Creating a WWII Vichy Counterattack Game Scenario

Over the summer, happily, golf dominated my free time for the most part. I didn’t really have much time for hobby work or wargames. Blogging about what little I did complete or participate in fell to the wayside. The “little” that I refer to is work on my 15mm/1:100 scale WWII scenario, Operation Torch: Vichy Mounts a Counterattack. This scenario is part of a What a Tanker game. It is set in Morocco in November 1942. The Vichy French responded to the American landings during this time with an armored counterattack.

It is a little-known clash. France the June 1940 post-armistice was titurlarly neutral, and had the responsibility to defend its colonies against any allied invasions. At this time in 1942, the Soviets were under massive German pressure on the Eastern Front. They were begging the Allies to get in the fight against the Germans – anywhere at all. However, at this point in the war, the US/UK were not in a position logistically to assault Fortress Europe. They also lacked the necessary forces to execute such a mission successfully.

The invasion of North Africa – and the colonies of Vichy France – became the compromised option. Operation Torch thus came to be. In addition, this assault would open up a line of attack on Rommel’s rear. This would reduce pressure on the British 8th Army in Egypt. However, no one knew how much the Vichy French would resist.

As I write this, the 2025 golf season is over now. At least it is here in balmy Massachusetts in November. It’s time for me to capture my summer and fall efforts that led to my running this games at conventions. This post will cover some of my preparations, upgrades, and the actual games themselves. I will discuss the initial games at HMGS HISTORICON, then my upgrades, then the games at HMGS FALL IN! and EllisCon.

By the time I attended HISTORICON in July of 2025, I had the scenario pretty much where I wanted it. I had play-tested it with friends, and was ready to roll it out. This year, in total I have run the game twice at three different conventions. These are HMGS HISTORICON in July, and both HMGS FALL IN! and EllisCon in November. This makes six iterations so far since the spring.

For vehicles for the game, I have finished many AFV’s for that I have discussed in previous posts. Here below are those posts in reverse chronological order in case you missed them:

In addition to the vehicles, many game aids also were on my to do list. Before HISTORICON, I made road sections and town bases out of poster board and painted them. I also built dice boxes and dice frames for ease of play. Plus, I needed more blast markers for destroyed vehicles.

I was making these dice aids to make play better. What a Tanker is a great game. However, for a multiplayer game at a convention, the activation sequence is not the greatest. It does not keep the players engaged. I decided to borrow Buck services Double Random Activation^TM activation methodology, and that seemed to serve the game well. I also added Bonus Attack Cards and other changes as discussed in the next section.

Overview of My Scenario Rules Modifications

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

The game starts with each player receiving $75 in Tanker Bucks.
Before there are any play or purchases of extra resources, there is a VICHY FREE ATTACK PHASE. All US vehicles on the table will receive both 1 French infantry attack and 1 French AT attack. This phase represents the Vichy infantry attacks that were repulsed in November 1942 prior to the armor engagement. This happens only once at the beginning of the game.
There is an ACQUISITION PHASE after the free attacks conclude. More vehicles and Bonus Attack Cards may be purchased. This phase happens once at the beginning of each turn.
Uses of Bonus Attack Cards in the game simulate infantry, anti-tank, artillery, naval gunfire, and air actions. These are deployed by scout cars according to each sides’ historical capabilities. These cards can be shared across the team. Bonus Attack Cards are purchased with “Tanker Bucks”, which also play into Victory Conditions. Having more Tanker Bucks at the games end is better, as high amount remaining wins the game. I allow teams to share their Tanker Bucks as well. However, you need to use resources to defeat the enemy. You earn $25 for each AFV or plane destroyed. See the card below to see the costs for acquisitions and for rewards. So, a balancing act exists for the players. Do they hoard their Tanker Bucks, or use them effectively against their opponent?

Costs and Rewards as shown on the requisition form.

To represent the French vehicles’ advanced age and mechanical unreliability. “OLD” French vehicles that try to move and roll a 3 or less will lose 1 die to temporary damage. Mathematically, there is an 8.33% chance of that happening. So a good number of the Vichy Forces are indeed OLD (mainly the armored cars and the FT-17’s). In addition, all of the French tanks and some armored cars are SLOW – which limits their advances. But, in the game, there are more of them, and not all of the French tanks are OLD.
Any vehicle touching a road can convert any die to a DRIVE dice.
Armored and scout cars may engage other armored cars and tanks with heavy machine guns or deploy Bonus Attack Cards. Also I have rules that show how devastating any cannon fire would have been against thin-skinned vehicles. Cannon fire causes double hits on thinly armored vehicles that are not tanks.
The US Army was inexperienced before these landings. To represent that, their status is GREEN at this point in the war. GREEN means their base roll needed to hit increases. It goes from needing a 6 on 2d6 added together to a 7 as a base number. Most of the French vehicles are SMALL. This necessitates an additional +1 to hit at short range. There is also 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 Scout 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. The one-man-turrets in all of these Vichy tanks made coordinating activities very difficult.
To represent the fight for air superiority, I added Bonus Attack Cards that allow the deployment of French Dewoitine D.520’s and American carrier-bases F4F Wildcats. These vie for air superiority and can also convert to ground attack missions with other Bonus Attack Cards as well.
Having air superiority enables the US player to deploy the Avenger TBM’s as spotter planes. These can improve US artillery accuracy significantly. They also can also bomb the French vehicles with depth charges (yes that happened). Lastly, Avenger deployment also opens up the chance for devastating naval gunfire from the light cruiser USS Savannah.
Modifying the activation sequencing methodology by using Buck Surdu’s “DOUBLE RANDOM ^TM ACTIVATION” method.
Because of the different activation sequence from What a Tanker, I now use three types of dice. Larger white d6 are used for COMMAND DICE (these let your AFV take actions). Larger colored d6 are used for ACTION DICE (for rolling for movement and firing). Smaller colored d6 are used for ACTIVATION DICE (to, well, activate an AFV in the game).
Scoring is done with TANKER BUCKS. Most wins at game end. See the rules file below (downloadable) for all the details.

