It’s that time again – when I take a look back and see how well I did – or did not do – versus the goals that I set out to accomplish for myself back in January of 2023. This post will also be where I set myself some realistic (and hopefully challenging) benchmarks/goals for 2024 in the areas of Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions (after all that is the title of this blog since its inception back in 2015!). It’s more for my own motivation, but I have found that others have enjoyed the ride (especially the spreadsheets for Roger and John!) – so here we go.
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 2023 goals?
Paint 250 figures or more
Well, I blew goal that out of the park and had my most productive miniature painting year ever – mostly Wars of Ozz figures obviously! I managed to paint 330 miniatures – 128 more than I did in 2022.
2023 Production
Complete a brigade of Winkies for Wars of Ozz.
This was a big part of the 330 – 107 Winkie figures painted – and much bigger than just a single brigade! 1 witch, 3 leader bases, 1 cavalry regiment, 1 artillery battery, and 5 infantry regiments as shown below.
2023 Winkie units and leaders production.
Complete a brigade of Land of Harvest creatures for Wars of Ozz.
I really fell in love with the Great Land of Harvest figures – and painted 111 of them. 4 leaders, 1 witch, 9 infantry 1egiments, and an artillery battery. This was close to just not 1 brigade but 2+ brigades.
2023 Harvest Production
Run and play more games – track them too.
Leif Magnuson, me with my wife’s least favorite headgear, and Brad Gosselin at TotalCon37. They both played in multiple Feudal Patrol and Wars of Ozz games at multiple cons and were EXCELLENT wing men.
The Battle of Lake Texcoco at HMGS Fall In.
Wars of Ozz at HUZZAH! 2023.
Wars of Ozz at EllisCon.
Yes indeed, I did both run AND play, and track them as well. I attended and ran games at several conventions and club nights. The conventions included 2023’s TotalCon37, HAVOC, HMGS Cold Wars, HUZZAH!, HMGS Fall In, and EllisCon. I also played in several. All tallied, I played as a player in 12 games – 8 Wars of Ozz, 1 Feudal Patrol, 1 Axis & Allies Miniatures, and 2 Eagles and Empires games. I acted as GM for no less than 20 games - 9 Wars of Ozz, 10 Feudal Patrol (Mesoamerican era/Spanish Conquest skirmish, and 1 What a Tanker game.)
Complete the scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide.
That’s a miss – though I have written 10/16 scenarios.
Try to get my Nomonhan WaT project off the ground. Note I said “try”.
Nope – not enough time, but this stays on my list.
Get the Mass Pikemen more active.
The Battle for Toto (Wars of Ozz) playtest at the Mass Pikemen.
I think that happened at about the same rate as last year, so not more active, but active.
Have another nice trip to Florida.
In Orlando at golf school with Lynn.
We had a nice escape from dreary cold New England to sunny warm Florida for fun and Golf School. Also got to get together with Buck Surdu and play Eagles & Empires.
Eagles and Empires in Buck’s amazing gaming room.
Post on the blog 48 times or more – make them of good quality
I exceeded this – mainly because I started using the blog for The Tour of the Brookfields golf tournaments – to share information and to share results. As we do have a Facebook page – but not everyone is on it – this blog became crucial to sharing information. Also, this kept it free from the FB bots that, for example, decided that a post of a winning putt “violated community standards”. I posted on the blog 54 times - a good average for me.
Be a good blog follower – still a goal but one that I cannot measure!
Always on the list – but others can decide (like you dear reader).
Have multiple Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists.
I had a few very nice ones – can always do more.
Go to a golf school and get my golf handicap down below 18. This time.
Well, did hit the school, and I barely got under 18 – but done!
Stats on my handicap history. And a Siri circle!
Yes! As shown above, I managed to get to 17.6.
Update my golf tournament progress on my blog – either as posts or a page or both.
OK, I did not record my individual tournament progress – though I did start to use the blog for the Tour of the Brookfields, so I’m going to say yes. Certainly, I left off most of the club tournaments that I played in, but still posted a few. It certainly rained – A LOT.
Play golf (in season) at least twice a week.
Exceeded this as I had 86 handicap rounds plus maybe 8-10 others that were scrambles.
Win my flight in the Championship.
Nope – not even close.
Be a competitive golfer.
I had my moments – and did do well in the annual Club Derby. Knee injury in August (and playing on a bad leg) did not keep me down too badly.
Tom & I win!2/3 was Tom, 1/3 was me – or less.
Personal Highs in 2022
For the second year in a row – the Florida trip and golfing with my wife (she’s getting better)!
Getting together with family especially my daughter Ellen and my granddaughter Tabitha.
Winning my second “PELA” GM award at HMGS Cold Wars for the Battle of Lake Texcoco.
Winning my third “Al” award for the game with the most stunning visual appeal at the Battle Group Boston HAVOC Convention for the Wars of Ozz!
Knocking out 330 figures and terrain 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 honored by Old Glory by them putting my painted Great Pumpkinheads on t-shirts!
Being on the Committees for the Tour of the Brookfields tournaments and the New England Service Academy golf tournaments.
Having fun Zoom chats.
As a team, winning the Club Derby with Tom Orszulak by one stroke over 36 holes over two days.
And again, being with my wife Lynn, every day (seriously, and she won’t likely read this).
Tabitha & Lynn
My daughter Ellen, grandaughter Tabitha, my Mom, and me.
Winning te PELA.
Chris Palmer, Dave Wood, and me sporting some cool t-shirts!
Personal Lows for 2021
Knee injury in August.
Knee surgery in December – though that’s a long-term plus for my golf game (I hope).
My goals for 2024
Well, its time to set my Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions goals for 2024.
Paint 365 figures or more.
Complete 2 brigades of Quadlings for Wars of Ozz.
Complete a brigade of Whim Whim & Noobi for Wars of Ozz.
Complete a brigade of Temujicans for Wars of Ozz.
Continiue to run and play more games – and continue tracking them too.
