At the HAVOC gaming convention in Marlborough, Massachusetts I ran four games – two Wars of Ozz and two Feudal PatrolTM games between March 31st and April 2nd. Hopefully shortly, I will be sharing some of my own pictures and a few links about HAVOC in future posts – BUT FIRST…
My first Ozz game was on Friday night, and I had a full table of 6 players – all new first-timers to the game. During that game, one of my players, my friend Bradley Gosselin, took copious notes and photos of that game. I noticed him doing this and assumed that he wanted to really learn the rules. To my humble surprise, he said, no, he was hoping to do a battle report and that I would be welcome to using it in my blog! It’s not often that one of my players does me such an awesome honor – and so – thanks Brad – here is your wonderful report – I could not have done better!
Game Set Up
There were two brigades facing each other – Winkies and Munchkins. Each base/stand of troops or artillerist taken out is worth 1 point to the other side. The deployment is randomly determined.
Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 4
So, in the end the Munchkins prevailed over the Winkies! Thanks Brad for all the work on this (and he might have more on other HAVOC games – stay tuned). The players had a good time and really picked up the rules quickly.
The game was quick and bloody (as it’s supposed to be). Though both sides did well – the Munchkins did a wee bit better.
As you saw in my last battle report, there was a game of Wars of Ozz between the Munchkins and the Gillikins. Chris’ Gillikins won 21-15. I wanted a rematch, and Chris Comeau agreed to one. We agreed to again use the meeting engagement scenario with random deployment zones as before. This post will show how this game went this time, mostly with pictures and a bit of narrative. It had a lot of excitement to be sure! We ended up playing in my cellar as opposed to the nice garage – as my wife was not feeling well and I wanted to be nearby in case she needed me.
As a side note, yes, this is a late post, but my wife Lynn and I had a subsequent unwanted medical “adventure” the day after this game – which I will describe at the end.
Back to the game – the forces were the same as last game. I did, however, end up drawing excellent characteristics for my two infantry regiments. The Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment (ZGIR) was already the best musketry unit on the table – and I the “Well-Drilled” attribute which gained me an additional 2″ of range to both my long and short firing ranges. For Colonel Tik-Tok’s regiment – I got the “Impatient” characteristic which gave me first hit capability in melee. My Munchkin cavalry got the “Charismatic” attribute which only affects routing distance. My brigade commander drew the “Magical Protection” attribute which helps when your enemy has a witch nearby. My opponent was slightly less fortunate – as one of his two regiments drew the “Blind” attribute which hurt his marksmanship. His other infantry regiment drew a good attribute, “The Fortunate”, which allowed a reroll of a bad result during the game. His goat riders got “The Impetuous” attribute which improved their elan. I don’t remember his brigade commander’s attribute, but it was moderately positive. By the way, artillery batteries, allied units (like skeletons), and witches and wizards don’t get these bonuses.
Zoraster’s Guard Infantry and Zoraster the WizardMunchkin Brigade CommanderMunchkin Medium BatteryMunchkin Light Cavalry and Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry RegimentGillikin Goat rider cavalryGillikin Infantry and Medium BatterySkeleton Regiment and Gillikin Infantry Regiment. Arella the Witch is close by.
The deployments were as shown below. The Munchkins are on the left and the Gillikins are on the right. I had my two Munchkin infantry regiments at opposite ends of the tabletop – one near my wizard and my medium battery – and one next to my cavalry. My opponent had a skeleton regiment screening one of his Gillikin infantry regiments on one end and his goat riders, medium battery, and the other infantry regiment on the other end.
The start – Munchkins to the left and Gillikins to the right.Chris again used his skeletons to screen his Gillikin infantry. Here they advance with Arella the witch close by.This time, I moved closer to the enemy. Here the ZGIR advances to engage the skeletons with musketry. Normally, skeletons are less vulnerable to musketry – lacking, well, organs.The Gillikin Medium battery unlimbered and faced both the Munchkin cavalry and Colonel Tik-Tok. The “blind” Gillikin infantry shouldered their muskets in column and moved up quickly, with the goat riders to their left flank.The Gillikin infantry moved up and into line formation, while the goat-riders went into column trying to close with the Munchkins quickly.Meanwhile, I moved both the Munchkin Light Cavalry and Tik-Tok into line.
