M5 Stuart tanks for “Operation Torch: Vichy Mounts an Armored Counterattack” Game

I promised back in August that I would post about my US M5 Stuart tanks. These would be the linchpin of my US forces in my “Operation Torch: Vichy Mounts an Armored Counterattack” games.

Yes, the US and UK did briefly engage French forces of Vichy in North Africa in WWII. After the US Operation Torch landings, Vichy did put up a resistance. Technically they were supposed to be neutral after the 1940 Armistice. However, the Soviets were dealing with massive battles on the Eastern Front, and the US/UK allies were not yet ready to successfully invade Fortress Europe. As the Dieppe raid showed, it would have been a catastrophic failure in 1942.

The idea was to take off some of the pressure on the Soviets by getting in the war somewhere and tie down the Germans. French North Africa became the chosen option, with the hope that the Vichy French would welcome the US/UK invaders as liberators and not invaders. For a brief period in November 1942, both of these two options played out in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria – until the French there decided to cease resisting the Allies. Subsequently, back in Europe, Hitler was enraged at the Vichy capitulation and ordered his forces to invade the remaining southern part of France that was not yet occupied.

Back in North Africa in November 1942, one of the more obscure incidents of the conflict was in Morocco – where the French 1er Regiment de Chasseurs d’Afrique launched an armored counterattack towards the landing beaches. At that critical juncture, the 66th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division (and Sub-Task Force Goalpost) had just 7 M5 Stuart tanks that it could cobble together to intercept the French. Their M4 Sherman tanks needed a port to unload, and that had not happened yet.

I found this article/post by Patrick Chaisson to be an excellent description of the combat that happened in November 1942.

As far as a concept for a wargame, I liked the idea of a game that would recreate this clash of armor – especially as one side was green as hell, and the other fielded such a hodgepodge of elderly and obsolescent armor.

I ran this game twice at HISTORICON 2025, along with two Wars of Ozz games. All went well. I hope to post some convention shots in my next post (albeit very late). Unfortunately golf season was very busy this summer (well, fortunately for my golf game and not my hobby projects). Still, I keep my word. I thought I’d add a bit about the game as well, while saving specific game/convention photos for the next post. However, the game is coming back!

I will be running the game again twice at HMGS Fall In this November. Here are the inks – one is on Friday afternoon and one is on Friday night. I can handle up to 10 players per game – and I can scale it for fewer as well. as of this writing, there are still slots available.

My game poster. It marks my first foray using AI (Freepik) to generate an image. I wasn’t completely thrilled with the result, but it’s OK for a flyer.

The game uses modified What a Tanker rules. The major modifications that I use are:

Using Bonus Attack Cards to simulate infantry, anti-tank, artillery, naval gunfire, and air actions. These are deployed by scout cars according to each sides’ historical capabilities. Bonus Attack Cards are purchased with “Tanker Bucks”, which also play into Victory Conditions. Having more Tanker Bucks at the games end is better. Yet, you need to use resources to take out the enemy. So, a balancing act exists for the players. Do they hoard their Tanker Bucks, or use them effectively against their opponent?
Representing the French vehicles’ advanced age and mechanical unreliability. “OLD” French vehicles that try to move and roll a 5 or less will lose 1 die to temporary damage. Mathematically, there is an 11% chance of that happening. So the Vichy Forces are indeed slow. But there are more of them, and not all of the French tanks are OLD.
Creating a way for armored cars to engage other armored cars – and tanks, with heavy machine guns or Bonus Attack Cards. Also I have rules that show how devastating any cannon fire would have been against thin-skinned vehicles.
Representing the US Army as being totally GREEN at this point in the war. Their base roll needed to hit goes from needing a 6 on 2d6 added together to a 7. Add to that the concept that most of the French vehicles are SMALL, necessitating an addition +1 to hit at short range, and another +1 at long range. Oh yeah, the Stuarts have just a 37mm gun. This means that the US has a tough time making damaging hits at long range against French tanks.
The US use of Bonus Attack Cards is limited to just the US and French Armored Cars. The M5 Stuart’s radios got wet during the landings and were not working. Many French tanks in North Africa did not have radios.
Use of Bonus Attack Cards also represented that the US had both carrier-based air support as well as naval gunfire from the USS Savannah. I added F4F Wildcat’s and Avenger TBF’s for US air support. The F4F’s can provide air superiority, which allows them to also do limited close air support missions. Having air superiority enables the US player to deploy the Avengers, which can act as spotter planes for both artillery and naval gunfire. The Avengers can also bomb the French vehicles with depth charges (yes that happened). The French can contest the US air superiority by deploying Dewoitine D.520’s.
Modifying the activation sequencing methodology by using Buck Surdu’s “Double Random Activation” method. It’s the same one used with Wars of Ozz, Feudal Patrol, and Combat Patrol games.

