Hello dear readers – a very quick post. I have been knee-deep in making game aids (dashboard, magnetic figure data strips, and more). I’ll be sharing those and catching up on your blog posts (as I always do eventually). BUT, I just saw this new Kickstarter from Sally 4th in the UK that just caught my fancy, and I thought I’d share it.
As a kid in the 1970’s I read a lot of comic books, and this homage really struck a chord, and I thought it might with you folks as well, as well as any fans of classic movies. Here is the link.
I am not financially involved with this – just sharing with you cool kids!
Don’t you love suspense? Well, I have just a tiny bit here for you all!
I started “Mark’s Conquistador Contest” – for my loyal blog followers back on December 15, 2020. It’s purpose was threefold: one, to give myself a challenge to finish off my last 89 figures (all Conquistadores) for my for Civilizations Collide scenarios for games of Feudal PatrolTM ; two, to offer a prize of miniatures to worthy homes that could use them; and three, to have a fun journey along the way with my followers.
The entire project began nearly a year ago in April of 2020. I had spent the month of March 2020 and part of April 2020 doing my research, for the supplement and looking at sources for appropriate miniatures for the Aztecs, the Tlaxcalans, and the Conquistadores. I finished off 230 miniatures in total for the project.
I need more boxes!
I managed, with YOUR inspiration, to finish everything on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2021. This meant that I got the 89 done in 61 days – including all those holidays! That’s an average of 1.459 per day (according to my spreadsheet that all of you are completely unsurprised that I used).
At the beginning on 12/15/2020Now finished – all of the Conquistadores together.
As for the contest – the three prizes were as follows (in no particular order):
You must be an email or WordPress follower of my blog.
You must pick a date (day, month, and year) that I will finish the Conquistador miniatures shown here in this post. Finishing means, to me, that I am ready for the figures to be shown on my blog and used in a game. That is my call!
You must let me know that you want in on the contest by midnight EST (US East Coast time) on January 2nd, 2021. You do this by posting a comment that “you are in” here on this blog post in the comments section with the date information requested above in (2).
Only one entry allowed per follower except as described in (5) below.
If you get another person to follow my blog, you can earn another entry! For each new follower that credits you as a referrer, you can get another entry. All that person needs to do is comment on this post as in (3) above stating that he or she is “in” and who the referrer is. The referrer can then reply to that comment with an additional entry date.
Winners will be whoever is closest to the date I announce as the “completion date”. That can be earlier or later – for example picking a date that is one day before is as good as if it’s one day after. As there are multiple prizes, 1st place gets first choice, then 2nd, then third. If two people pick the same date, ties will be broken by who submitted the date first. I reserve the right to add more prizes!
I also reserve the right to be the final judge on the contest – somebody’s gotta do that. When I finish, I will announce the winners.
It’s been fun along the way – as people (Buck and Roger mostly) were telling me to SLOW DOWN. But, I kept on, hoping to get them done as well and as quickly as I could (sorry Buck and Roger!).
So here are the results – please join me in congratulating:
1st Place: Pete from SP’s Project Blog – nailed the date on the nose!
2nd Place: Mike from despartaferres/redcaer1690 – got second by the tiebreaker rule as he picked 6 days early but picked earlier than the third place winner who is.
3rd place: Leif (an email follower and fellow member of the my club The Mass Pikemen) who also picked 6 days away from 2/14 (but picked 9 days later than Mike did.
Overall and final standings
Congrats to the winners! Pete gets first choice, then Mike, and Leif gets what’s left. Just confirm in the comments section which one you want, and then email me your shipping information to MarkAMorin@aol.com (I’m sure that will work fine).
I will, as I intimated earlier, be doing this again (if there is interest) for all the terrain I have to do for the project. I’m hoping to have more prizes to give away (and maybe even better ones) but I need to get some game-specific stuff done in terms of game aids and the like first. I will NOT begin painting terrain before the next contest – which will begin, as this one did, with a blog post.
Thanks to ALL of you (even Roger😆) for playing and to ALL of you, more importantly, thank you for your encouragement and support!!! It really helped me and inspired me.
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
Previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide”
And the Winners of “Mark’s Conquistador Contest” are…(this post).
