Little Wars 2025; A Review....

 (WARNING: This post is very, VERY, picture intensive. Please be patient as it loads, and click on the photo to get a larger image for your viewing pleasure.)

This review is once again submitted by me without any agreements with/for/to HMGS-MW, Sheraton, The vendors, game masters, players, restaurants, and other places we frequented. All opinions, ideas, and observations posted here are entirely the authors (unless otherwise noted), and are not any official standings, or endorsements of any other persons, organizations, or establishment.

(Note: All photos on this site are copyrighted 2025 by Michael T. Murphy and taken by myself, except where the ones I use are credited to the original source.)

And now with that being said....

Little Wars 2025 was held during the weekend of April 24th - 27th 2025, by HMGS Midwest (HMGS MW), at the Sheraton in Lisle/Naperville, Illinois.

In following with the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord, the theme for the show was "The Shot Heard Around The World."

And it was also the 40th anniversary of HMGS-Midwest's "Little Wars" Convention.

But before we go on with this....

A HEARTFELT APOLOGY TO EVERYONE...(Actually two apologies)

I had planned, worked on, and submitted two entries into running games at Little Wars. I had two pirate games setup for Saturday. Previous entries on my blog and FB page shows my progress.

But it wasn't to be.

Due to a myriad of issues in "The Real World", I was unable to have everything ready to go by the time the con rolled around.

With that being said, I contacted HMGS-MW and sadly cancelled my games for next year.

Next year though...

So for those that I let down, please accept my apologies. I am truly sorry and saddened.

And now for the second apology.

I took over 600 photos of the convention, and the entire trip.

Unfortunately my Iphone 16 decided to "Go stupid" on me, and one of the major issues with the camera is that is likes to do the "live" thing, and easily switches from "photo" to "video", so what should be a simple jpeg snapshot of John Doe playing at a game table becomes a 2-3 second MOV file which is not supported by this blog site. It's a very irritating thing that I hope Apple does get around to fixing.

Okay, back to the review.

THURSDAY:

Despite the fact that I didn't get to bed until 2 am Thursday morning, I was back up again around 7:00. Packing and getting stuff ready to go. My friend Michael Brown had sent some stuff my way to hold onto and take with me for him to run a game.

So with coffee in hand, and my regular "Johnny Reb" gray forage cap on, it was time for me to load up Josette.

I had checked her fluids, washed her, cleaned her, and gotten her ready for the trip. The hotel listing said that there were no mini-fridges in the rooms, so I brought along my ice chest.

(Loaded and ready to go....)

(Ready to hit da road....after one last pre-trip bathroom trip....)

And with a full tank of gas and an empty bladder I was on my way first to get down to Zionsville to grab my friend and partner in crime, Noah.

Arriving at his place, we loaded his baggage and hit the road.

Next stop was Mission BBQ in Merrillville.

(You didn't think that food wasn't going to be involved here now did you???)

We pulled into Merrillville and quickly found Mission BBQ. They have quite a few locations in various states.

(Not a bad looking place....)

Hmmmm....Interesting way to use a Deuce and a Half....

So I went with the 2 meat sampler.

For this Texas guy, this is the best "Indiana BBQ", I have found so far....

(Meat in my mouth... wait a minuteeee......)

(The best sauce there by far....)

Afterwards we sat in the vehicle and snacked on some homemade German chocolate cake made for us by my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!).

It was indeed, delicious.

(Hooray for Metformin!)

After feeding ourselves we were back on the road.

The trip was relatively uneventful, and as usual, once we got into Illinois, it was "Chicago Traffic Hell".

For those of you trying to get out of paying tolls on the loop, by taking 94/41.... don't bother. They've wizened up and made that a toll road also.

By 4-ish that afternoon we were cranking into the Sheraton Hotel at Lisle.

(Not a bad looking joint if I do say so myself....)

Check in was easy and then the gal said: "Oh hey Michael, we upgraded your room."