I was asked to share my rules on the Facebook What a Tanker page. As I am a wicked nice guy (as we say here in Massachusetts), I am happy to do so. Below is the Word document that outlines all of the rules changes in detail. Feel free to download. If you use them, please do share your thoughts and experiences with me, I’d love to hear them.

VICHY COUNTERATTACK RULES (NOV 2025)V3 Download

Let’s look at some photos from the HMGS HISTORICON convention games next.

HMGS HISTORICON 2025 PHOTOS OF THE GAME

I ran the scenario twice at HISTORICON in July 2025. The games went well. Each side won once.

The tabletop set up from the French side. Note the painted poster board roads and town pavements.

Each French player started with 5 vehicles. The number of American vehicles varied by player, usually 2-3 including one M5 Stuart tank.

Set up with Tanker Bucks. I did eventually decide on $75 per player on each side with the differentials being the cost of resources.

The players from the first game – the French won here.

In the second game, the US won. This victory was mainly because Dan Eustace successfully used his Bonus Attack Cards. He successively achieved air superiority with Wildcats, then got the Avenger deployed. This led to calling in naval gunfire from the USS Savannah – unleashing a volley from its 15 6″ guns. The results on the French armor was devastating.

After the game, I pondered what improvements I could make. The tweaks in the rules are reflected in the file I shared previously. However, I need to add:

More game aids like dice holders
More blast markers
Better roads – I wanted rubber ones that laid flat and took up less space in a box.
Better town bases that also were rubber and laid flat on the tabletop.
Actual plane models to represent the aircraft. I was using photos on flight stands at HISTORICON for the planes, and I wanted better.

I wanted to read a book on the campaign that I learned about. It was recommended to me in a comment to one of my blog post links on TMP. It focused on this phase of WWII, and I planned to do this before I did any more hobby work. Rick Atkinsons’s An Army at Dawn is a true gem of a historical book, and a must read. This was my August effort.

After reading these, it was time to get going on the additional “stuff” listed above. I knocked out the dice frames and similar tasks quickly. I had enough for 8 players, and now I was set for 10.

Building Dirt Roads and City Bases WIP Shots

Now it was time to make the roads and city bases. I stumbled on this excellent video on how to make rubber wargaming roads. It became the blueprint I used and I highly recommend his process.

Here is a link to the excellent video.

Below are progress WIP shots of how I built 54 sections of road and 4 bases.

What I needed included a small paint roller, a caulking gun, and paintable caulk sealant. It also involved cutting up rubber floor runner material. Additionally, play sand and chinchilla dust were used on the roads for texture.

I cut the floor runner rubber with a box cutter on a wooden cutting board. I made the same number and types of dirt roads I had previously made with the poster board (54).

For a working space to work on the roads, I covered one of my gaming tables with paper. The sheets were secured with packing tape and this was sufficient to protect the table.

Here you see some of the road sections in progress. Sand and chinchilla dust were both rolled onto the caulk with a wet paint roller.

…and here painted minus some final dry brushing.

Then it was on to the city bases. I limited the width of the city bases to accommodate using a Green Stuff World Mega roller. The roller made a cobblestone imprint.Greg Priebe was kind enough to gift me the roller. Here I cut the first piece of rubber floor runner. As I did with the roads, I beveled the edges slightly. The edge angle was around 45 degrees.

A caulking gun spread out the sealant. Then I smoothed it as you see with two different putty knives, before rolling the cobblestone patterns. This was the approach for all four bases – I just sized and shaped them differently.

The painting scheme was basically the same for all four. Here you can see the imprinted cobblestones. To accentuate them, I used a Liquitex “Burnt Umber” ink cut with thinner. Then I let them dry before adding a quick dry brush.

The final bases completed. I would place 15mm buildings on them.

This was far more economical than buying similar roads. Now that the dirt roads and town bases were completed, it was time to add my 3 aircraft.

Aircraft Model WIP Shots

My search initially was for the right three 1:100 scale planes, but that effort proved fruitless. No one really makes aircraft in that scale, at least not the ones that I was looking for. Most models were 1:72. I did find some die cast models that would work just fine. They are more like game status makers. Those diecast models were the carrier-based Grumman F4F Wildcat and the Dewoitine D.520. Both had flight stands – an important feature as I wanted their landing gear to be retracted in flight.

A bit of assembly for these two diecast models was required, but not much. That left the Grumman Avenger TBM to source. And lucky me, I found one on eBay – obviously left unassembled since at least 1979 – if not much earlier. It was an Airfix plastic model, and it was complete. The papers inside were amazingly yellowed with age as you will see. I had not built a plastic model like this since I was a kid. It was probably for sale back then!

The F4F Wildcat, the Dewoitine D.520, and the Avenger kit. It says “new”, but…I guess it was at some point in the 1970’s? 1960’s?

The components laid out so as to figure it all out. The directions were fine. The decals were, well, as you can see, trash. I did order some replacements from eBay as you will see.

As for assembly, it went fine. I painted the three crewmen. The tail gunner will never be seen because the acrylic window was not too clear. As for the outside, I went with a Vallejo “Deep Prussian Blue” – it seemed closest to the box color. In my research, I saw several different color schemes for the undercarriage. Some were blue, some were two-toned. The model would be on a flight stand. This stand would not afford visibility to the bottom, so I decided that blue was sufficient.

The three crewmen and the rear landing gear and tailhook. The tailhook would not survive the build.

Avenger TBM assembled and painted (and below in the gallery).