Conquistador Cavalry. 24 figures total: Outpost Wargame Services #CON5 “Conquistador Cavalry in light armour 1” (4 horses & 4 riders); Outpost Wargame Services #CON6 “Conquistador Cavalry in full armour” (4 horses & 4 riders); Eureka Miniatures “Moving Horses” #100ANM05 (8 horses used as casualty markers).
Perro de Guerra (Conquistador War Dogs). 13 figures total: Outpost Wargames Services #CONS6 “War Dogs” (8 war dogs); Eureka #100CON13 “Dog Handler and Dogs” (1 dog handler/pikeman and 4 war dogs)
Conquistador Foot Command, Crossbowmen, and a Couple of Officers. 11 figures total: Outpost Wargames Services #CONC1 “Conquistador Foot Command” (a leader, a banner bearer, a drummer, and a bugler); Eureka #100CON04 “Crossbowmen” (5 crossbowmen); and Eureka CONC1 “Conquistador Officer” and an unknown SKU officer (2 officers)
Total figures completed to date for this project: 230 figures: 109 Aztecs, 32 Tlaxcalans, 89 Spanish Conquistadores (ZERO more to go in Mark’s Conquistador Contest!)
This is a New Year’s Eve post from my Aussie buddy, IRO who can be found at https://imperialrebelork.wordpress.com/2020/12/31/sci-fi-pulp-retro-diorama/ and thought I’d share it. He incorporated one of my creations (my Mark 1 Sphere Tank) into a wonderful retro sci-fi diorama. Very cool, and thank you so much IRO!
Hello all, Well it’s 11:09pm on New Years Eve and I’m typing out a blog haha, I know how to party! I have a nicely aged Scotch beside with some Bob …
In any auto race, the signal to start is the waving of a flag. The one you see here is my making of Hernan Cortes’ banner of the Virgin Mary that the Conquistadores carried in Mesoamerica. It indeed will be carried by one of the soon-to-be-finished figures in the contest, so I thought it would be appropriate. Well, midnight passed last night and the Mark’s Conquistador Contest has officially started, and the flag is waved.
I have tabulated the list of entrants that you will see in the Excel chart below – sorted from earliest pick to the latest one.
You guys knew I’d have to have a spreadsheet!
I have listed the blog handles and the blogs of those who entered if you’d like to check them out. And you should if you do not know them. Click on their comments avatar to see them as they can be found in the comments section on the original contest post here. You can find most everyone on WordPress. However, a couple of entrants haven’t a blog to my knowledge (Leif Magnuson and Dave Wood), while Dave Stone is on blogger, and Buck has his own website. Buck is also on the HAWKS site with his fellow HAWKS Greg and Chris (cjpalmer), though Greg also has a WordPress site.
The contest is on!
We have 18 entrants. The average of the dates chosen was March 24th, 2021. The dates have a 101 day range, with Mike at despartaferres picking the earliest (February 8th) and Roger at Rantings From the Wargame Table playing the long game at May 2oth. The good news is that there will be no ties – as all dates are different and none are equidistant from the average.
I am making good progress and will be posting about that shortly. I know that many of the miniatures will take me longer to paint, and some much less. And I do have an airbrush…at this point, it’s anyone’s game. So stay tuned! Thanks to all who entered and good luck!
As a reminder for what the prize choices are for the three top winners:
2020 was – HOPEFULLY – a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As we all did, I had highs and lows on the personal side of life, the hobby side of life, and the golf side and others.
First, my deep thanks for all of you who regularly follow this blog and share your feedback with me. My thanks also to those whose blogs I follow. Your work inspires me.
As readers of this blog know, I am currently knee-deep in finishing up my forces for Feudal PatrolTM games. But I did set some goals back in January 2020 – so here I’d like to examine and share how I did – or did not do – versus those benchmarks, how my production was in 2020, how the blog did, and my personal highs and lows. I’ll also set some 2021 goals for myself. This is really to hold myself accountable here – and please know I’m open to any and all feedback.
How did I do versus my 2020 goals?
These are the goals I set for myself and how I did:
Games:
Run convention games at TotalCon, HAVOC, HUZZAH, BARRAGE, and the Fort Devens Game Day (and a few more maybe) –
Complete a supplement for Feudal PatrolTM for Mesoamerican warfare (Aztecs, etc).
Yes – this was a big part of my February and March. Civilizations Collide was published on the Sally 4th website and Buck Surdu’s website as free downloads. This is the accomplishment in 2020 of which I am most proud.