Then I decided to try to improve the ZGIR’s marksmanship with an “Uncanny Marksmanship” spell from Zoraster. This would raise my already strong marksmanship from a 7 to a 9 out of 10 hit probability at short range (on top of the increased range bonus)! As you may remember, a spell needs to roll under a spell level on a D10. Zoraster, with a level of 8, needed only to roll anything but an 8, 9, or 10. A 10 is a critical failure (which last game caused his head to explode). Sometimes a critical failure has a bizarre result that can be positive. In this game, I rolled a 10 no less than 7 times out of 12. With different dice!!!!
Luckily, this time the critical failure did not cause a head explosion, and I even got some good results. Below, I rolled my first of 7 critical failures (the zero) and got a 17 for the following result roll. This let the spell work, but lowered my spell rating to 7 for the remainder of the game. Which, when you roll 10, is largely irrelevant! In any case, my ZGIR was even more deadly – even to the point of negating the skeletons’ advantage versus my musketry.
A critical spell failure with a positive result – my best unit now hit 80% of the time (70% versus skeletons).My Munchkin cavalry attempts to hit the Gillikin cavalry on the flank – exposing their flank to the Gillikin “blind” infantry and the Gillikin battery. They get only one hit and disorganize the goat riders. Overview of battle at this point. The Munchkin Medium Battery aims to take out the Gillikin battery. You can see the other two fights here as well.The Gillikin cavalry reacts and turns to face the Munchkin cavalry, which shortly after this got hit by both flanking infantry “blind” fire and in the rear from the Gillikin artillery. Not good for me.After firing, the Gillikin infantry then tried to hit the Munchkin cavalry in the flank – and they moved away to the left to escape the trap before it could close – however now the enemy medium battery had another flank shot – which succeeded in routing the Munchkin pony riders for the second game in a row. This left Tik-Tok alone on this end of the tabletop facing three enemy units (but in a ray of sunshine as an omen perhaps?).Flanking fire hitting the cav……and Munchkin cavalry routs yet again…Meanwhile, the ZGIR was doing massive damage to the skeletons with musket fire.In response, Arella the Witch successfully cast a “Raise the Dead” spell and raised a new and separate base of skeletons (from the casualty pile) to engage the Munchkin Medium Battery before it could hurt their own battery.Undeterred, the ZGIR continued to pour lead down range and routed the skeletons through the close-following Gillikins, disorganizing them.An overview of the battle at this point. The new skeleton base damaged the Munchkin battery, but it was also wiped out in the melee attempt. Arella then hit the battery with successive fireballs, and the Gillikin battery also pivoted and hit the enemy battery. Shortly thereafter, the Munchkin Battery would be wiped out. Shown here routing away are the both the Munchkin cavalry and the skeletons on opposite ends of the tabletop.
At this point in the game, I was down to my two infantry regiments, plus my wizard. The Gillikins had two infantry regiments, plus a medium battery, a damaged goat-rider regiment, and a witch.
Then, the Gillikin infantry tried to engage the ZGIR in a firefight. The ZGIR sent the Gillikins high-tailing after the already routed skeletons. Both Gillikin units would then would leave the game for safer places. Then Arella moved in to throw a fireball at the ZGIR from the rear. The Munchkins activated and performed an about face. Arella then activated and threw her fireball and missed. The ZGIR returned fire and took her out with one volley.Arella right before her demise. Zoraster tried to throw a “Poor Luck” spell on her and – yes – rolled a 10. However, this critical failure resulted in a the gaining of a new one-base unit for the Munchkins – a giant bear! The bear immediately turned towards the beleaguered Tik-Tok regiment which was holding but getting surrounded.Colonel Tik-Tok’s regiment with Gillikin Infantry to the front and badly damaged goat riders to the rear. The bear would aim to engage the goat riders.The bear is coming to the rescue, oh my!
This move took the pressure off of Tik-Tok. The Gillikin cavalry was in no shape to close with the bear, but decided that that was better than being hit in the rear and routed. In the end, the bear base did its job before being eliminated, but the Gillikin Goat Riders routed nonetheless – having had enough for the day. The two infantry regiments got into melee with Tik-Tik getting the better of the exchange (being “Impatient” and getting the first hits in help a lot too). The Gillikin infantry now routed as well. This left only the Gillikin Medium Battery on the battlefield facing the two Munchkin infantry regiments – which closed in on it.
