Lesser Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

In my last post I shared about King Jack and the Great Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest. I’m sure that some of you thought – hey – are all of their inhabitants that big? Surely, to have greater pumpkin heads – there must indeed be lesser ones, right?

Indeed there are!

There are several units of lesser pumpkin heads and individual pumpkin head generals – more human-sized ones anyways. I have completed a couple that I will be sharing, starting with this post on my regiment of Lesser Pumpkin Heads. The lesser pumpkin heads are pretty skinny dudes. They can move effortlessly (without cost) through woods, but otherwise they are an average unit.

The Lesser Pumpkin Heads (let’s shorten that to LPH) are part of the Wars of Ozz figures and their SKU# is OZZ506 and can be seen here. The unit is comprised of 20 metal figures, appropriately armed with hatchets, axes, sickles, and scythes – but the unit required no assembly. As with all standard Ozz units the figures are based 4 at a time on five 2″ square bases, but there is no Regimental Commander here.

My goal was to organize them to appear to be a rabble-type force. Unlike the disciplined units of the Munchkins or even the Gillikins, I don’t see these as being very organized in battle with regards to uniforms and drill. I also mixed up their clothing colors, weapons, and flocking such that no two of the five bases looked exactly alike. I did use the basic colors of the Great Pumpkin Heads for the LPH – and especially the yellow-green eyes. Here though, I also needed to show straw (like the stuffing of a scarecrow) coming out of the holes in their clothes and near their wrists.

I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy. These were also worked on (especially due to the need for orange) simultaneously with King Jack and 4 of his other units in various states of completion at the same time.

I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting process. I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested (and for my own reference in the future should I need that information).

WIP Shots…

The Lesser Pumpkin Heads here all cleaned up and ready for priming.

I chose to “pre-base” the LPH on 3’4″ square steel bases for three reasons. First, so that I could more easily attach them to my poster tack covered specimen jars, second so that they would be easier to paint, and third to make it easier to affix the LPH to their final resting place – the 2″ square steel bases – done later in the process.

The LPH are primed in black here and are on the 3/4″ steel bases with a couple of 2″ square bases in front for reference.

By April 17th, I had made some progress on the LPH.

As you can see, the regiment has a lot of color – which will be better viewed in the next section. Some of these photo groups will be four image galleries and some three.

Eye Candy

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Group shot…

That wraps up the Lesser Pumpkin Heads infantry. I also have a unique artillery unit of theirs next that I think you’ll enjoy. Thanks for taking a look and any feedback.

And yes, I 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 LESSER PUMPKIN HEAD REGIMENT:

2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
3/4″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#A9)
Gorilla Glue
Poster tack
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
Vallejo Game Color “Moon Yellow”
Battlefront “Gunship Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color Green Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Gravelord Grey”
Tamiya “Orange”
Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Camo Cloak”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Highlord Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hive Dweller Purple”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Absolution Green”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
Vallejo Model Air “Green Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Sand Golem”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Alchemy”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
Small stones (flocking)
Small oak twigs (flocking)

Again, as you may want to check out the Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and the figures are available from the following two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

King Jack and the Great Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

Since I returned home from the HAVOC convention, I have been busy trying to complete a new faction for games of The Wars of Ozz. This faction will consist of several regiments from “The Great Land of Harvest” and features many anthropomorphic troops – especially of the garden variety. This post will focus on their leader, King Jack, and the scariest unit in Ozz – the Great Pumpkin Heads.

According to The Wars of Ozz the Great Land of Harvest was spared the destructive forces of the Last Great War – primarily because of the need to protect its fertile lands…

However, the same could not be said for the inhabitants. Madness bombs, plague gases, and mutagenic viruses were unleashed on soldiers and civilians alike. By the time the war ended, the natives of the Great Land of Harvest were twisted and raving mockeries of what they once had been…Most of the mutations were grotesqueries, little more than piles of mewling flesh that died quickly. Some clung on, just viable enough to survive for a few generations. Fewer still thrived. Most successful of these are the pumpkinheads. Were they once humans who developed bizarre pumpkin-like heads – or did the pumpkin plants suddenly stumble up on new legs, dumbfounded by their new forms? Nobody remembers and the pumpkinheads have no language to explain themselves, only wordless moans and roars. Still, they are intelligently wonderful mimics who learned how to survive and fight by watching and copying their neighbours…One among them developed the ability to speak and with that proclaimed himself the King of the Pumpkinheads…so the reign of King Jack began…under his guidance, the pumpkinheads have formed several organized warbands that he hires out to whatever general will hire them.

Wars of Ozz, section 2.6.2 The Great Land of Harvest, Page 42

The figures in this faction are wonderful – and I will be sharing several of them in separate posts. I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy. Given that all pumpkinheads needed a lot of orange, it made sense to combine the painting – so unusually for me – I simultaneously had King Jack and 4 of his units in various states of completion at the same time.

King Jack’s SKU# is OZZ504 (I bought the unmounted version) and can be seen here. For the Great Pumpkin Heads, The SKU# is OZZ505 and can be seen here. The figures come in multiple pieces (two pieces for the heads, a lower torso and two arms with various weapons). The unit consists of are 5 relatively large figures based on five 2″ square bases, but there is no Regimental Commander. The figures are metal – 28mm scale – but giants!

In the game, any unit fighting the Great Pumpkin Heads does so with a point loss of Resolve and Elan!

I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting. I decided that I would work with subcomponents and then do a final assembly and touch up.

WIP shots…

The figures as received. King Jack is on the right.

I drilled out the torso bases so as to have a better fit for the giant heads. The bottoms of these holes would need to be sculpted with green stuff afterwards.

All figures washed and drying – you can see the holes in the torsos.

I then decided that I did not want the eyes to be simple vacant pits of darkness. The origin of the creatures of the Great Land of Harvest suggests some strange way that they were animated to life. To represent this, and for ALL of my future Harvest troops, I decided that glowing yellow-green eyes would look great. For the Great Pumpkinheads, that meant sculpting their eyes with green stuff before assembling them.

Under the torso holes, I also sculpted and shaped the wells to match the rest of the legs.