2. Be productive, but never sacrifice quality
Well, you dear reader can be the judge of that. I did paint 181 figures this year versus 153 in 2019. My project total was only 403 versus 775 in 2019, but I did a lot of scratch-building numerous game aids (410 to be exact while I only did 146 in 2020), so my production was different. Still, almost 181 figures is a lot!
My 2020 production summary.
3. Grow the blog and find new ones to follow!
I definitely did both of these. As for the blog, it grew by about 12% in terms of views and visitors, and my followers are up too. My posts were fewer by five – so that is something I need to work on.
4. Entertain my audience!
I think so – again – you are the judge of this, not me!
Golf
Get my handicap below 14 (if I have enough non-gaming time!)
I did a lot of research in March and wrote Civilizations Collide, a supplement for the upcoming Feudal Patrol™ card-based wargaming system from Buck Surdu. The supplement covers the Spanish Conquest, to include the Conquistadores, the Aztecs of the Triple Alliance, Aztecs of the Aztec-Chichimec Alliance, the Maya, and the Inca. I cannot quantitate this as a hobby project, but it certainly was one!
April: 19 projects
Figures painted (19):
12 Aztec Novice Warrior figures painted for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Wargames Foundry (#WF AZ018 Novice Warriors II)
7 Power-Armored Frinx figures painted/repainted for Combat Patrol™ retro sci-fi games (25mm/28mm scale) from Archive (#2040)
18 Aztec Novice Warriors painted for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Wargames Foundry Aztecs line (12 from 2 blisters of #AZ016 Novice Aztec Warriors I, 6 from 1 blister of #AZ028 Novice Aztec Warriors III).
Figures assembled (32):
8 Tlaxcalan Novice Warriors assembled for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Outpost Wargames Services (#TX2 Tlaxcalan Novices in Padded Vests)
8 Tlaxcalan Elite Warriors assembled for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Outpost Wargames Services (#TX3b Elite Warriors in Feather Costume)
1 Tlaxcalan Captain assembled for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Outpost Wargames Services (#TXC01 Tlaxcalan Captain with Conch Blower)
1 Tlaxcalan Conch Blower assembled for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Outpost Wargames Services (#TXC01 Tlaxcalan Captain with Conch Blower)
6 Aztec Warrior Priests assembled as Tlaxcalans for Feudal Patrol™ (25mm scale), from Ral Partha’s 1200 A.D. line, circa 1988 (#42-302 Aztec Warrior Priests)
8 Aztec Novice Warriors assembled for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Wargames Foundry Aztecs line (6 from 2 blisters of #AZ016 Novice Aztec Warriors I, 2 from 1 blister of #AZ028 Novice Aztec Warriors III).
8 Aztec Cuachicqueh (the “Shorn Ones” shock troops) figures assembled for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Outpost Wargames Services (#AZ006 Cuachic Warriors- body suit and back banner)
1 Aztec Warrior Priest figure assembled for Feudal Patrol™ (28mm scale), from Wargames Foundry (#AZ011 Montezuma and Chieftains)
Figures converted (1):
1 Aztec Chieftain converted to one with a signaling drum from #AZ011 Montezuma and Chieftains
Welcome to Mark’s Conquistador Contest – a FREE chance for you to join me on my next part of my journey to field troops for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest game supplement forFeudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – AND to have a chance to win – yes WIN – some free miniatures! Read on!
I have participated in a few painting challenges from others over the years – and those are great fun. But I am currently so desirous of seeing my Conquistadores painted up and ready for gaming that I will not stop until they are done and game-ready to my standards (such as those are). So I won’t be joining any challenges (unless they dovetail with me finishing my Conquistadores). However, I thought of another way to get you involved on this project other than just reading this blog. What about having my readers compete and guess the date that I’ll actually finish the Conquistadores? And what about offering actual prizes just to make it interesting? That’s exactly the genesis of Mark’s Conquistador Contest.
I have filed, washed, and partially based the force. I have not yet primed anything, and expect to start that on December 15th. I decided that I wanted to get all my filing of mold lines and washing (yes I wash all my figures before painting no matter what they are made of) done, do a massive priming session, and paint away. How long will this take – YOU get to guess.