Now I've traveled around a lot in the past sometimes "upgrade" means "We put a new roll of crap paper on the roller, and changed the sheets.", but in this case it was different.

I have a habit of always reserving a room with 2 beds. So the hotel gave me a different room so they could book mine with two beds for two more sales. Once again our convention was sharing a hotel with a kids hockey tournament but this time the ones here were better behaved than the little stick goblins from last year.

So I said, "Ok I'll take the upgrade." (It helps that I am a Marriott Bonvoy member.), and she said "You're in room 701...at the end of the hall.

The end of the hall...

The end of the hall...

The...end...of...the...hall...

(Egads! They truly meant "At the end of the hall....")

And I kept walking....

And I kept on walking....

This was kind of subliminal surreal....

("Next stop, The Twilight Zone...")

But at last I got to the door. Yes, #701 is the door allllllllllll the way down facing you dear reader in the photograph at "The end of the hall."

I was worried that I was getting some type of broom closet that would make a sailors berth on a submarine look spacious, and then I opened the door...

(Good Golly!... It's not a room, it's a CONDO!!!!)

Yes they had upgraded me to the executive suite. I had microwave, AND fridge, and other fun amenities. 

Ahhhhh...finally! A room befitting a person such as me!

*ahem*....

By this time Noah and I had met up with the rest of our "crew", Jason Weiser, Tom Bryant and Michael Brown and we were all getting together for the first time in the con up in "Chateau Murphy". 

In true tradition, I presented them all with a gift.

Last year "The Crew" each got a personalized whiskey tumbler with a 7.62/.308 round in it.

This year it was a coffee glass/mug with a .50 cal round slamming into the side of it.

Go big or go home, I always say...

(Well I don't really but it does sound pretty cool doesn't it?)

So I got settled in and went down to registration. 

Despite not having a standard usual linear layout/floorplan, the setup for the convention was pretty well done. It did take me a couple of takes to get used to "What was where." though, but that is on me and not the con.
Everything was well marked.

Event registration was divided into "Pre-reg" and "on-site" registration, with each of those broken down from A-K and L-Z.

Since it was the 40th anniversary of Little Wars I got a nice badge holder and pin, (you'll see those later) for the event.

(Registration is well marked and easy to find...)

(Pre-reg was across from onsite, so everything was there in one place.)

Once registered with our swag and stuff, I took a look at the printed program.

The programs for Little Wars have always been very well done, and I was very impressed with the simple but informative layout.

(An elegant, well done cover. Kudos to the designer.)

 We wandered over to the game room floor and took an initial gander.

Upon entering the room, one's eyes were immediately drawn to front and center to the massive mega game, "55 Days At Peking". 

Ahhhh....The 1900 Boxer Rebellion in all of it's Ding Dao "Kill The White Devils!" glory.

Set against a backdrop of "The Great Wall of China", this was a beautiful setup. Later on I would come back to see that there were over 1500 beautifully painted minis on the table. 

It's truly a remarkable visual piece....

But....

There's more to discuss on this later....

I walked around the room and looked at some more early setups.

Even with the Peking game in the front and center, one could see that it was very busy on Thursday night.

This is always a good sign and there were a lot of good looking games, including another beautiful multi-table set from Der Alte Fritz of "Hannibal", (54mm).

According to Fritz, "The Carthaginians performed Hannibal’s double envelopment tactic with success." 

Truly beautiful pieces. 

The Return to Moria Setup had returned for a second year. It still is truly something to see.

As well as a large sailing ship "up close and personal" fight that's in our history books!

And then I wandered over to the flea market, Round 1.

The FM was doing pretty well. Lots of lookers and buyers. 

Prices were a little higher than normal and there was A LOT of board games. 

A couple of dealers weren't happy due to the lighting conditions of where their tables were, but for the most part things seemed okay. 

(The flea market...all the fleas you can buy, and then some!)

I went and had dinner and then wound down as I was exhausted.

FRIDAY

Up bright eyed and bushy tailed I made my way down to the breakfast buffet.

This was I think one of my very few "eh's" of the con. 