Attend and run games at conventions. This would include TotalCon38, HAVOC, COLD BARRAGE, MAYHEM, HUZZAH!, HMGS Fall In, EllisCon, and others..
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.
Get the Mass Pikemen more active.
Have another nice trip to Florida.
Post on the blog 50 times or more – make them of good quality.
Be a good blog follower – still a goal but one that I cannot measure!
Have multiple Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists.
Go to a golf school and get my golf handicap down below 16.
Update the Tour of the Brookfields on my blog.
Play golf (in season) at least twice a week – get in 80 rounds.
Win my flight in the Club Championship.
Defend in the Club Derby
Be a competitive golfer.
Be a good friend.
Of course, MUCH thanks to all who make the time to read this blog and comment on my stuff, craziness, and madness – Happy 2024!
As I wind down from Memorial Day weekend activities, I wanted to share some of my photos from the Huzzah! 2023 gaming convention. I ran 5 games there – two Wars of Ozz games on Friday, two Feudal Patrol games based on the Spanish Conquest in Mesoamerica games on Saturday, and a final Wars of Ozz game on Sunday. Each game slot was 4 hours long.
As usual, setting up and running a convention game (let alone 5) takes away from being a photographer. In the end, I want the games to take priority – and find a moment or two to take some shots for you, my readers. I do not have a good play-by-play to share, but I will give you the general gist of the games and hopefully the pics will suffice – there are a lot here.
If you like wargames photos – or you were at Huzzah! 2023 – this post is up your alley!
As background, the Huzzah! 2023 gaming convention was held in South Portland, ME, from May 19th to May 21st. It is run annually by the Maine Historical Wargamers Association (MWHA). There are two Facebook pages associated with the group, one is for the MWHA and one for the Huzzah! convention that you can access.
I arrived early Friday the 19th – around 11 AM – so that I could check into my hotel and move all my stuff from my very full car into my room and get my first game set up for 2 PM. Unfortunately, the hotel would not let ANYONE check in before 3 PM – and yes, that was during my game slot. The staff of the hotel claimed that they needed to keep rooms free for flight crews (not the fault of MWHA btw). In any case, my car was not packed such that I could just grab stuff and go – and after a bit of transloading in the parking lot I got my stuff into the convention space and set up my first 6-player Wars of Ozz game. The table was smaller than I had planned – and had a lot of figures on it, but with all of the scrambling, I made it work.
Friday Afternoon Wars of Ozz Game
I set up all of my Ozz games as “meeting engagements”. The idea was to expose the players to the rules and for them to have a fun and straightforward game. In the first game, on the “bad guys side” I had a brigade of Gillikins (loaned to me for the convention by my friend Chris Comeau), my brigade of Winkies, and another Winkie brigade (loaned to me for the convention by my friend Chris Palmer of the Maryland HAWKS club). On the other side I had my Great Land of Harvest Brigade, my Munchkin Brigade, and a Quadling Brigade (also from Chris Palmer), At future conventions, I should have enough of my own Ozz troops, but thanks to the two Chris’s, and Eric Schlegel (the HAWK who brought the Maryland-based figures m to the convention), I was set. Each player had a brigade – and here below are some shots of the action.
The players ready to play. The bases with more than 1 building represent towns.Brad advances his Lesser Apes and Winkies.A view of “the good guys” side – from nearest to furthest are the Great Land of Harvest Brigade, the Quadling Brigade, and the Munchkin Brigade. Some of the units will be the subject of future posts (I had not had enough time before HUZZAH!).A Winkie zilk-riding regiment is disordered after fighting and routing the Great Pumpkin Heads. Moving up to challenge the Winkie cavalry is the Carrot Creature Regiment – supported by both Mushroom Creature and Corn Creature regiments. You can also see the Great Pumpkin Heads routing to their right.Carrot Creatures and Winkie cavalry are disordered after melee. A Harvest Witch prepares a spell.The Great Owl regiment attacks and disrupts the Gillikin goat-riding cavalry in front of Munchkin infantry. The Gillikin cavalry had just routed the Munchkin Light Cavalry at the top of the picture.Munchkin infantry and artillery move up – while Munchkin cavalry continues to flee the battle.Later, the Winkie cavalry broke the Carrot, Corn, and Mushroom Creature regiments. Unfortunately the Harvest player’s dice were set on rolling badly – very badly.In the middle of the battle, Quadlings and Lesser Apes collide – while the other Winkie cavalry moves forward.The aftermath of the Quadling/Ape scrum was a routed Quadling infantry.
The first game was an overwhelming bad guy victory. I reset the game, finally got checked into my room, and prepared for the next band of players. As for dinner – a bag of crackers and a Coke had to suffice for the time being.
Friday Night Wars of Ozz Game
When I reset the game, I removed some of the terrain to alter it a bit. I also deployed the forces closer to each other. Here below are some shots of this game.
The game 2 players – and yes the gentleman on the left middle (James) played again – in fact he played in all 5 of my games! This game had several of the “Berkshire Boys” playing, as well as Sam and Matt who are veterans of many of my convention games.As before, the Great Pumpkin Heads made contact with the enemy first, and again they were routed! This time though the Harvest troops fought better.An overview of the battlefield.Some Winkies advance – while others are routed…The battle develops – and the casualties (on the blue tablecloth) mount.Forces of good and evil collide!With a bold move, Sam fly’s her regiment of Great Flying Apes towards the Quadlings and Munchkins.The Munchkin Light Cavalry hits the Great Flying Apes.The end of the game (due to the hall closing!).
At the game’s end, the bad guys had the advantage – but the tide was (in my opinion) turning in favor of the good guys. All had fun in these first two games.
At this point, I grabbed another Coke, a bag of Goldfish crackers, and a microwaveable frozen mini-pizza for the room, and crashed.