Usually I prime my figures with an airbrush and in white. This time, I brush primed them in black. I would then dry brush serially white then orange on the figures and keep the shape of the recesses of the pumpkin looking darker. Similarly, I could make sure that the arms and the legs looked the same. If I had assembled then painted – it would have been more difficult – especially given the weight of the heads.

I primed all except the eyes and the weapons which would come later. For King Jack, I just primed him with black all over.

Next, I brush primed the teeth and eyes in white, and the weapons in black. The arms and torso were primed in green.

Then it was time to give the teeth and the eyes some starting color.

Giving the teeth and eyes some starting color.

Once I assembled the heads – it was clear to me that I’d need to cover up some mold lines with green stuff. As these are big metal models, this task was not a surprise. I did my best to mirror the pumpkinheads shape and recesses. I’m not Roger, but I did try my best to do what I thought he’d do.

The pumpkinheads upside down showing the arm holes and the green stuff filling on the mold lines. The pointy sections are designed to go in the torso holes. After this, I brush applied a second coat of black primer.

After the primer had dried, I dry brushed with white then orange – Tamiya Orange – that I bought for one of my daughter’s school projects in 1996! (It was a Trojan horse diorama we built together).

After the orange dried, I applied Army Painter Mid Brown wash, and then after that dried I highlighted the pumpkinheads with Vallejo Light Orange (I list all paints used at the end of the post for those who might want to know). Then I affixed the heads to the torsos and arranged a suitable mix of weapons/arms for variety.

Then I attached the arms and removed the assembled figures from the specimen jars – and put them on 4″ square steel bases with Gorilla Glue.

I airbrush varnished the figures with a gloss then a matte coat.

Varnished – but we need flocking they cry!

I used a lot of flocking for the bases (I love making bases complex).

King Jack was finished about the same time. He would need to go on an MDF base.

Now, for some…

Eye Candy…

King Jack

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Regimental Shot

And yes, I 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 GREAT PUMPKINHEAD REGIMENT & KING JACK:

Green Stuff
Gorilla Glue
Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Mounted Brigade Commander MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Reaper “09214 Black Primer”
Vallejo Surface Primer “Russian Green”
1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
Poster tack
Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Imperial Fist”
Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
Battlefront “Gunship Green”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Battlefront “Black”
Tamiya “Orange”
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
Vallejo Model Air “Green Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
Citadel “Ironbreaker”
Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
Vallejo Game Color “Livery Green”
Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
Vallejo Game Air “Escorpena Green”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
Martha Stuart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
Small stones (flocking)
Small oak twigs (flocking)

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

My Wars of Ozz Meeting Engagement Game at HAVOC through the Eyes of One of my Players

At the HAVOC gaming convention in Marlborough, Massachusetts I ran four games – two Wars of Ozz and two Feudal Patrol^TM 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.

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

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

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

AWI Playtest

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

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

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

…and a satisfied Chris surveys the battlefield!

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

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

Several different factions are shown below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The game was a “good guys” victory!

The Battle of Centla (Feudal Patrol)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost (Feudal Patrol)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The three possible search zones were as shown below.

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

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

Opposite view as Chris briefs the players earlier.

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

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

Bruce tries to fight off the Ice Trolls.

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

The Battle of Lake Texcoco (Feudal Patrol)

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

The players were excellent!

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

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

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

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

Of course, there was even more boarding!

The game was pleasantly and briefly interrupted at this point by the HMGS staff. As it turned out, my game was selected to be honored with a “PELA” award for the time slot. PELA stands for “Pour Encourager Les Autres” which in English translates to “For Encouraging the Others”. These awards are defined by HMGS as going:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snowmen abscond with the captured Bauble!

Other Game Photos

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

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

Battle of Hanau, 1813

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

The Natives Return to Schlegel’s Ferry

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

Let’s Play Combat Patrol – France 1940

Greg Priebe ran a France 1940 scenario for Combat Patrol.

Wars of Orcs and Dwarves (WOOD) Playtest

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

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

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

Counterattack Near Dubno (Battleground WW2)

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

Forest Encounter (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Gravity Front)

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

Got Skogskatter (SAGA)

James McWilliams ran a couple of SAGA games.

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

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

Let’s Play Feudal Patrol! – Viking Raid

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

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

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

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

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

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

Concord to Lexington – Theme

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

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

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

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

Beautiful set up – nice to see young gamers too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Winkie Light Cavalry Regiment & Winkie Brigade Commander (Wars of Ozz)

With it being my late winter-early spring “wargaming convention season”, I have been working on multiple projects simultaneously. As I mentioned in my last post Jungle Bases from Wargames Terrain Workshop, I’d be sharing a post on my Winkie cavalry which I finished recently – along with the Winkie Brigade Commander on his specially-shaped MDF base.

All are riding Zilks, which are carnivorous huge birds. The SKU# is OZZ305 and can be seen here. The figures come in two pieces (rider torso and a zilk combo rider’s legs combo). I had ordered/selected OZZ304 during the Kickstarter a while back, but got shipped OZZ305. The OZZ304 SKU is for the Winkie Heavy Cavalry – but they are the same price and I had no problem with having them in my brigade. There are 10 figures based on five 2″ square bases, plus the Regimental Commander on his own MDF base.

The Winkie Light Cavalry costs one point less than the Winkie Heavy Cavalry (6 vs 5) – and only loses one point of Melee (8 versus 9) and Elan (8 versus 9), so it’s still a pretty potent unit to have. Plus, I needed a Brigade Commander which came in the Kickstarter, so all is good by me.

According to “The History of Ozz”, after the Madness Bombs fell at the end of the Last Great War, Ozz was founded. East of the Emerald City, Evora the Wicked Witch of the East, conquered and molded the Winkies into her own fighting force. Winkies are believed to be mutated humans, perhaps even descended from genetically-created super soldiers at the end of the Last Great War.