The last assembly from the kit for the Avenger was the rockets underneath. I assume that any depth charges would have been in the bomb bay – as unseen as the gunner underneath. So that works!

The rockets are mounted. Next, we moved on to applying appropriate decals. That proved to be the most difficult part.

The decals I bought were from the US and came via a modeling shop in Latvia of all places. I have no idea of the age – except likely post-Cold War I imagine. I used multiple coats of Microscale “Liquid Decal File” to restore them as best I could. Even with that, several of them disintegrated into multiple jigsaw pieces in the progress of placing them on the model. This led to my having to reconstruct the decals while wet. Ugh. I made it work.

But wait – before all the decal work – I needed a flight stand! I made one with a 1/4″ wooden dowel, green stuff, and a 2″ acrylic base. I carefully carved out a hole on the model to accommodate the stand.

Then it was on to applying decals as best as I could.

Mid-stage with the decals. The tail and rudder ones were really finicky.

Finally the planes were done. I also built a special travel box for the Avenger. For the other two, the original package blisters served that purpose.

All three planes for the game, frontal view…

Upon completion, I could mock up the tabletop in the cellar in preparation for HMGS FALL IN! in Lancaster PA and EllisCon in Danielson, CT.

Mock up of the Tabletop

I used photos of this mock up in my cellar to guide its recreation at both upcoming gaming conventions.

First up, HMGS FALL IN!

HMGS FALL IN! 2025 PHOTOS OF THE GAME

The game as set up in the H.A.W.K.’s room.

The players in my first game. It was nice to have my Wargame Wingman Leif Magnuson in the game. Several Maine Historical Wargame Association members joined as well! As I am also a member of MHWA, that was VERY cool.

The French tanks and armored cars were cautious about leaving a town here.

The US then deployed air, achieved superiority, and brought on the Avenger.

The F4F Wildcat about to dispatch the Dewoitine D.520.

While US vehicles burn in the background, the Avenger deploys, and calls in naval gunfire…

With that, the US won the first game I ran.

In the second game, the tables turned. The US never got going very well. Or, perhaps, the French were very lucky. Take your pick. I don’t have any photos of that game (apologies) – but it was a complete French victory.

Next up, one week later, was EllisCon.

EllisCon 2025 Photos

Here I also ran the game twice.

The first game at EllisCon had 4 players. Leif joined us again for both games. Here he strategizes for the French with his teammate Brian.

A Laffly S15 TOE armored car is hit and burns early in the game.

The US players are then hit hard, as the M5 Stuart “Beast”, and M3A1 Scout Car “Annie” are destroyed. The M3 GMC “Hurricane” takes cover in a brush firing position.

Once again, though at a different convention, the Vichy armor looks to leave the town safely in the face of “Hurricane”.

An AMC Schneider P16 (the old armored car on right) uses its 37mm gun to destroy the M5 Stuart “Beast”.

The FT-17 ” Marechal Foch” is taken out near r=the end of the game.

At the end, the Vichy claimed a victory, as their Tanker Bucks were more than the Americans total.

In game two, the fortunes reversed yet again. Leif played again and was joined on the other side by Gregg Belevick. Both were involved in my initial play testing of this scenario.

The players discuss their game strategies.

The French players move up – and Gregg has a twinkle in his eye – does he have a plan?

Yours truly GM’s the game. Photo courtesy of David DeVeau

I guess Gregg did have a plan – naval gunfire! Convention history repeats itself as 5 Vichy vehicles burn on the Moroccan sand.

The US won this game with the last barrage destroying 1/3 of the Vichy force deployed at the time. A massive US victory!

I really like this scenario. So far, the victories have been 3 for each side. It seems pretty fairly balanced. It’s fun and highlights a little-known part of WWII. It’s likely coming again to a convention in 2026.

I list the paints that I used for the roads at the end of this blog post. For my records, I am sharing these materials I use for these projects with you, dear reader. You’ll see the list below detailing the process and materials for both the roads/bases and the Avenger torpedo bomber.

I hope that you found this tale of my journey interesting. If you do use my rules modifications, again please let me know how they worked out. If you have any questions, certainly throw them at me. I’d also enjoy any feedback on the work or this post in the comments section. Thanks in advance for that.

Lastly, I have compiled 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 DIRT ROADS:

TrafficMaster Rubber Floor Runner from Home Depot, SKU 1003092882
DynaFlex Ultra Advanced All Weather Sealant “Cedar Tan”, (paintable caulking)
Quikrete “All Purpose Sand”
Chinchilla Dust
DecoArt Americana “Cinnamon Stick”
DecoArt Americana “Deep Ochre”
DecoArt Americana “Raw Sienna”
DecoArt Americana “Raw Umber”
Apple Barrel “Burnt Umber”
Vallejo Thinner

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS AND FLOCKING USED ON THE TOWN BASES:

TrafficMaster Rubber Floor Runner from Home Depot, SKU 1003092882
DynaFlex Ultra Advanced All Weather Sealant “Cedar Tan”, (paintable caulking)
Quikrete “All Purpose Sand”
Chinchilla Dust
DecoArt Americana “Cinnamon Stick”
DecoArt Americana “Deep Ochre”
DecoArt Americana “Raw Sienna”
DecoArt Americana “Raw Umber”
Apple Barrel “Burnt Umber”
Vallejo Thinner
Liquitex “Burnt Umber” (ink)

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS AND FLOCKING USED ON THE AIRFIX AVENGER TBM-3 MODEL:

Airfix Grumman Avenger TBM-3 1:72 plastic model kit
Tamiya “Extra Thin Cement”
Vallejo Surface Primer “USA Olive Drab”
Vallejo Surface Primer “Sun Yellow”
Vallejo Surface Primer “German Dark Yellow”
Vallejo Surface Primer “Leather Brown”
Vallejo Surface Primer “Black”
P3 “Midland Flesh”
Army Painter “Soft Tone” (wash)
P3 “Flesh Wash”
Vallejo Model Color “Dark Prussian Blue”
Vallejo Thinner Medium
Hataka “Gris Clair Neutre”
Reaper MSP Core Colors “Pure White”
Vallejo Model Air “Black Metallic”
Tamiya “XF-16 Flat Aluminum”
Green Stuff
Vallejo Model Air Metallic “Signal Red”
Vallejo Model Color “Red”
Vallejo “Mecha Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
Vallejo Thinner
Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss” (shade/wash)
1/4″ square wooden dowel
2″ Clear acrylic disk
2″ steel washer
Gorilla Glue
Microscale Industries “Liquid Decal Film”
Avenger decals from eBay
Microscale Industries “Micro Set”
Microscale Industries “Micro Sol”

Thanks for looking!

Operation Torch: Planning My WWII Gaming Experience for HISTORICON

It’s been a while for the return of several blog-related things here.

First, this marks the first hobby post I have done in a while. The last one I did was on Professor Nitpik’s Mechanical Mini Swarm back in April. I also never got around to a recap of my games at HUZZAH in May (but I hope to at some point as I do have a good number of photos).

Secondly, I have not done any WWII-related hobby work since March of 2020 (wow 5 years!). After my last What a Tanker tank project, I did a lot with my Feudal Patrol Mesoamerican project (Aztecs, Conquistadors, Maya), and then Wars of Ozz. Luckily for me (and maybe you), I catalog and link all my posts by genre on multiple pages for easy recall. As an aside, for new readers, here are the links for all of these:

There are others as well, and these pages help me to remember how I did certain aspects of projects in terms of painting and assembly (and anything else).

Additionally, as many of you know, the US Army is celebrating its 250th Anniversary. The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) is celebrating that anniversary as its theme for this year’s HISTORICON gaming convention. As a proud US Army veteran, I just HAD to get a game or two together for it. As game submission was back in March, that might seem like plenty of time to get such an endeavor together. But I had HAVOC, HUZZAH, a Florida trip, my reelection, and golf in between then and now! Blogging took a back seat to actually finishing off any projects. Until now!

I usually try to create scenarios and run games that are not common or run-of-the-mill. For the US Army, there is a wide swath of stuff to choose from.

I ended up deciding on looking into the early days of WWII. I dug into Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. I further read up on the combat in Morocco, where the US and Vichy France actually fought for several days before agreeing to an armistice and coming over to the Allies’ side. I chose to focus on the Western Task Force under then-MG George S. Patton, that invaded Morocco in three places. My specific focus would be on Sub-Task Force Goalpost, which was led by MG Lucien Truscott, Jr. – and what really intrigued me, as I did my research, was his response to a Vichy armored counterattack. Apparently the Vichy French launched an armored counterattack with what they had to interdict one of the US landing beaches. Truscott sent all his armor (7 M5 Stuart tanks) and some support to stop the threat, which outnumbered him by more than 2:1. Now I had a game concept!

As for research, here are all the books I read and used:

Certainly a lot of Steven Zaloga here, and the Breuer and Osprey books were the most helpful. There indeed was significant armored Vichy forces in the North African colonies. In Morocco was a motley assortment of tanks (WWI -era FT-17’s, Hotchkiss H35’s and H39’s, plus some R35’s that had been hidden from the German and Italian Armistice Commission). Sources vary as to what was available, but certainly these types were in Morocco in November 1942. There also were multiple old armored cars dating back to the 1920’s and early 1930’s. Vichy also had naval assets there, plus any of their air force that had flown there to escape Armistice terms. A good number of Dewoitine D.520 fighter planes and others made up a strong air component for Vichy.

The US here did not have M3 Lee’s or M4 Sherman tanks available to stop he counterattack. Those were on large ships that needed a port to unload, unlike the M5 Stuarts. The US had the Stuarts, M3 GMC’s, M3A1 Scout Cars, and the weird stopgap M6 Fargo. On the other side, the US had F4F Wildcats and Avenger TBF’s. Offshore were these significant naval assets that I would also add to the game design. Interestingly, many French tanks were hit with impact-fused depth charges from the air – plus naval gunfire from the USS Savannah.

The US Army in November 1942 was seeing its first real amphibious landing and combat in the ETO, so I incorporated that with regards to their shooting abilities. The Stuarts had gotten their radios wet, and hence inoperable, in the landing – so that was another aspect I added. The French had a lot of very worn out vehicles, and I did add an aspect of mechanical unreliability to them as well.

With these equipments as my baseline, I resurrected my WaT rules. Sourcing all of the vehicles took time, and I will chronicle each of the types in successive posts. My thought is that its better to focus on each vehicle type with a short post than a massive one now that blurred the lines. Writing all of these will take some time, and I also hope to share a review of my HISTORICON 2025 experience. If you are at the convention, I will be in the H.A.W.K.’s room as below. While my games are “sold out”, you never know if space becomes available! Besides my two Ozz games on Thursday and Friday, I’ll be running the “Operation Torch: Vichy mounts a Counterattack” game twice on Saturday. Come by!

Here is a tease on the 31 French and 22 American vehicles that I have amassed and painted for the game since March. All are 15 mm/1:100 scale. They will get their own posts in the next few weeks (I hope).

I do want to join in a couple of painting challenges – like Fort Syllabub’s “Jagpanther Juni”, and Dave’s annual “Season of Scenery” at Wargames Terrain Workshop. With HISTORICON looming, my hope is to get these individual posts out as I can. It is golf season…

Plus I have MANY of my fellow blogger’s posts to catch up on – I have been reading them and there is some great work out there!

I hope I’ve piqued your interests! Let me know!