Back to the Stuarts. The M5 vehicles are 15mm/1:100 scale. I sourced them from two places. I got an OOP Flames of War 5-tank platoon (plastic) from Noble Knight Games. I also bought five 3D-printed resin models on eBay from HobbyHouse&Miniatures LLC. The plastic models were fun to work on, and I was glad to have the additional resin ones. Historically, 7 M5 Stuarts were sent to counter the Vichy counterattack. When I drilled out the resin models for magnet installation, two broke in half (not the fault of the model, just me. In the end, I had 3 of those, making 8 models in total, which was fine given that seven were originally sent along with some M3 and M6 tank destroyers.

I worked on the M5 tanks in parallel with the M3A1 Scout Cars and the M3 and M6 Tank Destroyers that I have discussed previously. I tried to incorporate the gold stars and US flags that were unique to that period of the war. I also decided to give the vehicles hand-painted names:

Honey (my Mom’s nickname)
Dragon
Beast
Killah
Ellen (my daughter’s name)
Tabitha (my granddaughter’s name)
Caesar (my late cockatiel’s name)
Lynn (for my ever-so-tolerant wife)

The M5’s without their turrets, showing the basing and details. I list the paints and other materials used at the end of this post.

The 22 US Army vehicles for my game in a Really Useful Box.

This wraps up this post on my 8 M5’s. If you have any feedback – please let me know in the comments section!

Lastly, for all of my posts on WWII games and projects – there is a consolidated list of posts and their links located here.

MATERIALS USED

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS AND FLOCKING USED ON THE FIVE BATTLEFRONT/FLAMES OF WAR PLASTIC M5 TANK MODELS AND THE THREE HOBBYHOUSE&MINIATURES LLC 3D-PRINTED RESIN M5 TANK MODELS:

Green Stuff
Paper Clip wire
War Games Accessories Steel Bases Number 16 (½” x ½”)
Wooden Blocks, steel bolts, steel washers, magnets, steel screws
Neodymium magnets (⅛” and ¼”)
Gorilla Glue
Tamiya Extra Thin Cement
Daisy BB’s
Plastic broom bristles
Vallejo Surface Primer “Black”
Vallejo Surface Primer “USA Olive Drab”
Vallejo Model Air “Black Metallic”
Army Painter “Military Shader” (shade/wash)
Hataka “Vert Fonce”
Vallejo Model Color “USA Olive Drab”
Vallejo Model Air “Tire Black”
Vallejo Model Color “Dark Sea Grey”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Vallejo Model Air “Wood”
Vallejo Mecha Weathering Effects “Dark Rust Wash”
War Games Accessories Steel Bases Number 23 (1½” x 2″)
Vallejo Surface Primer “German Green Brown”
Citadel “Agrellan Earth” (texture)
Army Painter “Mid Brown” (shade/wash)
Reaper MSP Core Colors “Blackened Brown”
Vallejo Thinner Medium
Citadel “Averland Sunset”
Vallejo “Mecha Varnish Gloss”
Microscale Industries “Micro Set”
Microscale Industries “Micro Sol”
Microscale Industries “Liquid Decal Film”
Battlefront US Army decals
Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
Citadel “‘Ardcoat”
Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
Vallejo Flow Improver
Vallejo Thinner
Vallejo “Matte Polyurethane Varnish”
Printed labels on card stock
Gamers Grass “Tiny Beige 2mm Tufts” (flocking)
PVA Glue

October 2023 Projects for Wars of Ozz – Amassing Terrain, Gifts of Impkins & Terrain, Building Terrain Transport & Storage, Creepy Fighting Baby Dolls, Rebasing Work, plus a Pikachu for Tabitha

Now that is a pithy title! Indeed, October saw me having a number of projects happening – almost simultaneously – in preparation for the HMGS Fall In! convention this week. It was nearly overwhelming, especially given that I was also involved in multiple golf tournaments as a player and as an organizer/committee member, plus a number of big events that were nice – but I’ll spare you those details for now.