The breakfast buffet was NOT free, (then I remembered this was Illinois, where even the taxes have taxes), and secondly, for the price you paid, I was looking for a little more variety.

(Breakfast....)

Got outside for Friday's opening ceremony; which was a cannon fire from a 12lb smoothbore from Stamford's Battery.

(KA-BOOM!!!! *photo credit: Kevin Cabai/HMGS Midwest)

It's not every game convention that starts off officially with a bang...literally that is.

After this we went back inside and started pushing lead and rolling dice....

Noah and I got into a game of Gunfight Royale.

This game is a fun little game put out by Knuckleduster and allows you to run around on the board and pump rounds into each other, keeping track of everything on cards and inventory.

The board minis are the "Chi-ban" style with the big heads which I really don't care for personally, and had they been painted up for the game it would've made a nicer impression, but that's a "me" thing.

After this I wandered around the dealers area. I had a few hours to kill before my next game.

This year the dealers area had approx. 30 dealers. Many of the standard favorites were there, and Badger Games had a large presence with a nice variety, but oddly enough I didn't see any of the Pontoonier Miniatures, (and oddly enough NO ONE was selling any Foundry). They did have an entire rack set up that was completely bare. I tried to discuss it with the gentleman that was there, but his customer services and socialization skills were lacking, and he essentially ignored me unless I was actively buying something. Perhaps Badgers management can do something about this?

And as for the bare rack, this rack stayed this way all weekend, which makes me believe that certain products didn't make it to the convention, or they were trying to make some sort of statement, or perhaps something that I am completely clueless on.

I had the good fortune of running into Forrest Harris from Knuckleduster and yes, I spent money (as always) on his setup. 

Games were still going strong when we called it time for "LUNCH!"

Some of us decided to head out to grab some Chinese.

After lunch it was back to the con. I was sleepy so I opted to nap, and gave my game slot to Noah, for the Indiana Jones game, and then he passed it onto a younger gamer.

Later on as I awakened, and went back down, I saw a beautiful WW1 game of Aerodrome.

(Oh no...not this guy again...)

While wandering around, I found that this fellow was running a massive mega game in an entire room.

He was doing the entire Battle of Waterloo, (yes, the entire battle), with 6mm figures.

(That's a lot of little army men there....)

(Truth be told, my eyes hurt just looking at this....)

Earlier in this post, I had briefly brought up the idea of "Mega Games", and said that I would get into it a little more "later".

Well I guess this is "later".

Taking a sidestep from the convention review, I did notice a few large "Mega Games". Look, I will admit that these games are absolutely beautiful to behold. Big and Bold like the setting of a Cecil B. DeMille movie, with thousands of figures. They truly do make you go "Oooooooh" and indeed the "Ooooooohhhh" factor is high with these. It's usually the visual appeal that brings people to tabletop miniature gaming.

But. If the game falls apart in play because it is simply "TOO BIG", then what good is it really?

When you have one GM trying to herd 10-12-15 players each one playing 500-1000 figures, and doing everything ALL AT ONCE...how long does it take to get through each turn? 

And then, what about those that build these amazing sets and yet, sit there because no one shows up to play?

IMHO, the maximum any GM should have at this table is six. This is for a GM without a helper. If he has someone to help, then 6, and NO MORE THAN ten in the long run, but eight should be the max number. After that it just becomes a long, boring, slog of a wait.

And if a GM is running that has a dozen or so tables for his mega game and runs it three times during the weekend, yet only has 2-3 players per game, is that really a good return for the amount of time and table space for the convention? 

How many more games for each day and/or the entire convention can be run instead of one 12 table game run 3 times? 

Okay enough pontificating, but it is food for thought.

So the day continued and I had a good chance to watch the games played. I noticed how they were run, and how the people responded.

I did notice though that "Yes. The majority of this con is "older" guys, (ie: "greybeards") which then made me wonder, A: "What games here seemed to attract younger players?"  B: "How can we bring in more "new, fresh, blood" to the scene?  I mean let's be honest in the next 5-10 years some of the guys I saw there this past weekend won't be there. Heck I possibly won't. Who is going to be the next round of gamers in this hobby?