Rout the “‘blind” Gillikins! Tik-Tok holds!An overview of the battle at this point – all Gillikins are routing away except the battery – which has two Munchkin Infantry regiments on each side of it – and bent on revenge.
In the end, it was the ZGIR which wiped out and overran the Gillikin battery, and won the game 21-18.
The Gillikin battery is wiped out and overran.
It was a good game – and I feel I was lucky to pull out the victory. Certainly the magic critical failures had us both laughing. I will be running two games similar to this at HAVOC in late March/early April.
As for our adventure, I had travelled to Shrewsbury (45 minutes away) for a 7 AM car service – while Lynn got a 10 AM doctor’s appointment at UMASS (40 minutes away) to see why she was having shooting pains in her back. My car took a while. Around 11 AM she texted me that the doctor ordered a “blood clot test” for her as that was a worry for her lungs. By the way, I hate texting but the lab was too crowded for her to speak clearly with me at that point. With my knowledge and background, I texted to ask what the name of the test was (she was unsure) and to ask/tell her not to leave the hospital until she got her results. Unfortunately, when Lynn asked the phlebotomist how long the results would take, and was told maybe an hour, maybe a day. I knew that a potential blood clot in the lung was a STAT situation, and that likely the test was a d-dimer (which I have had myself). In any case, she left and drove home – as I did and we arrived at home about 5 minutes apart around 1 PM.
Within 5 more minutes, she got both an email and a call to go to the ER as the d-dimer test was elevated. So we drove together to UMASS Memorial in Worcester, arriving at 1:51 PM in the waiting room or the ER. It was SWAMPED. We did not get into the medical area of the ER and a bed for her until after 6 PM. We waited for a CAT scan until 11:30 PM, and then a read. It was not sure if she was going to be admitted or not but the diagnosis was pneumonia. At this time they started IV antibiotics – BUT as I recently had had a bad sinus infection I was on and needed to take my own antibiotic dose (which was of course at home). So I left her, drove home, got my own pills, then got a call from Lynn that she was being discharged. I then drove back to Worcester, got her, got her late night McDonald’s (she had not eaten since the morning). We got home about 3:30 AM, at which point I’d been up for nearly 24 hours.
So, good news, she’s already better! Not a fun story, but one I’m glad worked out.
Anyways, I hope you liked the battle report – I should have a couple more posts for you this week on a couple other playtests and some jungle terrain that I built for a Maya convention game.
I had previously built two infantry regiments and an artillery battery for my Munchkin Brigade. It was time to add a cavalry regiment to my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz. This was a Light Cavalry Regiment, OZZ108 from Wars of Ozz miniatures.
The regiment is 28mm and metal. It is composed of made of 11 figures broken into 11 ponies, 11 riders (from the torso up), and 11 carbines. The riders also are armed with sabers, so they can also engage the enemy from a distance (although carbines are not very long ranged). The Light Cavalry Regiment (LCR) is worth the same amount of points as the Medium Artillery Battery that I described in my last post. Each base in the game can take 4 hits, even though with cavalry there are only two figures per 2″ square base. This regiment has 5 bases plus a regimental commander on an MDF base.
The rules say that the LCR should have “dragoon green” coats and light blue trousers. The ponies (these are Munchkins) are supposed to be in multiple pastel colors – which allowed me to use a number of Citadel Contrast and Army Painter Speed Paints. I painted the carbines, riders, and ponies all separately. Then, I assembled all after painting and varnishing was completed. I used both my specimen jars/poster tack combos and my painting stand with alligator clips to paint and varnish. The project was started on December 8th, and completed on December 19th. There was a lot more work here than I expected – I really needed to plan out the painting and assembly. I also did a bit of research on Napoleonic cavalry as my Napoleonic painting experience level is – well zero. My goal was to achieve a good tabletop standard – and you can be the judge of whether I achieved that. As usual, I will list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the LCR.
WIP shots…
Filed and washedThe carbines in the alligator clip stand
I actually prepped the bases first and started the flocking so that I would not have to manhandle the painted figures later on.
Base prep/sizing.
Then, I prepped/mounted the remaining torsos and riders for painting.
Mounted and tagged for painting. With each pony having a different color, this was instrumental.
