First Look at the New Edition of BLB!

 A flip through by Martin at 7th Son Wargaming!

Beneath the Lily Banners QRS

Here's the quick reference sheets for Beneath the Lily Banners (2025). After a couple of games, these are all you'll need to run the game!

You can also download a PDF here and a "printer friendly" version (no background) here!

Beneath the Lily Banners PRE-ORDERS are up!

It's here!

Beneath the Lily Banners is a tabletop wargaming rules system designed to immerse players in the epic and dazzlingly colourful world of 17th century warfare. It can be used with miniatures of most scales with the main focus being 28mm models. Games are played with as few as four and as many as 100 units per side. Action can be set at small scale engagement level by altering the model to man ratio from 1:35 to as low as 1:3. This turns battalions to companies and squadrons to troops. The rules involve simultaneous movement regulated by orders and the skill levels of opposing commanders. Results can be achieved in an hour for a small encounter or over multiple sessions if recreating one of the era’s many massive battles. This is the fourth edition of the system which was first published in 2008.

From the fields of Flanders to the deserts of Iraq, the sweltering heat of the Caribbean to the Ukrainian steppe, the virgin wilderness of North America to the ancient ruins of the Peleponnese.  Advance your armies to victory and glory!

hard cover, 184 pages

This is a PRE-ORDER. Books will ship to buyers in November (or as soon as we get them)!  Order your copies here!

 The League of Augsburg Shop

Warfare Miniatures USA

Beneath the Lily Banners

 Pre-orders coming soon...

Project Collection 2025

I suck at blogging these days. I've been painting a fair amount, just can't seem to post on a regular basis, so here's a photo dump from 2025 so far...

My projects are all over the place! I have more Confederate ACW, more This Quar's War: A Clash of Rhyfles, and four brand new battalion packs of Warfare Miniatures WSS French on my painting table (available as soon as I can paint up units for the shop). I want to add more units to my small Crimean project as well.

I need a clone...

Dronningens Livregiment

Another unit for my growing Danish army... Warfare Miniatures, of course! The mounted officer is from one of the Cuirassier Officer packs (tricorns & front plate only).

Preparing to advance with support of the Danish Grenadier Corps and Dutch artillery!

Officers of the Garden til Fods disagree about where to deploy, but both agree it needs to be AWAY from the camp!

More soon!

King of Buccaneers

So this was an epic undertaking. When Barry first unveiled the 4Play scenario pack concept, he invited me to join in. While I had a pile of ideas, I quickly realized I didn't have the models to present them in the manner I wished. We were eyeball deep in Mad for War at the time. As naval gaming had never been a passion of mine, I set out to read some books on the subject to see what all the fuss was about.

Being a proud gentleman of Virginia, I decided to focus on events on this side of the Pond. There were small actions all up and down the coast of colonies, but what drew more of my attention were exploits of the pirates, buccaneers, and privateers. Scattered all through the exploits of these sea dogs were small unit land actions that are perfect for Beneath the Lily Banners and Donnybrook! While they weren't painted, I had a pile of lead I'd amassed for pursuing our period into the Caribbean (after Barry's great game I'd attended in the Old Country).

The Battle of Panama featured an army of buccaneer infantry against a mixed force of Spanish uniformed troops, native auxiliaries, poor artillery (some sources say any guns were left to defend the city), two large units of cavalry (extremely rare in this theater), and herd of oxen! Any time I start a collection, I always look for these kinds of mixed forces so avoid the fatigue of painting six identical battalions. I felt like this would be an amazing looking force on the tabletop.

The King of Buccaneers 4Play PDF is 20 pages and includes two scenarios for Beneath the Lily Banners and one for Donnybrook.

The first game is a 4Play BLB assault on the breach of the San Lorenzo fort which guarded the mouth of the Chagres—the route Henry Morgan had chosen for his invasion of Panama. At the time, the fort was a crude affair of earthen walls between timber palisades. I didn't have anything like that in my collection either (sigh), so I set out to build  a custom 24x24 inch tile for the game.

The second game is a standard-sized Donnybrook game on a 48x48 inch table. The encounter is fictional ambush as only a token resistance was staged as the pirates hacked their way through the jungle. It represents the Spanish intent rather than actual defense. As with the previous game, I wanted an bit of terrain I didn't have and custom built the ruined chapel for the center of the table.

The final game is a 4Play X BLB battle, featuring eight units per side on a 48x48 inch table set to last eight turns. 

I had a blast playing all three of these games. I'm hoping to explore more scenarios for the Caribbean in the future, including adding more uniformed units (I cunningly chose to paint my Spanish militia in the uniform of the French de la Marine so with a flag swap I have the start of another army).

You can grab a copy of King of Buccaneers at the Warfare Miniature USA shop!

Hopefully I'll have some more scenarios to add the the collection this year.

Eppinger's Dragoons - Part Two

Finished! I really got on a roll with this unit and painted twelve models (and based all three squadrons) over the weekend. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're excited about a project.

Really pleased with how this unit turned out. I already have three stands worth of foot dragoons and a horse holder base primed and on the painting desk - hoping to have them finished by the end of next weekend, but we'll see... there's something going on next weekend that might interfere with my hobby time. The pics could have been better as they were just snapped with my trusty iPhone sans my fancy photography lighting set up, but I'll try to get some better shots in the future.