As for the Winkie Cavalry, according to The Wars of Ozz:

After Evora lost her first battle to goat-riding raiders from the Great Endless Desert, she suddenly wanted cavalry. Perhaps inspired by the Madness, she had a vision of zilk-riding lancers sweeping down on her enemies. There were only two problems with this. First, the Winkies were not a mounted people. Second, nobody had ever thought of riding a zilk – – and with good reason. Zilks or “terror birds”, weren’t ridable – they were giant, carnivorous, two-legged birds of the high mountain valleys. Simply getting close to one was risking death.

Of course, after a few executions, nobody wanted to tell Evora it couldn’t be done. An expedition was mounted and a herd of zilks was corralled and broken to saddle. The Winkie survivors had the honour of being the first commanders of the Zilk Squadrons. For the rank and file soldiers being promoted to Zilk trooper is seen as a punishment rather than an honour. Everyone knew a terror bird would find a way to kill its rider sooner or later. Since drilling was almost impossible and the riders could barely get their mounts to cooperate on the field, Zilk regiments were and are poorly trained. Still, if the riders can get them to go in a straight line, the Zilks can land a charge with a powerful impact.
Wars of Ozz, section 2.2.2.3, page 25

I designated this Zilk Regiment the 20th Winkie Light Cavalry Regiment (WLCR). It, and the Brigade Commander, joins Evora, the 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment (WIR), the Winkie Sharpshooters, and the Winkie Light Artillery Battery in my Brigade. Plus the Brigade has available the Lesser Apes and the Great Flying Apes.

As discussed on previous posts, the Winkies (the orcs of the Ozz world) consider melee as their preferred means of combat. No missile weapons here!

I began prepping the unit back on Monday, February 13th by cleaning up and filing off as many mold lines as I could without taking off any details. I then washed the figures with soap and water to remove any oils left over from the casting process. I decided to paint the riders and the mounts separately as I thought that might be easier given the proximity that the Winkie lances would be to the Zilk mounts. After drilling with a pin vise, I carefully put small balls of poster tack into the wells where the riders would be affixed – so as to prevent any primer from compromising future glue adhesion when I was assembling them. I then applied primer with an airbrush, followed by a wash of Citadel “Nuln Oil”. As usual, I will list all the paints I used on this project at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of thing. There were 82 this time!

One different approach that I took on for this project was to have every zilk be painted totally differently from every other zilk in terms of a painting scheme. To accomplish this, I chose a range of pastel craft paints from Michaels and mixed them with Vallejo Thinning Medium. These are shades that I would not normally use – and I used these pastels for the legs and necks, and married those to other paints (mainly contrast and speed paints) on the beaks, claws and feathers. I used a lot of different paints here! For that reason, I definitely needed another Excel spreadsheet – like this one:

Let’s move on to some WIP. Click any picture to get a better view.

WIP shots…

The Winkie Light Cavalry Regiment and the Brigade Commander at the start of the project.

Here the figures are prepped for priming – note I used some ad hoc drilled out popsicle stick jigs (with poster tack in the holes) to hold and work on the riders until their mounts were done and I had painted the lances.

Below is my progress through 2/20:

With TotalCon37 looming, I pushed as far as I could before I needed to pack the car with all my Aztec, Maya, and Conquistador stuff. When I returned, I jumped back into working simultaneously on them and the Jungle Bases.

By 3/1 I had the riders mounted and had readied the figures for varnishing.

The varnished (and dried) figures are glued to their bases and ready for flocking.

I chose a variety of tufts and grasses for flocking – plus some small rocks from near my driveway that I washed. After that, all I needed to add was the 20th colors – purple just for Roger!

I finally found a way to glue the guidon close to the pole – with these tweezers as clamps.

Now that you have seen the WIP, how about some…

Eye Candy

Winkie Brigade Commander

This figure had its own mount – and is free to have in your force in the game. The Brigade commander will have attribute tabs (which is why there is a tab well at the back of the figure). Early on I decided to freehand the stripes on all of these zilk-mounted warriors. His colors are unique in the brigade – I went with a red and yellow theme here.

2oth Winkie Light Cavalry Regiment

There are 5 stands of 2 figures each plus a regimental commander – and I tried to pose, paint, and arrange them as differently as possible. As with all zilk-mounted regimental commanders the one here goes on an MDF stand with a removable tab for an attribute tab in the game if needed. All have white hats per The Wars of Ozz.

Regimental Commander Stand

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Command Stand

Group Shots

The WLCR in line with the Regimental Commander in front and the Brigade Commander in the rear.

Side view or the WLCR in column with the regimental commander up front.

Angled shot of the group giving an idea as to the color variations when grouped together.

I thought by having these with a lot of color that they would be wonderful attacking the Munchkin Light Cavalry!

This completes (for now) my Winkie Brigade. Next, I will be moving on to the Land of Harvest faction as well as some terrain for Ozz. But first, I am going to Cold Wars – where these Winkies will see battle!

Yes, another spreadsheet showing what I have for Winkies.

And yes, I 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 WINKIE LIGHT CAVALRY REGIMENT & THE WINKIE BRIGADE COMMANDER:

Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
Mounted Brigade Commander MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Paper clip wire pieces
Gorilla Glue
1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
Poster tack
Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Vallejo Model Color “Glossy White”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
Americana “Bubblegum Pink”
Vallejo Mecha Color “SZ Red”
Craftsmart “Natural Buff”
Citadel “Daemonette Hide”
Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
Vallejo Game Air “Hot Orange”
Craftsmart “Neon Yellow”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Fluorescent Magenta”
P3 “Sulfuric Yellow”
Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
Craftsmart “Neon Pink”
Craftsmart “Grape Taffy”
Craftsmart “Lilac”
Craftsmart “Wisteria Blue”
Craftsmart “Robin Egg Blue”
Craftsmart “Beach Glass”
Craftsmart “Bright Mint”
Craftsmart “Light Pistachio”
Craftsmart “Rose”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Battlefields “Black”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Space Wolves Grey”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Asurman Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Volupus Pink”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Charger Grey”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Shyish Purple”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Sigvald Burgundy”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Terradon Turquoise”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aethermatic Blue”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Dark Angels Green”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Iyanden Yellow”
Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash)
Citadel “Ironbreaker”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
Secret Weapon Washes “Parchment”
Citadel “Lamenters Yellow” (glaze)
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
Vallejo Game Ink “Red”
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
P3 “Blazing Ink” (ink)
Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Imperial Fist”
Vallejo Model Color “Light Brown”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Skeleton Horde”
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Black Sharpie pen
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
Small stones
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Winkie Flags from Buck Surdu printed on card stock

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Meeting Engagement Rematch (Wars of Ozz)

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 Wizard

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?).