The painting proceeded ok – though with all of the details it took a bit longer than I anticipated. I actually changed the fur cap colors from light blue to black after seeing some pictures on line with the light blue on the cap tops and sides. I then looked to give a lot of colorful detail in red, green, yellow, and blue as you’ll see below.
Then I varnished the group, assembled them, mounted them on the 2″ square steel bases, and flocked them.
Assembled.Completed!
And now…
Eye Candy
There are 5 stands of 2 figures – 4 are similar and one is a command stand with a standard bearer and a bugler. The regimental commander goes on an MDF stand.
Regimental Commander Stand
Stand 1
Stand 2
Stand 3
Stand 4
Command Stand
Group shots
The LCR in line formation, moving into melee with the Regimental Commander base in the rear.A higher angle photo of the previous formation.An angled shot of the left side of the LCR moving up with the Regimental Commander in front.The LCR ready to charge the enemy with impetus!
I will now move on to building my brigade of Winkies (basically the Orcs of Ozz). I am not sure how far I will get this year with Christmas coming plus some minor surgery for me right afterwards (oh yay). I am hoping to get at least one more unit done this month, then do a 2022 wrap up with my 2023 goals.
Again, as you may want to check out the figures range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and figures are available from the following two places:
Thanks so very much for checking this post out and please let me know what you think in the comments section. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Still have more to come…
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS MUNCHKIN LIGHT CAVALRY REGIMENT:
Gorilla Glue
Paper clip wire pieces
1 1/4″ x 1″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
Poster tack
Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Black Sharpie pen
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Vallejo Game Air “Sick Green”
Vallejo Game Air “Electric Blue”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Akhelian Green”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Pylar Glacier”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Nazdreg Yellow”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magos Purple”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aethermatic Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Terradon Turquoise”
Battlefront “Black”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Basilicanum Grey”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
Army Painter “Flesh Wash” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
Model Air “Bright Brass”
Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
P3 “Midland Flesh”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Regimental MDF base from Old Glory
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Brown Battleground” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Dark Blue Tufts” (flocking)
Any Munchkin Brigade needs a good dose of heavy firepower to fend off the enemies of the Emerald City at long range. For my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz games, I finished off a Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery with Crew (OZZ107). Let’s call it MMAB.
In the game, the MMAB is the stronger of the two artillery choices (the other being a light battery). For comparison, a medium battery can fire at targets up to 24″, while a light battery range is out to 18″, with musket range being at max of 14″. In the game, firing at half ranges is more effective as one would think, and short range for the MMAB is 8″, while a light battery is 6″, and muskets are 7″. So this MMAB gives the brigade a bit of standoff firepower.
The artillery batteries in Wars of Ozz are composed of 5 figures plus a gun. For close combat, they are armed with carbines (which are slightly more than half of the range of muskets – but hopefully they don’t have to get into melee – but the odds are that they will!). While an infantry or cavalry regiment has 5 bases – each of which can take 4 hits – the battery can take 5 hits (one per figure). Each hit removes a figure and loses a die for attacking. The scale is 28mm and these figures are metal.
I started parallel-working on these while I worked on Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment back on November 25th. When I needed to let something dry, I did a little work on this unit. The gun with its carriage required assembly. With the carriage needing serial painting – so as to get the right bluish look per Ozz canon (pun intended – see how I did that!) – and the gun being pretty big, the parallel approach got it done without causing me impatience. I followed the same procedure as to painting these figures as I did with the previous units, by priming in white, then washing with a dark shade, then painting, highlighting, and shading.
A major consideration for me was how to paint up the cannon and carriage. First, there were undersides to the gun and carriage to consider for painting and assembly. Second, there were the choices of colors. I experimented with several blues and bluish craft metallics for the gun. Initially, I went with a classic grey gun metal look for the gun, but changed it to brass as I liked the look better. As Munchkins are being very fond of blue, I thought that was appropriate. As is my custom, I list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the MMAB.
WIP shots…
As discussed, I started on November 25th. This was mainly preparatory work on filing, washing before priming. My main effort was the CTTIR during this time.
As received – washedMounted for primingPrimed
There is an MDF base available for artillery batteries with slots for the gun and figure – that even allows for removing casualties and for denoting if the gun is limbered or unlimbered. That needed assembly, so another thing to do while other things were drying. I also was thinking about transport and storage – so I added steel bases under the MDF ones for the artillerists and the gun.