So much terrain!

I had been previously gifted a good number of some wonderful Acheson resin buildings from Russ Dunaway that were perfect for the Great Land of Harvest or the world of the Wars of Ozz. Also, as I mentioned here last month, I received a wonderful gift of some new terrain from Dave in Australia. His blog is Guru PIGS blog and it was a collection from his Mouse Metropolis project. I also got a gift of couple of glowing Mushrooms from Buck Surdu that I also loved! Also my purchase of some walls and fences from Pendraken showed up. Add to this at this point I had around 26 Fairy-style prepainted resin buildings I had gotten from the Dollar Tree store – including a tall one from Dave/Guru. Something had to be done – I could neither store, use, or transport all of this goodness effectively. Plus some of the Pendraken stuff and some of my own stone walls and fences needed an upgrade. Add to this, I got a new brigade of Impkins for Ozz from Buck – more on that shortly – let’s stay on terrain for the moment.

Buck’s cool glowing mushrooms – and an appropriate cozy he got for me at an HMGS South convention in Florida.

All the terrain I had – minus walls and fences…

My first solution to this issue was to share the bounty. I shipped off half of the Acheson resin buildings and half of my fairy buildings to my Tennessee buddy (and former West Point roommate) Dave Wood for use in his Wars of Ozz games. My next step was to finish the resin buildings, fences, and walls so that I could craft a storage and transport solution for them. I also wanted to repaint/upgrade my remaining haphazardly prepainted Dollar Tree buildings. So on to what I managed to do with all of that…

Here are some of the Acheson buildings that I kept. I also kept a tall gourd building that is not shown here. I decided to assemble them and attach the roofs permanently.

After a LOT of scuffing and sandpapering the surfaces of the resin buildings (for proper primer adhesion), I assembled them with green stuff. You can see the gourd building here left of the black Sharpie pen.

Here are all of the ones that I kept – here assembled and awaiting a priming – which I did twice. The buildings are nice, but resin is so fickle.

As shown above, the priming took a couple coats (plus some more touch up) as resin is, well, resin. I tried to minimize the lines where the roofs met the model bottoms – but they still showed up a bit. Still as tabletop terrain, it think its ok, especially as the roofs won’t come off.

Here below are how they came out after painting:

Then I had some Pendraken MDF snakerail fences to assemble and paint

I also got some plastic walls and plastic fences from Pendraken that I flocked and gave some minor washes to in order to make them look a bit better. I also repeated this process with some older used 3″ walls and fences that I already had that were in desperate need of an upgrade. Next, I repainted my remaining 13 Dollar Tree Store Fairy buildings (to varying degrees depending on what could be done).

Now, I was ready for a storage solution. I went with a 64-liter Really Useful Box, and built and installed three custom-made levels to transport and store all of this goodness. Serially, I mocked up each level on sheets of foam board, and used hot glue and toothpicks to secure walls of foam board on each level. The underneath supports were square wooden dowels. I also incorporated empty golf ball boxes for storage on the top level. (very useful too). It’s maybe good I lose golf balls from time to time…

The bottom level was easy – as I only needed to fit the Mouse Metropolis pieces down there. Then it was on to the middle layer – where all the taller pieces like the bigger buildings would be housed.

Mocking up the top level. Here you can see some of the fences and walls that I upgraded with washes and flocking.

Below you’ll see all three levels and how compact it all is in the 64-L box – which weighs about 5-7 pounds full.

As terrain was the order of the day for my Fall In preparation, I also ordered two Cigar Box Battles 4′ x 6′ + Grassland Battle Mats as I needed a bigger tabletop area. The terrain will go on this mat for my upcoming game of The Wars of Ozz – the scenario is The Battle for Toto – but I have upgraded it as well. Herebelow are some shots as a sneak preview of what I will start with at Fall In.

Overview of my approximately 12′ x 4″ battlefield for “The Battle for Toto”.

A view of the town the Munchkins are defending – which holds Toto. But where?