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.

Lesser Apes & Great Flying Apes (Wars of Ozz)

Whenever I think of seeing the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, on TV in the ’60’s as a kid, I think the most striking aspect for me was appearance of the Flying Monkeys. Of course back then, our TV’s were not always in color, so I did not even know that most of the film was even in color for a few years! Still, those aviator primates were impressively done for 1939 movie and scary enough for me at 4 or 5 years old.

Now, the world of the Wars of Ozz is not the same as that tread by Dorothy. In this world, the Winkies have allies in the form of Lesser Apes and Great Flying Apes due to the efforts of Evora:

One of Evora’s diplomatic coups was convincing the King of the Flying Apes to send her tribute in exchange for leaving his land in the Cold Barren Mountains unmolested. By their agreement each year he sends a number of Great Flying Apes and their cousins, the Lesser Apes, to serve in her armies and follow her commands for the course of the year. While it might seen like a very unfair arrangement, it has kept the rest of the apes safe from her armies, provided an easy way to train his soldiers, and given the old ape king a convenient way to manoeuvre his rivals out of his lands.
Wars of Ozz, section 2.2.2.4, page 25

Both of these ape regiments are available to any force in Ozz, BUT they are cheaper to incorporate into Winkie Brigades. Therefore, I just had to add both to my current Winkie forces – and potentially others in the future if they can pay. The Lesser Apes and Great Flying Apes cost the Winkies 4 and 6 points respectively, while costing other factions an additional 2 points each for each. The Great Flying Apes ignore any terrain effects, and can of course fly over an enemy, land, and try to hit the enemy’s rear. They also will be useful in attacking the Munchkin’s Aerostat Corps Balloon (mine is in the painting queue as well). The Lesser Apes move through woods with no penalty.

As they are kin, I thought it made sense to share both of these together in one blog post.

I decided to paint both regiments at the same time so that their colors could be somewhat aligned. The color theme that I chose for both was purple. While Gillikins are very purple, I thought that a bunch of “grape apes” would look decidedly different on the tabletop versus plain old brown or grey. I ended up experimenting with two paints a lot here – Citadel “Dreadful Visage” and “Ratling Grime” contrast paints. I found that “Dreadful Visage” used over white left a nice shade of purple – more like a light glaze. I also used it over other shades of purples and the “Ratling Grime”. The “Ratling Grime” is more of a cross between dirty black and brown – and I liked it as a base to dry brush over with “Warpfiend Grey”. I also used purple contrast paints and inks. Overall, this gave me the purplish look I wanted.

Besides, the Lesser Ape figures have tails – yet look otherwise like gorillas. They are deployed on 5 two-inch square bases in groups of four figures. The Lesser Apes are SKU #OZZ309, and are made up of twenty 28mm ape figures in several different poses.

The Great Flying Apes are SKU #OZZ308. The figures are large 28mm scale figures deployed one per each two-inch square base. Their faces and poses are varied – but are more dog-like or baboon-like. They needed assembly (two pieces). As you’ll see, I took the approach of painting prototypes for each type of ape and adjusting their looks to suit me.

Neither regiment gets a separate regimental commander or command stand/flag. These two regiments join Evora, the 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment, the Winkie Sharpshooters, and the Winkie Light Artillery Battery in my Brigade.

And, importantly, I am entering both of these Ape Regiments for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge!

Below you will see some WIP shots, and then some eye candy diorama-type shots. The units were both primed earlier on January 7th, but the painting and flocking mainly went from January 20th to January 27th. This was again was a good pace for me (25 figures in 7 days). Below you’ll see the WIP shots – click on any to get a better view.

WIP shots…Lesser Apes

My process for the Lesser Apes was to try to paint up a few and see what I liked and what I did not with end results. I ended up going with a mandrill look on their cheeks – which I liked a lot better than my initial more monocolor try – though painting vermilion and white lines on little ape cheeks is a bit tedious (but rewarding too). As I painted these, I also started one of the Great Flying Apes so as to align their color schemes. I used a various assortment of purples and purplish grays – all are listed at this post’s end if you’re interested in that.

January 20th progress on prototype stand – no cheeks yet.

By Jan 21st, I had 6/20 painted – but I thought they needed more than the yellow fangs…

White and red mandrill cheeks and brows were added on Jan 21st and I went back and corrected the previously painted figures to this scheme.

January 22nd progress – 6 fully done and 4 more partially.

Jan 25th – all are painted minus varnishing

After varnishing a few figures in this pose I added some “earth” texture paint under their left legs.

January 27th – done and ready for eye candy shots!

Lesser Apes Eye Candy

I arranged these such that each stand had different poses in different positions. There are 5 stands of 4 figures each.

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Lesser Apes Group Shot

The Lesser Ape Regiment in column formation.

On to the WIP shots for the Great Flying Apes – click on any to get a better view.

WIP shots…Great Flying Apes

These are very large figures!

January 25th progress – note the different poses.

Close up of January 25th progress on one figure.

Later on January 25th, I collected rocks from near my driveway (the non-frozen ones), and began to add them and some texture paint to the bases.

Then on Jan 26th I applied the varnish to the model. I used a craft metallic purple paint for the armor – and I like how it came out.

A panoramic shot of the finished figures before I removed them from the poster tack/specimen jar combos.

Now for more eye candy – this time for the Great Flying Apes!

Eye Candy Great Flying Apes

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Great Flying Apes Group shots

Panoramic shot of the Great Flying Apes in line formation.

The Great Flying Apes in column formation.

Family Photo!

I appreciate your taking a look at this post – as always I appreciate your interest and readership – and hope that this kept you entertained. This makes 52 Wars of Ozz figures that I have painted for January, and 146 since November.