Gluing steel under the MDF The larger base
Then, I slowly worked on painting the cannon and carriage components and assembled them by December 1st.
The cannon painted and varnished resting on its MDF base. Above, you can see how I traced so that I would be able to score the base under the tracings. This would get a better hold for gluing.
The figures came next, but unfortunately do not have any WIP shots of them. I followed Ozz canon (yes, I did that again) for the colors.
On December 4th, this brought me back to completing the magnetizing the unit for gaming, storage, and transport. My artillerist figures were mounted on 3/4″ steel washers. These would be glued to the MDF bases, which had 1/2″ steel squares glued to the their undersides as seen above. I drilled out 1/8″ holes in the center of each of the base’s recesses. Then, I glued another 1/2″ square steel base below the holes with 1/8″ neodymium magnets in each hole. In the end, the figures were removable from the base (but won’t fall out), and the base will store safely in my magnetic sheet-lined Really Useful Box with my other units. You can see this below in the photo.
By December 7th, I had the unit painted and was ready for final assembly and flocking.
December 7th progress
And…by December 9th I was done!
MMAB DONE!
How about some…
Eye Candy…
The unit can be shown as limbered (as above) or unlimbered as you can see below. A casualty is taken out on the right.
My favorite shot:
So now I am up to three units plus two Wizards. The Munchkin Light Cavalry is next. As you may want to check out the figures range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and figures are available from the following two places:
I am continuing to build my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz games. In my last post, I shared OZZ-101 – Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment (ZGIR). This time I have built and painted up a different Munchkin infantry unit – Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment (hereafter referred to here as CTTIR). I also painted up Zoraster (a Wizard) and a Munchkin Mayor as a lesser Wizard.
In the game, the CTTIR is slightly less capable than the ZGIR, but still better than a militia or Landwehr unit. Like the ZGIR, the regiment is composed of 20 figures plus a mounted regimental commander. It is similarly armed with muskets while sporting cool carabiner helmets. In the canon of the Wars of Ozz, Zoraster is “the Wizard Supreme”, and is the creator the Munchkin Army. The Munchkin Mayor figure came with the Kickstarter and confused me for a bit as you’ll see in the discussion below. The scale is 28mm and these 23 figures are metal.
There are 4 figures per 2″ square base, so five bases plus a commander make up a regiment. 16 of the based figures are of the same type, while the fifth base has four different figures – two standard bearers (with the Ozz flag and the regimental colors), a drummer, and another leader figure. This “command” stand fights like the others, but has an aesthetic effect on the tabletop of being nice to see. The regimental commander has his own base and can have special attributes, but its stand never engages in combat. It exists mainly for the attributes tab (on its MDF base) and also aesthetics. If the regiment dies, so does he. There is magic in the game – and Zoraster is a designated Wizard. There are also “unnamed Wizards”, so I will likely use the Munchkin Mayor as one – or maybe just an objective marker.
I pretty much followed the same procedure as to painting these figures as I did with the ZGIR. I prime in white, then wash with a dark shade, then paint and highlight. If I need more shade or highlight, I add it.
A major difference here for me was how to paint up the helmets and officer hats. While Wars of Ozz canon has this regiment in white, it also has all Munchkins as being very fond of blue. But after looking at images of Napoleonic era carabiner helmets (below) I decided that I wanted a similar metallic brass and chrome look.
Napoleonic carabiner helmets
I also decided to give the officers white hats. I did give the drummer a bit of blue on the drum and of course the standards have a lot of blue, so I think I’m safe. For the regimental commander’s pony I went with a slightly sallow pastel yellow. One cool aspect of the universe of the Wars of Ozz game is the use of a lot of color (hence the pastel ponies and more). The rules say that for CTTIR the facings, plumes and epaulettes are red – and that the coats and vests are white. Here I used a lot of Army Painter “Holy White” Speed Paint mixed with Citadel “Contrast Medium”. In fact, I still mix all of my Speed Paints with that medium. The combination of using the Citadel “Nuln Oil” wash post-priming and then the Holy White helped a lot with the less-detailed recesses on the figures. As usual, I list all the paints I used on these at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of information.
As I did previously, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the regiment.
