MAYHEM 2024 was held in Lebanon, NH from Friday, April 19th to Sunday April 21st. I attended and had signed up to run 4 Wars of Ozz games there – 2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday as I had a golf commitment on Sunday.
Before too much time had passed – I wanted to give a photo summary of my experiences there. It was my first MAYHEM and came quickly on the heels of HAVOC two weeks before. I packed up the car Friday morning and headded up through Western Massachusetts and Vermont and into New Hampshire.
Upon arriving, I was able to get a luggage cart and move all of my stuff into the convention hall in one move.
The convention was held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lebanon, NH. Below you will see the layout of their small convention ballroom and the gaming tables. I got to stay at #4. The diagonal table set ups were a bit strange – but probably used to maximize the space. As you can see there were tables in the hallway and even in the hotel lobby.
The convention set up and Friday afternoon’s games listed.
I set up my tables similar to the previous conventions, with 6 brigades deployed 3 to a side.
Friday Afternoon “Learn to Play Wars of Ozz” game
Set up on Friday for my afternoon game.View from opposite end.
My first game was sold out – and went well.
Friday afternoon game at the start – I asked for “happy gamer faces”. Results varied!
The players were all newbies to Ozz, and picked up the game quickly. What follows is some of the mayhem at, well, MAYHEM…
Dire Lions (Gillikin Brigade) and Quadlings clash – with casualties on right.Having suffered two bases of losses, the Dire Lions rout.The Great Owls (allied with the Munchkins here) attempt to move behing the Gillikin’s Skeleton regiment while the Munchkin Landwehr and Sharpshooters deploy.The Great Owls hit the Skeletons from the rear and drive them into a town.The lesser Evil Witch “The Soothsayer” (Winkie Brigade) traps the Munchlin’s Guard infantry with a “Poppies” spell. Meanwhile, the Winkie player also maneuvers the Winkie Sharpshooters onto the Guard’s flank.It was rough on the Quadlings – here the Gillikin’s Dire Bears (reinforced by the Lion)overrun a Quadling Light Battery and rout it – while hero Wood the Courier takes damage.
In the end, the game was actually very close, with the Quadlings and Munchkins eking out a 26-24 victory over the Winkies and Gillikins.
Friday Night “Heavy Meeting Engagement Wars of Ozz” game
My Friday night game was surprisingly not well-attended – I had only 2 players. Usually my games had been full or close to full at previous conventions. I guess I was due. Luckily, my set-up allows for this possible situation. I had one player play the Quadlings (Ken – his second Ozz game) and another (sorry I failed to write down his name but he was a nice guy for sure) played the Winkies. With only two players, it went fast.
Below are the two opponents:
And here are some action photos:
Quadlings deploy into line but their artillery was decimated by the Winkie muskets of the Sharpshooter regiment.The Quadling Infantry took heavy casualties and Wood the Courier was dispatched as well.A big firefight.The firefight led to routing Quadlings and command of the battlefield for the Winkies.Ken took this shot of me as GM.
The game ended amicably, although the Winkies won 11-3.
I ended Friday with a couple of pics of a nice challenge coin given to me (army guy) by a Navy veteran Frank Preziosa. Very cool and thanks Frank!
Saturday morning was extremely disappointing as I had zero players. It happens. I left my tabletop set up for the Saturday afternoon game and joind a Napoleonics homebrew rules game of the Battle of Marengo on the Austrian side. The GM ran the game twice, in two parts. The morning results would be the basis of the afternoon game – which I could not join as I did have players on Saturday afternoon. The GM was gracious and the game was fun – and my Austrians did pretty well.
Marengo game from French sideAustrian troops.I had Engineers! (Pioneers). Used to build a bridge which was successful in the attack.
After lunch, I ran my last game – as I had set up for the morning with 6 players.
Saturday Afternoon “Heavy Meeting Engagement Wars of Ozz” game
Well, this was with smaller brigades, but still a fun game.
