Little Wars 2016

This year, for the first time, I attended the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) Midwest Little Wars convention. This year it was held at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center in Lombard, Illinois. The convention runs for three days, all day Friday through Sunday, but I was only there for about the first half of Saturday. I played in one game Saturday morning, a game of Black Powder set in the American War of Independence. It followed the Bemis Heights scenario from the Rebellion supplement. I had a lot of fun playing, and met a few people in the area who might be interested in getting together some time to get in a game of Black Powder, so hopefully something comes of that.

After the game I wandered around the gaming room a bit having a look at the other games. There was a huge variety in the games I saw being played, so it seems like there must have been something for everyone. Then I checked out the vendor area, located in a separate room, which also had a great variety represented. The afternoon game I wanted to play in was filled up before I got a ticket, so I ended up leaving early in the afternoon. But I had a good time, and hopefully I'll be able to make it again next year. See below for some pictures of the game I played in, and some others that looked particularly interesting.



The British positions at the beginning of the battle of Bemis Heights.

The rebels emerge from the woods. Morgan's rifles at the top left, Learned's brigade at the left, and half of Poor's brigade at the bottom by the road. I was in overall command, and kept Arnold off the table in reserve with the other half of Poor's brigade.

Grenadiers charge the rebel artillery, but some particularly effective canister fire as they close decimates them, wounding many of their officers, and they break in a panic.

Learned and Poor prevent most of the Hessian brigade from escaping intact, with the exception of one unit which falls back in good order, and an artillery battery that puts up a stubborn defense, stalling some of Learned's units for most of the battle.

With the Hessian brigade broken, and Morgan and Learned dealing with the British on the far left, Arnold shows up with the remainder of Poor's men, and move up to the edge of the tree line facing a strong redoubt off to the far right. Ten Broeck's militia move up the road behind the rest of Poor's men.

Arnold leads his men in a heroic and dramatic charge across the clearing to the British redoubt!

And they are heroically repulsed! Accurate closing fire from the howitzers and the crack unit defending the redoubt causes some disorder in the ranks. The assaulters aren't able to make any headway against the strong defensive position, and fierce fighting from the defenders drives them back! One unit breaks entirely, and two more fall back in complete disorder.

Stuck out in the open between the two redoubts (the other one off the top of the photo) taking artillery and musket fire from two directions, the rebels are decimated. After this repulse, Arnold decides to call it a day. The British army has been broken and a minor victory achieved, but neither redoubt is captured. Oh well, I'm sure we'll finish them off tomorrow.

On to some of the other tables I saw while wandering around the gaming hall. I don't know or remember details about most of these, so I'll just show the pictures. It does, however, shows some of the wide variety of gaming that was available during the event. There were naval games played out on the floor, science fiction battles in different scales, air combat, old west skirmish, big ancient battles, and about everything in between. I only took a few pictures, but there was a lot to see.