WIP shots…
I started on November 25th. Below, you see the figures are based for priming, primed, and then I added a Citadel “Nuln Oil” wash before moving on to painting them. I have not tried “slap chop”, but I do like this way of using contrast/speed paints as part of my technique.
I was confused (as my Kickstarter order was a while back) as to which figure was Zoraster. Eventually, I determined that the smaller one was a Munchkin mayor thrown into the Kickstarter and that I had mistakenly ordered 2 Zoraster figures! I’ll keep one unpainted for trade. The Munchkin figure looks like the Boston Celtics mascot.
Two Zoraster figures and the Munchkin mayor doffing hats…
During the next three days, I made decent progress. I ended up numbering the specimen bottle labels with mistakes and keeping a list so I could fix them – this helped a lot.
Dec 1 progress morningDec 1 progress evening
The figures were all painted less any varnish and flocking by December 2nd.
Then it was on to the varnishing the figures, adding the standards/colors, and thereafter flocking the bases. I noticed that when I cut out the standards from card stock that the edges stood out as white. So, to remedy this, I used a black Sharpie pen to color in the edges as the standards have a black edge as well.
As for flocking, this time I pre-flocked all of the regimental bases with one type of grass, then added the other two types after affixing two, then three, then the fourth figure to each base. It’s probably overkill but I do like how they have come out. For the two Wizards, I just went with the first two grasses and added Shadow’s Edge Miniatures blue forest tufts.
My three sequential grasses, clockwise from the left. The first two may be different iterations of a similar type, but they are different enough to give some texture and more depth to the bases. Flocking with the first grass typeThe command base after two types of grass flocked on it
By December 4th, the CTTIR was done, plus the wizards as well. Now onto some eye candy…
Eye Candy
Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regimental Commander
A look at 2 stands…
A look at the command stand…
A look at the whole regiment…
A look at Zoraster…
A look at the Munchkin Mayor (Lesser Wizard)…
Howdy folks!
I hope that this was interesting for you. I am hoping to take 7-10 days per regiment or battery until I get through the Kickstarter. This should take me into next year, but hopefully I can keep a good pace. I have plenty of space in the box for this in-progress brigade…
Munchkin Brigade to date…
As you may want to check out the figures range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and figures are available from the following two places:
They are one of many factions in the Wars of Ozz game. The rules were written by my good friend Buck Surdu (who also wrote the rulesets of Combat Patrol™ and Feudal PatrolTM . I have been wanting to get going on my Wars of Ozz figures – but first wanted to finish the figures and terrain for my Civilizations Collide games involving the Aztec/Conquistadores/Tlaxcalans/Maya. As I shared in my last post, that has now happened, so onwards to Ozz!
The game rules and figures are available from the following two places:
Of course, there are now many new factions for Wars of Ozz. Currently, I have Munchkins and Winkies (think orc-like dudes) and some pretty cool allies – which I’ll eventually post about here. However, first I am going to finish a Munchkin brigade. It will consist of two infantry regiments, a light cavalry squadron (on pastel ponies), and an artillery battery. One cool aspect of the universe of the Wars of Ozz game is the use of a lot of color (hence the pastel ponies and more). I find, like I did in my Mesoamerican projects, that having a lot of color can be a lot of fun.
Here, the units in Ozz are made up of mass armies – this is not skirmish gaming. There are wizards and witches, so some magic, but the game is primarily black powder type warfare. The gaming engine of Ozz has also been used as the basis for WOOD (Wars of Orcs and Dwarves) for mass fantasy battles. But let’s get back to my first regiment…
It is OZZ-101 – Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment (hereafter referred to by me as ZGIR). The scale is 28mm and these are metal.
Zoraster is “the Wizard Supreme”, and created the Munchkin Army. As for ZGIR, it’s a tough unit, as one would expect of a guard unit, with excellent marksmanship and melee values. It is armed with muskets. It also has great resolve and elan values which help it in combat. It’s also the most expensive Munchkin unit. Of course, I had to start with this one…
It, like all infantry regiments in Ozz, is composed of 20 figures plus a regimental commander. There are 4 figures per 2″ square base, so five bases plus a commander make up a regiment. 16 of the based figures are of the same type, while the fifth base has four different figures – two standard bearers (with the Ozz flag and the regimental colors), a drummer, and another leader figure. This “command” stand fights like the others, but has an aesthetic effect on the tabletop of being nice to see. The regimental commander has his own base and can have special attributes, but its stand never engages in combat. It exists mainly for the attributes tab (on its MDF base) and also aesthetics. If the regiment dies, so does he.