The players.The “bad guys” deploy.Dire Wolves (Gillikin Brigade) and Great Owls (Munchkin allies) fight it out while behind them Munchkin Sharpshooters rout away from the Gillikin Dire Bears and Dire Tigers. Quadlings deploy into a town for safety – well, they thought so……the Great Flying Apes had other ideas – and hit them from the rear and wiped the Quadlings out.At the other end of the table was a fiesty Gillikin versus Munchkin scrum.Gillikin Dire Lions hit the Munchkin Landwehr.Quadlings get slowed down by a “Poppies” spell setting them up for a Great Flying Apes envelopment. To their left, another Quadling regiment seeks safer ground by routing away from the enemy.
In the end, The Winkies and Gillikins solidly defeated the Quadlings and Munchkins 34.5 to 19.
I want to thank the players who participated in my games, as well as the MAYHEM staff for running the convention. I hope that you readers enjoyed these photos. I will be running many of these games at the “HUZZAH Goes to Hollywood” convention in May.
Hopefully, I can share a couple of new units with you shortly. Thansk for looking!
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.
As you may want to check out the excellent Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them and to get your own copy of the rules. The game rules and the figures are available from the following two places:
Havoc is the premier miniatures convention of the Northeast and has run continuously for 37 years, well…except for the two Covid-19 years. Havoc XXXVIII (2024) will be held on April 5th thru April 7th, 2024…
Last weekend the latest iteration of the Battle Group Boston’s HAVOC convention was held in Marlborough, MA, at the Best Western Hotel. The BGB folks did a nice job setting up and running the convention, though it did seem like turnout was a bit light compared with previous years. Still, there were a great many wonderful games (not just mine you know). I did not get a chance to watch or play in other games of course, but I did see my neighbor’s awesome Stalingrad Fireball Forward table:
Awesome Stalingrad table (15mm I think)
I have also seen one excellent blog post by Peter Anderson at his site Blunders on the Danube (what a GREAT blog moniker btw!) that showed a number of the wonderful games in their full glory. Here is the link to that site – it is really nice, so please check it out.
This convention was held at the same hotel that TotalCon 38 was in February. At that convention, there were 10 slots, so I ran 10 Wars of Ozz tabletop wargames as a GM. When the HAVOC sign up showed up on the web, I saw that there were as usual 5 slots – 1 on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 1 on Sunday. I thought, hell, if I can handle 10 in 4 days, I can handle 5 Ozz games in 3 days. The only difference between the conventions was that I had added the Quadling Brigade and heroes that I discussed in my last post. Besides, if you paint them, they will come!
For this post, I took some photos that more or less capture the essence of each of the games. I’ll try to give you a flavor of the action with all the eye candy I can (there’s a LOT).
Friday Evening – “Learn to Play Wars of Ozz“
For my “Learn to Play” (LTP) games, I give each player brigades of 21 points apiece. That usually works out to a Brigade Commander, 3-4 units, and a couple of individual hero/magic users.
Brad waits for the players to arrive. On the left here (Red team) are a Harvest Brigade, the Quadling Brigade, and two Munchkin Brigades. They faced two Gillikin and two Winkie Brigades (Black Team) on the right here.A view from the other side of the table as the players start. This game had 7 players.Black Team’s Dire Tigers from one of the Gillikin Brigades charges the Quadling 1st Regiment’s line with the Dire Wolves on their left.Meanwhile, the Gillikin Goat Riders made a mad charge against the 4th Quadling Infantry Regiment – only to come up short facing their muskets.Bob maneuvers his Munchkin Brigade as he faces off with the Winkie Infantry. His witch (Belinda the Nun) recovers on the left from a critical spell failure. The Aerostat jockies for a key hit on the marauding Winkies. To Bob’s right, Brad’s Munchkin Sharpshooter Regiment faced a massive dual Winkie attack from Leif – who used both Evora’s Body Guard and the Zilk rider cavalry. His Landwehr watched in horror and waited for an activation.Leif brings up the Winkie Sharpshooters to reinforce his offensive.The Great Flying Apes prepare to assault Bob’s Munchkin Aerostat by taking cover in the town. The Winkie Infantry behind them have been routed by the Munchkin Sharpshooters and are running away as Leif moves up his Winkie Sharpshooters.While the Winkies successfully unlimber their artillery on the hill, the Winkie Sharpshooters are then also routed by the Munchkins!The Munchkin Landwehr and Munchkin Sharpshooters both hold out against Evora’s Body Guard, Zilk cavalry, and the Great Owls.On the Red team’s right flank, the Harvest Brigade under Scott sends its female pirates against Gillikin infantry. Their witch, Lady Thistlethorne, had cast a “poppies” spell on the hill to keep the Gillikin skeleton regiment away from its Lesser Pumpkinheads, while the Great Pumpkin Heads wheel around the hill to take on the Gillikin Gugu Forester Regiment.Bob’s Aerostat crew breathes a sigh of relief as the Great Flying Apes attack on them fizzles.Ken’s witch, Glenda, uses a “transport” spell to successfully send the 1st Quadling Infantry Regiment into the Zilk cavalry’s flank.
