2025 Retrospective

The last calendar year has been one of the more enjoyable from a hobby perspective, at least since the late 70's and early 80's when the world was still young and full of possibility. 

Painting

From a painting perspective I managed to finish my AWI British with the last of the Hessians:

This allowed me to make a start on an AWI Continental Army in February, completing it in August; exclusively Perry from memory and comprised of 498 foot and mounted figures, 28 horses and 6 artillery pieces:

Unfortunately none of my AWI figures have seen the table yet, but that will hopefully be rectified in 2026 with at least a few games of Sharpe Practice and/or Rebels and Patriots. 

I then managed to squeeze in a bit of terrain in the form of some Najewitz Modellbau 15mm Spanish villas (more of this to come in 2026 as they are part of a Spanish village set), and some 28mm Grand Manner Napoleonic European terrain:

The latter is a source of particular embarassment as they really are lovely pieces but have been languishing in my pile for over ten years. I have at least seventy of them, so I immediately became enthused and primed a couple of dozen, only to have barely laid a brush on them since.

The last four months of 2025 saw me turn to what I shall always think of as my 'Arab Spring', with the completion of a 15mm Ghaznavid army:

Closely followed by a Daylami Dynasty army:

Thankfully both these armies have seen a game each, although both have lost. The curse of the new army? 

Perhaps, although both results were quite close and, in the case of the Ghaznavids at least, but for two rounds of appalling dice throwing on my part they probably should have won. Fun games both.

Apart from a dozen or so buildings and artillery pieces then, the final tally for 2025 is 1356 figures in total comprised of 1161 foot and mounted figures, 187 horses and 8 elephants. 

Not a bad effort and I feel quite happy with this result, especially as a fair chunk were 28mm figures.

Gaming

My gaming revolves around two hour or so sessions on every second Monday night with my friend Dale, and fortnightly Saturday Ancients DBMM group games. I would estimate that this equates to forty gaming sessions during the year, so I'm certainly not starved for table time.

The main difference however is that the DBMM games are always begun and concluded on the Saturday with most taking around three hours or thereabouts, so that is around twenty DBMM games completed in total. 

The Monday night games however span everything from WWII Naval through Napoleonics to a Midgard 28mm Dark Ages game we are currently planning, which gives me the variety I enjoy. Some games, such as General d'Armee, can span many evenings so I would estimate we have probably only played eight or so discreet games during 2025.

All up then, probably around 28 games during the year, and if I could remember to take  photos and write up a few more AARs that I so enjoy seeing on other people's blogs I would have had the definitive number.

Possibly the big realisation for 2025 is that I don't really enjoy solo gaming. 

Having finally laid claim to a gaming room I didn't actually get around to using it and have now had to surrender the downstairs to one of our expectant children, who has moved in with her husband and twin infants. 

I of course made the appropriate noises of complaint as I moved the shelving and completed armies back to my painting/hobby room, but have accumulated considerable goodwill toward my real aim which is to construct a purpose-built air-conditioned detached room either in the backyard here, or the next house if and we decide to move.

Purchases

I don't really want to think about these. The usual impulse buys of several gaming mats from Lithuania, a 15mm WWII US tank division which I will probably never get to, Mirliton Renaissance Swiss and Burgundian armies etc. etc. 

The purchases have definitely gone down dramatically from ten or so years ago but I can't resist the new and shiny, usually as result of something I have seen on another blog. 

I like to research and complete projects in one go as much as possible, which is presumably why the more recent purchases are still top of mind and are invariably completed ahead of much older ones, for which the enthusiasm has to be rekindled.

Projects for 2026

First off will be the completion of an Arab Conquest army, scheduled to make an appearance against some Norse Irish a week on Saturday. 

I really don't like such deadlines as I prefer to paint at my own pace, but I do seem to have made some progress over the past few days and have today just completed another thirty-nine cavalry.

Beyond that, I have some 15mm dark ages Welsh in mind and will then return to my badly stalled ECW project to complete the cavalry and dragoons. 