Saturday Morning Feudal Patrol Game – The Battle of Centla
The next morning, I got in early and set up my next game – the Battle of Centla. This is a Feudal Patrol skirmish game based on the first encounter between the Conquistadores and the Maya (Cortes would later fight the Aztecs).
I again sold out! It was nice to have a full table.
The players assemble on Saturday morning.Leif and Brad – veterans of the game – brief their teams and strategize.The Spanish advance towards the Maya city. Their victory conditions were to get to the city, or inflict excessive casualties on the Maya, or to incapacitate their leader, Tabscoob. To win, the Maya needed to inflict excessive casualties on the Conquistadores, incapacitate Cortes, or just avoid any Spanish victory conditions being met by the game’s end.Brad advances his warband led by Alvarado.Alvarado (red hair at bottom left) sends his war dog at the Maya in the bushes.Maya atlatls hit the Spanish advancing on the middle road.The Spanish players coordinate their actions.As the Spanish move toward the city, the Maya take up a defensive position astride the jungle path.The Maya get timely (and lucky) reinforcements to confront the Spanish bringing a smile to Michelle.The Spanish under Alvarado try to hack their way through the Maya, but are stunned by atlatl fire, slowing their advance.In desperation, Alvarado hurls himself at the Maya, but is stunned by an atlatl hit.Back in the middle of the table, the Spanish are near a breakthrough as well.However, the Maya hold.The game ends with a narrow Maya victory – the Spanish nearly succeed!
Thankfully, I was able to get this game dismantled (with a lot of help especially from Leif and Brad) and put away and moved to my final table of the weekend. Fortunately, this was going to be a BIG table – five 6′ x 3′ tables of watery battlefield – Lake Texcoco – where the Aztec capital used to be.
Saturday Evening Feudal Patrol Game – The Battle of Lake Texcoco
This game would be in the evening on Saturday – so I set up during he afternoon – all 23 war canoes (with 5-6 Aztecs inside) and 5 Spanish brigantines (with 13 or so figures in each ship). Each side gets Victory points differently. The Spanish get points for successfully firing their primitive lombards and falconets (cannon) at the city. The Aztecs get points for successfully boarding each brigantine. Both sides get points for inflicting casualties on the enemy – with the Aztecs getting more points for inflicting them than the armored Spanish do. There were 9 players.
At the start – Spanish on the right, Aztecs on the left.The Aztec players advance their war canoes,The Spanish players try to advance their brigantines.The Aztecs move quickly as the Spanish do not raise their sails and instead rely on rowing.Close up of the war canoes.Another shot of the war canoes as they advance.Long view of the battlefield from the other side of the table.El Dolar is boarded!James eyes the approaching war canoes and fires his lombard (in the stern castle obscured by the sail) at an approaching canoe. It’s a bad scene on El Dolar – half the crew was killed or jumped overboard – plus it got damaged hitting an island.Near the end of the battle.The massive number of Morale pips on the dashboard of El Marcos tell a sad tale…
In the end the Spanish lost the game – as not a single shot hit the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish players were somewhat cautious in their advance but also too willing to fire valuable cannon opportunities at war canoes. While they inflicted a lot of casualties, the lack of cannon hits doomed their chances at victory. Meanwhile, the Aztecs boarded all of the brigantines, and that was the difference in points.
After a cleanup, I had help setting up Sunday morning’s upcoming Ozz game on this same table.
Sunday Morning Wars of Ozz Game
I only used 4 brigades this time as I dropped the Winkie and the Quadling brigades that I had borrowed from Chris Palmer. There was a LOT more maneuver space and several of the players were from Friday’s Ozz games. Also there was lot of action in this game as you will see below!
Ready for action!Stephen advances the Gillikins.The Harvest Brigade here – with the Munchkin Brigade to their right. The two opposing forces were deployed at opposite corners of the tabletop.The Mushroom Creature Regiment enters a town.A view of the Munchkin Brigade.Gillikins move through and around a town with their skeleton allies.Harvest forces try to get into the town before the Winkies.Munchkin forces advance.The Munchkin Medium artillery battery safely in the hard cover of the town with their infantry on the right flank. An amazing Ozz scene as Union Civil War reenactors watch the Ozz game unfold – black powder weapons on the table and around it!Forces close on the town.The Harvestland artillery (the pumpkin chucker) is wiped out to a man (or pumpkinhead) by Winkie Infantry. Meanwhile, the Great Pumpkin Heads seek revenge and deploy into line.The Great Pumpkin Heads repel the Lesser Apes.The Great Flying Apes manage to get behind the Great Pumpkin Heads and attempt a rear hit. The GPH manage to turn to face them, but now have enemies to the front and to the rear.A Great Pumpkin Head base close up as they are surrounded.The GPH have had enough and rout…On the Munchkin front, the Winkie zilk-riders attempt to charge the Munchkin Medium battery – and fail to make it – and are staring at the business end at point-blank range.Meanwhile, Evora the Witch cast “poppies” in front of her Winkie Light battery to deter any assaults on the gun. Gillikins have turned the flank of the Harvest left side,The Harvest center begins to weaken.Forces converge.The zilk riders are smashed by the Munchkin battery and flee, pursued by the Great Owls.The Lesser Pumpkin Heads form line, and turn to face the rear attack of the Great Flying Apes.The Harvest left flank crumbles!
That was the end of the game as time expired. It was not really over as the Munchkins were still intact and the Winkies had taken losses too. Had it gone on longer, I expect that it would have been very close – but as it ended the Winkies and Gillikins made it a three for three weekend.
I hope that you enjoyed the photos – and I want to thank all of the MWHA folks for all of their hard work – and I want to thank the players as well. I do believe that everyone had a very good time at my games – plus I think I will see some of them at future Mass Pikemen games – and I really look forward to that!
As always, I appreciate any feedback from you in the comments section. Thanks for looking!