As time ran out, the battle was called. The score was a victory for the Red Team (Munchkins/Harvest/Quadlings) who had destroyed 26 enemy bases versus the Black Team (Winkies/Gillikins) that had 14.
Saturday Morning – “Learn to Play Wars of Ozz“
For my second LTP game, I moved some brigades around and swapped in some new ones. The table set up is flexible so if the number of players vary from the sign up, I can adjust. Again, each player had brigades of 21 points apiece.
The table reset for Saturday morning.The players are ready – eventually we had 5. because of the shortage – we left off the Harvest and Impkin brigades nearest the camera. This left two Munchkin brigades and a Quadling brigade (Red Team on the left here) versus a Winkie Brigade and two Gillikin brigades (Team Black on the right here).Our 5th player arrived just as Eric and Brad got simultaneous activations and moved to attack.As in the previous game, the Winkie Infantry (lower left) took fire and damage from the Munchkins and fled. Eric then got his Winkie Sharpshooters in good positions atop the hill.Forces converge. Munchkins move up on the left, while Gillikin’s Dire Lions charge out of the forest at the Great Owls.A view of the Gillikins moving forward on the left side of their side of the table.The Dire Tigers show their flank to the Quadling 4th Infantry Regiment as they try to hit the 1st Quadling Light Battery on its flank!The Dire Tigers take out 1 base of the Quadling Artillery, but are pushed back. The Dire Bears try to move up but are hit on both of their flanks by the Quadling 1st Infantry and the artillery.Once again, the Winkie Sharpshooters are routed, but manage to rally, and move forward in single column to get better shots at the Munchkins with reduced Elan.At the game’s end, the Dire Tigers, one of the Dire Bears, and the Dire Wolvere were a skeedaddlin’…
Time ran out and the game ended. Despite the routs, the aggressive attacks of the Black Team (Winkies & Gillikins) had cost them 19 casualties, but they had successfully inflicted 25 on the Red Team (Quadlings and Munchkins) for the victory.
Saturday Afternoon – “Heavy Meeting Engagement”
For my “Heavy Meeting Engagement” (HME) games, I give each player larger brigades of 31 points apiece. That usually works out to a Brigade Commander, 4-6 units, and a couple of individual hero/magic users. I ran the first of these HME games on Saturday afternoon with 4 players. On Team Red were a Munchkin Brigade and an Impkin Brigade. On Team Black were a Harvest Brigade and a Winkie Brigade. I did not take as many photos in this game versus my previous games. We had 4 players.
Impkin musketry causes the forward-based lady pirates of Admiral Jinjur to abandon their safe hard cover in the town and charge the Impkins in the open.The Great Pumpkin Heads and the Impkin Cavalry BOTH could not get up the guts to get into Melee!!!The Jinjur pirates were forced back into the town and the Impkin infantry advanced. Black Team moved up the Carrot Creatures.In the middle of the board, the Munchkins repulsed a skeleton attack.
The game ended, with a very close score, 24-21, very narrowly in favor of the Red Team. I then checked out the vendors during a break, and bought a few supplies. Also saw some old Buck Surdu rules!
Two Buck Surdu rulesets.
Then it was on to the second HME game…
Saturday Evening – “Heavy Meeting Engagement”
Every convention seems to have one game that if you saw it you’ll end up talking about it for years to come.
THIS is that game.
I had 4 players, with Team Red with a Quadling and a Munchkin Brigade, and Team Black with 2 Gillikin Brigades.