And yes, again, I 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 THE LESSER APES AND THE GREAT FLYING APES:

Please note that any paints used on both Ape units in bold, otherwise they were just used on the Great Flying Apes except as annotated.

Gorilla Glue
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Poster tack
Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Sigvald Burgundy”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
Citadel “Daemonette Hide”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Dreadful Visage”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ratling Grime”
Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
Vallejo Game Ink “Red”
Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
Vallejo Game Ink “Violet” (on Great Flying Apes only)
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash/shade)
Vallejo Model Air “White Grey”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”(on Great Flying Apes only)
Craftsmart “Amethyst” (on Great Flying Apes only)
Vallejo Model Color “Vermilion” (on Lesser Apes only)
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather” (on Great Flying Apes only)
Citadel “Blackfire Earth” (texture)
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Assorted small rocks and stones
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Purple Tufts” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Evora the Witch and a Winkie Infantry Regiment (Wars of Ozz)

Progress continues on my Winkie brigade. This time, I added both Evora the Witch and a Winkie Infantry Regiment to my Winkie forces.

Evora is a “named witch” in the game and costs 3 points. With that, she comes with her own advantages. First, she can act as an overall leader (at above brigade level) with the attributes of “Decisiveness” (this gets an additional activation die in the die pool which increases battlefield flexibility and options) and “Organizational Skill” (which allows her to give pre-game 4 extra points to a subordinate brigade for units or allies) . Second, she comes with free spells – four in fact:

Fire Ball – as an offensive spell
Blood Lust – allows her to force a unit to close with the enemy by automatically passing their next Test of Elan.
Poppies – allows her to create a 6″ square field of poppies that would cause any unit passing through to lose half its movement.
Fear – this is cast on an enemy unit and would cause that unit to lose either a point of Elan or Resolve (spell caster’s choice) on its next activation.

Having automatic spells is helpful as an “unnamed Wizard/Witch” costs 2 points and has to randomly roll for spells – or buy more with points if the rolled ones are not what the player wants. Evora is metal and 28mm, with a SKU of OZZ300.

According to “The History of Ozz”, after the Madness Bombs fell at the end of the Last Great War, Ozz was founded.

Sometime after Ozz was founded, things began to change. Rumours reached the West that a group of mysterious women had appeared in the east. By all accounts, they had powers to rival the Wizard (of Ozz)…The first witch to appear was Evora in the far east. With her power, especially her ability to raise legions of skeletal soldiers, she quickly dispatched the disunified Winkie warlords and forced the Winkies to submit to her rule…
Wars of Ozz, section 1.4, page 9

In addition to Evora, I also have added a Winkie Infantry Regiment (WIR), which I designated as the 21st. This 21st WIR joins Evora, the Winkie Sharpshooters, and the Winkie Light Artillery Battery in my Brigade.

As discussed on previous posts, the Winkies (the orcs of the Ozz world) consider melee as their preferred means of combat. As for most Ozz regiments, this Winkie Regiment (21st WIR) (SKU #OZZ302) has 21 figures in total. They are on 5 bases – 4 figures with spears per 4 stands, plus 4 figures on a single command stand, along with a regimental commander stand (MDF) riding on a zilk. The 21st WIR is 28mm in scale, and the figures are metal. It is worth 5 points.

I began prepping the unit back on Saturday, January 7th by filing off as many mold lines as I could without obliterating any details. I then washed the figures with soap and water, and then primed it. After this, applied a wash of Citadel “Nuln Oil” wash. As usual, I will list all the paints I used on this unit and Evora at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well – I do like to refer back when I need to recreate a painting scheme).

The Ozz rules say that the WIR are:

“Very irregular, usually khaki trousers, but coats vary by regiment, but yellow is very popular. Armed with melee weapons only”
Wars of Ozz, Table 4-3, page 83

I decided that a few of the mold lines were too much for using khaki and so I decided a dark gray would work better. I also decided to go with black sleeves and yellow caps and shirts. For Evora, I went with a yellow and purple scheme. For the zilk, I went with a deep purple look. The 21st WIR figures had fur caps of two different types, plus three different kinds of armor – to include cotton armor like I had on my Aztecs and Conquistadores (and the Winkie Sharpshooters).

This time I did take more WIP shots), which I will share below, followed by some eye candy diorama-type shots. I managed to finish the unit to include flocking by January 16th, which was a good pace for me (22 figures in 9 days).

And, importantly, I am entering both Evora and the 21st WIR as my another individual and unit for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge!

On to the WIP shots – click on any to get a better view.

WIP shots…

The group after getting scrubbed and dried.

Mounted for painting on the specimen jars.

January 10th progress – trousers and sleeves.

January 11 progress – skin base, armor, and hats

More progress was made on January 12th below, especially on Evora and the zilk:

January 13th saw more work on highlighting, shading, and touch up. Evora still needed more paint too – all are as shown below:

On Saturday evening (January 14th , after my game with Chris), and on Sunday the 15th, I moved to finish the painting in preparation for varnishing and flocking:

I ended up airbrush varnishing the 21st WIR with a both an initial gloss then a matte varnish so as to keep the colors bright but not shiny. I finished varnishing on January 15th, and mounting and flocking on January 16th. I chose the 21st Regiment flag for them because it was purple and 21 is 3 x 7 – so maybe three times lucky? Time will tell. As for mounting and flocking, I followed the same processes as I did for the Winkie Sharpshooters. The only real problem that I encountered was that the flags were a bit too big for the standard bearer’s staffs – but not so problematic that I felt the need to redo them. I used blue and brown sharpie pens to hide the cut white edges of the banners. Regarding the size challenge, yeah, I could have reprinted them, but I think the Winkies wanted not to have their banners smaller than the Munchkins (the Winkies subscribe to the “bigger being better” theory, especially with regards to the Munchkins). With that note, on to…

Eye Candy

Evora

I did enjoy painting her a lot. The yellow and purple gave her a distinct look, plus I love that she wears a Munchkin skull on her belt and has one on her staff.

