Tag: Wars of Ozz

Winkie Light Artillery Battery (Wars of Ozz)

Any good brigade in Wars of Ozz games will need a bit of artillery. As I mentioned in my last post on the Winkie Sharpshooters, Winkies (the orcs of the world of Ozz) are much more interested in fighting hand-to-hand in melee with a foe versus shooting a weapon at one. Winkies are not overly bright in general, and certainly are not very educated. According to the Wars of Ozz rulebook,

“…Winkie artillery is something of an afterthought. Numerous battles and sieges have shown the usefulness of a strong artillery arm, but it is simply not a glorious or honourable role according to the Winkie mindset. Few Generals are chosen from the ranks of the artillery. Chieftains’ sons would much rather be leading a regiment of spearmen or jaegers. The artillery requires too much thinking, the guns can’t compete with the workshops of the Munchkins, and there is too much heavy lifting to be glorious. Consequently, the commanders of the batteries are an eccentric lot. They range from brilliant to simply odd. Except for the master gunners, most of the crew are conscripts secretly happy to be well back from the front line.”

Wars of Ozz by John R. “Buck” Surdu, Section 2.2.2.5, page 25

I therefore decided to have a Winkie Light Artillery Battery (WLAB) for my Brigade, and save some points for other troops. This unit (#OZZ306) has 5 figures plus the gun in total. I use an MDF sabot base for all of the figures and the gun similar to the Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery that I completed earlier. The WLAB is also 28mm in scale, and the figures are metal. It is worth 4 points versus a regular Winkie infantry unit which costs only 5. In the game, light artillery has a short/long range combination of 6″/18″ versus that of a medium battery which is 8″/24″.

The WLAB are supposed to have red coats, with white vests and trousers. Of course, being Winkies, the carriage of their gun had to be yellow. To me, their uniforms evoked a British look with the red coats. I again felt that the Winkie fur caps HAD to be black (but I think I’ll be changing some future Winkie units’ headgear on that score).

I began prepping the unit back on December 22nd in anticipation of my end of year surgery. My goal for the mass priming was to have some more units ready for painting in early 2023. I started painting the WLAB in earnest on New Year’s Day – and managed to complete the battery on January 5th.

This unit also qualifies as my second entry for for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge. As is my custom, I will list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested. This list really is mostly for my own use for later reference as well – I do forget stuff on occasion – and this listing has saved me on multiple occasions when I need to repeat a painting process! First, I’ll share some (well a few) WIP shots, then some eye candy of the WLAB.

WIP shots…

I mostly followed my usual process – but here are some photos of the WIP below. I primed back on December 22nd in a mass-priming exercise as noted earlier. The rest of the WIP photos are from January 1-January 3rd.

Primed on December 22nd. I waited until New Year’s Day to work on them.
January 2nd progress.
January 3rd progress
January 4th progress – almost done with flocking here.

I finished the flocking on January 4th, which left me only to add a wisp of smoke (a shred of painted pillow batting from one of my smoke markers) – to the match wielder on January 5th – and the WLAB was done. On to…

Eye Candy

The WLAB is on an MDF sabot base – that I also magnetized for easy transport and playability.

Group shots

The WLAB with the gun in limber position (facing backwards) and a crew member removed to show the neodymium magnet. Each crew member lost results in a combat die being lost.
Top view with the gun unlimbered.
Head-on view.
Front right view.
Front left view.
Rear view.
Good view of the WLAB.

I am definitely going to continue to build my brigade of Winkies in 2023, as well as more Ozz goodness. I have now completed 104 of my 268 planned figures for the game – so I have a ways to go. It’s only slightly fewer figures than my Spanish Conquest/Mesoamerican period stuff, but hopefully it will go quicker.

And note to Roger of Rantings from under the Wargames Table, yes, Roger, I do have an Excel spreadsheet for all these figures! Like Roger, I hope that you will stay with me on this path. And also check out Roger’s blog too.