Say what you want about GW, or Battlefront but they seem to have the idea down pretty well of bring new folks into the hobby with the products.

Towards that evening, there was a Friday night GM event, (which I had tickets for but didn't make as we had reservations at Fogo)....

And we had food....

(The salad to kick things off with...)

(And red meat...it's not food if it doesn't bleed...)

(And Chocolate Brigadiero (a decadent chocolate cheesecake), for dessert....)

(The obligatory group dinner photo... "You guys gotta leave some food for da other folks!" the waiter cried, while the manager came out and looked at us and said "Again?" as the waiter carved off more top sirloin and we said "Don't stop...")

After dinner, in the form of the "true gentleman that we are" (or pretend to be), we went to the Humidor at Lisle.

The cigars held their ash well, and we enjoyed ourselves.

Since it was also ANZAC DAY, we took a moment out to remember our friends in Australia and their Diggers.

We made it back to the hotel and I crashed for the night.

SATURDAY

I woke up from my comfy dreams and got into the day.

First up was breakfast (again)....

(Yes this is Friday's breakfast. Since I don't a pic for Saturdays, this one will have to do. They were essentially the same anyway....Just pretend this is Saturday's breakfast.)

After my morning repast, I wandered down to the gaming area again.

As I was supposed to be running games today but had to cancel, I didn't have anything ready to do or play instead, so I took the time to look at more games being played as well as visiting the vendors and thoroughly going through their wares upon which I would exchange my filthy lucre for their treasures.

(MB at one of the table games...)

One of the AWI games going on. My buddy Tom was in this one. 

He lost (or as he said, quote: "I got chewed up like a piece of rawhide by a dog, but it was still fun!")

And that's the main thing. Fun.

(Some very nice figures...)

I was surprised to see quite a few Western games going on. Gunfighters Ball seems to be the one that folks choose, and Forrest from Knuckleduster does a great job at it.

("This town ain't big enough for both of us...")

(And neither is this one...despite the fact there's more buildings being built!")

And I saw the Pearl Harbor game.

And as usual, whenever I see one of these, I ALWAYS stop and suck air for a moment, before naming each battleship there while I realize what I am looking at.

(It's a quiet Sunday morning....)

(Pennsylvania sits in docks...)

(And "Battleship Row" sits quietly at peace...right before breakfast and 8:00 am...)

Meanwhile my friend Jason, and Noah were deep in a quasi coup in early 1930's USA, as Doug McArthur backed by the corporatists, were attempting to overthrow "that communist" FDR, who was being defended by the Police and the US Marines under the command of Smedley Butler.

FDR was saved but the fight ignited the Second American Civil War.

(And over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue....)

And I took pics of more games.

(Some of these pics are Friday's pics mixed in with Saturday's to give you an idea of the variety played.)

(Nicely done with teddy bear fur...)

(Michael running his game...)

(Another pic of the large ships....)

(Some Star Wars ground action...)

(Some AQTMF with two groups of Martians fighting each other!)

(Tripod mayhem!)

(One of the many Pulp Alley games I saw. These were always filled with maximum players. This makes me wonder some things about the types of games people want to play. Are we moving away from "Massed rank and file" type battle games and gravitating towards more small semi-fantastical adventurous games?)

And we had the reenactors show up at the tables.

This is something else that I find interesting. 

Harry Pearson writes in his book "Achtung Schweinehund!", that "Miniature Gamers and Reenactors don't seem to get along very well." He doesn't really go into a lot of explaining as to why this is, but instead wanders down the story lane of some things he has seen. There's no real explanation to his statement, which makes me wonder the "why" he said what he did.

Here at Little Wars, it doesn't seem to be further from the truth. The reenactors are welcome. They bring an interesting touch/diversion, and you get to talk and learn things.

