250th anniversary milestone with a number of events, new products and marketing over the course of the 250th through 2033.

We are not planning on throwing tea into nearby Lake Michigan nor will we hit our customers with tariffs against The Crown. Instead, we have a better idea: a sale!

So we are kicking off the anniversary with a big sale offering a 22% discount off of all products (except already-discounted regimental and battalion packs) in both the Fife and Drum AWI and Minden SYW figure ranges. The discounts start today and run through the end of this month on April 30, 2025.

Just enter the coupon code Lexington2025 when you check out with your shopping cart in our web store and your discount will be automatically applied to your order. The coupon requires a minimum purchase amount of $50.

Click on the link to the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store and start building up your armies today!

Fife and Drum Miniatures web store

A Note To Our Customers About This Current US Tariff Nonsense

A side note on the tariff story in 2025: we do not intend to raise our prices unless the current US Administration hikes tariffs on goods imported from the United Kingdom to some unknown ridiculous level. The current rules seem to apply an across-the-board base-line tariff of 10% to all countries. We cast our miniatures in the UK at Griffin Castings. While Griffin already increased our prices at the beginning of 2025, we felt that the amount was at a level that we could absorb and not pass on to our customers.

It has always been our philosophy that Fife and Drum is a service that caters to the historical miniatures market. We are a company run by war gamers serving other war gamers.  We are a hobby business (a side hustle in current lingo) and do not seek to make a profit above and beyond what is required to keep the business running and to add new products to our product lines. 

We thank you for your business over the past dozen years and greatly appreciate your support.

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The Roman Forum/Basilica Model

 

An orator speaks to a gathering crowd in front of the basilica

The front entrance to the basilica. I repurposed a cameo of a woman from a piece
of discarded jewelry for use over the front door.

Click on images to enlarge

I finished another building model for my 1/32 scale Roman town this week. It is a basilica that can also be used as a forum.

In Ancient Rome, basilicas were versatile and monumental structures that served the civic, judicial, and religious needs of society. Designed as long rectangular buildings featuring a large central space (called a nave), and flanked on either side by aisles, basilicas were centers of public life.

So now my growing Roman town (at what stage does it become a city?) now has a public building for government administrators. It is conveniently placed on the central plaza in the town, across the street from the Temple of Athena.

The basilica's roof needs to be finished so I placed a carpenter on the roof to make the repairs.
Why not? I really like this picture.

The butcher's shop and the antiquarian dealer's shop are next door to the basilica.
The Temple of Athena can be seen in the background.

Now it's starting to look like a large town!

The quayside view of the basilica

A bird's-eye view of the town

A view of the older temples across the river from the town.

A Roman war galley sails into the port.

The basilica was constructed from foam core board, bass wood for the rafters, and balsa wood for other bits of trim such as the doors. I also found a cameo of a Roman woman's head that I repurposed from a piece of discarded jewelry and I placed this over the front doorway to suggest an ornamental relief sculpture inside the pediment. Plastruct brand roof tiles (in G Scale) were used for the roof.

I will probably take a pause on making more town models until after the Little Wars convention, which is coming up soon on April 24-27, 2025 in Lisle, Illinois. I could probably use a couple more farm house sheds for my games.

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Seven Years War Assn Convention This Weekend

 

I couldn't make it to this year's Seven Years War Association convention this year. I thought that I would therefore post several pictures of my SYW collection of Minden Miniatures instead.

Camp Life

Here are some pictures of the Prussian camp that I set up last Autumn. They show some scenes in and around the camp.

Prussian dragoon on scouting assignment, Minden figure converted from a Minden lager.

Blacksmith or farrier. The wagon is from Berliner Zinnfiguren

Picket duty outpost with Prussian dragoons

Prussian pioneers marching off to work

"Your papers please"

Some of the towns and villages in Silesia

Ian Weekley buildings from the 1980s still look good by today's standards.
I like that the cut and fit of the models are not "perfect", giving them a 
more realistic appearance.

Another view of the Ian Weekley village. I have found that using a mass of buildings
positioned in various angles make for a good look. I learned this trick from seeing
some of the dioramas in the German Army Museum in Dresden.

Here is the larger town in the area. Buildings were made by Herb Gundt.
I made the roads and the figures are Minden Miniatures, of course.

Yet another table in my Silesian villages set up on two 6 x 12 feet tables in my basement.
The church was the first building that I ever made, circa 1988. Not bad for a first effort.
Materials are plywood, a ping pong ball, and individual roof tiles cut out of cardboard.
That was a grueling task (gluing the roof tiles onto the church).

As Phil Olley would say, "every war game table should have a windmill on it."

The fourth village on the game table. I like to put my villages in the corners
of my game table so that they are out of the way where the battle occurs.
This particular village is long and narrow, much like one would see in Silesia.
The town buildings were often erected along the main road rather than grouped
together. These are mostly Herb Gundt buildings with one Ian Weekley model.

My game table philosophy is to put my villages in the corners of the game table so that they do not interfere with the war game battle. Most of the time my scenarios do not involve fighting inside towns as SYW battles tended to be fought on open ground, rather in the villages. Of course there are exceptions to this, however, I have found that buildings can ruin a good war game because they bog down the action and generally do not produce a good game.

Roads should be laid out in diagonal patterns to avoid the same old same old table top look. I don't like to see every road in straight parallels to each other. Diagonally placed roads have a more realistic look to them. I learned this little trick from my friend Keith Leidy.

Trees look good on the table top and undoubtedly some of the action in real battles were fought in wooded areas, but they interfere with the flow of a good war game. In the SYW, fighting in wooded areas tended to be done by light troops such as Croats, Frei-korps and specially recruited light infantry regiments.

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