This is what they each had for forces:
Team Red for Saturday EveningTeam Black for Sturday Evening
As we only had 4 players, we used half of the table. Brad had the Munchkins and Leif had the Quadlings. The initial moves and attacks from the Gillikin left brigade (Gregg) and their right brigade (Bruce) were nothing stellar. In fact, on the first activation, Gregg failed to reach one of the Quadling Batteries with his Dire Bears, and Leif sent them scurrying towards the other side of the board with short-range artillery fire. Bruce’s goat riders took fire and damage and ran to a town for cover.
Unfortunately for Leif and Brad – that would turn out to be the high water mark of the Red Team in this game.
Leif and Brad on left and Gregg and Bruce on right get ready to rumble!Leif’s initial forces.Here come the Dire Bears – and you know what happened – but Gregg’s “kitties” are behind…Gregg’s Dire Lions subsequently hit the 2nd Quadling Infantry Reiment – unfortunately led by a leader with “The Poltroon” ability – that knocked down their Resolve from a 5 to a 4 – and they routed in the face of the Dire Lions. Leif’s Quadling front was then broken and the Lions were in the gap, with Dire Tigers close behind them. Gregg’s Gillikin Infantry then hit the 2nd Quadling Battery on the flank and the Quadlings abandoned their gun in a rout. Gregg then threatened the Quadling left flank (4th Regiment) with his Gillikin Infantry. The 4th turned to face the Gillikins where the routed gun crew left their gun. Brigade Commander Zeb the Scribe of Ozz can only stare in disbelief as the Quadlings lose a battery and an infantry regiment in short order.View from the Red Team’s right flank as the Dire Lions breach their defenses.Zeb and Glenda are no help.The Dire Tigers rout the other Quadling Infantry Regiment (1st) adn hit the remaining Quadling battery in its flank. It did not last long. Both guns would be lost and spiked.Leif can only look on in amazement at the HAVOC raised by Gregg on his forces…see what I did there?Eventually, all Leif had left was his brigade commander and his witch – with no brigade. He was a good sport as you see here – and Brad is looking on knowing he is in dire straits too.On the other side, Bruce’s Goat Riders maneuvered expertly and took Colonel Tik-Tok’s regiment in the flank (who were dealing with Bruce’s skeletons in their front), nearly wiping it out. Bruce’s Dire Bears were moving up for the kill. Brad was all alone now.The Gillikin Goat Riders then hit the Munchkin Aerostat, which routed off the table. All that Brad had left was 2 stands from Tik Tok’s infantry, a medium battery, his brigade commander, and a witch.The end of the game – Tik Tok was routing and clearly even the medium battery would not have survived an attack on three sides.
I have never before seen an Ozz game become a battle of annihilation – but this game was.
No shade on the defenders, they had some bad luck combined with the attackers good luck and good plan. All had fun though! The final score was 45-13 in favor of Team Black.
Sunday Morning – “The Battle for Toto”
I have ran this game several times and discussed it previously in this blog. Basically, Toto is in the Munchkin-defended town. Converging on that town are two non- allied enemies who both want to seize Toto. The little dog is in a secret place (one of 5 buildings). The attackers want to get Toto – and hate each other. It’s up to them if they fight each other on the way to the Munchkin town, or if they collaborate and fight afterwards. I had 5 players, with Team Red with 2 Munchkin Brigades, facing a force of 2 Impkin Brigades and a force of two Harvest Brigades. As we had too few players, we used just half of the table, and left off the Gillikins and Winkies on the far side.
The game starts.Admiral Jinjur’s Female Pirates (fighting for the Harvest Brigade) and the Great Pumpkin Heads attack Zoraster’s Guard Infantry who are defending a wall outside the town.With an unlucky Morale Roll, Zoraster’s gets antsy and charges OVER the wall – and leaves its protection.The Impkins try to fire on the Munchkin Sharpshooters with the Swamp Guardian Fairies’ bows, while the rooster riding Impkin cavalry tries to go around and get to the town.An overview – at this point Glenn’s Lesser Pumpkinheads attacked the Impkins so the free-for-all was on.Steven had secretly deployed the Savage Apple Trees near the Munchkin walls. Their attack allowed the Eagles to get into the town and search two buildings – without finding Toto.