The scenario involves a beach area with a jungle nearby and a Maya city. The Conquistadors start on the beach and try to move inland. You can see a description of the game in my recent TotalCon 37 recap post. Below is a set up of the battle – note the seven printed green card stock areas at the juncture between the jungle and the beach near the ends of the jungle paths. These areas I described as being easy to cross (no movement penalty) but providing a degree of concealment and cover – basically a scrub-type area.
I used these card stock pieces in lieu of the 7 scatter terrain jungle bases that I ordered from our blogger friend Dave Stone of Wargames Terrain Workshop in the UK back at the turn of the year. I even sized my card stock pieces to match the ones that I ordered from Dave.
Dave built them post-haste – and sent them to me via the Royal Mail on January 11th – so we both thought I’d get them in time to prepare for the February 23rd TotalCon37 convention. Unfortunately, a combination of a cyber attack on the Royal Mail and labor strikes in the UK combined and conspired to keep them from arriving at my home until Wednesday February 22nd – one day before the convention. As I wanted to detail them for the game, and I did not have enough time to give them the justice I wanted with less than a day’s preparation, I decided to work on them after TotalCon 37 so that they’d be ready for Cold Wars. I want to say that Dave was great in following up with me and this situation was definitely not his fault. The seven bases that I bought were as follows:
I started them on February 27th and worked on them alongside some Winkie cavalry (that I will post about next). All of the 7 bases came unpainted with a very generous supply of different plastic foliage on sprues – which allowed me to customize them. The bases themselves were resin with multiple small conical prongs with which to attach the plants. Dave recommended attaching them with green stuff – but I went with Apoxie Sculpt as I had some mixed already for a box handle I needed to repair.
The first steps were to wash the resin and the foliage so that paints and washes would adhere properly.
Washing the plastic foliage and the bases.Two of the washed resin bases showing the prongs, right before priming – on the right!
I primed the bases green-brown and let them dry overnight. I list all the paints and other materials at the end of the blog for those interested in that type of information.
Five of the seven bases primed and drying.Lots of available foliage!
Then, I then mocked out where I would apply the foliage with 1.25″ washers. When I was happy, I applied the foliage with Apoxie Sculpt to 5 of the bases and let that cure overnight. Why five and not seven? Well, as I said, I was also working on Winkie cavalry, and two of the primed bases were hiding under a paper towel and I missed them.
Small base with foliage affixed with Apoxie Sculpt.The 5 non-missing bases with the foliage attached as above – plus the extra prongs have been removed down to the base level.
The next day, the Apoxie Sculpt had cured, I did a quick inventory and I was concerned that I did not buy enough bases! After finding the hidden two, I decided that I did not have the luxury of time to wait another day to wait for Apoxie Sculpt to cure on these last two – so I went with hot glue – which worked great and instantly. I then painted over the Apoxie Sculpt and glue with a couple of green craft paints. Next, I applied three successive green hobby washes to the foliage, and let that dry. Then I cut off the remaining prongs, and applied brown texture paint over the places where the prongs had been removed.
Glue gun to the rescue.The 7 bases are shown here after I added the brown texture paint over the removed prong locations. These are shown over the card stock stand-ins I used at TotalCon 37 – so size-wise I was pretty close. Note that the washes on the foliage have lessened the plastic look significantly.
At this point I moved on to adding multiple pigments (like 7!). My goal was to blend the edges to look as if they bordered a beach, with a more jungle-like ground surface towards the centers of the bases. I added the 7 pigments, and fixed them with Vallejo thinner and let them dry.
First pigments session.
I was not satisfied with the first go with the pigments. I felt that the blends could be better – especially the transition from the beach areas inward. I also was not happy with the beach-bordering areas themselves. With that, I gave it a second attempt to address the shortcomings. That did address the issues – and then I added some scatter leaves and some laser cut low lying Gamers Grass plants that I bought from Things from the Basement at TotalCon – plus some Shadow’s Edge Miniatures jungle tufts.
I was pretty happy with the final products seen below.
The seven bases completed. Note the added low-lying plants and tufts.Close up of a medium base with a conquistador halberdier and an “underdressed” Maya novice for scale. For the Maya’s sake, let’s hope there are very few thorns.
I can see using these bases for many other games – and I believe that they work well with my jungle bases with the palm trees. As to now storing and transporting them – I modified a 32-liter Really Useful Box with hot glue and posterboard/foam board into a three-level “apartment” Jungle Box. The bottom level is lined with adhesive magnetic sheets (my jungle bases with the palm trees have steel washers embedded underneath). The jungle paths also fit in here rolled up with the trees being upright. The next two levels fit the seven bases described here – four on one, and three on another. Both levels are made of posterboard and are resting on posterboard pieces that I hot-glued to the walls of the box. I did need to make the level that is immediately above the trees into three pieces so that I could get it by the supports of the top level (which is in one piece). No levels will crush any foliage (thankfully). Voila – a Jungle Box ready for Cold Wars transport!
The top level – rests on one solid piece of foam board.Side view of the Jungle Box showing the three levels.
I hope this was useful to those of you considering similar projects. I do highly recommend Dave Stone’s stuff – I also previously shared his Aztec Style Serpent Statues that have been very popular at my games. Check him out!
My next post will be coming (hopefully) somewhat quickly as I need to finish preparations and packing up for Cold Wars. It will show my Winkie Zilk-riding cavalry – stay tuned! For my fellow bloggers, I’m trying to keep up with you, and know that I always read your posts and try to give you feedback. This month is, however, nuts, so I might be a bit tardy, mea culpa. As always, much thanks for taking a look – and let me know what you think!
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE JUNGLE BASES:
This was a fun convention. I promised that I’d share some photos and some descriptions of the 5 games that I ran here at TotalCon 37. The five games were all Feudal PatrolTM games using my Civilizations Collide supplement. Check out the photos to see what it was all about – and if you played you might just recognize yourself! There are a LOT of photos – hell I ran 5 games!
It’s not easy to both run a game and take pictures. Let me add a caveat – it’s not easy to do both and do justice to the game and to the players’ needs. I was fortunate this time that a lot of the players had experience with Feudal PatrolTM and were very helpful to the new players. It’s been a week since the end of TotalCon 37 – so without further ado, let me get into the games that I ran.
Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli
This game took place on Thursday the 24th at 1 PM. It pits the Aztecs against the Tlaxcalans before the Spanish Conquest. I have run this game many times – and it has won awards at both HUZZAH! and Fall In in 2022. I had not run it at TotalCon, so I thought it appropriate to do so.
I had 8 players for the game.
Happy gamers ready for battle. The Aztec players are on the right, the Tlaxcalan players are on the left.The Tlaxcalan defense prepares.The Aztecs mounted a strong attack right down the middle with Jaguar and Eagle Warriors.Tlaxcalan bows took a heavy toll on these attackers.
The Aztecs assault in the middle faltered due to accurate bow shots of the Tlaxcalans. On the Aztec left, a force of Arrow Knights and Jaguar Warriors took the long way around hoping to flank the defenders. On the Aztec right, a veteran/novice force moved up – reinforces by the elite Shorn Ones – and also took some casualties before making it to the very gates of the Temple and the Tlaxcalan leader Xayacamach.
Despite the Tlaxcalan bows, melee finally happens.The Aztec right closes on the Temple.Things are looking desperate for the Tlaxcalans. That Temple is worth a LOT of VP.Tlaxcalans begin to drag away Aztecs as prisoners for sacrifice.
At this point, the Tlaxcalan leader Xayacamach sortied with his signaler, put himself at personal risk, and engaged the Aztecs. His actions reversed the Aztec elites’ attack. The Tlaxcalans also held off the Aztec veterans who were on their left flank and threatening a food resource. back on the Aztec left, the long march of the Arrow Knights and the Jaguar Warriors reached a critical juncture with a threat to the Tlaxcalan corn supply and the rear of their bowmen. With the middle assault no longer a threat, the Tlaxcalan bows redeployed to face the new threat. Loosing a deadly barrage, they killed the Aztec Warband Leader and scattered the remaining attackers.
The Tlaxcalans defend their food.The figure with the “W” is the soon to be mourned Aztec Warband Leader. The Tlaxcalans defend the Temple.The Tlaxcalan defense is successful!
The final score was 95-41 in favor of the defending Tlaxcalans.
La Noche Triste – Bloodbath on the Tacuba Causeway
I had 7 players for this game which took place on Friday the 24th in the morning.
The game set up.
The Tlaxcalans on the mainland managed to drive the Shorn Ones away from the causeway entrance. Meanwhile, the Spanish took a long time to get the bridge installed – and by that time the war canoes were hitting them with missile fire from two sides. The rear guard lost a couple of cavalrymen, but managed to perform their role well against a surge of Jaguar Warriors.
The Tlaxcalans engage the Shorn Ones with missile fire – and eventually drive them away.The Spanish took a long time to bridge the causeway gap.The Shorn Ones flee.Still no bridge…
The war canoes made an effort to harry the Conquistadores.
War canoes approach.Still no bridge…I survey the scene – (pic from Facebook)Still no bridge…
After Turn 4 the bridge is automatically installed and the Spanish get a “Burst of Exuberance” move as they try to make it to the mainland! This was an important objective as getting as few as 1 figure to the mainland would negate a 100 VP for the Aztecs.
The bridge is in! Vamanos!Rear guard battle.The Spanish race to escape……but the few remaining Aztecs and the war canoes threaten their success.
On the last card of the last turn, the Spanish had one chance to get at least one figure to the mainland – Cortes’ Catholic priest. The priest had 11″ to sprint – and made 14″! (Good thing he had no armor to weigh him down!).
That effectively took away 100 free points for the Aztecs and won the game for the Conquistadores at the last possible moment. The final score was 71-22. Had the Spanish failed, the score would have been 122-71.
The Battle of Lake Texcoco
On Saturday the 25th, I ran two massive games of the Battle of Lake Texcoco, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon.
Morning Game
The morning game was all mayhem – lots of boarding, canoe ramming, and cannon fire. I had seven players.
Game set up from the Aztec side.Game set up from the Spanish side.Close up of El Dolar and the dashboard for this brigantine.Happy gamers!Forces close…El Gregorio fires her cannon and sinks a war canoe.Boarding about to happen!
El Dolar ran aground and was swarmed by Aztec boarders. The other vessels continued towards their goal of shelling the Aztec capital (at the end of the mat where the Aztec players were).
Boarding!More boarding!El Gregorio goes full sails towards the city walls.El Dolar is boarded on two sides!
El Gregorio, El Marcos, and El Perro de Guerra moved up to the city (well El Gregorio slammed into it at full speed but got lucky on damage). Cannon fire from El Marcos and El Gregorio rocked Tenochtitlan for 50 points apiece.
Fire at the city from El Gregorio!At the end of the game.
The battle was cinematic to be sure. In the end, the Spanish won 383-269 – with their successful artillery fire gaining the win.
Afternoon Game
I then reset and ran this game again with 8 players – unfortunately with fewer photos.
I brief the gamers for game two (photo by Peter Bostwick).At the start of the second game.
In this game, there was a lot less boarding by the Aztecs and a lot more ramming of war canoes – sinking a lot of them. As a result, it was a bigger Spanish victory – 391-145. The brigantines El Conquistador, El Perro de Guerra, and El Marcos all hit Tenochtitlan with solid shot for 150 VP.
At the game’s end.
Arofan Gregory took a very nice photograph of El Marcos (thank you sir) and put it on Facebook – and I’ll share it below:
Arofan Gregory’s photo of El Marcos.
The Battle of Centla
This was a very full game – 12 players on Sunday!
The battlefield set up.A happy full table!
The Maya were fighting a delaying action – they needed to keep the Spanish from reaching the city or incapacitate half of them. The Spanish needed to incapacitate half of the Maya or reach the city. The Maya can randomly get reinforcements from the dead pile – making it harder for the Spanish to reach that 50% Maya killed level. The Spanish get no reinforcements.