I'd also like to complete the 20 or so Foundry French artillery pieces I have had on my desk for the past three years, if only because it would then allow me to field a full 28mm French Napoleonic army against my already completed 28mm Spanish and Portuguese armies.

For which I'll need to build the wargaming room in the backyard, of course.

Happy 2026 everyone!

AWI Hessians Completed

Completion of the Hessian grenadiers a couple of weeks ago left me with just a few odds and ends to tidy up before I could call the Hessian contingent, and therefore the AWI British, complete. First off are eighteen Hessian Jaegers:

These were really nice to paint and included an interesting command figure with an eyepatch. I calculated he would be modelled after someone notable but could not guess who that might be. I found the answer on the very informative Jemima Fawr's Miniature Wargames Blog https://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2022/12/25/nescit-pericula-my-awi-hessian-army-part-3-jager-artillery/ which has a wealth of well-researched information for anyone undertaking an AWI project. The subject in question is apparently Captain Johann Ewald, a veteran of the Seven Years' War, who lost his eye in a drunken duel with a friend:

The rest of the figures include some of the usual dynamic Perry skirmishing poses which are a joy to paint:

Next up were are two Hessian Swedish 4pdr cannon, artillery. I  painted them in Prussian artillery blue as this would appear to be the most likely colour scheme for pieces supplied by Hesse-Kassel:

Again, some lovely sculpting and eight different poses across the two models:

Last off the production line are the three Hessian commanders from the Perry Hessian General set.  Wilhelm von Knyphausen seems to have been a steady and calm commander:

Johann Stirn was a brigade commander and, according to the excellent Tarleton's Quarter blog http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/2007/11/major-general-johann-daniel-stirn.html, somewhat of a disciplinarian:

The final command figure is Friedrich Riedesel who was a Brunswicker and therefore in command of the Brunswick contingent. He was captured at Saratoga and, rather interestingly, appears to have been the person responsible for introducing illuminated Christmas trees to North America (according to Wikipedia at least, which means it must be true):

The Hessians are now finished and the AWI British army completed.

All up, I estimate this AWI British project now totals 834 figures made up of 769 mounted and foot and 65 horses, plus 10 artillery pieces and 8 wagons and limbers. 

This has taken the best part of ten months, which is longer than I had originally planned although I did add a few extra units on the way. 

Next up, the Continentals.

AWI Hessian Grenadiers

I painted my way through my second bout of COVID over the Christmas break and, thanks to a few intermittent bursts of energy, managed to complete two regiments of Hessian grenadiers:

First up is the Rall Regiment which was a standing regiment of grenadiers and part of Johann Rall's command at Trenton where they were surprised by Washington's crossing of the Delaware and soundly defeated:

These are again in the Perry marching pose and are lovely sculpts with some nice detail on the grenadier caps:

There seems to be some conjecture, as with many things AWI, whether the pompoms and caps should be light blue or red, but I opted for the latter:

The command pack unusually had only one standard bearer but included an officer with an open hand and an assortment of equipment, so he quite nicely doubled-up as a second standard bearer which allowed me to use both of the excellent GMB flags, even if they are carried at different heights and look a little uneven. :

The second battalion is the combined Block grenadier battalion, made up of (from left to right)  detached grenadiers from the von Wutginau, Prinz Carl, von Donop and von Trumbach regiments:

As they were a conbined battalion they did not carry flags, so the Perry command set includes a couple of drummers and a pioneer instead:

Being a combined battalion there was a nice bit of variety to be found in facing and cap colours:

I also completed the last two casualty dials for the Hessians which were some nice poses:

That's six battalions of Hessians now completed:

I now just have some Hesse-Kassel Jaegers, artillery and three command figures to go to complete the Hessian contingent.