At this point, A HOTEL FIRE ALARM WENT OFF! We had to leave the building for at least 40 minutes. There of course was no fire, just a malfunctioning alarm.
When we returned, I scored up the game as people (understandably) were ready to go home. The final score was a Munchkin victory at 33 points (10 points for Toto), Harvest 12.5, and Impkins 2.5.
I really want to thank BGB for running the convention. I also want to thank my players, both newbies and veterans all were great.
I ESPECIALLY want to thank Leif and Brad who signed up for EVERY game and helped me throughout the convention. Gregg was a big help as well.
My next convention is MAYHEM in New Hampshire in April and then I have HUZZAH GOES TO HOLLYWOOD in Maine in May. This summer I also plan on Historicon in July.
I hpope this was enjoyable – and if you’ll be at one of these conventions, come and join the Ozz goodness!
Thanks fo looking!
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.
As you may want to check out the Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them and the rules (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and the figures are available from the following two places:
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!
Last weekend the Cold Wars 2023 gaming convention was held in Valley Forge, PA at the Valley Forge Casino Resort. I participated as a game master and as a player. I ran three games of Feudal Patrol, played in two games of Wars of Ozz, and participated as a player in an American War of Independence (AWI) game. I really enjoyed the convention – and personally had some special moments as you will soon see in this post. I, a Massachusetts “carpetbagger”, am grateful once again for the welcome, hospitality, and friendship of the HAWKS club, especially Buck Surdu, Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, Dave Wood, and Eric Schlegel – who all contributed to making my experience a memorable one. I also want to thank the players who chose to play in my games. I also must thank the HMGS staff and volunteers for making the convention work so well.
I thought the best way to share this with my readers was to focus on photographs – with a little bit of description. Some of these photos came from Chris Palmer and others on Facebook, and some are from myself.
AWI Playtest
This was on Thursday night in the HAWKS room and was a playtest of a set of rules being worked on by Buck Surdu, Chris Palmer, and Greg Priebe and other HAWKS. Basically it is taking the Wars of Ozz/Eagles and Empires engine and applying it to the AWI. I needed to set up my first game (The Battle of Centla) so that I could play on Friday morning in a Wars of Ozz game without any concerns. I played on the British side with 3 line regiments and two grenadier regiments. I had nothing but open field in front of me and a mission to take out an American gun battery that was surrounded by colonial infantry in soft cover commanded by Chris Palmer.
The set up for the AWI playtest. You can also see my Battle of Centla game all set up for Friday in the background.
I advanced my troops as quickly as possible but got shredded by canister as I git close – though I did do some – but not enough – damage to Chris.
At the start……my casualties overflow…
I got trounced but it was not a situation that I think I could have attempted differently, but hey, it’s a game and a playtest at that.
…and a satisfied Chris surveys the battlefield!
Wars if Ozz – Winter of Discontent (Wars of Ozz)
This was a “bring your own brigade” game GM’d by Chris Palmer – and to help I brought both my Winkie and my Munchkin brigades in case they were needed. As it turned out, I commanded the Munchkins, and faced my own Winkies!
Several different factions are shown below.
MunchkinsWinkiesAnti-Yule
And here are some more – click on the images for a better view:
GnomesQuadlingsYule Forces led by Bobbo Natale – Teddy Bear Infantry, Elves, and Toy Soldier Cavalry
The board was fairly open with some hills and woods in a wintery scene.
The game set up.
It was a fun game, though I felt like I was a bit torn fighting my own troops!
Moving my forces out.Looking across to my fun opponents – here I have moved Colonel Tik-Tik’s regiment on the left into line to optimize missile fire – but the Winkie zilk-riders went into line and smashed into them.
That Winkie cavalry attacking player rolled 5 dice for hits – not a single miss (the roll was amazing) – and those hits would be doubled due to impetus. All 5 hit rolls yielded 10 hits – and that took out fully 50% of Tik-Tok’s regiment in one fell swoop. Tik-Tok routed, but I was able to rally it and keep it in the game.