Spanish move up.View from the city.Maya fight stubbornly.The Spanish assault well – and use arquebusiers to good effect.
Meanwhile, Tabscoob’s (the Maya chieftain) leadership held his forces together – but taking on the Spanish directly in melee did not go their way.
In the end the Maya were unlucky with reinforcements and the Spanish were effective in their onslaught – resulting in a historical repeat – a Conquistador win.
I really want to thank all the players and especially Leif Magnuson, Brad Gosselin, and Chris Comeau who went above and beyond. I also want thank the whole staff – its a big convention and takes a lot of work. I want to highlight the work of Steven Parenteau and all his staff. Lastly, a big thanks to the incredibly helpful Bryan Clauss who headed up the miniatures section and who assisted in getting me the right table sizes.
Leif, myself, and Brad
Painting Contest
Finally, like last year, there was a painting contest. This year, I entered my Conquistador cavalry in the unit category – and won! Yay!
That’s it for TotalCon 37!
Going forward, I’ll be bringing “The Battle of Lake Texcoco” and “The Battle of Centla” to HMGS Cold Wars next week, plus “The Surprise Raid on the Spanish Outpost”. At the end of March, at HAVOC, I’ll be bringing “The Battle of Lake Texcoco” and “The Battle of Centla” as well as two “Wars of Ozz” games. I need to submit my games for HUZZAH! in May – and I’ll be doing that shortly.
I hope that you enjoyed this post – it’s been hectic with preparing for these conventions all so closely spaced together – but in the end I was very happy with how TotalCon 37 went – and I hope to repeat this at the other two planned gaming conventions.
As convention season is upon me – starting with TotalCon 37 this weekend – I wanted to make a quick post on some jungle bases I have sculpted for my new Maya scenario. I bought some inexpensive palm trees on Amazon – the one on the left was for cake decorating and the other on the right marketed for use on railroad dioramas. I had 30 trees in total – and they looked pretty shiny as one would expect of plastic. And shiny is not what I wanted.
The basic preparation of the trees involved removing mold lines (lots), washing them, and making a plan for their use. I needed some single trees for use on a beach (sandy bases) and some larger more muddy looking bases for the jungle around a Maya village. These are for the Battle of CentlaFeudal PatrolTM games I’ll be running in upcoming conventions. In addition to removing the mold lines, I lightly sanded and filed the plastic which gave the bark a more friable look.
After cleaning up bad mold lines – wash time……and drying time
I then mounted the trees into poster tack on specimen jars and used three different washes on the foliage (all the paints and materials that I used are listed at the end of this post for those interested).
Mounted for applying washes to the plastic foliage to make them look more realistic.
Next, I needed a more detailed plan – I wanted to make the bases such that the 30 trees were varied across all of the bases and spaced far enough apart for good gaming with miniatures. I decided to make one 5-tree base, one 4-tree base, two 3-tree bases, three 2-tree bases, and 5 single bases. The single ones would be beach bases and the others jungle bases.
The plan – with a shot of my game map as a planning guide.
For sculpting, I went with Apoxie Sculpt, a 2-piece resin that is very workable but hardens like a rock. I needed to have some support for the trees – otherwise they would have just drooped excessively while the Apoxie Sculpt cured and hardened overnight. To solve this, I removed the little tabs on the tree bottoms, and glued the trees to steel washers. I gave a few a little bend as well.
For the 2-tree and 3-tree bases, the washers were easy to sculpt around and provided support – and I added some popsicle stick supports connecting the washers that I encased with Apoxie Sculpt and sculpted over. For the two bigger bases, I made supporting bases out of several popsicle sticks, then glued the washers with the affixed trees to them. I sculpted over the bases. More or less, these actions provided structural support and allowed me to make the bases strong. I needed to make sure that I used a putty knife to lift them from time to time off of plastic plates and cutting mats else they would cure permanently to them.
Apoxie SculptThe larger bases gleed and setting up.Washer-mounted treesTrees on washers now glues to a 5-tree base.
After curing to tremendous rock-hardness, the next steps for them were to get painted and flocked. For the single-tree beach bases, I used chinchilla dust over PVA (thanks again TIM!) that I have used in the past. For the jungle bases, I used a texture paint, pigments, and different flocking materials.
Bases curing – a couple of jungle paths are in front. These I got from Buck Surdu and I muddied them up with a couple of inks.Early flocking drying – pigments still wet.Close up of beach bases with chinchilla dust and glue drying.
After the texture paint dried, I played around and added multiple (3) pigments, and let them dry.
5-tree base with pigments drying.Pigments after drying.
At this point, I wanted to add some tufts, debris, and low-lying foliage. I had some old 4-Ground leaves, and a Ziterdes “butterbur” laser-cut foliage that had been hanging around for years with no home. I mixed those with some tufts to create a hybrid jungle-looking plant. I learned butterbur is not native to the Americas, but with the tufts it looked fine.
The completed bases – showing the debris and low-lying plants.A close up shot of the base with a Maya warrior for scale comparison.
I have also acquired some more bases from Dave Stone’s workshop that I will eventually work into the game. These are very nice and I will also flock them similarly to match mine. Unfortunately, the UK cyber attack delayed them getting here in Massachusetts until today so they won’t get done until later – not Dave’s fault!
I hope that this was interesting – certainly it was a diversion from my recent Ozz stuff. I’m still going to run Mesoamerican games – and will be adding Ozz games too. I certainly have room for both!
Thanks for taking a look – let me know what you think!
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE PALM TREES AND BASES:
Pardon the pun, but this post marks the completion (for now) of all of my figures for my Spanish Conquest/Mesoamerican games. Many of you have been following my progress in this blog on my various Aztec, Tlaxcalan, and Conquistador figure projects over the last few years. To all of you, thank you so much for joining me on this long journey!