As a second side note – and another recommendation – coincidentally my Aussie buddy Luke (IRO – the Imperial Rebel Ork) is also working on some black powder fantasy stuff for his Turnip28 project. Think anthropomorphic marsh rutabaga trolls (try to say that three times quickly)and Napoleonic zombies. So, he’s doing black powder fantasy as well. He’s even getting into sculpting for it – so I recommend you check him out. He’s done some cool artillery that you can see here and here is his sculpt post – both of which are outstanding, but there is a lot to see on his blog. His stuff is more grim dark than Ozz, but very cool, and it’s quite interesting that we are on a similar wavelength at the same time cross-globally.

Lastly, I had planned for this post to be about a 2022 roundup and my 2023 goal setting – but that will be the next one sometime this week (sorry Roger – but I do promise at least one Excel shot next time for both you and John from Just Needs Varnish! (another fine blog indeed).

I that roundup post, I’ll review and hold myself accountable for my 2022 predictions and goals of a year ago. I did fall short in some areas, which I am hoping to improve upon in 2023. I will set my 2023 goals in “blogging stone” as well. I am really going to push myself to finish as many Ozz figures as I can until preparing for conventions or even (shudder) playing a game take up more time – after all I need to game sometimes…

And I still have more Ozz stuff 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 ARTILLERY BATTERY:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  3. Artillery Battery MDF sabot base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  4. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  5. Poster tack
  6. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  7. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  8. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  9. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  10. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
  12. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  16. Createx Airbrush Colors “Pearlized Black”
  17. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  19. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  21. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash/shade)
  22. Vallejo “Gloss Varnish”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey”
  24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  25. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
  26. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
  27. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
  29. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
  30. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  31. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  32. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  33. Army Painter “Red Tone” (wash/shade)
  34. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
  35. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  36. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  37. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  38. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  39. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  40. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
  41. Pillow batting (for smoke)

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 Wars of Ozz 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.

Winkie Sharpshooter Regiment (Wars of Ozz)

Now that I have a full Munchkin Brigade (as you saw in my last post), I needed to start building a worthy opponent. I decided to go with the Winkies – the orcs of the Wars of Ozz. Yes, the “oh-eee-oh” dudes from the movie.

My first unit ended up being atypical – as Winkies normally don’t think much of firearms and missile weapons (or those who wield them in battle). The Winkies consider melee as their preferred means of combat. Still, they do have some artillery, and as shown here a small contingent of troops armed with muskets to provide some firepower. My Winkie brigade will eventually have melee troops, light artillery, and Zilk-riding cavalry (zilks are giant ostrich-like carnivorous birds that Winkies capture and train as mounts – though they are known to eat fallen enemy and their Winkie riders alike). I’ll also have some Great Flying Apes, some lesser apes, and their witch Evora. I am trying to get as many as possible done so games can begin, and to that end I am batch-priming and batch-painting as many units as possible.

Back to the WSR – just like most Ozz regiments, this Winkie Sharpshooter Regiment (WSR) (#OZZ303) has 21 figures in total. They are on 5 bases – 4 figures with muskets per 4 stands, plus 4 figures on a single command stand, along with a regimental commander stand (MDF). The WSR is 28mm in scale, and the figures are metal. It is worth 7 points versus a regular Winkie infantry unit which costs only 5.

I began prepping the unit back on December 12th – and was hoping to finish by the end of the year – which I did today, December 31st! This allowed me to accomplish two things. First. I got to break the 200 level of painted figures for 2022 (I actually painted 202 in 2022 with the completion of the WSR). It also allowed me to enter this as my first (and definitely not the last) unit for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge.