The terrain gifts that I got were not the only ones I got. Buck Surdu had painted up an entire brigade of Impkins – and asked our little group on our group text if there was any interest. I of course jumped at the chance to get some wonderful Buck Surdu originals! In the discussion, it came out from someone that they reminded somebody of “creepy fighting baby dolls”. I suggested to Greg Priebe, that sounded like an 80’s metal band – and could he put that into AI somehow? He could, and without further ado, and with a bit of hilarity, here is the CFBD’s in concert:

The Creepy Fighting Baby Dolls

Ah Greg, they definitely make me laugh! A band worthy of IRO for sure down under – at least image-wise!

Anyways, in the midst of all else that I had happening in October, this VERY complete brigade arrived in the mail in two packages. The painting was fantastic – Buck’s painting work is always amazing. There were two regiments of infantry, two of cavalry (one riding roosters, and one riding St. Bernard dogs), one Border Swamp Guardian Fairy (flying) regiment with bows, a cool slingshot light artillery battery, two leaders, and a sorceress:

There was minor damage to the units in the mail, and most was easy to fix with some glue. The biggest challenges were twofold. One, I wanted to add some flocking to the bases for tabletop differentiation – and two, I wanted to upgrade the slingshot unit. By upgrade, I mean that the base was not magnetized for the placement of crew, and the trees supporting the slingshot had lost their foliage (see below). I was inspired by – again – IRO, who recently had a cool post about making model trees. He had advised me about the right glue to use and more – so I used that information as best as possible.

Without further ado, here is my….

Gift of Impkins

The first shipment came – and I was excited – the base with the slingshot and the fairies came second.

The two infantry units looked a bit similar – even though one has a rooster-mounted commander and the other one on a St. Bernard. So in addition to adding a Pendraken 12mm dice frame, I added different flocking:

The Swamp Guardian Fairy (flying) regiment was really cool. I mainly had to drill out some of the wires that came loose and reattach a few wings.

There were two cavalry regiments:

I think those will be easy to differentiate!

There were the three individuals – King Kittcut, Queen Garee, and Sorceress Mother Ophelia and her Cats. I based all three on MDF bases and printed out placards for them.

Queen Gare, King Kittcut, and in the back Sorceress Mother Ophelia and her Cats on the MDF bases. Buck’s painting on all of these is phenomenal.

This leaves the Impkin “Artillery”. It’s a slingshot firing apples – that moves on the battlefield- somehow. So how, I don’t know, it just acts like a light artillery piece – so suspend belief – it’s Ozz! Anyways, I magnetized the base for the crew, and added some blood stains under the figures for when they are casualties. I also redid the foliage per IRO’s suggestions and added some Woodland Scenics apples for effect. It was fun and a bit messy, but good preparation for a subsequent project I hope to blog about soon – Savage Apple Trees (to come soon)

Here is the Impkin artillery base shorn of the foliage on the trees. I drilled out the base, added magnets for the crew and flocking. The dice square glue is shown drying here.

After finishing up the re-foliage and the apples – voila! I was very happy.

The figures – once removed as casualties – display a blood stain on the grass.

More Rebasing!

While I was at all this, I rebased my Zoraster, my Evora, my Arella (gift from Chris Comeau), and my Lady Thistlethorn (Harvest Witch) on the MDF bases:

A Pikachu for Tabitha

Gifts also went from me! One more model that I worked on was a Pokemon Pikachu model that I assembled together with my 6-year old (nearly 7) grandaughter. It was fun, but the tail broke off easily. No worries, Papa repaired it and affixed to two points on the model such that it should not twist off again. She loves it, and it was a fun modeling experience for her.

Sending Guru Dave the Wars of Ozz & Wars of Orcs and Dwarves rulebooks, and a Mark 1 Sphere Tank Down Under

I did want to reciprocate Dave’s great selfless terrain gift – and I knew he loves rule books. So unbeknownst to Guru Dave, I sent him the rulebooks for both the Wars of Ozz and Wars of Orcs and Dwarves. As he was into Xenos Rampant, I also sent him a cast of my Mark 1 Sphere Tank Down that he could use there. You can read about his reactions in his post here.

Much thanks to Russ Dunaway, to Dave (Guru), to Buck Surdu , to Greg Priebe, to IRO, and to Chris Comeau for all that you did to make this all work! I appreciate you all so very much.

As I finish this post, I am about to pack for Fall In, with all the Ozz stuff you see. I do have a couple more units to post about once I have gotten back, as well as an October golf roundup. I’m sure that I will have a Fall In! post as well to do. My apologies to those whose blogs I am behind in catching up on – I will get there. I hope that this post was enjoyable for you and that maybe I can meet some of you at Fall In!

