HMGS MidWest Little Wars 2017 Convention

I attended the Little Wars 2017 convention in Lombard Illinois on April 28th. Unfortunately I was only able to attend on the convention on Friday. There were a lot of events I was interested in scheduled for Saturday and Sunday as well that I had to miss out on. Even so, was able to play in two games: a Hail Caesar game of Romans vs Britons, and a Black Powder game of Poles vs Russians set during the Polish uprising of 1794. And I found some bargains in the dealer hall and flea market. I also took some pictures of the other games that were set up Friday morning. Have a look below for my general pictures of other games, followed by pictures of the two games I played with details of the how the games went.


Here are some of the more interesting game setups I saw on Friday morning. There were way more games going on than these, so this is just a very small sampling of the ones that most caught my eye. I think there were enough games going on of all different kinds that just about anyone could find something that interested them.

This was a nice setup, but I have no idea what this game was. At one point when I walked by there were giant ants coming up from underground. If anyone knows anything about this game, please let me know.

The Battle of Huppy, Fall Gelb, (Case Yellow), 27 May 1940 game of Jagdpanzer.

Starship Troopers themed game of FUBAR.

A very big table for a 6mm Battle of Ligny and Quatre Bras using the in-development FrattNap rules by Steve Fratt.

Another view of the same table. I liked the period flags (there were several around the table).

A multiplayer game of Congo.

Set up for a game of Bolt Action.

There were a lot of very nicely painted Napoleonic miniatures on this table.

A lot.

Nice table for a game of Osprey's The Men Who Would Be Kings.

Not sure what game was being played, but they look to be using the Sails of Glory ships.

The first game I played in was 28mm game of Hail Caesar hosted by Phil and Kati Cook. It was titled "The Battle of Camulodunum: Boudicca of the Iceni ambush of the Roman IX Legion 60AD". Here is the description from the event listing:

In 60AD after being whipped and watching her daughters taken advantage of, Boudicca Queen of the Iceni(a tribe in Briton) lead a rebellion against the Roman Empire in an attempt to push them out of Briton. Boudicca and her allies first target was the Roman colony of Camulodunum which after a short siege was put the the torch. The leader of the Roman IX legion Quintus Petillius Cerialis heard about the siege and with only a part of his Legion attempted to relieve the siege. Cerialis arrived to late and the Iceni were waiting for his forces and ambushed them on the way. Cerialis barely escape the ambush with his life but his foot soldiers were not so lucky and few if any escaped. Will the IX legion once again be defeated by the waiting Iceni or will they rally and reverse their fortunes?

 I was in command of the cavalry division, led by the overall army general, consisting of two medium and two light cavalry units. Our side had two other divisions, each with two infantry warbands, two skirmishing units, and one unit of chariots. The Romans would march down the road in column. I choose to put my cavalry near their entry point, with our two main divisions further down the road across from each other. We sprung our ambush just as the head of the Roman column reached where our main forces were hiding.

The perfectly timed ambush is sprung.

The cavalry ride down out of the forest to pelt the Romans with javelins, forcing one unit to fall back off the road. The main army closes in on the front of the roman column but doesn't quite make contact before the Romans have a chance to react.

The Romans reform as best the can to face their attackers. They also send out one of their cavalry units to hold off the Iceni cavalry.

The Iceni general leads his cavalry against the Roman cavalry unit, wiping it out but taking many casualties in the process, as the Roman cavalry fights to the last.

Meanwhile, after weathering some short ranged fire, the main Iceni army charges home against the two leading units of the Roman army. The second unit, trapped by the bulk of the Iceni army, is easily annihilated. 

The Iceni don't quite time the charge right against the front unit, and aren't quite able to surrounded it. Lead by their general Cerialis, they fall back, battered but unbroken. 

The Iceni cavalry continue to pelt the Romans from a distance, delaying their response to the ambush.

The bulk of the Iceni army now turns toward the disorganized remains of the Roman force, bottle up by the cavalry.

The main Iceni attack sort of stalls out at this point, but cavalry attacks continue to cause casualties and disruption in the roman defense.

The Iceni general stays busy rallying his cavalry units, which are accumulating casualties from the Roman ranged attacks.

Part of the Iceni force continues the slow, overly-cautious advance on the cornered Roman forces. One infantry unit and its supporting chariots charge up the hill to deal with the one remaining Roman cavalry unit, which charged up there to dispers the Iceni skirmishers.

Ranged attacks continue to chip away at the Romans, disrupting their defense and leaving a gaping hole in their line as one unit panics and flees the field. The Iceni that charged the Roman cavalry are soundly defeated and chased back down the hill.

The Roman cavalry pursue their enemy down the hill, wiping out the infantry band and their chariot support, marking the first major casualties to the ambushing force.

Meanwhile, the units sent to finish off the Roman general and the badly-mauled unit he was leading did not fare well. The Romans fought heroically to protect their general, and the Iceni warband continued to suffer more and more casualties as the Romans beat back their attacks.

My cavalry managed to delay and disrupt about 2/3 of the Roman army and keep them out of the main fight, so I'm happy with their performance. However, the rest of the ambushing army was unable to finish off the Roman general Cerialis who, protected by his fiercely loyal soldiers, was able to live to fight another day. So as time ran out on our ambush, we had to settle for a draw.

My other game was a 15mm game of Black Powder hosted by Chris Mikucki titled "Kościuszko Uprising: Battle of Krupczyce 17 September-1794". Here is part of the description:

The Kosciuszko uprsing has been underway for months. Polish forces in Brest have advanced to meet the Russian Army under Suvorov. The gallant regular Polish regiments, supported by heroic scythe-wielding militia face a numerically superior Russian army.

The battlefield from the Polish side. They have a strong position, holding a village and several redoubts. The Russians must cross the river under artillery fire to reach them.

The left wing of the Russian army. I commanded the brigade on the far left, containing 5 standard infantry battalions, one medium artillery battery, and two units of Cossack cavalry.

A Polish battalion moved out into the woods near the village to contest the river crossing. I moved my brigade, including the artillery, up to the river and opened fire. The enemy in the woods was shaken and disordered by my opening volleys.

Return fire, including the artillery in the redoubt, disordered one of my infantry battalions. The other four were able to cross the river (which took one full move and caused disorder).

A few turns later, one of my infantry battalions was eliminated and another driven back across the river by a cavalry unit that came on in reserve and charged all the way from the enemy board edge on one turn. I then got my Cossacks across the river to guard my left. My two forward battalions finished off the enemy in the woods and moved up to put some fire into the infantry and artillery in the redoubt.

My two remaining infantry battalions made their way back across the river and up in support of the other two. I continue to soften up the redoubt with close range musketry. Assaulting into a redoubt with an infantry battalion and artillery battery defending it is not likely to go well.

The two other reserve cavalry units charge one of my Cossack units. They plowed right through them and into the other Cossack unit behind.

It was getting late, and the game was called to a halt early (as some of the more elderly commanders were running out of steam...) Here is the situation on the left near the end of the game. I never did take that redoubt. I probably would have been better off moving farther to the left, and going all the way around the village to attack it from behind to avoid the redoubt. But our commander and chief was pretty intent on going straight for the village. I don't know much about what happened way off on the right flank, but we called the whole thing a draw.