My goal is to have some fun, and reward my followers and share some stuff that I enjoy. Secondly, it’s to get more followers and to grow the community. Thirdly, it’s to have fun (yes that’s fun twice). I do not currently monetize my blog, and I’m not looking to anytime soon by the way. Here are the rules:
Rules of Mark’s Conquistador Contest:
To enter and to win:
You must be an email or WordPress follower of my blog.
You must pick a date (day, month, and year) that I will finish the Conquistador miniatures shown here in this post. Finishing means, to me, that I am ready for the figures to be shown on my blog and used in a game. That is my call!
You must let me know that you want in on the contest by midnight EST (US East Coast time) on January 2nd, 2021. You do this by posting a comment that “you are in” here on this blog post in the comments section with the date information requested above in (2).
Only one entry allowed per follower except as described in (5) below.
If you get another person to follow my blog, you can earn another entry! For each new follower that credits you as a referrer, you can get another entry. All that person needs to do is comment on this post as in (3) above stating that he or she is “in” and who the referrer is. The referrer can then reply to that comment with an additional entry date.
Winners will be whoever is closest to the date I announce as the “completion date”. That can be earlier or later – for example picking a date that is one day before is as good as if it’s one day after. As there are multiple prizes, 1st place gets first choice, then 2nd, then third. If two people pick the same date, ties will be broken by who submitted the date first. I reserve the right to add more prizes!
I also reserve the right to be the final judge on the contest – somebody’s gotta do that. When I finish, I will announce the winners.
So as for prizes, they will be metal miniatures – mostly old and vintage lead – and in original packaging. Great stuff I love but may not be able to paint soon – and which deserve a home. And I will pay to ship them to the winners (including the US, UK, Australia – as long as I don’t need to hit the lottery for shipping)! So here are the current three prizes (and I may add more):
Three vintage Ral Partha Aztec Blisters (25mm)Three Minifig blisters for the English Civil War (15mm)Two Vintage Ral Partha blisters from their colonials collection (25mm)
Again, depending on participation and interest – I may add more. Hell, even if you win and don’t have a plan for them, these could be used as trade, or you could just tell me to reward the next player as victory is enough for you?
Your next questions should be – “what exactly is Mark trying to paint?” and “how fast is he?”. For the second question, just check out my pages that show my previous projects. For example, 2020 is here, and 2019 is here, but I list all my projects from 2016 onward under the “Miniatures and Projects” dropdown. This menu lets me track all I have done – and how, and can give you an idea. There is a bit more I have to do here than just painting – there is some assembly too. Here are the Conquistador subjects of my quest and this contest below:
Wargames Foundry SB012 “Audacious Arquebusiers” – 6 figuresWargames Foundry SB014 “Merciless Adventurers” – 6 figures – all with arquebuses.Eureka Miniatures 100CON04 “Crossbowmen” – 5 figures. Crossbows are separate and shown below.Eureka Miniatures 100CON06 “Officer” and an unknown bonus officer that they gave me – 2 figuresOutpost Wargames Services CONC1 “Conquistador Foot Command” – 4 figures. There is a bannerman with no banner that I will make a standard for, and a few shields you’ll see below.Outpost Wargames Services CONS06 “Wardogs” – 8 figures. This is the first group of war hounds I have.Eureka Miniatures 100CON13 “Dog Handler and Dogs” – 8 figures. This is the second group of war hounds I have. I’m going to make the handler a pikeman as in my game the dogs can be added to any figure for points – I have no need for a handler alone.Wargames Foundry SB015 “Swaggering Swordsmen” – 6 figures – all with shields shown separately.Wargames Foundry SB016 “Brutal Sword and Buckler Men” – 6 figures – all with shields shown separately.Wargames Foundry SB017 “Bold Bladesmen” – 6 figures – all with shields shown separately.Outpost Wargames Services CON001 “Sword and Buckler Men” – 8 figures. There are at least 6 shields I’ll do here – maybe 8 – not sure yet as two of the figures have two-handed broadswords.Outpost Wargames Services CON5 “Conquistador Cavalry in light armour 1” – 8 figures (4 riders and 4 horses). There are also shields. I made two armed with lancers and two with swords. Note my rigging for painting riders – and yes those are screws with washers on old paint bottles.Outpost Wargames Services CON6 “Conquistador Cavalry in full armour” – 8 figures (4 riders and 4 horses). There are also shields. I made two armed with lancers and two with swords. Note my rigging for painting riders – and yes those are screws on bottles again.Eureka Miniatures 100ANMo5 “Moving Horses” – 8 figures. Obviously not moving, but de-based and mounted to be used as hacked up and downed horses that could be used as cover or block movement.All the previously alluded-to shields for the cavalry and infantry, as well as crossbows, a banner pole, and a pike.Outpost Wargames Services CONA1 “Falconet and Crew” – 3 figures (2 crew and 1 falconet (small cannon)). I’ll paint parts here before assembling the falconet.