My WWII posts master list is again here for your enjoyment.

Until next post!

My 2024 “Life, Golf, Miniatures & Other Distractions” Roundup

It’s that time again – when I review the past year and reflect a bit and look towards 2025. I do like to see what I did versus the goals that I set out to accomplish for myself back in January of 2024.

This post will also be where I set my 2025 goals for Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions (after all that is the subject of this blog of mine since 2015). I use these goals to guide and motivate me, but I have seen that others can appreciate this type of post. 2023 was, like 2022, one very busy year on multiple hobby, golf, and life fronts. I did set some pretty aggressive goals for all aspects. Some were around gaming, some around hobby production, some were around golf, and more.

How did I do versus my 2024 goals?

Paint 365 figures or more

I thought that would be a stretch – but in the end I destroyed that particular benchmark, setting yet another personal high for the number of miniatures painted in one year ever. These were mostly figures for Wars of Ozz. I managed to paint 556 miniatures – 126 more than I did in 2023!

Complete 2 brigades of Quadlings for Wars of Ozz

I’ll give myself a B+ here, as I painted up all the Quadlings that I currently have – 3 regiments of infantry, 2 batteries of artillery, one witch, and 3 individuals that can be brigade or army commanders. That is 79 figures in total, 1.24 25-point brigades’ worth. At some point I’ll get the Quadlings some cavalry.

Complete a brigade of Whim Whim & Noobi for Wars of Ozz

Whim Whim infantry and cavalry engage King Jack and his Great Pumpkinheads at EllisCon 2024

I think I get an A+ here as I painted up all my Whim Whim and Noobi in 2024. That army now is made up of of 7 regiments of infantry (5 Whim Whim, 2 Noobi), 4 cavalry regiments (all Whim Whim), 3 wizards (2 Noobi, 1 Whim Whim), and 7 individuals/leaders. I painted all of these except for 1 bannerman which was a gift from Buck Surdu. That is 216 figures in total, nearly three 25-point brigades’ worth, making them the largest painted contingent in my collection at present.

Complete a brigade of Temujicans for Wars of Ozz

I think I get another A+ here as I painted up all my Temujicans in 2024. That army now is made up of of 5 regiments of infantry, 4 cavalry regiments, and 3 individuals/leaders. That is 142 figures in total, exactly two 25-point brigades’ worth, making them worthy opponents for the Whim Whim.

Continue to run and play more games – and continue tracking them too

I ran a total of 30 games (all Wars of Ozz) in 2024 as a GM(I think I get an A+ as that is nuts). As for games played, I get a C- as I only played in 6 games.

Attend and run games at conventions. This would include TotalCon38, HAVOC, COLD BARRAGE, MAYHEM, HUZZAH!, HMGS Fall In, EllisCon, and others…

Right after getting the HUZZAH! Award with happy players!

My 30 games that I GM’d came from these conventions. I was proud to have been awarded not one but TWO best of convention awards – one for HAVOC (the Award) and one for HUZZAH! So at least an A…ok A++😁

Complete one more scenario for my scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide

Total F here – never got to it.

Paint up a platoon from Wargames Supply Dump for Combat Patrol™

Total F here again – and sorry yet again Roger! With Ozz being a priority, I never got to it.

Try to get my Nomonhan WaT project off the ground. Note I said “try”. Again…

Same as last year…F. Maybe this year.

Get the Mass Pikemen more active

I have not been able to do this well at all. I do see many at conventions, which occupy a lot of my winter time. Once golf season starts, that takes precedence. I’ll try better this year.

Have another nice trip to Florida

I think A++ – our trip was amazing to Clearwater Beach and Orlando was a blast!

Great hotel – the previous photo was taken from the balcony in the middle.

Took the previous photo from Captain Memo’s Pirate Ship ride – was a LOT of fun.

Had a great time hanging out with Tod and Tara Jeffers in Clearwater Beach. This place had amazing seafood.

Then on to the Grande Vista in Orlando for golf lessons, golf, and relaxation!

Action shot on the range! Hit the ball first then the turf!

Even got to visit with the Surdu’s. I joined Buck for a Napoleonic game.

Post on the blog 50 times or more – make them of good quality

I think I get a B- here, as I think my output dropped a bit. I made 32 posts in 2024. Quality – well I let the readers determine that!

Be a good blog follower – still a goal but one that I cannot measure!

Ditto on this grade-wise – trying my best.

Have multiple Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists

Probably a C. Could do more and hope to this year.

Go to a golf school and get my golf handicap down below 16

My 2024 Handicap Review from Massachusetts golf.

As shown earlier , I did go to a golf school in Orlando -AND benefited greatly from lessons there. But, I think I made more progress with our club pro, Jim LeBlanc at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club. My handicap went down to 16.1, so I’ll give myself an A-.

Update the Tour of the Brookfields on my blog.

Tom Orszulak and Lynn Morin high-five at the Tour of the Brookfields!

This worked very well at sharing information with the players and documenting each of the six regular tournaments and the FINALS. I think A is appropriate.

Play golf (in season) at least twice a week – get in 80 rounds

A+ here – as you saw, I had 102 rounds posted (some were 9-hole rounds of course), plus around 10 other events of 18 holes (scrambles).

Win my flight in the Club Championship

Fell short here again, but I was more competitive than in 2023. Bad play on Day 2 sunk me.

Defend in the Club Derby

That definitely did not happen – my partner Tom Orszulak had an injury, and the virus finally got me and knocked me out of any possibility of playing.

Be a competitive golfer

I’d say I was – I did tie Matt Stepanski for 1st place in the year-long quest for the Quail Hollow Sunday Sweeps “Fedex Cup” run by Dennis Rice. I think I was competitive overall – helped by a dropping handicap.

Be a good friend

I guess so. Always a work in progress!