I deploy……but the zilks roll fantastic movement……and hit the infantry! No misses!with 50% casualties after one hit, Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry routs away from the zilk riders.
While successful in their attack, the 20th Winkie Light Cavalry was now disordered – and my Munchkin battery and my own pony riding cavalry took the opportunity to hit the zilks from both the flank and the rear, and sent them into a retreat.
“Avenge our dead” – was the cry of the survivors of Colonel Tik-Tok’s infantry as their brethren close on the hated Winkie zilk riders of the 20th Winkie Light Cavalry.
The Winkies then attacked – buy mainly piecemeal – and the Munchkins were able to hold and repel both charges by the Winkie Sharpshooters and their ally the Lesser Apes. The artillerists did abandon their gun when the apes hit, but short range canister and a round of melee had already sent the Lesser Apes packing.
The Munchkins hold!
In the middle of the game was a big scrum between the brigade of Ice Trolls, Elves, Dark Elves, and that of the Teddy Bear Infantry, Teddy Bear Artillery, and the Toy Soldier Cavalry.
Scrum in the middle.
The game was a “good guys” victory!
The Battle of Centla (Feudal Patrol)
On Friday afternoon, I ran the Feudal Patrol game of the Battle of Centla – a battle between the Maya and the Conquistadores under Hernan Cortes.
The Spanish needed to reach the Maya city or kill 50% of the Spanish, or kill Tabscoob, the Maya leader. The Maya needed to prevent the Spanish from achieving their victory conditions, kill Cortes, or kill 50% of the Conquistadores. In the game, the Maya do get reinforcements, and the Spanish do not. Time is not on the Spanish players’ side.
The game set up – the Spanish are on the beach.Maya moving onto the beach.Buck Surdu joins the game replacing a departing player – and commands Cortes.
The Spanish were not initially as aggressive as I expected – though as the game progressed they did start to advance.
Buck and I confer on his troops’ data.Battles on the beachThe Conquistadores’ advance is held up due to atlatl attacks.
Unfortunately, the Spanish needed to take some risks – and Buck moved Cortes up and into the fight. This was very appropriate given the state of the game at that point. A Maya warrior got a lucky hit on him and cut off his leg – yielding a victory for the Maya. This game is very cool – I have run it several times and both sides have won in the past.
Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost (Feudal Patrol)
After the Friday afternoon game (Centla), I quickly got my next game ( this was held on Friday evening) set up with a lot of help from Buck, Dave Wood, and Greg for Friday night. This is a scenario as described below:
The game went back and forth and it was not clear at all which side would eventually win. There was a lot of action.
The game at the start – the Aztecs needed to cross muddy field to reach the Spanish and the Tlaxcalans. There were also food and gold objectives, and of course VP for inflicting casualties or taking captives.Greg Priebe advances his Aztec commander, Asupacaci and his warrior priests.
The Spanish used their war dogs and arquebuses to good effect – but the Aztec Elite troops berserked and fought bravely.
Arquebuses fire.Aztecs collect many morale pips for getting shot at by the arquebusiers.The Spanish fire their falconet.The berserking Cuachicqueh engage the Conquistadores.
Finally, both the Aztecs and the Tlaxcalans started taking prisoners for sacrifice – and gaining victory points in the process. Eric Schlegel successfully fired his falconet again with langridge at a swarm of Aztecs, taking out several of them in the last turn. This was to be pivotal.
Tlaxcalans get into the melee.Morale pips pile up on both sides.Captives are taken.Unlucky prisoners being dragged away by both sides to a fate worse than simple death.
I tallied the points – and it was a TIE! 46-46! I call that play-balanced!
I then set up my massive Battle of Lake Texcoco, which would be played on Saturday afternoon. This way I would have all the time I needed to enjoy my next game as a player on Saturday morning – which would be the Wars of Ozz game described next.
War to Save Yule: Battle for the Bauble of Time (Wars of Ozz)
After a short sleep, I played in another Ozz game on Saturday morning. This one was the second of three linked Wars of Ozz scenarios that Chris Palmer and Buck Surdu ran pitting the forces of the Ice Queen, Aurora, versus those of Babbo Natale (really Santa). Aurora wants to seize the Bauble of Time – a magic item that can bend time and lets Babbo deliver all his toys in one night. Of course, Aurora wants it for her own evil purposes. The Bauble was hidden in one of three buildings – and the neither the forces of Yule or Aurora knew which one. The goal of the attacking Ice Queen was to search each of the three areas – which meant that her forces needed to clear defenders from them first. I played on the Yule side in this game, on the Yule’s far left flank.