21st Winkie Infantry Regiment

There are 5 stands of 4 figures each – 4 are similar and one is a command stand with an officer, 2 standard bearers and a drummer (for IRO our resident blog buddy drummer). Once again, I varied the flocking slightly but distinctly – with the hope of having some congruence among the bases and still some uniqueness for each individual base. The zilk-mounted regimental commander goes on an MDF stand with a removable tab for an attribute tab in the game if needed.

Regimental Commander Stand

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Command Stand

Group Shots

The 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.

An angled shot of the 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.

The 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.

The 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear and accompanied by Evora the Witch.

Next, I will next deviate a bit from the Winkies and work on their notable allies, the Great Flying Apes and their cousins the Lesser Apes. Gotta have flying monkeys after all right? After that, I have the Winkie Cavalry (on zilks) to round out the brigade.

I appreciate your readership and hope that this was of interest.

And yes, I 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 EVORA AND THIS WINKIE INFANTRY REGIMENT:

Please note that any paints used on both Evora and the infantry are in bold, otherwise they were just used on the infantry.

Gorilla Glue
Paper clip wire pieces
3/4″ steel washer (just Evora)
1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
Poster tack
Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Charger Grey”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey”
Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
Citadel “Daemonette Hide”
Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
Americana “Bubblegum Pink”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Sigvald Burgundy”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Fluorescent Magenta”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”
Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade Gloss” (wash)
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
Vallejo Model Air “White Grey”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Skeleton Horde”
Vallejo Model Air “Sand/Ivory”
Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
Citadel “Lamenters Yellow” (glaze)
PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
Black Sharpie pen
Blue Sharpie Pen
Brown Sharpie Pen
Winkie Flags from Buck Surdu printed on card stock

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Meeting Engagement – Munchkins vs. Gillikins (Wars of Ozz)

Last Saturday (January 14th) I was lucky to be able to have a game of Wars of Ozz with my friend Chris Comeau. We had each built brigades for the game – I had a Munchkin brigade of 27 points, and Chris had a Gillikin Brigade of 27 points. It was my first Ozz game outside of a convention, and it was Chris’ first ever. We decided to use the “Meeting Engagement” scenario on page 93 (section 6.1.4) with no terrain so that we could focus on playing the game and familiarizing ourselves with the rules. As I said, I have played several Ozz games with others who are more familiar with the rules, but I thought we could get more out of a simple set up. We had hoped to play in the new garage, but a nasty coating of ice on the stairs outside forced us into my cellar.

For scoring, each infantry or cavalry base lost would count as a point for the opposition, as would each artillery or individual figure taken out.

I will attempt here to provide a “cinematic” account of a pretty cool game – pictures do it best – though my cellar’s lighting was not optimal. Click on the pictures for a better view.

The Order of Battle

Chris’ Gillikin Brigade consisted of 5 units, 1 individual (Arella), and a Brigade Commander:

Arella the Witch (individual figure) – 3 points
Gillikin Brigade Commander (free)
Less-Well Trained Gillikin Infantry Regiment – 4 points
Less-Well Trained Gillikin Infantry Regiment – 4 points
Gillikin Medium Artillery Battery – 5 points
Gillikin Cavalry Riding Goats – 6 points
Skeleton Infantry Regiment – 5 points

Mark’s Munchkin Brigade consisted of 4 units, 1 individual (Zoraster), and a Brigade Commander (Munchkin Mayor):

Zoraster the Wizard – 3 points
Munchkin Brigade Commander (Munchkin Mayor) – free
Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment – 8 points
Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment – 6 points
Munchkin Light Cavalry Regiment – 5 points
Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery – 5 points

The deployment instructions call for each side to roll a die for each unit and individual, with the Brigade Commanders being placed in any desired zone. These units and individuals are then deployed on each side of the tabletop in six 10-inch deployment zones. The zones are centered on the middle of the tabletop, and no more than two units can be deployed in each zone (if you roll a number a thirds time you re-roll). We elected to have all of my units deploy first, then Chris’, but we could have also alternated our units. The results are seen below.

Both of our cavalry units by chance ended up on the far end of the tabletop. Munchkins are great marksmen, but not so great in melee – and they move somewhat slowly (short legs!). So, I decided to try to organize my forces around my firepower, but realigning my troops took a few turns as my two infantry regiments were in line and next to each other. Of course, there was no defensible terrain.

Chris decided to close on my positions while I reorganized.

This is the north end of the tabletop. On the left, one of Chris’ Gillikin Regiments moves up – it had luckily received a “Swift” characteristic at the game start – so it moved fast and Chris had them in column which gave them additional movement versus being in line. He moved up his medium battery to extreme range. His Skeleton Regiment moved up in front of his second Gillikin Infantry Regiment, which had his witch, Arella, close and behind the skeletons.

Meanwhile, I tried to align my forces on the north end to maximize firepower. My wizard, Zoraster, was on the far southern end with my light cavalry. This realignment went slowly.

The swiftly advancing Gillikin Infantry Regiment went straight for my artillery battery, while in the background, his battery prepared to fire at long range. I was not too concerned as at long range he needed to roll a “1” on each of his 5 D10 shots to hit me. My ease was misplaced as you’ll see.

The Gillikins charged my gun, but failed to have enough movement. This left them out of breath and disordered at close range. My gun was at this point however aimed at the Gillikin battery, but the prospect of disordered enemy infantry in column right in front of me was too tempting.

I rotated the battery and fired at the Gillikin infantry, immediately destroying one of its five bases (each base takes 4 hits before being destroyed). The Regimental Commander does not count as a combat base. That action only pushed them back and kept them disorganized.

I subsequently activated again, and this fire at the Gillikin infantry exacted three hits on another base.

On the southern end of the tabletop, a cavalry battle ensued. Chris similarly moved up his cavalry, while I kept mine ready to screen and engage with their carbines. I was able to fire at his approaching goat-riders, and that disrupted that effort.

My cavalry carbines disrupt the Gillikin goat-riders attack.

A mid-battle tabletop view. My forces are consolidating – if slowly. So far, I am holding my own.