If you’re counting (and that helps) that’s 89 figures – if you count each cavalry as two figures (horse and rider). I used a lot of poster tack and bottles as you see all of them collected here with some of my painting guide resources.
I hope that you enter and wish you the best of luck! Referrers always welcome – just need to follow the rules and importantly be one of my blog followers. Hell, I need the luck too – this is a lot of lead!
Stay tuned for updates as I finish pieces of this project – and I really hope that you find this fun. I’ll leave a synopsis as usual like below. Stay safe!
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
Posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide”
Mark’s Conquistador Contest – for my loyal blog followers! (this post)
Montezuma and Chieftains – Wargames Foundry #AZ011 for Feudal Patrol – 6 Aztec figures (Montezuma, 4 Chieftains, 1 Warrior Priest)
I have always wanted to be part of a putting together rules for a tabletop wargame. Now, I can officially say that I can check off that box on my life’s “To-Do” list – at least in a smallish way.
Feudal Patrol™– Buck Surdu’s rules for “Skirmish Miniature Gaming in the Ancient, Medieval, and Fantasy Periods” is now available commercially. In the US, it can be bought from On Military Matters website here. It is also being sold in the US by Noble Knight Games website here. In the UK, it is being sold by Sally 4th on their website here.
It is a fantastic skirmish system, similar to his Combat Patrol -WWII™and Albedo Combat Patrol™ systems. Unlike many other games, the Combat Patrol family has eliminated the clutter of multiple charts and markers with the use of specialized playing card decks. The decks in each game enable players to resolve movement, melee, missile fire, morale, cover protection, and more all from a single 50 card deck. Feudal Patrol™ is appropriate for periods when melee dominated warfare instead of firepower – so the 16th Century and earlier, as well as being adaptable for fantasy gaming. To be clear, I am not totally unbiased. I have been friends with Buck for nearly 40 years since our cadet days at West Point, and I did participate in several playtests of these rules and helped as I could.
As for a good review of Feudal Patrol™ by a more neutral party, there is a fine one on the BoardGameGeek website by Scouter (Brian Ivers) that you can see here. You can see that this is a game worth checking out. Here’s a snippet from the review:
Overall an Excellent effort by Buck and his band of Tabletop warriors. The cards and rules were purchased by me under a pre order program through On Military Matters. The rules were produced by Sally4th, a wonderful company out of the UK. Noble Knight games are also a US conduit. The amount of support available for this product is excellent, this can be found on both Buck Surdus web site as well as Sally4th. And Google Groups IO page. Buck has produced an excellent You Tube video introduction to Feudal Patrol. https://youtu.be/SlpLbMdgVv8
My official copy of the rules arrived in early November! The book looks great, and the layout inside is equally nice.The inside cover. Thanks for the shout out Buck! BTW, the “Ma’k” is a nod by Buck to my Massachusetts accent that I will never lose.
Buck asked me if I was interested in writing a supplement for the rules. I was very interested and thought it would be a fine opportunity to check the box I wrote of above. I also wanted to develop a skirmish game for the Spanish Conquest as the period and the garb of the period was fascinating to me. So I agreed, and did a lot of research on the period, and developed my supplement to Feudal Patrol™ that I called “Civilizations Collide”. That supplement is a FREE download – and I hope all who read this will download it and please take a look (after all it’s free! – did I mention that?). Plus it has a lot of pics of the miniatures that I have painted up (and more will come in this blog of course!
As readers of this blog know, I have been also actively painting figures for the period from many companies. You may want to get started – so as a help, here is my list of what I have found available:
Naismith and Roundway sells some (I have not bought any yet) here – 25mm
Even the old Ral Partha (which I have), now sold by Iron Winds Metals, has some here – 25mm
All of these are still commercially available. I do prefer the 28mm over the 25mm, but I do use both
Thanks for checking this out and a real big thank you if you downloaded the supplement! More to come!