The game set up. Bruce, Buck, and Chris discuss the scenario.
The three possible search zones were as shown below.
The 3 search zones and defending Yule.The 3rd zone up close (Yule left flank)My game view – Teddy Bear infantry, artillery, & Toy Soldier infantry.Teddy Bear Infantry base.Toy Soldier Infantry base.
Here is a photo of me by Chris surveying the battlefield:
A view towards my position. Aurora’s forces were attacking from the right here. I think I look tired!Opposite view as Chris briefs the players earlier.
The forces defending the buildings/search zones on the Yule right and center were overwhelmed. Only the one on the Yule left held.
Ice Trolls hit the Yule center.My Toy Soldier Infantry are engaged by Krampus troops.
The odds were in favor of the Ice Queen at this point with 2/3 search zones in her control.
Bruce tries to fight off the Ice Trolls.
In the end we were lucky as the Bauble was in the last search zone and safe from the Ice Queen, so a victory for us. Chris would run a second follow on game later that I will share a few pictures of at the end of this post with others that I did not play in or GM. I did play in the 3rd linked game as well – more on that game in a bit.
The game ends.
The Battle of Lake Texcoco (Feudal Patrol)
I always look forward to running this game – yes it’s massive but more importantly a lot of fun. Basically there are 5 brigantines loaded with conquistadores and primitive cannon (lombards or falconets) that need to cross the tabletop and shell the other side of the table – where the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan is located. Opposing them are 21 war canoes filled with Aztecs hell-bent on boarding the invaders’ ships and stopping them. VP are awarded for shelling the city, boarding a brigantine, sinking canoes, and for casualties on both sides. The Spanish have to try to navigate the uncharted waters to do this too.
The set up for the game.
The players were excellent!
The start of the game.
The Spanish moved out and avoided collisions with each other or the islands. Only one got stuck on an underwater obstacle (El Gregorio) – resulting in the Aztecs getting a “Burst of Exuberance” which allowed it to be boarded first. Eventually, all of the brigantines would be boarded to greater or lesser extent.
Boarding!
The Spanish held on and were able to get three ships to shell the city.
Tenochtitlan takes its first hit of solid shot from El Marcos.A photo from Chris Palmer showing me helping to adjudicate a fight.The battle rages on the lake.
Of course, there was even more boarding!
El Marcos is boarded.
The game was pleasantly and briefly interrupted at this point by the HMGS staff. As it turned out, my game was selected to be honored with a “PELA” award for the time slot. PELA stands for “Pour Encourager Les Autres” which in English translates to “For Encouraging the Others”. These awards are defined by HMGS as going:
“to the games that best embody the positive traits of miniatures gaming, such as well-painted figures, great looking terrain, interesting scenarios, enjoyable rules, good sportsmanship, and an enjoyable time – events that do the most to “encourage others”.”
This was something as a GM that you can really appreciate! I was really honored – and it was nice to get applause from the room and my table too. I think that there were about 30+ games in my time slot – so this was tough to get. The award was a lovely knight figure on a plinth and a voucher for the vendor hall. Thanks HMGS, it has a place of honor at home! Thanks players!
I am awarded a PELA!The PELA among Spanish casualties (hey, I was still running the game!).
In the end, the Spanish narrowly won the game by a score of 367-316. If the Conquistadores had made one less shot into Tenochtitlan, it would have been only a one shot victory.
As this was my last game to GM, I was able to get most of it picked up (thanks again to the HAWKS for all the help) – and get into playing my last game of the convention.
War to Save Yule – Ambush or Fighting Retreat (Wars of Ozz)
This was the third Ozz linked game run by Buck Surdu. In the second game, the forces of Yule held on to the Bauble of Time. Here, the Ice Queen’s forces are ambushing a convoy of Babbo Natale who is trying to get the Bauble to a safe place. I did not get as many pictures of this game – but I played on the side of the Ice Queen this time. We ended up taking the Bauble (Giant Evil Snowmen charged the convoy and stole it). It was a lot of fun.
