HMGS Fall In is a fun convention every year, and this year (2026) was true to form. It was held from Thursday, November 5th through Sunday November 8th. It was held at the Wyndham Host Convention Center in Lancaster, PA. The HMGS staff did a marvelous job organizing the event and deserve a lot of praise for their fine efforts – thank you all.
Many of us spend our hobby time preparing for these convention games. I am definitely in that category. I will participate in a number of gaming conventions this fall and going into the winter months. I hope to share my experiences with you here in this blog (assuming I am not too busy painting up troops). But preparation for a convention is much more than just painting up miniatures – even though that is most assuredly a huge aspect. It is just as important to develop great scenarios, good game aids, so that the gamers at your table have – FUN. Whether players win or lose – in my humble opinion, my goal is that they have an enjoyable experience at my games. Fortunately, at Fall In I was able to once again set up my games in the H.A.W.K.’s room (the excellent Maryland-based Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers group). As such, I get to see the excellent work of other GM’s. When I can, I also jump in as a player too.
For Fall In 2026, I ran a total of 5 games there from Thursday to Saturday – and I also got to play in one game as well. On Sunday I left early in the morning to take the 5-6 hour drive home to Massachusetts.
The games I was involved with were:
- Thursday night: Il Duce’s Desert Gamble – a modified (by me) What a Tanker game involving a what-if scenario where the Vichy French and the Italians fight for North Africa in 1943. This assumes that Operation Overlord was initiated prematurely (and disastrously) in 1942 instead of Operation Torch – leaving Mussolini greedy for conquest.
- Friday morning: another iteration of Il Duce’s Desert Gamble
- Friday night: The Battle for the Pond – a Combat Patrol:WWIITM scenario modified for retro sci-fi. Here two anthropomorphic foes – the Star Ducks and the F.R.O.G. Commandos battle for control of a culturally important pond.
- Saturday morning: Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, OH MY! – a Wars of Ozz game where the Gillikins and their bestial allies fight against the intrepid Munchkins.
- Saturday afternoon: THE FALL IN 2026 WARS OF OZZ ELIMINATION TOURNAMENT – a Wars of Ozz game/tournament with one winner.
- Saturday night: Russia 1941 – a Combat Patrol:WWIITM scenario run by my good friend Buck Surdu. Here I jumped in as a player on the German side with two squads of infantry and a Panzer 38(t).
Below, I will share some photos and descriptions of these games. Additionally, I’ll show some of the other games I saw set up.
Thursday Night – Il Duce’s Desert Gamble
As mentioned, I ran this scenario twice. The game’s description:
In this what-if scenario, Operation Torch has never happened. The Allies instead prematurely tried to invade Fortress Europe, and it is a military disaster, delaying Overlord for years. In North Africa, the 8th Army has been defeated, leaving Mussolini open to pursue his dreams of a new Roman Empire. His first step – invade and take the Vichy colonies with an armored attack!
This is a What a Tanker game with my modifications. The thrust of my changes regards the availability of extra assets. I allot “Tanker Bucks” to each side to purchase additional assets such as air support, artillery, infantry support, and anti-tank assets. The winning side is the one at the end with the most Tanker Bucks. The Vichy French start with more money, and the Royal Italians have better vehicles in general. I had 6 players – and the battle was intense. The French sent out their armored cars in front only to have them destroyed by the Italians. The Italians went overboard in a spending spree and for a while it looked like the Vichy French were doomed. However, the frugality of the French team won a victory over the Italians as their Tanker Bucks exceeded those of the Italian team at the end.
Here are a few photos:
Friday Morning – Il Duce’s Desert Gamble
This was a repeat of the previous game with 5 new players.
This game score-wise went exactly the opposite way. The Italians did spend a lot of money, but the French spent more and took more losses. Still, the game could have gone either way – so it’s a good scenario that I will run again soon.
Friday Night – The Battle for the Pond
As readers of this blog may have noted, I have been balancing out my game offerings to add my retro sci-fi scenarios. Also, I really like my pond that I built and I love getting it back on the tabletop.
The figures in this game are all old and well out of production:
- Duck Wader and the Star Ducks from Archive Miniatures Star Rovers line circa 1979-1981. I wrote about these here.
- F.R.O.G. Commandos from the Crunchy Frog Critter Commandos line circa 1988-1992 I think. The acronym stands for “Free Republic of Green Earth”. You can read about them here.
- To assist the Frogs, I gave them a squad of Archive Miniatures “Space Dwarfs” – also from the Star Rovers line circa 1979-1981. I treat them as robots, and they do have submachine guns in their arms and three Agribot machine guns. I wrote about these minis here.
I had 6 players – and here are a few game shots.