Then, the Gillikins managed to reform their cavalry and with a good activation roll were able to charge my cavalry – my reaction test was to countercharge at reduced efficiency. The Gillikins lost another base, and damaged mine slightly, but as I was near the tabletop edge, I was in danger of having them eliminated. The Gillikins managed to hold it together, reform again on yet another activation, and hit my now-disorganized cavalry, routing them. They had one chance left to rally, but that would depend on the activation sequence of the dice. I had Zoraster nearby, and one of his spells was an automatic rally – I just needed him to act before the Gillikin goat riders hit the fleeing Munchkin cavalry…

That did not happen in time. The Gillikin cavalry hit the Munchkins, and my cavalry ran away and headed for greener and safer pastures. This left my right flank open to a weakened but still deployed Gillikin cavalry – that Chris kept at a safe distance from any of my remaining musketry for most of the rest of the game.

My cavalry is pushed back to the tabletop end.

The Munchkin Light Cavalry is routed – one chance to reform. Then the Gillikins drove them away.

The Gillikin cavalry is on the right. Zoraster, having been denied the chance to rally the Munchkin cavalry, moved to the safety of the rear of his remaining infantry and the medium battery.

I managed to get the infantry regiments in adjoining line formation facing the approaching skeletons. Unfortunately, Chris’ medium battery began hitting my battery, taking out one of its 5 bases (on left).

Seeing this, Chris reformed his infantry that had previously taken damage from my battery. Chris kept up his attacks with his medium battery – and despite being at long range, took out another two bases – leaving my battery nearly wiped out (2 out of 5 figures left). My medium battery gunners routed, abandoning the gun. The Gillikins sensed victory, and advanced, hoping to spike the gun and gain another victory point. They made it to the very front of the battery base.

The Munchkin gunners rout, abandoning the gun.

This time luck went on my side. Zoraster successfully threw a rally spell and the gunners were able to reman the gun and fire at point-blank range at the Gillikin infantry, sending them skedaddling!

Before the rally, the Gillikins hope to spike the gun…

…but the Munchkins rally, reman the gun, and drive off the Gillikins, who would flee the battlefield for good.

Then, unfortunately for me, the Gillikin Medium battery finished off my Medium battery with another hit.

Munchkin Medium Battery, RIP. Only the gun remains – while the Gillikin Infantry that it had dispatched run away.

I was down to two infantry regiments, plus a brigade commander and Zoraster. Zoraster successfully cast an “Uncanny Marksmanship” spell on Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment – which made their fire more effective against the advancing skeletons. Eventually, the skellies routed and disordered through the Gillikin Infantry Regiment following behind them.

After multiple musket volleys, Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry routs the skeletons.

Chris then moved Arella around and threw three fireballs at Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment’s flank, finally inflicting two casualties on one base (the first two shots failed). Zoraster, with a “Heal” spell, then attempted to recover these losses.

Zoraster moves behind Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment to try to cast a “Heal” spell.

On a D10, he needed a 7. He rolled a 10, which is a “catastrophic spell failure” 8 or 9 just fail). Then I needed to roll a D20 on the “Spell Failure” for the catastrophic failure (i.e. rolling a 10). I rolled a 14, with the result :

“The spell fails but a friendly unit of woodland creatures joins the player’s army at the beginning of the next turn”.
Page 109, Wars of Ozz Spell Failure table

I had no idea how to adjudicate this – and I phoned Chris Palmer – who also had no idea if it was a joke result or not. In any case, as I had no stats for any such unit, we treated the failure as benign.

But Huzzah! I got another activation, to try the same action again! Good!!

ARGH!!! I rolled ANOTHER 10!!! Catastrophic failure #2 in a row!!!

Rolling on the “Spell Failure Chart”, I rolled a 20…the worst possible result..which said:

“Catastrophic failure: The spell-caster’s head explodes into a cloud of straw, bran, pins, and needles, killing him or her instantly. Remove the model from play.”
Page 109, Wars of Ozz Spell Failure table

Well, THAT was unfortunate!

The remaining Gillikin Infantry then charged into Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment in melee. After a couple of rounds, the casualties mounted on both sides. However, the Munchkins ended up taking too many casualties (including the now-attached Brigade Commander) and were wiped out. This left me with just Zoraster’s Guard Infantry, which tried to turn and avenge Tik-Tok’s loss.

Zoraster’s Guard Infantry (not well-named as now Zoraster was dead) tries to turn and hit the Gillikin Infantry.

It was not to be. Arella successfully hit the last regiment with another fireball in its rear and the resting goat riders finally made their move and charged into the rear of the regiment. This wiped out my last unit.

The games end – with my last regiment (Zoraster’s Guard Infantry) being driven down by goat riders.

Wow, what a game. It had more than a few twists and turns. In the end the score was 21-15, so the Gillikins were not unscathed. Still, it was a Gillikin victory over the Munchkins – nice job Chris! Hopefully we can throw down again soon and we can each get another brigade done too.

Postscript

After the game, I decided to take Dave Stone’s suggestion and add some blood to the wells of the artillery sabot bases for both the Munchkins (shown here in this game) as well as my Winkie Light Battery. The Citadel “Blood for the Blood God” paint did serve this purpose.

Munchkin Medium Battery with painted wells.

Winkie Light Battery with wells on sabot base painted for blood.

I hope you found this battle report fun!

2022 Hobby & Blogging Update

2022 was one hell of a busy year. Every year I try to recapture just what the hell I got done hobby-wise – both for miniatures/wargames and golf-wise. Then I try to assess (for my own purposes) what I set out to do at the year’s start and how well I achieved – or failed – to meet those goals. As another year has rolled by, it’s time to take that look in the old mirror. This blog, “Life, Golf, Miniatures & Other Distractions” covers my activities – and I do like to use the blog as an outlet to likeminded folks. So let’s take a retrospective look at 2022 AND a forward look into 2023.

Doing this is an old habit from when I actually worked full-time before retirement. Back then in “the dreaded private sector”, I had sales goals to hit every period – be it yearly, quarterly, thrice annually, or whatever. Of course, there was the inevitable review period where every manager would ask you what “stretch goals” you would “commit to” doing. This was a farce as the sales quotas you were given from corporate were never layups anyways. Plus, you needed to account for the previous year’s performance in any case.