The French/Indian War folks here did an amazing job and I get to see them again at some nearby reenactments in the near future.

Plus the fact that a few well done photos helps with some uniform painting references and ideas.

(Yeah...doing this on a 28mm is gonna be some serious fine detail work...sigh...)

(Some nice pieces of weaponry here...)

(A closeup of some of them.)

(Jolly pleasant chaps...ready for new recruits...)

(A nice display table and setup... *photo credit: HMGS Midwest)

I headed down to the vendors again.

In the Badger Games area, I looked thoroughly through the Bad Squiddo Figures.

One of the interesting things I found out about my shopping habit this year was that I really wasn't looking for "figures" per se, but was actually more focused on terrain, and scenics, etc.

That didn't mean that I didn't pick up any figures, (I did, go figure), but it wasn't my primary focus.

Bad Squiddo is a miniature line that produces a lot of figures and has a very thorough line of females. 

Among them is Audrey Hepburn as "Holly GoLightly".

(I'm not sure how someone is supposed to wargame "Breakfast at Tiffany's", but if someone writes the rules, I'll give it a whirl....)

My wonderful wife was also interested in some scenic pieces, and Bad Squiddo has a lot of different "food scenics" as well as other pieces of scenery for the tabletop.

And they even have LAWN GNOMES!!!!

Oh I MUST get me some of these!!!!

(Ooooooh the things I could DO with these....muah hah hah....)

At another vendor I found an item.

(Isn't he just the cutest little thing?....)

Text message went like this:

Her response was "Nooooooooooooooooooooooo....."

So sadly enough the spider didn't come home with me.

One of the more interesting things that I had never seen done before was that HMGS MW tried a food venue.

The hotel had a food/snack bar thing, (with drinks), over on the side corner of the con which provided some nice tasty items, but HMGS MW arranged with a company called "Crazy Tortas", where you could order at the table and they would get the order and bring it right to you. 

It was actually more popular than I thought it would be, and the pleasant young lady working the delivery was actually on her first day at that job!

Kudos to her!

(The "Crazy Tortas" menu. *photocredit: HMGS Midwest)

Naturally being the amazingly awesome, curious, and hungry guy that I am, I made an order and was pleasantly surprised.

(Up in my hotel room. Washing it down with a Shiner Bock...)

After eating I decided to wander down to the game room again and get some raffle tickets.

HMGS MW each year does a charity raffle for the Wounded Warrior Project. 

They have a wide variety of items that they raffle off.

Tickets are 5 bucks each, or 6 for 20 dollars.

This was perhaps my biggest issue.

There was one guy that seemed to be "The Raffle Guy". If he wasn't around, then you couldn't get raffle tickets.

It took me three times at the events desk before he was finally able to be found and get me tickets.

I'm thinking that perhaps in the future HMGS MW could have a second or even third person to help with this as one person still needs to eat, sleep, poop, etc., and it always seems that the moment they step away from the table, that's when someone comes up, (like me) and wants the tickets.

This years raffle had a wide variety of prizes.

(All for a good cause....)

After the raffle it was announced that HMGS MW raised $3,150.00 for WWP.

They had a company that pledged a dollar for dollar matchup, so all in all, WWP got a donation of $6,300 dollars.

It was indeed a good thing that was done.

By then, it was time that we slid out to dinner.

The question was where?

"Hmmmm...." I said. "Last year I did Bavarian Lodge. I am craving German again."

Noah said "Yes. Schnitzel sounds good."

I said "Well why not go to a place that has "Schnitzel" in it's name?"

And so we headed to Schnitzel Platz.

(Insert Lale Andersen singing "Lilli Marlene" here...)

It is indeed an "interesting place"....

I mean, where else can you go and eat dinner that has pictures of the Bismarck and the Scharnhorst on the wall?

(Sorry for the low quality of the picture folks...)

Dinner was excellent though...

(Goulash soup to start off...A nice paprika kick to it, but not too much to overpower the flavor...)

(Main course, Jaeger schnitzel with Spaetzle and Kraut. Sehr Gut!)