Personal Highs in 2024

Recovery from knee surgery.
For the third year in a row – the Florida trip and golfing with my wife Lynn – and she continues to get better. Her teams actually did better in the Tour of the Brookfields than I did!
Clearwater Beach, Florida. Wow!
Getting together with the Jeffers and Surdus in Florida.
Getting together with family especially my Mom, my daughter Ellen and my granddaughter Tabitha.
Winning my first “Dave” award for my Wars of Ozz game “determined to be the best game at the HAVOC (Convention) that year. The criteria for the best game includes excellent concept and execution in game play, and player enjoyment.”
Winning my first “Best in Convention” award for my Wars of Ozz games at the HUZZAH! Convention in Maine.
Knocking out 556 figures for the Wars of Ozz!
Having EXCELLENT wingmen in Brad Gosselin and Leif Magnuson at MULTIPLE conventions.
Getting together with Dave Wood, Buck Surdu, Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, and Duncan Adams, Eric Schlegel, and all of the other HAWKS in person.
Getting together with Fitchburg High School buddies Bob McNamara, Phil Schoenig, Peter Collette, and St. Bernard’s HS pals Mike Sullivan, and Eddie Tarka (and Tom Orszulak) to honor our late friend Leo Thibault, who passed away way too young back in 2007. Best part was getting his widow Sandy there to surprise us all at the end.
Being on the Committees for the Tour of the Brookfields tournaments and the New England Service Academy golf tournaments.
Amazing Halloween Party at Quail Hollow!
Great get together for an Army-Navy game watch party with amazing friends!
As a team, tying for first place for the Fedex Cup at Quail Hollow.
And again, being with my wife Lynn, every day (seriously, and she won’t likely read this).
Retirement is GREAT!

Ed Tarka, Bob McNamara, Phil Schoenig, me, Sandi Thibault, Mike Sullivan and Peter Collette at “The Leo”

Lynn and Tabitha – fun at Cracker Barrel!

Me, Lynn, my Mom, Tabitha, Ellen, and Nick

Personal Lows for 2024

COVID.
Army losing to Navy…not personal, but always feels that way!
Life’s been pretty good otherwise!

My goals for 2025

Well, its time to set my Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions goals for 2025.

Have a great Florida trip again.
Paint 500 figures or more.
Continue to run and play more games – and continue tracking them too.
Attend and run games at conventions. This would include TotalCon, HAVOC, COLD BARRAGE, HMGS COLD WARS, MAYHEM, HUZZAH!, HMGS HISTORICON,HMGS FALL IN, EllisCon, and others…
Get the Mass Pikemen more active.
.Complete the Musculite faction for Wars of Ozz.
Complete the Professor Nitpik faction for Wars of Ozz.
Complete the Ix faction for Wars of Ozz.
Complete the Noland faction for Wars of Ozz.
Paint up a cavalry regiment for the Harvest and the Quadling factions.
Complete one more scenario for my scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide.
Paint up a platoon from Wargames Supply Dump for Combat Patrol™ .
Try to get my Nomonhan WaT project off the ground. Note I said “try”. Again.
Paint SOME tanks.
Post on the blog 40 times or more – make them of good quality.
Be a good blog follower – still a goal but one that I cannot measure!
Have some Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists.
Get my golf handicap down below 14.
Update the Tour of the Brookfields on my blog.
Play golf (in season) at least twice a week – get in 90+ rounds.
Win my flight in the Club Championship.
Win the Club Derby
Be a competitive golfer.
Be a good friend.

Of course, again I must say THANK YOU to all who make the time to read this blog and comment on my stuff, craziness, and madness – Have a Happy 2025!

And now – time to get on it Mark!

Oh yeah, need more of this…

Cold Wars 2023 – from my view (& lots of photos!)

Last weekend the Cold Wars 2023 gaming convention was held in Valley Forge, PA at the Valley Forge Casino Resort. I participated as a game master and as a player. I ran three games of Feudal Patrol, played in two games of Wars of Ozz, and participated as a player in an American War of Independence (AWI) game. I really enjoyed the convention – and personally had some special moments as you will soon see in this post. I, a Massachusetts “carpetbagger”, am grateful once again for the welcome, hospitality, and friendship of the HAWKS club, especially Buck Surdu, Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, Dave Wood, and Eric Schlegel – who all contributed to making my experience a memorable one. I also want to thank the players who chose to play in my games. I also must thank the HMGS staff and volunteers for making the convention work so well.

I thought the best way to share this with my readers was to focus on photographs – with a little bit of description. Some of these photos came from Chris Palmer and others on Facebook, and some are from myself.

AWI Playtest

This was on Thursday night in the HAWKS room and was a playtest of a set of rules being worked on by Buck Surdu, Chris Palmer, and Greg Priebe and other HAWKS. Basically it is taking the Wars of Ozz/Eagles and Empires engine and applying it to the AWI. I needed to set up my first game (The Battle of Centla) so that I could play on Friday morning in a Wars of Ozz game without any concerns. I played on the British side with 3 line regiments and two grenadier regiments. I had nothing but open field in front of me and a mission to take out an American gun battery that was surrounded by colonial infantry in soft cover commanded by Chris Palmer.

I advanced my troops as quickly as possible but got shredded by canister as I git close – though I did do some – but not enough – damage to Chris.

I got trounced but it was not a situation that I think I could have attempted differently, but hey, it’s a game and a playtest at that.

…and a satisfied Chris surveys the battlefield!

Wars if Ozz – Winter of Discontent (Wars of Ozz)

This was a “bring your own brigade” game GM’d by Chris Palmer – and to help I brought both my Winkie and my Munchkin brigades in case they were needed. As it turned out, I commanded the Munchkins, and faced my own Winkies!

Several different factions are shown below.