I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the regiment.
WIP shots…
I first cleaned up the regiment (filing, washing) then worked on drilling out a couple of holes on the two figures for the regimental commander to be able to be mounted onto his pony. I inserted a paper clip wire into the pony to match the hole under the commander. This also allowed me to mount the upper torso of the commander for painting on a screw on a specimen container.
The regiment as receivedAll washedInserting wire for mounting commander
Then, I needed to find a way to mount the other figures. The figures’ bases are less than 3/8″, and as mentioned will eventually be mounted on 2″ square bases. For the individual figures, I decided to use 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases – both the 2″ and 1/2″ square bases are from Wargames Accessories.
Munchkins are small!Based and primed for painting.
I decided to use Citadel Contrast and Army Painter speed paints as much as possible. As these are mass units, I thought this would be fine. I want to get them into games!
The figures themselves are nice, but not differentiated much. The faces are all mustachioed, and all have a “puppy dog” look with an open mouth and tongue sticking out. Still, they have a certain character.
As it’s Mo’vember, I chose to vary the mustache colors. After priming, I gave them all a wash with Citadel “Nuln Oil” and then dry brushed them in white before adding any colors. As is my habit, I do list all the paints I used on these at the end of this post for those interested.
After priming and wash application.Started painting with the hats, skin, and facings.
I started working on these on 11/14 – by 11/22 I had made good progress. I found highlighting with Citadel “Doomfire Magenta” over its “Baal Red” was effective. The regiment has a somewhat British redcoat look to it.
The commander and his mountWhy not a pink pony?
Then I assembled the Regimental commander’s MDF base.
Gluing together the regimental commander’s base.Ready for their air brush varnish application.
While the base set, I matte varnished the figures in preparation for mounting on the 2″ square steel bases.
The ZGIR post-varnish needed its standards attached and also basing completion – to include flocking. The flags are available on the Wars of Ozz Facebook page as downloads. I cut out the flags after printing them out on cardstock. I glued them together on with PVA and bent them to get a wind-blown look. As for mounting the figures, I drew a pair of lines with a sharpie on the steel bases corner-to-corner. Then I took a blank 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel base and aligned it in the center of the 2″ base, using the lines to align the 4 corners of the 1/2″ base. Then I traced over the little base in pencil, such that I could going forward use the corner of the little traced square and the sharpie lines to orient the bases. I believed that flocking with the figures all affixed to the 2″ square bases would be too difficult. Therefore, I glued on two figures, flocked, then the third, then flocked, then the fourth. All this time I flocked the spaces where the figures would not be. This way I was able to apply the flocking effectively to give some depth of grass. In this case – I used three different flocking products from Army Painter sequentially with PVA to give this depth to the otherwise bland steel bases.
Cutting out flags.Mock up of the lining up of the figures using the lines.Sequential flocking!
These sound similar, but they are not. Clockwise from the left, I sequentially used Battlefields Grass Green, followed by Battlefield Field Grass, followed by Battlefields Field Grass. Confusing, but it worked as you see below.Close up of flocking.
Now on to some eye candy with a new background!
Eye Candy
Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regimental Commander
A look at 2 stands…
A look at the command stand…
A look at the whole regiment…
Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment in modified line. The regimental commander here is in the back of the command stand.Side view with the regimental commander up front.Here, the commander is put in back as the regiment is about to enter melee…A different orientation – still in line with 4 stands abreast and the other stand just behind. All 5 stands could be in line – but not if I want a group photo!
I managed to finish the regiment on 11/22 – so 8 days. This post had to wait for Thanksgiving (and for me to overcome a bad cold). I enjoyed painting these and am moving on to the rest of my Munchkin brigade.
Thanks for looking, and always please let me know what you think of this new project in the comments section.
Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:
For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS MUNCHKIN REGIMENT:
Gorilla Glue
Paper clip wire pieces
1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
Poster tack
Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Volupus Pink”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Olive Green”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Regimental MDF base from Old Glory
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Mark A. Morin 