(And of course something to wash it down with....)

(Remembering absent friends and old times and my Kaserne "Back in the day"...)

We made it back to the hotel about half an hour before "Little Wars After Dark" was going to kick off. 

Also, before I forget. HMGS MW also had their miniature contest. Due to some questions about last year's procedure, I believe they cleaned up the rules and the judging quite a bit and it went off quite well. Unfortunately I was not able to get the info on it as of yet, but HMGS will be putting this out.

I had admission for Little Wars After Dark but German food does to me what the Luftwaffe did to the Benelux Countries, so I called it an early night.

Up at the room, I sat for a bit and with the hum of the hotel AC on 66, (I learned that if you drop it down to 65 hotel room air conditioners make a horrible death rattle right before the compressor explodes and kills it), and had some Crown Royal Blackberry, (Very popular with this group), and reflected on the last couple of days and how blessed I was to be able to share it with friends, (old and new). Once again, being with them was more to me than the gaming. I think that's one of the things that I have noticed as I have grown older. As a friend said "When you get to the age we are Murph, you realize that there's more behind you than in front of you."  

And right he is. 

So we should do our best and live our best with the time we have allocated.

(Counting my blessings and thankful for each one of them...)

And upon that, I turned out the light and closed my eyes and let sleep take me away.

SUNDAY

This was it. 

The last day.

So I woke up and made a quick live FB video and got dressed and met the guys downstairs for a quick breakfast. HMGS MW was having their meeting at 0800 and I was wanting to attend. 

We made the meeting and listened to some ideas and points of discussion.

HMGS MW is doing good. Overall response to the convention was very positive, and there was discussion a bit about possibly limiting the size of "Mega Games", and such. 

I will not bore you with the details of a business meeting, because we're here for gaming.

(Noah makes a point of discussion during the meeting while the rest of us look on....)

After the meeting, there were the early Sunday morning games starting at 9 am.

I didn't make Round 2 of the Flea Market as I had my last game at the con.

Although the convention technically ended around 1-3 ish, by noon, it was pretty much shut down and a ghost town.

Jason and I found ourselves side by side in the last western game of the convention, "Bank Robbers Getaway".

I was playing three characters in the six character gang; "Reel McCoy, Back Shootin' Billy, and Shotgun Willie". Our objective was to get to the train station and get on the train with the loot.

And chaos happened.

("We done gone and robbed duh bank! Now we gotta skeedaddle!" Waiting for the bloodletting...errr...the gaming to commence...)

(I'm in good spirits while Jason bemoans his miserable fate. Shot to pieces or captured and strung up with a rope...)

(The notorious "Hole in the Boot Gang", starts off hightailing it down the street to the train station.)

(My three figures nearest.  "Shotgun Willie, Reel McCoy, and Backshootin' Billy"...)

(A view of the town....)

(The "Drifter" and his mule, coming into town to deposit gold dust and stuff... This poor old feller would meet his end courtesy of Shotgun Willie, (who lived up to his name), by getting both barrels at point blank...in the back.)

("Just one more turn...even though the convention is closing down."  Watching the final actions... *photo credit HMGS-Midwest)

(The final outcome when the game was called.)

At the end of the game, GM's for Little Wars usually award a medal or two. This award to a player(s) is GM's discretion, but is usually awarded to the best player, (spirit of the game, etc.), vs "The winner". That does happen sometime.

I am proud to say that Jason and I won our medals at this game. 

This very last game.

And I am honored that we won them together, and of all the Little Wars I have been to and gamed in, this is my very first medal.

Napoleon Bonaparte was right.

And then, just like that; it was over.

Little Wars 2025 was in the bag.

An amazing convention.

Before it was over with, we got a group photo.

("We few, we happy few....")

Tom had left earlier and now the hotel was closing out.

We had one last goodbye dinner and then the next morning it was homeward bound for the rest of us.

(Dinner...)

(Bread and oil to start...)

(Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo...)

(Bailey's Irish Coffee...)