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
Posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide”
Civilizations Collide – The Wars of the Aztecs, the Inca, the Maya, and the Conquistadores is now available as a FREE Download for Feudal Patrol™ – plus a Feudal Patrol™ review! (this post)
Last Saturday morning I had the chance to GM and play…(wait for it)…a real tabletop wargame!!! We were able to play a game of Feudal Patrol™ via Zoom. This game is a member of the Combat Patrol™ WWII family of games, and will be available soon from On Military Matters in the US and Sally 4th in the UK. The players were all alone at home and included myself (in Massachusetts), Buck Surdu (in Florida), Dave Wood (in Maryland), Greg Priebe (also in Maryland), and Chris Abbey (in the UK). Buck hosted the Zoom meeting, and I ran the game with some of my Aztec figures in my cellar that followers of this blog have seen completed such as my last one here.
The scenario is called “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli”. Huitzilopochtli was a major deity in the Aztec religion, and was particularly noted as a god of war and sacrifice. The scenario uses the supplement I wrote for FeudalPatrol™ called Civilizations Collide. It takes 60 points of attackers against 26 points of defense. However, this being an Aztec attack on another Mexica town, the focus is on capturing incapacitated warriors and dragging them back for sacrifice on the altar of Huitzilopochtli. Of course, the defenders would be trying to take captives to satisfy their particular deity as well. My rules focus on this, and other aspects of Mesoamerican warfare – to try to create an authentic feel – and a different wargaming experience. Even the difficult-to-pronounce names of the weapons (macuahuitl, tepoztopilli, cuauhololli, atlatl, sling (well not that one)) add to the feel. I aimed to create a scenario that is similar to a “Flower War” – where both sides deployed for a ritualized pre-arranged showdown.
The attackers would split their forces equally between Zones #1 and #2, which would also be where they would need to drag their captives.
The defenders would get more victory points for the same achievements – such as taking captives or incapacitating an enemy figure. One interesting aspect of the Aztec supplement rules is that as you take out an enemy you must take troops away from the battle to drag the incapacitated figure back to a prearranged spot for your side. Which means that as you achieve success on the battlefield, you lose troops for “captive duty” as it were.
The score sheet and possible points available for success for each side.
Dave, Buck and I were on the attack – and Buck and Chris defended. At first, the defenders were a bit concerned with the seemingly overwhelming odds facing them. But they had the advantage of choosing to deploy after the attackers, as well as the chance to use the defensive terrain around the fields.
Logistically, I had two cameras logged in for the game – one from my iPad and one from my iPhone. I had acquired a nice inexpensive tripod from Xenvo via Amazon called a “Lobsterpod” that worked really well. I moved the figures based on the gamers commands and the game moved along fairly well on the Zoom platform, though not as fast as if the players were all in the same room. Of course, the option to actually see my figures in all their “glory” was compromised (I’m pretty proud of them) – but hey – they are on my previous blog posts for all my readers to see so no problem, right? I only used Aztec figures, but later I will be able to augment the defenders with Tlaxcalans (when I get them painted). I planned here and for the future to allow the gamers to pick their figures beforehand from a menu of available ones, and organize their forces prior to a game.
I set up the tabletop as shown below – some of my 15mm Normandy hedgerows served well as protection around the fields. The walled section of the village is pretty basic here as it does not come into the game except as a collection point for captives.
This view is from the defenders’ side. The defenders’ walled village is in the middle on the right and served as the point for their captives to be collected for sacrifice/slavery.
The attackers tried to flank the enemy on both sides of the board while simultaneously making a frontal assaults to tie the defenders down at the wall. The attackers got a bit unlucky (to say the least) as a veteran/novice “twinned” unit (Dave) moved slowly (even at a sprint). Buck took a unit of Jaguar Warriors straight at Chris’ Arrow Warriors (yes I know they may not have been historical – think of them as elite atlatl troops with limited ammunition), and got mauled – losing two Jaguars Warriors to the defenders as potential sacrifices. On the other flank, I faced off against Greg, and despite his having a terrible early morale result that dispersed his troops, he was able to inflict good damage on my greater numbers. In the end, the defenders were able to do enough damage and take enough prisoners on the attackers for a pretty convincing victory. All agreed that the scenario was well-balanced, and all seemed to have a good time.