My first post was back on April 25th, 2020. Since then I have researched the period and written the period supplement for the Feudal PatrolTM rules by Buck Surdu. That supplement is called Civilizations Collide. It is free to download at that link. I have built multiple scenarios for gaming the period and eventually hope to have that available as a supplement as well. Until then, I have been running these games at multiple conventions, gaming events, and club meetings.
Just this year, I have run 18Feudal PatrolTM games for this period at various of these opportunities. Most of these have been documented in this blog. I have posted on this blog no less than 58 different times on my Civilizations Collide projects and the games I have run (this post will be #59). All of those posts are catalogued here.
Project Background
The last piece of the puzzle that I wanted to fill in figure-wise was the Maya. To that end, last December I sourced 34 figures from Gringo 40’s in the UK to assemble a good-sized force for gaming. After the spring conventions, I honestly thought I would be onto getting these done quickly. As the title of this blogs is “Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions”, well, that did not happen.
As it turned out, the weather this year was superb for golf – and I really got in a lot of rounds – close to 80+ rounds of golf since April. I still wanted to get the Maya done. So, in the summer, I decided to start. My goal was to try to get them done quickly and move on to other projects such as Buck’s Wars of Ozz rules and figures. To that end, I thought I’d use Citadel Contrast Paints and Army Painter Speed Paints that I had just received in conjunction with mass airbrushing to knock out the 34.
Not so fast as it turned out…
A couple of our blog buddies Azazel at Azazel’s Bitz Box and maenoferren22 at Bogenwald Random Painting and Terrain Making had discovered and shared on their respective blogs unsettling reports that Army Painter Speed paints had a reactivation problem – that is they bled out under other colors when exposed to wetness – such as another paint applied on the model. This news put a slowdown on my adoption of the Speed Paints – and for certain my Maya progress. The last thing that I wanted to deal with was a problem that would potentially ruin paint jobs.
Later Azazel did share this video with me that showed adding Citadel Contrast Medium to the Speed Paints negated the problem. I can say for sure that at least for me – this worked perfectly. Thanks Az! Also, there are a ton of YouTube videos on Speed Paint – many suggesting to treat them like you would use oils. But I digress.
So, On August 23rd, I set out to get started on the Maya. I did get held up time -wise by golf as I wrote, plus my Woodstock rehab project called to me. On top of that I had an issue with Facebook where some of my own posts on pages that I am the administrator got marked as spam! While this is no longer happening anymore now (knock on wood), it did at the time also make me less motivated to paint. Why? well this is because I do share my posts on Facebook on appropriate hobby pages as well as on my own, and if I could not share them well I was less motivated to work on them until the situation got fixed. Lastly, I started painting with the Maya novices – who are – well – anatomically correct and totally naked as you’ll see at the end of this blog. Painting naked dudes did not get me motivated at all. The rest of these were sporting loincloths, so in the end, I got through all of these figures as you will see.
A Little History
I will have a few scenarios for the Maya. Their history is long and quite convoluted. They did NOT refer to themselves as “Maya”. They additionally had no unifying identity or government. They existed before the Aztecs – and indeed struggled against multiple invaders well after the Aztecs were long gone. Th0ugh the last Mayan city (Nojpetén) fell in 1697, there were revolts against multiple central governments by Maya descendants up and through the 19th century.
Also, the correct use of the term “Maya” versus “Mayan” can cause confusion. Here is a link that helps. Basically – use Maya!
The Maya were located more in the Yucatan peninsula area, Southern Mexico, Honduras, and Belize. They did not really interact with the Aztecs – though if the Spanish had not shown up that probably would have been their next conflict. Cortes first ran into the Maya when he arrived and fought them at the Battle of Centla. The Maya settled with him and told him of the wealth of the Aztecs – and that took the Maya were off the Conquistadores’ radar – for a while. After the fall of the Aztecs, Cortes sent expeditions into Maya territory. Some of these never were heard from again.
Let’s move on to discussing the Maya figures…
They all came from Gringo 40’s in the UK. I wanted some elites, some veterans, and some green troops. I also wanted some warrior priests and leaders. The available 28mm metal figures available from Gringo 40’s is excellent. The figures are very nice sculpts as well.
Here is the breakdown of the 34 that I bought.
Figure M1 – “Mayan Charging with Dual-edged Obsidian Club”. Got 4 figures to use as veterans ( designated in my system as MV01-MV04).
Figure M2 – “Atlatl Thrower”. Got 4 figures to use as elites (designated in my system as ME01-MV04).
Figure M3 – “Mayan Archer”. Got 3 figures to use as veterans (designated in my system as MV05-MV07).
Figure M4 – “Mayan with Stone-Headed Mace”. Got 3 figures to use as novices (as they are naked – designated in my system as MN01-MN03).
Figure M5 – “Mayan Warrior in Headdress Advancing”. Got 3 figures to use as elites ( designated in my system as ME05-ME07).
Figure M7 – “Mayan War Chief”. Got 3 figures to use as leaders/captains (designated in my system as MWC01-MWC03).
Figure M8 – “Mayan Priest in Mask”. Got 3 figures to use as warrior priests (designated in my system as MWP01-MWP03).
Figure M9 – “Atlatl Thrower (a)”. Got 4 figures with longer hair than M2 to use as elites (designated in my system as ME08-MV11).
Figure M11 – “Mayan with Club Advancing (b)”. Got 2 figures to use as novices (as they are naked with longer hair than M4- designated in my system as MN05-MN06).
Figure M12 – “Mayan with Club Advancing (c)”. Got 3 non-naked figures similar to the novices to use as veterans (designated in my system as MV08-MV10).
Figure M15 – “Mayan Carrying Spears”. Got 1 figure to use as a novice (not naked – designated in my system as MN15).
Figure M16 – “Mayan Chief”. Got 1 figures to use as Tabscoob, a Mayan War Chief (designated in my system as TABSCOOB).