My Ice Trolls take a beating from the Toy Soldier cavalry.
I was on the far left flank of the Ice Queen’s forces – and I after the Toy soldier cavalry and the Teddy Bear artillery beat up my Ice Trolls and Krampus, I was able to flank the Teddy Bear battery with Dark Elves. This attack sent them fleeing and the rear middle of the battlefield became congested with forces. Meanwhile, Chris Palmer valiantly pursued the Snowmen with the Toy Soldier cavalry. Luckily for our side, the Snowmen escaped into woods where the cavalry would not move as quickly – with the Bauble. Victory!
My Dark Elves move up the Yule flank.Snowmen abscond with the captured Bauble!
Other Game Photos
There were of course many other games – and I tried to get some photos of them plus I have included many from Chris Palmer. This is not all of the games at Cold Wars by any means.
For the gamers, please enjoy these here! For the GM’s, kudos on the work you put in on some amazing games, and apologies in advance if I get any descriptions wrong here.
Battle of Hanau, 1813
Dave Wood’s Fate of Battle game in 10mm looked amazing.
The Natives Return to Schlegel’s Ferry
Eric Schlegel had a really cool board for his colonial Chesapeake game of Feudal Patrol.
Let’s Play Combat Patrol – France 1940
Greg Priebe ran a France 1940 scenario for Combat Patrol.
Greg and Buck survey Greg’s set up.
Wars of Orcs and Dwarves (WOOD) Playtest
Dave Wood ran a few WOOD games with amazing set ups.
War to Save Yule – River of Ice (Wars of Ozz)
This was the first of the linked Ozz games. This is the one that I did not play in as I was running my Aztec raid game.
Counterattack Near Dubno (Battleground WW2)
Don Hogge’s always popular WW2 games are so cool. This was a 28mm game set on the Eastern Front on June 28th, 1941.
Forest Encounter (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Gravity Front)
Here’s a look at Kevin Fischer’s game set up.
Got Skogskatter (SAGA)
James McWilliams ran a couple of SAGA games.
Pierce’s Hill, Philippines 22 December 1941 (Combat Patrol)
Buck Surdu ran a very cool looking game set during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941. He worked hard to get the 1941 look right – and he nailed it.
Let’s Play Feudal Patrol! – Viking Raid
Greg ran his introductory Feudal Patrol Viking Raid game and had a full table!
Can the Ratlings save their homeland again from the army of the Necromancer? (Wars of Orcs and Dwarves)
Dave Wood ran yet another visually stunning game – and for fun he used my Winkie Cavalry and Infantry in the game, plus my Lesser Apes. The feedback I got was that they acquitted themselves very well while I was off in Mesoamerica!
Game view.My Winkies!Another viewDave running his huge WOOD game.
Al Capone Comes to Schlegel’s Ferry (Blood & Swash)
Another great use of Eric’s terrain for a 1920’s game.
A truly engaged table deals with smuggling and gangsters in the 1920’s.
Concord to Lexington – Theme
Geoff Graff ran this game of 15mm figures set in my home state in the beginning of the AWI.
Test of Honour – The Last Yamashiro (Test of Honour – Quick Play)
I saw this in the adjoining room to the HAWKS – WOW what a set up! GM was David Hill.
This is a HUGE game!
At the other end of this beauty was a harbor and ships too.
Beautiful set up – nice to see young gamers too.
WWI – Battle of Gnila Lipa (Fall of Eagles WWI)
This set up caught my eye as well – GM David Rollins had a huge table for this battle between the Austrians and the Russians in WWI.
Mars Attacks – Beach Head! (Wings of Glory Tripods and Triplanes)
What a concept – Martians in Tripods taking on Spads and Nieuports in the aftermath of a post-WWI meteor shower! GM was Mike Jacobs.
As I said, this is a big post but I hope that it was enjoyable to look at. Sorry if a game you were or that you ran in was not included – but I’m sure somewhere else there are photos for the world (at least I hope so)!
Mark A. Morin 