Still, I’ve always set personal goals and found that it’s always good to have a plan and try your best. I also want to be honest with myself and be accountable to my own plans. How well did I do – let’s see…

I set out some goals for myself back last December for 2022. Some were around gaming, some around hobby production, some were around golf, and more.

How did I do versus my 2022 goals?

Paint 150 figures or more.

I did break this one with a strong push in November and December – (see pic below). I managed to finish 202 figures!

My 2022 production. I’ll be adding rebasing figures (mainly for ***Wars of Orcs and Dwarves*** games) as a new category in 2023.

Complete the remaining conquistador figures for Civilizations Collide.

I definitely did this! I have a page in my blog that catalogs all things Aztec/Conquistador/Maya/Tlaxcalan here.

Complete the remaining terrain for Civilizations Collide, to include the brigantines.

It was a big effort, but check!

Brigantines in action at the Battle of Lake Texcoco game at HUZZAH.

Complete the remaining Maya figures for Civilizations Collide.

I managed to get these done by November – and they will be on the tabletop soon. This capped 300 figures done for the period since I began.

Complete the scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide.

Not quite done – though I have completed fleshing out and writing 9 scenarios, plus I have 3 mostly completed, and 4 in concept mode. All have or will be used at conventions.

Complete my figures for Wars of Ozz, ok at least 40 of them.

Better late than never! This is now the project that I am into quite deeply. I managed to paint up 93 figures for Wars of Ozz in November and December alone. There is now a page in my blog that catalogs these here.

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

Never got to this – but will try again in 2023 (sorry Roger).

Try to get my Nomonhan WaT project off the ground.

I did want to get to this, but not enough time.

Attend and run games at conventions or club nights or both, if possible. This would include TotalCon34, HMGS South Recon, HAVOC, HUZZAH!, Historicon, and BARRAGE .

I will give myself a good grade here. I did not go to BARRAGE due to a golfing tournament conflict, but otherwise I did all of these conventions PLUS HMGS Fall In! in November. Plus I won some awards at three conventions – HUZZAH, HAVOC, and at Fall In. My gaming club, the Mass Pikemen, met a few times – and hopefully will do more in 2023. For 2023, I am going to track my gaming progress as well as my hobby production progress.

Get the Mass Pikemen more active once the pandemic diminishes.

Could have been better – will work on in 2023.

Celebrate my wife’s retirement (and mine belatedly) with a nice trip.

Nailed this as I wrote here!

Finish the garage+ and launch that baby successfully.

Well, it’s finished and we do enjoy it – just have not managed to play a wargame in it yet. Otherwise, yes indeed, it’s done!

Post on the blog 48 times or more – and in good quality.

As for the quality – the readers are the judge. However, I fell off a bit and only did 42 posts.

Be a good blog follower.

I hope I was this – but certainly not a measurable statistic!

Have multiple Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists.

Success here – if we got together you know who you are and thanks – great conversations and wonderful camaraderie. I’m always open to more!

Go to a golf school and get my golf handicap down below 18.

Mixed bag here – we did go to a golf school during our Florida trip. My handicap started the year at 20.7, peaked in July at 22.6, and I was able to improve to 18.9 by season’s end.

Play golf (in season) at least twice a week.

I played close to 80 rounds this year – and usually played 3-4 time a week in season – so hell yeah!

Win my flight in the Club Championship.

My biggest miss as I got hurt AND played horribly – coming in dead last.

Be a competitive golfer.

Despite the previous miss in the Club Championship, I did manage a few good showings in other tournaments. I’d say in general I was competitive.

Personal Highs in 2022

The Florida trip and golfing with my wife (she’s getting better)!
Getting the garage DONE.
Getting together with family especially my daughter Ellen and my granddaughter Tabitha.
Finishing all of the figures and terrain for Civilizations Collide!
Continuing to serve my Town (East Brookfield, MA) as the elected Board of Health Chairman during the pandemic.
Participating in multiple gaming conventions and winning awards at: HAVOC (the “Al Award” for the game with the most stunning visual appeal); two awards at HUZZAH (2 best in time slots), and a “Pour Encourager Les Autres” at Fall In.
Getting going on my Wars of Ozz figures!
Getting together with Dave Wood, Buck Surdu, Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, and Duncan Adams, Eric Schlegel, and all of the other HAWKS in person.
Being on the Committees for the Tour of the Brookfields tournaments and the New England Service Academy golf tournaments,
Having fun Zoom chats.
And again, being with my wife Lynn, every day (seriously, and she won’t likely read this).

My “Pour Encourager Les Autres” Award at Fall In.

My last Mesoamerican figures – the Maya!

Two old USMA 1984 roommates (Dave Wood and some out of shape guy).

Personal Lows for 2021

Losing Caesar. Still hurts but that’s life.
Sinus surgery – though that’s a long-term plus (I hope).

Sinus surgery aftermath day 1. I’m getting much better than this now!

My goals for 2023

Well, its time to set my goals for 2023.

Paint 250 figures or more.
Complete a brigade of Winkies for Wars of Ozz.
Complete a brigade of Land of Harvest creatures for Wars of Ozz.
Run and play more games – track them too.
Attend and run games at conventions or club nights or both, if possible. This would include TotalCon37, HAVOC, HMGS Cold Wars, HUZZAH!, BARRAGE (possibly if golf allows), and Fall In.
Complete the scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide.
Complete my terrain for Wars of Ozz, games.
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”.
Get the Mass Pikemen more active.
Have another nice trip to Florida.
Post on the blog 48 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 18. This time.
Update my golf tournament progress on my blog – either as posts or a page or both.
Play golf (in season) at least twice a week.
Win my flight in the Championship.
Be a competitive golfer.

As far as my figure total for Wars of Ozz, here is my progress so far on that:

My progress – white are completed, yellow started, and red not started yet. 257 figures planned in total – that is unless I buy more…

Again, thanks to all who make the time to read this blog and comment on my madness – Happy 2023 and what do you think?

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