The Ozz rules say that the WSS should have “forest green” coats and khaki trousers. And because Evora just loves yellow – a healthy amount of yellow on all Winkies. The WSR 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. I tried to mix them up them on each stand/base for a more varied look. I worked on the muskets first as I wanted them to be very distinctive of the WSR. As I felt that the fur caps HAD to be black, I made the Winkies’ hair to be a bluish grey over w white highlight so as to better stick out from underneath the dark headpieces. I needed to work around Christmas and and scheduled sinus surgery on 12/28 to complete them, so I am happy that I did. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there is a marathon showing of the movie “A Christmas Story” which influenced me and played a part in some of my choices of colors that you’ll see below. A hint, “pink nightmare”…

More on this in a bit!

My goal is always to achieve a good tabletop standard – and you can be the judge about that. As usual, I will list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well – I do forget stuff on occasion). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the WSS.

WIP shots…

Primed in white and ready for painting on December 22nd
After priming, I added a wash of Citadel “Nuln Oil”, then dry brushed in white. The figure on the right has not been dry brushed yet and is shown for comparison with the one on the right which has only been washed on December 23rd.

Then came Christmas! After all the festivities, I knew I only had a couple of days to get the unit mostly done before I had my sinus surgery. That surgery would consist of my surgeon drilling out my internal sinus openings so I could drain better – as I have been plagued with increasingly worse headache episodes all year. Yes, this was done under anesthesia and more drugs. The headaches DID get in the way of both golf and miniature painting, as well as all of the simultaneous sinus infections I was having, so this was necessary.

December 26th progress
December 27th progress

Then it was time to get my head drilled on December 28th. All went well, and recovery is coming along as expected, but I was in no shape to paint!

December 28th – my head was pretty swollen – even more than usual 😁. Normally I don’t have a head like Peter Griffin from “Family Guy”.

Did I mention that as part of this procedure the surgeon applies cocaine? Yup, and I’m pretty much just a beer guy so…yeah…

Anyways, I was back painting on the 29th, and made good progress by the 30th. One remaining major issue for me was how to paint the regimental commander’s zilk. Remember, Winkies look down on missile weapons, and I can imagine that the better-looking zilks would go to the cavalry and the regimental commanders of melee weapon-bearing infantry. I also had Ralphie’s rabbit suit in my mind subliminally, plus add in any residual cocaine…

And I ended up with a bubble-gum pink and purple zilk…

Now, I am not sure how I feel about it, but it’s done now! Wars of Ozz are supposed to be colorful anyway – and hell, I had had that pink paint for a while without ever using it. I ended up airbrush varnishing the WSR with a gloss then a matte varnish so as to keep the colors bright but not shiny.

Base preparation on December 30th – the figures needed extra care for mounting if they were to look good. You can see the Wars of Ozz picture from the web store that I printed off as a guide underneath on the right.

As for mounting, I wanted the bases to have an appropriate look – with muskets facing forward and in parallel. Once the varnish had dried, I removed the WSR from their specimen jars. Then, I needed to use small bits of poster tack on the figures’ actual bases/bottoms – and a sharpie to trace out how they would fit on the 2″ square steel bases. Then I applied an initial flocking around where the figures would not be. After that had dried, I glued the figures carefully to the steel bases and added multiple grasses and flocking to the steel bases and the regimental commander’s MDF base. This took up most of the effort on the 30th as I added three types of grass plus flowers to give the bases depth and to not just see the shapes of the figures under one layer of flocking. It’s probably overkill, but I do prefer to have nicer bases. The flocking was done on December 30th. Then, it was flag time.

Most (but not all) regiments in Ozz have standards to apply to a couple of figures on a command base. One would be for the faction, the other would be for the regiment. These are available on the Ozz Facebook page as free downloads. When I looked for the WSR, there was no specified flag! By luck, my West Point buddy (and author of the Wars of Ozz rules) Buck Surdu had called me to check in on me post-surgery, and told me he would fix that – and boy he did as you’ll see below – Morin’s Sharpshooters! Hmmm, Buck, does this mean I ride a pink Zilk?

Thanks Buck!