Buck took some screen shots that I will share below (click on them for a better view) – and he also wrote a blog post on the battle that you can read here.
The battle begins…
Approching the defenders…
The gamers are focused.
I kept busy moving around the table.
Dave attempts to flank while Buck assaults.
Greg and I get in a big scrum.
The defenders take prisoners.
The attackers vainly try to pursue the captors.
The assault on the defenders’ right devolves further.
Mark’s Warrior Priest and other Aztecs stopped by Greg.
At this point, the defenders have triumphed by great play.
I used color-coded and numbered magnets to try to keep the forces straight, and it worked. But magnets in melee do attract…so next time I will use poster tack and small hole punched card of different colors. A gaming challenge is to make sure that the Aztecs and other forces are identifiable for the player, either in remote mode or live. The card solution should be an easy fix.
Here are some shots that I took after the game:
Greg and I battle at the wall.
Buck’s Jaguar Warriors head for a brutal end on the sacrificial altar.
Buck’s captured Jaguar Warriors.
You can see the magnets I used – nice try but will not be using again.
Buck’s command group attempts to rally his forces.
Lastly, here are the gamers:
Great fun group!
My thanks to all who participated. It was a nice test of my scenario and the special rules I wrote for Civilizations Collide, which will be a free download from the game’s website when it goes live in September. I must say it was a gratifying experience, and one that I hope to repeat.
I intend to buy Zoom if there is enough interest and host some more games – at least until we are clear of the COVID-19 virus. I could see my running more FeudalPatrol™ games, and even What a Tanker games. If you would be up to a remote game, let me know in the comments section – maybe we can make it happen!
Check out the links for FeudalPatrol™ – its a great and easy card-based system that is really a great step forward.
Last weekend I had a lot of fun being on the Imperial Rebel Ork podcast. It was a lot of fun, and I really appreciated the opportunity. Though the Imperial Rebel Ork himself (aka IRO) apologized for the audio quality – I thought it was fine. Hell, we had to have our chat over quite a few miles:
All 10,463 of them.
The podcast is fun (and NOT just because I was lucky enough to be on it). Here is the link where you can access the podcast on Apple – though it’s on other platforms as well:
And of course IRO has an excellent blog that is well-worth following – he’s amazingly creative.
If you listen to the podcast (and YOU SHOULD 😁), it’s clear that there are some background details of our discussion that might be of some interest to you. Basically, it’s about how I got into the hobby back in 1982 or 1983, and how I got back into it in 2015, plus where I’m at now. So, I will share some anecdotes, pics, and links that many of you may not have seen before.
I described how I was a traditional board game wargamer – I really got my first wargame – Avalon Hill’s Afrika Korps – probably when I was 10 or 11. Others followed, like Waterloo, and War at Sea. Finding opponents was not easy – most of my friends and family thought these games to be uninteresting at best. Later, at West Point, fate got me as a roommate the irrepressible Dave Wood – who was a wargamer as well! We spent hundreds of hours playing the aforementioned games, but also especially Victory in the Pacific and Panzer Leader.
My first wargame – and I still have it ready to play after nearly 50 years.
Always loved this classic.
Dave Wood and I played these games hundreds of times.
A great platoon level game with decent realism. I even acquired the France 1940 expansion.
A major influence on my hobby was to come through Dave – and that was an introduction to Buck Surdu, who was at West Point in the class behind me and Dave. Buck had already written and had published his own sets (sets – not a set) of rules for different wargames. My first meeting with Buck was when Dave brought me up to a session that Buck had set up in the Department of Foreign Languages classroom – it was a giant fantasy miniature battlefield covered with old 25mm Ral Partha, Grenadier, Minifig, and other miniatures. This was set up on desks put together and covered with old US Army OD blankets as mats. I had never seen anything like this before – and I was stunned – and hooked. Buck had written the rules for the game as well. Before long, both Dave and Buck were lending me figures to paint for them as I wanted to try that too.
The first units I painted for them still exist! One was a group of Minifig halflings that Dave had that he let me paint for him. I did not really know anything about painting with highlights, washes, or dry brushing back then. Kindly, Dave gave them to me a few of years ago that I described here. I flocked their bases and varnished them, but left them unchanged otherwise.
The Halflings!