My Fall In! 2022 Roundup

I was fortunate to attend the HMGS Fall In® gaming convention last weekend (November 3-6, 2022) in Lancaster, PA. The Maryland-based Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (H.A.W.K.’s) were kind enough to adopt me (a Massachusetts-based Mass Pikeman) and invited me to be a game master in their dedicated gaming room at Fall In!. They are a great group of folks and I am very grateful for their hospitality! Lancaster is a 6-hour drive for me – but the trip was well worth it.

There were close to 400 games – or more too many to count – at the convention. The event was amazing and very well-run for sure. I played in two games, and ran 4 of my own. As this situation begs for visual inputs, I will have A LOT of photos and a couple of video links to share.

Click on the photos for a better view.

Thanks to Chris Palmer for some of these photos below as well. I hope that you find these enjoyable.

**Thursday Night, Marines versus Japanese, a Combat Patrol™ Game**

After I set up my first game on Thursday night (for Friday morning), Eric Schlegel of the H.A.W.K.’s ran a pick up Combat Patrol™ game Thursday night. It involved US Marines storming a Japanese island. I played on the Japanese side and the USMC overwhelmed the defenders and won. It was a fun quick game. Here’s a couple of photos:

Kurt Schlegel plans his landings. Greg Priebe looks tired…

**Friday Morning, “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game**

After a good night’s sleep, I arrived early to set up my Feudal Patrol™ game of “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli”. It’s a pre-Spanish Conquest fight between the Aztecs and their neighbors the Tlaxcalans. The Aztecs attempt to conduct a raid of a Tlaxcalan village to gain captives for slavery and blood sacrifice, and the Tlaxcalans fight back!

The game went very well – as you will see below. The Aztecs made a valiant assault across open terrain into a hail of Tlaxcalan arrows – and went into melee. The Tlaxcalans were ready and gave as good as they got. In the end, they Aztecs eked out a minor victory 34-27. The casualties were separated only by 3 figures out of 18 total on both sides. Both sides were totally excited about their prospects and the battle. Here’s a gallery of photos from that game:

Near the end of the game, an official of the convention briefly interrupted the game – and to my surprise awarded me a PELA award (my first ever) for the time slot. PELA stands for “Pour Encourager Les Autres” which in English translates to “For Encouraging the Others”. These awards are defined by HMGS as going:

“to the games that best embody the positive traits of miniatures gaming, such as well-painted figures, great looking terrain, interesting scenarios, enjoyable rules, good sportsmanship, and an enjoyable time – events that do the most to “encourage others”.”

I was really shocked and honored – and as a cherry on the sundae I got a rousing applause from the players too. There were about 30 games in my time slot – so not a lay up to be chosen by any means. The award was a lovely Samurai figure on a plinth and a voucher for the vendor hall.

After picking up the morning game, I and Greg Priebe walked around the event before preparing for our evening game that we had collaborated on. Here is a gallery of just some of what was there- some truly amazing stuff.

This NYC gangster game was shockingly beautiful. It was electrified – lights everywhere, the steamer had a horn going, WOW. WOW. WOW!!!

I mentioned Dave Wood above – my West Point roommate – always good to see my good friend, my brother from another mother…

Greg and I then set up our game, Vikings vs. Aztecs!!!

**Friday Evening, “Vikings vs. Aztecs!!!”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game**

Greg Priebe and I had worked out this scenario over the phone and Zoom.

Obviously this is not a historical recreation, but a “what if”. Greg had brought the Viking figures and I of course brought the Aztecs – and we co-GM’ed the game.

The game went well. The Aztecs, led by Acamapichtli, needed to prevent the Vikings, led by Carl the Jarl and Brunhilde the Shieldmaiden, from raiding and looting various structures – and of course casualties counted as well for both sides. In the end, the Aztecs majorly triumphed – partly due to the Vikings having probably the WORST luck of the draw in any wargame that I have seen in 20 years. That’s not to detract from the Aztec play – which focused on defense and won the day. However, I did not tally a score. Here’s a gallery:

It was a fun game nonetheless and the players on both sides displayed excellent camaraderie. Greg also gave me a bunch of Viking sprues so that I could have my own Vikings too. I do have some old school metal ones, but I will (someday), assemble and paint these up to run this game again. I just need to help out the Vikings!