As New Year’s Eve is today, I printed off the flags and finished the WSR. I also made a new backdrop for taking photos of the Winkies as I thought they needed a darker and less friendly look than I gave the Munchkin regiments. You’ll see that below in…

Eye Candy

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 bugler. I varied the flocking slightly but distinctly – hoping to have an overall match while having some uniqueness for each base. The pink zilk-mounted regimental commander goes on an MDF stand.

Regimental Commander Stand

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Command Stand

Group shots

The WSR in line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.
The WSR in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.
A side view of the WSR in column formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.
A right side view of the WSR in another line formation with the Regimental Commander in the front.
A right side view of the WSR in another line formation with the Regimental Commander in the rear.
The WSR about to fire!

I will continue to build my brigade of Winkies in 2023, as well as more Ozz goodness. I hope that you will stay with and/or join me on this journey.

My next post will be a 2022 roundup and 2023 goal setting one. There, I’ll review and hold myself accountable for my 2022 predictions and goals of a year ago. Hell, somebody has to do it!

There, I will set my 2023 goals as well.

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year – and please know that I am very appreciative of your readership and support!

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 SHARPSHOOTER REGIMENT:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. Paper clip wire pieces
  3. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  4. Poster tack
  5. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  7. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  8. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  9. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  10. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
  11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  12. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  13. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  14. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  15. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey”
  16. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
  17. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
  20. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  23. Vallejo Game Air “Sick Green”
  24. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
  25. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  26. Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
  27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  28. Citadel “Lamenters Yellow” (glaze)
  29. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  30. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Skeleton Horde”
  31. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  32. Americana “Bubblegum Pink”
  33. Citadel “Fire Dragon Bright”
  34. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
  35. Americana “Dioxazine Purple”
  36. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
  37. Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
  38. Citadel “Changeling Pink” (dry)
  39. Vallejo “Gloss Varnish”
  40. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  41. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  42. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  43. Black Sharpie pen
  44. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  45. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  46. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  47. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  48. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  49. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  50. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Pink Tufts” (flocking)
  51. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Purple Tufts” (flocking)
  52. Winkie Flags from Buck Surdu printed on card stock
  53. Blue Sharpie Pen
  54. Brown Sharpie Pen

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 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.

Munchkin Light Cavalry with Command (Wars of Ozz)

I had previously built two infantry regiments and an artillery battery for my Munchkin Brigade. It was time to add a cavalry regiment to my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz. This was a Light Cavalry Regiment, OZZ108 from Wars of Ozz miniatures.

The regiment is 28mm and metal. It is composed of made of 11 figures broken into 11 ponies, 11 riders (from the torso up), and 11 carbines. The riders also are armed with sabers, so they can also engage the enemy from a distance (although carbines are not very long ranged). The Light Cavalry Regiment (LCR) is worth the same amount of points as the Medium Artillery Battery that I described in my last post. Each base in the game can take 4 hits, even though with cavalry there are only two figures per 2″ square base. This regiment has 5 bases plus a regimental commander on an MDF base.

The rules say that the LCR should have “dragoon green” coats and light blue trousers. The ponies (these are Munchkins) are supposed to be in multiple pastel colors – which allowed me to use a number of Citadel Contrast and Army Painter Speed Paints. I painted the carbines, riders, and ponies all separately. Then, I assembled all after painting and varnishing was completed. I used both my specimen jars/poster tack combos and my painting stand with alligator clips to paint and varnish. The project was started on December 8th, and completed on December 19th. There was a lot more work here than I expected – I really needed to plan out the painting and assembly. I also did a bit of research on Napoleonic cavalry as my Napoleonic painting experience level is – well zero. My goal was to achieve a good tabletop standard – and you can be the judge of whether I achieved that. As usual, I will list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the LCR.

WIP shots…

Filed and washed
The carbines in the alligator clip stand

I actually prepped the bases first and started the flocking so that I would not have to manhandle the painted figures later on.

Base prep/sizing.