(And Tiramisu for dessert....)

And then we headed back. 

Each of us in our own post convention thoughts and ideas, but between each and everyone one of us, we all said the same thing...

"Next year, definitely."

And as we walked into the hotel through the convention entrance, we walked silently through, "What once was...."

Just like a battlefield has it's own debris after a battle, so does a convention when the show is over.

And we wandered quietly through it, respectful of the ghosts there.

We passed by the registration tables where the hustle and bustle of badges, programs, swag, and info was being handed out, and the paint and take right around the corner; now quiet and forlorn.

We passed by the reenactor tables, where those garbed in the colorful outfits representing colorful and often bloody times of our past, had talked passionately about what they did; proudly showing uniforms, weapons, and flags of a time long ago when fife and drum mixed with the rattle of musketry; now all silent, as the ghosts of old history have gone back to sleep for another year.

We passed by the Atrium area which for the weekend had held the flea market tables AND the vendor areas, which helped themselves easily and eagerly to my money. It was now quiet and empty. A stark contrast to earlier.

Kind of sad actually.

(It'll give my debit and credit card time to recover and recharge...)

And we all crashed out....

MONDAY

You know how there's always "that guy" that is the last one to leave the bar every Saturday night? 

That was us.

We were the VERY LAST Little Wars 2025 attendees to leave the hotel.

We shut it down.

Hooah! 

Hubba Hubba!

Jason had left for the airport and we gave Michael B a ride to O'Hare.

(Josette was loaded up....)

And at O'Hare, we got one last pic, and said goodbye to Michael B. 

"Until next year."....

Lord willing and The Creek don't rise.

(He's always the straight man in the group...)

And then we headed out.

Instead of going straight home, we made a side jaunt up to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

I showed Noah where I had previously encountered the GSM, ("Gas Station Midget"), and we had lunch at Cracker Barrel, and then hit Woodmans for some Spotted Cow.

(Look what jumped into my cart!!!!!)

I also had a chance to get a couple of sample bottles of Willett Small Batch Kentucky Bourbon for myself and Noah, and since my wife likes odd shaped bottles, she would like this.

(Nice!)

After this, it was a quick stop and some purchasing stuff at Friends Hobby Store and then we were on the road. 

Chicago in it's ever toll, fee, and tax loving mind; had finally decided that I-94 had to have a toll also.

So guess what?

Sometime in the next week or so, I'll get a toll notice.

We made it home about 8:30 pm.

Noah's wife, Stephanie, (an awesome lady), and his middle son Max was waiting on us.

From Friends Hobbies in Kenosha to my driveway was 204.5 miles.

Mileage averaged between 24.6 and 25.3 miles per gallon.

We unloaded, got our stuff in the house and Noah got his in the car.

We said our goodbyes, and then said what we both were thinking.

"Next year. DEFINITELY."

End of report....

Post Report and Thoughts:

HMGS-MW once again put on an enjoyable convention. 

There is some discussion about the following items:

1: Increasing younger attendance and participation.

2: Game submission approval.

3: "Mega Games" ROI on table allocation/vs normal.

4: Discussion of "How to get tournament players" to join the rest of the convention, etc. (There was the Memoir 44 tournament and a Team Yankee tournament).

5: Discussing increasing coordination with organizations like Battlefront when hosting tournaments, etc.

More of this will be discussed later on.

I looked at my loot and said, "I'll post pics of all of it later on this week." 

Right now I wanted to relax in my house with my wonderful wife and my unique cat who was giving me a bit of the cold shoulder, and just "breathe".

But I looked at the badge.

And I heard the fifes and rolling of the drums as they were fading in the distance.

And I heard the whisper in my head.

"Next year. Definitely."

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading.

Comments are welcome.

Stay tuned because there is more to come.

LINKS FOR MORE PICTURES AND INFO ON 2025 LITTLE WARS:

HMGS-Midwest: https://hmgsmidwest.com/

HMGS-Midwest FB: https://www.facebook.com/HMGSMidwest