Most of these came with shields. A challenge with this project was that the figures did not really allow for much moving of their poses. Therefore, as you will see below, except for the M7’s (which had pose variability), I had to rely on different painting schemes, especially with regards to colors, and differently painted and shaped shields. I also flocked them slightly differently.
Still, tabletop differentiation and playability are important concerns to deal with when designing an army. To this end I replaced a few of the Gringo 40’s shields with Aztec extras that I had lying around from previous projects. I mixed up the shield shapes across the figures as you will see below.
Process of Assembling, Painting, Etc.
I assembled the M7’s – placing their arms in different positions. The atlatl’s provided for the M2 and M9 figures were too soft and bendy – as were the spears for the M5’s. I replaced all of these with wire spears cut to size. The M3’s needed their quivers to be attached, as did the spear bundle for M15. The latter two were addressed by drilling out holes with a pin vise, inserting paper clip wire, and affixing with Gorilla glue. I experimented with the flesh tones a lot (all of the paints and materials that I used are at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of information). After priming, I airbrushed a base coat, then worked on common colors across the range of figures. As the vast majority of the 34 figures were basically waiting for me to get them to the final varnishing and flocking stage, I did not have many blog posts to share with my readers – but hopefully this post will be a good explanation of why.
Used Excel to organize the 34All airbrush primedAirbrushed a base flesh tone across the groupCame up with a plan for the shields for varietyMaya CaptainTabscoobMaya VeteranMaya Novice
As for the shields, I did them separately – having googled some images that I thought would be appropriate. Unlike the Aztec’s shields, sources are far more limited. To a degree, I used artistic license here.
I drew images on the primed shields then painted them inThen I sealed the shields paint jobs with gloss varnish to preserve the colors.
Then I just proceeded to paint the figures, then affix the shields, then flock and varnish them. This only took me from August to November!
The Figures
I will now showcase the figures – with some details as appropriate. I am going from the highest ranking to the lowest ranking figures, not in the order that I completed them.
Tabscoob
Tabscoob was the Maya ruler that fought Cortes at The Battle of Centla. I loved painting this figure! The name of the Mexican state of Tabasco, and hence the hot sauce are derived from his name. This is figure M16.
Maya Warrior Chiefs
There were three of these M7 figures. They will act as Warband Leaders in the games. Note the three different color schemes and arm positions.
MWC01
MWC02
MWC03
ALL MAYA WARRIOR CHIEFS
Maya Warrior Priests
I envision these as having the same role as the Aztec Warrior Priests in the games. They can help with Morale, and can fight as well. I’ve share only the back of MWP01 as the others are similar. I really like the masks. These are all figure M8.
MWP01
MWP02
MWP03
ALL MAYA WARRIOR PRIESTS
Maya Elite Warriors
For the Elite figures, I had M2, M5, and M9 figures. The M2 figures (ME01-ME04) are armed with atlatls and have slightly shorter hair. The M5’s (ME05-ME07) have headdresses and are armed with tepoztopilli (thrusting spears). The M9’s (ME08-ME11) are armed with atlatls and have longer hair. Where the backsides are similar I only share one photo.
First, the four elite M2’s armed with atlatls.
ME01
ME02
ME03
ME04
ALL M2 FIGURES WITH ATLATLS
The next group of elites are the 3 M5 figures – armed with tepoztopilli (thrusting spears). I gave them different headdresses and shield designs, and was able to slightly alter the angle of each tepoztopilli.
ME05
ME06
ME07
ALL M5 FIGURES WITH TEPOZTOPILLI
The last group of elites contains the 4 M9’s armed with atlatls. They have slightly longer hair than the similar M2’s.
ME08
ME09
ME10
ME11
ALL M9 FIGURES WITH ATLATLS
Maya Veteran Warriors
My Maya veterans came in three types – 3 M1’s with macuahuitls, 3 M3’s with bows, and 3 M12’s with cuauhololli. On the bows, I attempted to make the quivers look as they had been made out of three different kinds of animal hides: ocelot, jaguar, and capybara.
First, here are the 4 M1 figures.
MVo1
MV02
MV03
MV04
ALL M1 FIGURES WITH MACUAHUITLS
Next up are the 3 bow-armed M3 figures.
MV05
MV06
MV07
ALL M3 FIGURES WITH BOWS
The last group of veteran Maya is the 3 M12 figures armed with cuauhololli (basically clubs). These figures are very similar to the Warrior Priests, other than the masks.
MV08
MV09
MV10
ALL M12 FIGURES WITH CUAUHOLOLLI
Maya Novice Warriors
And lastly, we come to the novices. I painted 6 up for my Maya forces. 3 M4’s armed with cuauhololli, 1 M15 with throwing spears, and 2 M11 with cuauhololli and longer hair. Only the M15 has a loincloth…so let’s just show 2 group shots…
ALL NOVICE FIGURES
All Maya Figures
These 34 bring me to a grand total of…
300 Figures for the Spanish Conquest/Mesoamerican Conflicts!
A nice round number!
Now Azazel or Buck Surdu (or many of you) could paint that many in a far shorter time – but 300 is a lot to for me be sure and I’m pretty happy that I finally have them done and ready to game. That total of 300 includes:
121 Aztecs
113 Conquistadores
32 Tlaxcalans
34 Maya
I am not counting brigantines or war canoes in that total by the way. I have them all in five 11-liter Really Useful Boxes – and there is a specific numbered individual spot for each and every figure. This allows me to quickly set up and take down games where the forces might change – especially at conventions. The boxes are lines with magnetic sheets and the figure bases all have steel underneath for safe transport.
Once again, thanks to you all for sharing this ride with me. It’s not completely over as I will be running many games going forward plus finishing the scenario booklet. One thing I’ve found is that my games are not the usual fare – which is great – it’s nice to bring something totally different to the tabletop.
Now I’ll get to start painting my Wars of Ozz figures. Thanks for taking a look and as always sharing your thoughts on this post in the comments section.
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE MAYA FIGURES:
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)
Mark A. Morin 