And here are some more – click on the images for a better view:

The board was fairly open with some hills and woods in a wintery scene.

It was a fun game, though I felt like I was a bit torn fighting my own troops!

Looking across to my fun opponents – here I have moved Colonel Tik-Tik’s regiment on the left into line to optimize missile fire – but the Winkie zilk-riders went into line and smashed into them.

That Winkie cavalry attacking player rolled 5 dice for hits – not a single miss (the roll was amazing) – and those hits would be doubled due to impetus. All 5 hit rolls yielded 10 hits – and that took out fully 50% of Tik-Tok’s regiment in one fell swoop. Tik-Tok routed, but I was able to rally it and keep it in the game.

While successful in their attack, the 20th Winkie Light Cavalry was now disordered – and my Munchkin battery and my own pony riding cavalry took the opportunity to hit the zilks from both the flank and the rear, and sent them into a retreat.

“Avenge our dead” – was the cry of the survivors of Colonel Tik-Tok’s infantry as their brethren close on the hated Winkie zilk riders of the 20th Winkie Light Cavalry.

The Winkies then attacked – buy mainly piecemeal – and the Munchkins were able to hold and repel both charges by the Winkie Sharpshooters and their ally the Lesser Apes. The artillerists did abandon their gun when the apes hit, but short range canister and a round of melee had already sent the Lesser Apes packing.

In the middle of the game was a big scrum between the brigade of Ice Trolls, Elves, Dark Elves, and that of the Teddy Bear Infantry, Teddy Bear Artillery, and the Toy Soldier Cavalry.

The game was a “good guys” victory!

The Battle of Centla (Feudal Patrol)

On Friday afternoon, I ran the Feudal Patrol game of the Battle of Centla – a battle between the Maya and the Conquistadores under Hernan Cortes.

The Spanish needed to reach the Maya city or kill 50% of the Spanish, or kill Tabscoob, the Maya leader. The Maya needed to prevent the Spanish from achieving their victory conditions, kill Cortes, or kill 50% of the Conquistadores. In the game, the Maya do get reinforcements, and the Spanish do not. Time is not on the Spanish players’ side.

I was happy to be able to use some of my new beach-adjacent jungle bases here.

The game set up – the Spanish are on the beach.

Buck Surdu joins the game replacing a departing player – and commands Cortes.

The Spanish were not initially as aggressive as I expected – though as the game progressed they did start to advance.

Unfortunately, the Spanish needed to take some risks – and Buck moved Cortes up and into the fight. This was very appropriate given the state of the game at that point. A Maya warrior got a lucky hit on him and cut off his leg – yielding a victory for the Maya. This game is very cool – I have run it several times and both sides have won in the past.

Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost (Feudal Patrol)

After the Friday afternoon game (Centla), I quickly got my next game ( this was held on Friday evening) set up with a lot of help from Buck, Dave Wood, and Greg for Friday night. This is a scenario as described below:

The game went back and forth and it was not clear at all which side would eventually win. There was a lot of action.

The game at the start – the Aztecs needed to cross muddy field to reach the Spanish and the Tlaxcalans. There were also food and gold objectives, and of course VP for inflicting casualties or taking captives.

Greg Priebe advances his Aztec commander, Asupacaci and his warrior priests.

The Spanish used their war dogs and arquebuses to good effect – but the Aztec Elite troops berserked and fought bravely.

Finally, both the Aztecs and the Tlaxcalans started taking prisoners for sacrifice – and gaining victory points in the process. Eric Schlegel successfully fired his falconet again with langridge at a swarm of Aztecs, taking out several of them in the last turn. This was to be pivotal.

I tallied the points – and it was a TIE! 46-46! I call that play-balanced!

I then set up my massive Battle of Lake Texcoco, which would be played on Saturday afternoon. This way I would have all the time I needed to enjoy my next game as a player on Saturday morning – which would be the Wars of Ozz game described next.

War to Save Yule: Battle for the Bauble of Time (Wars of Ozz)

After a short sleep, I played in another Ozz game on Saturday morning. This one was the second of three linked Wars of Ozz scenarios that Chris Palmer and Buck Surdu ran pitting the forces of the Ice Queen, Aurora, versus those of Babbo Natale (really Santa). Aurora wants to seize the Bauble of Time – a magic item that can bend time and lets Babbo deliver all his toys in one night. Of course, Aurora wants it for her own evil purposes. The Bauble was hidden in one of three buildings – and the neither the forces of Yule or Aurora knew which one. The goal of the attacking Ice Queen was to search each of the three areas – which meant that her forces needed to clear defenders from them first. I played on the Yule side in this game, on the Yule’s far left flank.

The game set up. Bruce, Buck, and Chris discuss the scenario.

The three possible search zones were as shown below.

Here is a photo of me by Chris surveying the battlefield:

A view towards my position. Aurora’s forces were attacking from the right here. I think I look tired!

Opposite view as Chris briefs the players earlier.

The forces defending the buildings/search zones on the Yule right and center were overwhelmed. Only the one on the Yule left held.

The odds were in favor of the Ice Queen at this point with 2/3 search zones in her control.

Bruce tries to fight off the Ice Trolls.

In the end we were lucky as the Bauble was in the last search zone and safe from the Ice Queen, so a victory for us. Chris would run a second follow on game later that I will share a few pictures of at the end of this post with others that I did not play in or GM. I did play in the 3rd linked game as well – more on that game in a bit.

The Battle of Lake Texcoco (Feudal Patrol)

I always look forward to running this game – yes it’s massive but more importantly a lot of fun. Basically there are 5 brigantines loaded with conquistadores and primitive cannon (lombards or falconets) that need to cross the tabletop and shell the other side of the table – where the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan is located. Opposing them are 21 war canoes filled with Aztecs hell-bent on boarding the invaders’ ships and stopping them. VP are awarded for shelling the city, boarding a brigantine, sinking canoes, and for casualties on both sides. The Spanish have to try to navigate the uncharted waters to do this too.