We then cleaned up and I then set up most of my next day’s afternoon and evening games – as I planned on playing in Chris Palmer’s Ozz game on Saturday morning.

**Saturday Morning, “Wars of Ozz: Attack on the Emerald City”, a Wars of Ozz Game**

When I had visited Florida and Buck Surdu (as described here) I played a Wars of Ozz game at Recon. Buck’s Wars of Ozz rules and figures are available from Sally4th in the UK here, and in the US at a dedicated Old Glory Ozz site here.

As I have factions (Munchkins, Winkies, Greater and Lesser Pumpkinheads), I wanted to play another game to make sure that I understood the rules since it had been a while. Chris Palmer ran his outstanding scenario of “Attack on the Emerald City“. This involved Nomes (yes, Nomes), burrowing underneath the walls of the Emerald City and undermining its defenses/taking out a wall section. Meanwhile, Winkies, Giant Bears, and Skeletons are assisting the Nomes by attacking from outside the walls. Quadlings and Tin Men inside attempt to defend, while Munchkins defend outside.

In the game I was outside the walls with a medium battery of Munchkin artillery, two infantry regiments (Tik-Tok and Landwehr), and a small Munchkin cavalry regiment. I sent the cavalry to disrupt the Nomes coming after my teammates rears (that sounds wrong but you get it), and succeeded so that they could face the oncoming Winkies and skeletons and not get hit on two sides. This was successful but the cavalry was badly weakened and did not reform until the last turn of the game. My artillery ended up in a counter-battery duel with a couple of Winkie batteries – and was wiped out. Meanwhile, my two infantry regiments held their respective grounds and heavily damaged two attacking Winkie regiments AND wiped out a regiment of Giant Bears. Then, my cavalry reformed and drove off the Nomes on my side. So, victory! Here’s a couple of galleries:

This was an EXCELLENT game and motivates me to hurry up and get to my Ozz figures. Of key note, Chris Palmer deservedly won a PELA for this game the day before! Congrats Chris!

As I had set up my afternoon game, after lunch it was time for:

Saturday Afternoon, “The Battle of Lake Texcoco”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game

I planned to run two of this scenario back-to-back. I had FULL tables for each iteration – and I’ll share each in turn. Greg Priebe was a BIG help at both games – thanks Greg!

The scenario is best summarized below:

In the first game, the Conquistadores sailed towards the Aztec war canoe fleet. The Conquistadores needed to fire their falconets and lombards into Tenochtitlan for Victory Points, while the Aztecs got their big points by boarding the brigantines. VP’s were also awarded to both sides for inflicting casualties. Some of the brigantines raised full sails – notably El Dólar (The Buck after Buck Surdu) & El Gregorio (The Greg after Greg Priebe). The other three brigantines are named El Perro de Guerra (The War Dog), & El Conquistador (The Conquistador of course), and El Marcos (named after, well, me). All made it towards Tenochtitlan but the Aztecs were able to board them all and disrupt them sufficiently. El Dólar ended up hitting an underwater obstacle at full speed and settled to the mud bottom, allowing the Aztecs to swarm over it. It’s cannon was unable to bear on the city, and no other ship managed a shot into the city. The Aztecs won a minor victory as no shot hit the capital – but killed a LOT of Aztecs. But the game ended with a score of 226-207 in favor of the Aztecs. Here’s a gallery of that game:

The game was a success, and I reset it for:

Saturday Evening, “The Battle of Lake Texcoco”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game

After resetting from the afternoon, the play recommenced with a different yet FULL slate of gamers. In this game the Spanish were more cautious, and that let the Aztecs close on them sooner. Unlike the first game, the Conquistadors did get one shot off at Tenochtitlan from El Gregorio – but it missed! The final score was 290-172 in favor of the Aztecs. It did not help the Spanish that an arquebus misfired/exploded and killed that arquebusier, another arquebusier, and Alvarado (a key leader). It was nice to have several HAWKS in the game – especially Greg and Chris and Geoff. Here’s a gallery of round 2:

Both games were well-received and I really appreciate the help in cleaning up from Chris Palmer, Greg Priebe, and Dave Wood as it was after midnight!

Videos links showing Fall In! 2022 and some of these games

There have been two videos on YouTube that I think are worth seeing if you want more shots of the Fall In! 2022 convention.