Then, I prepped/mounted the remaining torsos and riders for painting.

Mounted and tagged for painting. With each pony having a different color, this was instrumental.

The painting proceeded ok – though with all of the details it took a bit longer than I anticipated. I actually changed the fur cap colors from light blue to black after seeing some pictures on line with the light blue on the cap tops and sides. I then looked to give a lot of colorful detail in red, green, yellow, and blue as you’ll see below.

Then I varnished the group, assembled them, mounted them on the 2″ square steel bases, and flocked them.

Assembled.
Completed!

And now…

Eye Candy

There are 5 stands of 2 figures – 4 are similar and one is a command stand with a standard bearer and a bugler. The regimental commander goes on an MDF stand.

Regimental Commander Stand

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Command Stand

Group shots

The LCR in line formation, moving into melee with the Regimental Commander base in the rear.
A higher angle photo of the previous formation.
An angled shot of the left side of the LCR moving up with the Regimental Commander in front.
The LCR ready to charge the enemy with impetus!

So now I have a complete Munchkin Brigade!

My Munchkin Brigade! Clockwise from the top left: Zoraster’s Guard Infantry, Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment, Zoraster and an unnamed wizard, the Light Cavalry Regiment, and the Medium Artillery Battery.

I will now move on to building my brigade of Winkies (basically the Orcs of Ozz). I am not sure how far I will get this year with Christmas coming plus some minor surgery for me right afterwards (oh yay). I am hoping to get at least one more unit done this month, then do a 2022 wrap up with my 2023 goals.

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

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Thanks so very much for checking this post out and please let me know what you think in the comments section. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Still have more to come…

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS MUNCHKIN LIGHT CAVALRY REGIMENT:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. Paper clip wire pieces
  3. 1 1/4″ x 1″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  4. Poster tack
  5. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  7. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  8. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  9. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  10. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  11. Black Sharpie pen
  12. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  13. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  14. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  15. Vallejo Game Air “Sick Green”
  16. Vallejo Game Air “Electric Blue”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  19. Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
  20. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
  22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
  23. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”
  24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Akhelian Green”
  25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Pylar Glacier”
  26. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Nazdreg Yellow”
  27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magos Purple”
  29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aethermatic Blue”
  30. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Terradon Turquoise”
  31. Battlefront “Black”
  32. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Basilicanum Grey”
  33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
  34. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  35. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
  36. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  37. Army Painter “Flesh Wash” (wash/shade)
  38. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  39. Model Air “Bright Brass”
  40. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  41. P3 “Midland Flesh”
  42. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
  43. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  44. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
  45. Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
  46. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
  47. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
  48. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  49. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory
  50. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  51. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  52. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  53. Army Painter “Brown Battleground” (flocking)
  54. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Dark Blue Tufts” (flocking)

Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery (Wars of Ozz)

Any Munchkin Brigade needs a good dose of heavy firepower to fend off the enemies of the Emerald City at long range. For my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz games, I finished off a Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery with Crew (OZZ107). Let’s call it MMAB.

In the game, the MMAB is the stronger of the two artillery choices (the other being a light battery). For comparison, a medium battery can fire at targets up to 24″, while a light battery range is out to 18″, with musket range being at max of 14″. In the game, firing at half ranges is more effective as one would think, and short range for the MMAB is 8″, while a light battery is 6″, and muskets are 7″. So this MMAB gives the brigade a bit of standoff firepower.

The artillery batteries in Wars of Ozz are composed of 5 figures plus a gun. For close combat, they are armed with carbines (which are slightly more than half of the range of muskets – but hopefully they don’t have to get into melee – but the odds are that they will!). While an infantry or cavalry regiment has 5 bases – each of which can take 4 hits – the battery can take 5 hits (one per figure). Each hit removes a figure and loses a die for attacking. The scale is 28mm and these figures are metal.