A second unit was one I painted for Buck – a group of pig-faced Orcs that I think were from Minifig. I decided to give them a pretty gaudy paint job – with a Captain America theme. They were the “All-American Orcs”. Buck still has them and took a couple shots to show them to you in all their ancient “glory”:
The All-American Orcs
Mind you, these were painted before my class graduation in May 1984, but I used no varnish back then so there are chips, and no flocking (washers were enough for me then) – but I’m happy to see them again, and humbled that Buck has kept them around.
Another unit (that I don’t have pictures of but Dave has somewhere) was a punk/new wave blue, red, and green mohawk-wearing group that I called “Paddy’s New Wave Bar and Grill Conscript Militia”. Yup, that was a thing back then.
Also, I, Buck, Dave, Doug Morris (’85), and another ’84 classmate Ken Thrasher also had Sunday night campaigns of Tunnels and Trolls (a role-playing game that competed with Dungeons & Dragons back in the day). The campaign I ran focused on a Balrog wizard who had dimensionally transported himself to the US in the 1960’s – and used LSD and other drugs – and then returned to rule a mountain lair replete with monsters, traps and puzzles with a 1960’s theme. The Balrog’s name? Why Purple Haze of course…
And I still have this too!
After graduation, I still puttered around with painting my own figures, as well as casting some in Prince August molds using – of all things – fishing lead weights. I was deployed to Germany, and got to host Buck and a friend of his in 1987 for a couple of gaming weekends and a side trips to Paris via Verdun. They were stationed in Italy. Buck recently shared this blast from the past with me – a big game using Buck’s Fantasy Miniature rules with some edits that I made. You cannot see a lot, but I made the game analogous to a Bastogne 1944 scenario – with sprites, dwarves, halflings, orcs and more. We used stuff like lichen and Styrofoam as terrain.
Me and Buck’s friend Mike at the game in Hagenbach, West Germany. I am wearing my 249th Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy) t-shirt. I still have the card table in the back!
Buck, myself, and my daughter Ellen. I was a single parent 1LT in Germany. Ellen was 2 here. Now she’s a mom with a three year old!
Then my hobby activities slowed to a crawl. I was a divorced single parent, then remarried, then divorced, then remarried…in the Army, then out…in many parts of the US, then more this and that…fast forward to 2015…
I had always saved all my miniatures and paints. I knew I would eventually get back to the hobby, but when? Well, a chimney fire required us to move a lot in the cellar during a rebuild, and my wife was moving my minis – and I said, “I’ll take care of them”. Next thing I know I’m painting again, gaming again, and blogging about it starting back in 2015. My first project was “The Nightmare Legion”, which only took more than three decades to complete – and was the subject of my first blog post in March of 2015,
Myself, Buck Surdu and Dave Wood at “Ma’k Con” (in my basement) back in 2017. If the hobby is a crime, these are my bad influences!
On the podcast, IRO discussed a few aspects of my hobbying that you may not have seen before if you are a relative newcomer to the blog. So, here are a few links if you want to take a gander if you’d like some context:
I hope you enjoyed this romp down memory lane in conjunction with the podcast – if you have similar memories, or completely different ones – feel free to comment.
Oh yeah, if I follow or comment on your blogs, or you on mine, you all inspire me.
This looks to be an exciting new game! My buddy Buck Surdu has teamed up with Old Glory and Sally 4th on this project – the link is here. It launches on June 27th, 2020.
There’s a great description at Beasts of War here’s a snippet from that page:
Wars Of Ozz Kickstarter Coming Soon
The idea is that the rules here take Baum’s world and give it a little bit of a post-apocalyptic Earth twist. Things then get even more quirky with the addition of the “Madness Bomb” which got dropped into the mix during the “Last Great War” where survivors were mutated and chaos reigned until the Wizard finally arrived.
This then all distills down into a new mass battle game with miniatures sculpted and cast by the team at Old Glory. All of the miniatures are cast in lead/tin and are you’ll be able to buy armies to build up your mass of troops as well as characters to lead them into battle.
There is more there to check out, and the miniatures look amazing. Here’s a shot of the Pumpkin Men:
I love the Tin Men:
And whatever these are – they look cool!
Just to be clear, I have no financial stake in this whatsoever, though I will likely be diving in to get some of this stuff, as well as the rules.
Thought my followers would enjoy checking this out, what do you think?
Mark A. Morin 