The first is by Walt O’Hara called “Fall IN! 2022 at sub light speed“. Click here you will see this video with some nice overall shots of many other games plus some amusing commentary. Chris Palmer’s “Wars of Ozz: Attack on the Emerald City” shows up at 1:52. Our “Vikings vs. Aztecs!!!” game show up at 2:09. His PELA comment was a joke of course- though I did win for my “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli” as discussed.

The second is from Little Wars TV, called “Fall In” 2022 Show Recap”. It is very well done and you can see a few seconds of me and my Lake Texcoco game at 10:50. Click here to see that video.

Thanks so much to the folks that ran the convention – it was outstanding. Special thanks again to the H.A.W.K.’s for bringing me in and making me feel welcome and a part of the group. Of course, to all who played in my games, please know how much I appreciated sharing my game with you.

Lastly, and as a side note, you may remember that I won a PELA. As part of that award, in addition to the miniature I got this:

So, I took my $12 voucher for my PELA and on Sunday morning after packing up hit the vendor hall. I decided to get some dice etc., and then saw a steel conquistador’s helmet. It called to me. Now it’s mine!

After a long drive home – I showed my wife. Somehow she was not very pleased! Oh well, sorry honey…still love ya…

Thanks for looking and to my regular followers I hope to post more figures soon as golf season has basically wound down.

3 Aztec Feudal Patrol Games Coming to Fall In 2022

I will be running 4 Feudal Patrol™ games at the HMGS Fall In® gaming convention next week in Lancaster, PA. In 2022, I have been running Aztec/Mesoamerica/Spanish Conquest themed games at multiple gaming conventions – and they all have been well-received. I am really looking forward to running these games at Fall In® in the H.A.W.K.’s room – and I hope to see some of you there.

So, you ask, what are you running Mark, and when? Well, I aim to please – so let me answer that!

Friday, November 4th from 9 AM to 1 PM, Paradise Room

I will be running my “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli”. It’s a pre-Spanish Conquest fight between the Aztecs and their neighbors the Tlaxcalans. The Aztecs attempt to conduct a raid of a Tlaxcalan village to gain captives for slavery and blood sacrifice, and the Tlaxcalans will fight back!

Friday, November 4th from 7 PM to 11 PM, Paradise Room

Later that day, I will be teaming up with Greg Priebe of the H.A.W.K.’s to run a “what if” scenario. Let’s say a Viking raiding party got lost and while trying to get to Greenland and wound up in Tenochtitlan. Never to pass up the opportunity for looting and pillaging, they decide to make the best of it, but the Aztecs have other plans. I think this will be a LOT of fun. Greg wrote the rules for the Feudal Patrol™ Vikings supplement – and we will use my Aztec supplement rules as well (Civilizations Collide). featuring a 1200’s Viking raid on the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan!

Saturday, November 5th from 2 PM to 6 PM, Paradise Room

AND

Saturday, November 5th from 7 PM to 11 PM, Paradise Room

On Saturday, I will be running a Feudal Patrol™ naval game – this time the epic Battle of Lake Texcoco.

TWICE! Once in the afternoon and once in the evening. After I ran this at HUZZAH! in Maine – I knew it was a hit.

The history is this – back in the summer of 1521 Cortes had a problem. To seize control of the Aztec island capital of Tenochtitlan, he realized that he needed to control the surrounding waters of Lake Texcoco (where Mexico City is now – the lake is long-gone). This meant building a fleet. Cortes had his troops build small brigantines in sections. These prefabricated pieces were then carried by his Tlaxcalan allies to the shore of Lake Texcoco, where they were assembled, and made ready for combat on the lake. While simultaneously he sent land-based conquistadores to attack Tenochtitlan’s causeways, Cortes launched his brigantines to attack Tenochtitlan.

In his way were hundreds of Aztecs canoes waiting to swarm over the Spanish. This is the basis of this game.

So, you will have two chances to jump in on this game!

To my regular readers – YES I have been neglecting this blog – more a case of a lot hitting my schedule (mostly golf) – and I will be catching up with some of the miniatures that I have painted up and some games that I have run going forward. In the meantime, I am looking forward to reconnecting with you al soon – and I appreciate those who kindly checked in on me to see if I had assumed room temperature yet.

Thankfully, I have not – I think not yet anyways…

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