The players were excellent!

The Spanish moved out and avoided collisions with each other or the islands. Only one got stuck on an underwater obstacle (El Gregorio) – resulting in the Aztecs getting a “Burst of Exuberance” which allowed it to be boarded first. Eventually, all of the brigantines would be boarded to greater or lesser extent.

The Spanish held on and were able to get three ships to shell the city.

Tenochtitlan takes its first hit of solid shot from *El Marcos*.

A photo from Chris Palmer showing me helping to adjudicate a fight.

Of course, there was even more boarding!

The game was pleasantly and briefly interrupted at this point by the HMGS staff. As it turned out, my game was selected to be honored with a “PELA” award 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”.”

This was something as a GM that you can really appreciate! I was really honored – and it was nice to get applause from the room and my table too. I think that there were about 30+ games in my time slot – so this was tough to get. The award was a lovely knight figure on a plinth and a voucher for the vendor hall. Thanks HMGS, it has a place of honor at home! Thanks players!

The PELA among Spanish casualties (hey, I was still running the game!).

In the end, the Spanish narrowly won the game by a score of 367-316. If the Conquistadores had made one less shot into Tenochtitlan, it would have been only a one shot victory.

As this was my last game to GM, I was able to get most of it picked up (thanks again to the HAWKS for all the help) – and get into playing my last game of the convention.

War to Save Yule – Ambush or Fighting Retreat (Wars of Ozz)

This was the third Ozz linked game run by Buck Surdu. In the second game, the forces of Yule held on to the Bauble of Time. Here, the Ice Queen’s forces are ambushing a convoy of Babbo Natale who is trying to get the Bauble to a safe place. I did not get as many pictures of this game – but I played on the side of the Ice Queen this time. We ended up taking the Bauble (Giant Evil Snowmen charged the convoy and stole it). It was a lot of fun.

My Ice Trolls take a beating from the Toy Soldier cavalry.

I was on the far left flank of the Ice Queen’s forces – and I after the Toy soldier cavalry and the Teddy Bear artillery beat up my Ice Trolls and Krampus, I was able to flank the Teddy Bear battery with Dark Elves. This attack sent them fleeing and the rear middle of the battlefield became congested with forces. Meanwhile, Chris Palmer valiantly pursued the Snowmen with the Toy Soldier cavalry. Luckily for our side, the Snowmen escaped into woods where the cavalry would not move as quickly – with the Bauble. Victory!

Snowmen abscond with the captured Bauble!

Other Game Photos

There were of course many other games – and I tried to get some photos of them plus I have included many from Chris Palmer. This is not all of the games at Cold Wars by any means.

For the gamers, please enjoy these here! For the GM’s, kudos on the work you put in on some amazing games, and apologies in advance if I get any descriptions wrong here.

Battle of Hanau, 1813

Dave Wood’s Fate of Battle game in 10mm looked amazing.

The Natives Return to Schlegel’s Ferry

Eric Schlegel had a really cool board for his colonial Chesapeake game of Feudal Patrol.

Let’s Play Combat Patrol – France 1940

Greg Priebe ran a France 1940 scenario for Combat Patrol.

Wars of Orcs and Dwarves (WOOD) Playtest

Dave Wood ran a few WOOD games with amazing set ups.

War to Save Yule – River of Ice (Wars of Ozz)

This was the first of the linked Ozz games. This is the one that I did not play in as I was running my Aztec raid game.

Counterattack Near Dubno (Battleground WW2)

Don Hogge’s always popular WW2 games are so cool. This was a 28mm game set on the Eastern Front on June 28th, 1941.

Forest Encounter (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Gravity Front)

Here’s a look at Kevin Fischer’s game set up.

Got Skogskatter (SAGA)

James McWilliams ran a couple of SAGA games.

Pierce’s Hill, Philippines 22 December 1941 (Combat Patrol)

Buck Surdu ran a very cool looking game set during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941. He worked hard to get the 1941 look right – and he nailed it.

Let’s Play Feudal Patrol! – Viking Raid

Greg ran his introductory Feudal Patrol Viking Raid game and had a full table!

Can the Ratlings save their homeland again from the army of the Necromancer? (Wars of Orcs and Dwarves)

Dave Wood ran yet another visually stunning game – and for fun he used my Winkie Cavalry and Infantry in the game, plus my Lesser Apes. The feedback I got was that they acquitted themselves very well while I was off in Mesoamerica!

Al Capone Comes to Schlegel’s Ferry (Blood & Swash)

Another great use of Eric’s terrain for a 1920’s game.

A truly engaged table deals with smuggling and gangsters in the 1920’s.

Concord to Lexington – Theme

Geoff Graff ran this game of 15mm figures set in my home state in the beginning of the AWI.

Test of Honour – The Last Yamashiro (Test of Honour – Quick Play)

I saw this in the adjoining room to the HAWKS – WOW what a set up! GM was David Hill.

At the other end of this beauty was a harbor and ships too.

Beautiful set up – nice to see young gamers too.

WWI – Battle of Gnila Lipa (Fall of Eagles WWI)

This set up caught my eye as well – GM David Rollins had a huge table for this battle between the Austrians and the Russians in WWI.

Mars Attacks – Beach Head! (Wings of Glory Tripods and Triplanes)

What a concept – Martians in Tripods taking on Spads and Nieuports in the aftermath of a post-WWI meteor shower! GM was Mike Jacobs.

As I said, this is a big post but I hope that it was enjoyable to look at. Sorry if a game you were or that you ran in was not included – but I’m sure somewhere else there are photos for the world (at least I hope so)!

That’s it for now! Feel free to comment!

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