As for my painting totals for 2024, I managed to complete 1093 figures in total comprised of 815 foot and 278 horse figures. Given that the bulk of these related to this ongoing AWI project all the foot and most of the horse were 28mm, so probably not bad all things considered and particularly because I have found British and Hessian AWI figures harder going than Napoleonic figures. I should be starting on the Continentals within a few weeks and am hoping they will be a bit easier.

AWI Hessian von Mirbach and von Lossberg Regiments

With Christmas just two days away I put a bit of extra effort in to get the latest two Hessian regiments, the von Mirbach musketeers and von Lossberg fusiliers, completed:

The von Mirbach regiment was among the first Hessian units to arrive in North America and is therefore a useful one for some of the earlier engagements such as Long Island, Monmouth, Brandywine and Fort Mercer:

The figures are Perry charging sculpts and include some nice dynamic poses:

The flags are as usual from GMB:

I painted up a casualty figure for the usual Warbases casualty dial which should be useful when I can eventually get enough Continentals completed for a game of British Grenadier:

The von Lossberg regiment also fought at Long Island and was later renamed as 'Alt' or 'Old' Lossberg regiment when the von Mirbach regiment was renamed 'Jung' Lossberg in 1780. It can be quite confusing trying to keep track of the renamed regiments resulting from changes in colonelcies with, in this case, the two von Lossbergs being brothers and the older or 'Alt' brother remaining in charge of the fusiliers (thankyou to Giles Allison's Tarleton's Quarter for confirming this https://gilesallison.blogspot.com/2024/08/lieutenant-general-friedrich-wilhelm.html):

They wear the distinctive fusilier cap with brass front plate and fittings:

It was also nice to paint a unit with orange facings for something a bit different:

Which matches the orange GMB standards:

That's two more Hessian regiments now completed:

Next up, two grenadier regiments which I hope to have completed by the New Year. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas.

AWI Hessian von Donop and Erbprinz Regiments

Last weekend saw the completion of the first two of seven planned Hessian units, the von Donop and Erbprinz regiments:

First to be completed is the regiment von Donop with their distinctive straw-coloured small clothes and trousers. At least, some of the sources have them in straw-coloured trousers while others indicate these were white, and they were more than likely both depending upon uniform supplies and the stage of the war:

Either way, I threw in a few different colours and also some representing sail cloth or striped ticking material, to provide a bit of variety. The British Grenadier rules also call for the Hessians to be based in groups of six to represent their more regimented formations as opposed to the British and Continentals who fought in looser formations, although again there is a lot of speculation that the Hessians too quickly adapted and fought in more extended order:

I found there was also a lot of conjecture about the standards, including whether the finial was brass, gilt or silver in colour, if there were tassels and whether these were red, white, silver or a combination. I went for brass with white tassels, and gave the ensigns and officers the Hesse-Kassel white pompom with a red center:

Next up is the Erbprinz regiment. There were apparently two regiments in North America with this designation, with the Colonel of one being a prince from Hesse-Hanau and the other an hereditary prince from Hesse-Kassel. As if that isn't confusing enough, the Hesse-Kassel regiment which is represented here (and was the one most involved in the AWI, the other operating mainly in Canada) landed as a fusilier regiment and converted to a musketeer uniform upon resupply around 1780. At this time their facings apparently changed from rose to crimson, while their standard changed from crimson to rose. By this stage I was quietly thanking myself that I have only purchased seven regiments to complete:

Again, six to a base with predominantly linen trousers but with a few variations thrown in:

These are obviously in firing line poses, which again is nice for variety although the firing figures do overhang the bases a little way:

The flags are from GMB, and the only Erbprinz flag that Graham Black does is crimson. As mentioned above it should probably be rose, but perhaps they had already swapped their fusilier caps and received the new uniform before they exchanged their standard? 

I also completed two casualty dials, one for each regiment:

That is it for the first two Hessian units:

There were a couple of  other false starts in that I realised I had inadvertently painted the von Donop musket slings white so had to go over them again, but I got there in the end. Next up, another musketeer and a fusilier battalion.