A gallery of the troops is below:
I had 4 players.
The game was a blast (pun intended as you’ll read about) – and I wish I had more pictures to share. Highlights involved
- Chip moving up his Dread Frogbot and neutralizing the Star Duck bazookaduck team (Leif).
- Frogs (player Vin) using a flamethrower to roast an entire Star Duck team of CJ’s (insert Chinese food reference here).
- Frogs (again, Vin) tactically taking out one of the Star Duck mortarduck teams (also CJ).
- Vin throwing multiple grenades at Duck Wader (again Leif) to finally dispatch him – while killing a few of his own team in the process. Friendly fire…is not.
The Frogs managed to capture most of the islands, giving them a solid victory.
Saturday Morning – Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, OH MY!
This was a Wars of Ozz game for 6 players. Here, the Gillikins have musket-armed infantry and goat-riding cavalry. They are goblin-like dudes in Napoleonic uniforms. They are allied with the Beast Brigades – hence the title as they include the Dire Lions, Dire Tigers, and Dire Bears. The Gillikin army also includes the Great Flying Apes, Dire Wolves, and the Great Owls. They faced off with the Munchkins – who have musket-armed infantry, artillery, and two aerostats (balloons).
In the beginning, the Beasts had a chance to roll up the Munchkin flank – but a series of bad die rolls prevented the breakthrough. After that, direct assaults into Munchkin artillery and infantry really were blunted. The Gillikins attack fizzled and the Munchkins won – though they were indeed bloodied by the attacks.
The table as set up is below.
Unfortunately for the Gillikins, this was their “high water” moment.
Saturday Afternoon – THE FALL IN 2026 WARS OF OZZ ELIMINATION TOURNAMENT
This game was designed for 8 players, but I had 6. They competed for this trophy that I made:
After the last game, I was able to reset the tabletop for this elimination tournament. Due to its frenetic nature, I was unable to take many photos. With 6 players I had to modify the format a bit.
In the end, Bob won commanding a Harvest Brigade. He narrowly defeated Bruce by just a single point to earn the trophy! Congrats!
Saturday Night – Russia 1941
As I had finished my last game as a GM – I was happy to jump into a Combat Patrol:WWIITM game run by my good friend Buck Surdu. Buck is the author of the Wars of Ozz and Combat Patrol:WWIITM rules (among many others). We go back to our days at West Point when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. As an additional bonus, facing me as one of my team’s opponents was my old West Point roommate and classmate, Dave Wood.
I was on the German side – and had a Panzer 38 (t) and two squads of infantry, with one machinegun. I had two teammates with similar (though bigger and with better tanks) forces on my right. Our team conferred pre-game, and decided that I would take up a delaying action on the north while they combined their efforts to seize the bridge from the south. I was outnumbered and outgunned as the Soviets facing me (Dave, along with Chip and CJ) had a BA-6, the massive T-35, and four squads of infantry.
I moved up my Panzer 38 (t) and took fire from the T-35 that stunned my tank. Then the Soviets moved up a BA-6 armored car – which has a T-26 tank turret on it. Facing 2-1 odds, I shot at the weaker BA-6, and knocked it out. Subsequently, the T-35 avenged its comrade by brewing up my Panzer.
Both of my infantry squads had moved stealthily in cover through a forest. One set up my only machinegun while another moved to cover beside the burning Panzer 38 (t). I used the machinegun to stun a Soviet Maxim machinegun before all hell broke loose with Soviet infantrymen running up an overwatching hill. Their rifle fire peppered both squads and was supported by fire from the T-35.
One by one my remaining soldiers bought the farm – though two did survive by running away to tell the tale. I did accomplish my delaying mission, but unfortunately the Soviets ended up holding the bridge. It was a fun game and it’s not the first time Dave has bested me!
Other games
There were several games set up and running that I photographed in the H.A.W.K.’s room. I did not get all of them, but here is a sampling in the following gallery:
I believe there were well over 500 games at this convention – so my sample size of photos was a bit limited (hell, I had games to run!!).
That wraps up my HMGS Fall In 2026 recap. I hope that this was an enjoyable read and whether it was or not – let me know in the comments section.
Finally, here are a few more related pages and posts that you may wish to explore:
Related Posts and Further Reading:
For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous convention/club/game battle report blog posts, please see this page: https://markamorin.com/club-convention-games/
For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous Wars of Ozz posts, please see this page: https://markamorin.com/miniatures/wars-of-ozz/
For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous sci-fi/retro sci-fi posts, please see this page: https://markamorin.com/sci-fi-retro-sci-fi-projects/
For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous WWII posts, please see this page: https://markamorin.com/wwii-projects/
Thanks for taking a look.