Eppinger's Dragoons - Part One

I've been wanting to do this unit ever since I got into the period - somewhere around 2006. I actually purchased the models from Wargames Foundry, but other projects took precedence (we began working on Republic to Empire) and the models sat in a box (they're still there as far as I know).

In 2010, my real love for the period was solidified when Barry and I met at Historicon for the first time and put on the Battle of the Boyne as one of our games. No, Eppinger's Dragoons weren't present at the part of the battle we portrayed, but the game launched my desire to build armies for Beneath the Lily Banners. Our meeting also revealed the first fledgling steps (I got to see the samples of the first run of castings) of a new company - Warfare Miniatures.

My full investment in the period was delayed until Warfare Miniatures was up and running. Since I was starting out fresh, I wanted to use primarily the models we would be promoting. This meant I would be limited in my choices for a while. However, I needed tons of infantry and there were plenty of those in the first wave! I set out on the journey, content to wait for Eppinger's squadrons to become available in the future.

Now, there are only so many sculpts you can commission at once and ranges have a way of growing organically. One thing leads to another and soon you are buried under new models! The gaps in the range are always closing. It's only a matter of time before Warfare Miniatures has models for every practical troop type in the theater. 

Painted and photographed by Barry Hilton in the last century - the inspiration for my unit!

But I've been waiting for these mounted, fur-capped gentlemen forever, despite my whining (Argh! Fur-capped Austrians? Why do we hate the French?). Warfare Miniatures does have a set of splendid Mounted French Dragoons in caps, so the other day I decided to stop being lazy and make my own. I'm not an accomplished sculptor, but have enough confidence in my skill to add a fur texture to the existing bases of the caps. Each became successively easier once I'd gotten the hang of it. All it took was adding a tiny sausage of putty (no, that's too much... nope still too much... even less than that) around the cap, shaping it with my only actual sculpting tool, and then working in the texture with an X-acto blade. In about an hour, I was able to tart up twelve troopers. Huzzah!

Only twelve? Well, yes... I'm mixing in a few models in hats. The officers likely wore hats and I've seen several other representations of this regiment (including Barry's) drop in a few among the rank and file. I think it adds the look of a hard as nails regiment on campaign.

I've used the "regular" Warfare Miniatures horses rather than the ones that come with the dragoon castings. My initial units of dragoons were assembled before we had the ponies. I didn't want my elite troopers looking into the navels of their counterparts on the other side! Here's a few WiP, ready for action!

I have no doubt Warfare Miniatures will announce the release of mounted French Dragoons next week, but I'm really proud of how this regiment is progressing. It's cool to have a unit that's unique in the world! Even Barry doesn't have this unit (yet) in hunky Warfare Miniatures glory!

More soon!

Captain Morgan

 Following on the heels of my last command vignette, I present Captain Henry Morgan!

Though Henry Morgan is often thought of as a pirate, he considered himself a patriot and privateer and always fought under the colors of England. His forays outside of letters of marque were often due to the glacial rate that news travelled at the time ("What do you mean we made peace with Spain?"). Despite being placed under arrest by the crown in 1672 (a move to appease Spain after the sack of Panama), he was granted a Knight Bachelor by King Charles II and appointed as deputy governor of Jamaica in 1674.

I love making these kinds of bases and it's a treat after painting so many rank and file. This group displays a minor conversion. The brilliant Wargames Foundry model of Henry Morgan was looking back over his shoulder in a "This way, dogs!" kinda pose. This is fine for single figures, but as the center piece of vignette it meant he would either be facing away from the front of the base or look more like he is encouraging a hasty retreat! I made quick work of this problem with a jeweler's saw - the only tricky part was preserving the goatee...

The stones on the base were actual slate chips (the kind they make for landscaping in lieu of mulch). I didn't want to remove Morgan from his integral base because I didn't want to try and drill pins into the slate, nor trust the dubious solidity of glue two tiny feet to the stone. I trimmed the round edges from the metal base and scored the sides with a Dremel to mimic the texture of the slate. It turns our the silly thing was almost completely covered by the basing material and I probably could have skipped this step entirely! 

This vignette represents nearly the last thing I needed to paint for the campaign. I have a few flags to make for the Spanish cavalry and a handful of characters to paint for the Donnybrook scenario that falls between the two BLB games, but I will soon be able to round up a few partners and throw some dice!

Look for the 4Play Invasion of Panama PDF this summer! 

Don Juan

No, not the fictional libertine who devoted his life to seducing women! Don Juan Pérez de Guzmán was the President and Captain-General of Panama in 1671 at the time of Henry Morgan’s invasion. He was a brave man and fiercely loyal to Spain. It was his duty to protect the small province under his command and maintain the flow of silver from Peru to the homeland. 

I always enjoy painting command vignettes. Don Juan was a civilian rather than a military officer at the time of Morgan’s invasion and I’ve chosen to issue him a rather fancier coat than the standard general.

The standard carried by the foot soldier is based on the personal coat of arms of the Guzmán family of the time as near as I can figure and is entirely speculative.

More soon!