I started parallel-working on these while I worked on Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment back on November 25th. When I needed to let something dry, I did a little work on this unit. The gun with its carriage required assembly. With the carriage needing serial painting – so as to get the right bluish look per Ozz canon (pun intended – see how I did that!) – and the gun being pretty big, the parallel approach got it done without causing me impatience. I followed the same procedure as to painting these figures as I did with the previous units, by priming in white, then washing with a dark shade, then painting, highlighting, and shading.

A major consideration for me was how to paint up the cannon and carriage. First, there were undersides to the gun and carriage to consider for painting and assembly. Second, there were the choices of colors. I experimented with several blues and bluish craft metallics for the gun. Initially, I went with a classic grey gun metal look for the gun, but changed it to brass as I liked the look better. As Munchkins are being very fond of blue, I thought that was appropriate. As is my custom, I list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the MMAB.

WIP shots…

As discussed, I started on November 25th. This was mainly preparatory work on filing, washing before priming. My main effort was the CTTIR during this time.

As received – washed
Mounted for priming
Primed

There is an MDF base available for artillery batteries with slots for the gun and figure – that even allows for removing casualties and for denoting if the gun is limbered or unlimbered. That needed assembly, so another thing to do while other things were drying. I also was thinking about transport and storage – so I added steel bases under the MDF ones for the artillerists and the gun.

Gluing steel under the MDF
The larger base

Then, I slowly worked on painting the cannon and carriage components and assembled them by December 1st.

The cannon painted and varnished resting on its MDF base. Above, you can see how I traced so that I would be able to score the base under the tracings. This would get a better hold for gluing.

The figures came next, but unfortunately do not have any WIP shots of them. I followed Ozz canon (yes, I did that again) for the colors.

On December 4th, this brought me back to completing the magnetizing the unit for gaming, storage, and transport. My artillerist figures were mounted on 3/4″ steel washers. These would be glued to the MDF bases, which had 1/2″ steel squares glued to the their undersides as seen above. I drilled out 1/8″ holes in the center of each of the base’s recesses. Then, I glued another 1/2″ square steel base below the holes with 1/8″ neodymium magnets in each hole. In the end, the figures were removable from the base (but won’t fall out), and the base will store safely in my magnetic sheet-lined Really Useful Box with my other units. You can see this below in the photo.

By December 7th, I had the unit painted and was ready for final assembly and flocking.

December 7th progress

And…by December 9th I was done!

MMAB DONE!

How about some…

Eye Candy…

The unit can be shown as limbered (as above) or unlimbered as you can see below. A casualty is taken out on the right.

My favorite shot:

So now I am up to three units plus two Wizards. The Munchkin Light Cavalry is next. As you may want to check out the figures range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and figures are available from the following two places:

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Thanks for checking this post out and please let me know what you think in the comments section. 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 MUNCHKIN MEDIUM ARTILLERY BATTERY:

  1. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  2. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  3. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  4. Gorilla Glue
  5. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  6. MDF Artillery base from Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  7. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
  8. 3/4″ steel washers
  9. Poster tack
  10. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  11. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  12. 1 1/4″ x 1″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  13. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  15. Armory “Dark Blue”
  16. DecoArt “Peacock Pearl”
  17. Tamiya XF-6 “Copper”
  18. Vallejo Model Color “Dark Prussian Blue”
  19. Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  22. Army Painter “Blue Tone”
  23. Secret Weapon Washes “Golden Brown” (wash)
  24. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
  25. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  26. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
  27. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  28. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Frostheart”
  30. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  31. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  32. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
  34. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
  35. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
  36. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  37. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  38. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  39. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  40. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  41. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  42. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Dark Blue Tufts” (flocking)

Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment, Zoraster, and a Munchkin Mayor (Wars of Ozz)

I am continuing to build my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz games. In my last post, I shared OZZ-101 – Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment (ZGIR).  This time I have built and painted up a different Munchkin infantry unit – Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment (hereafter referred to here as CTTIR). I also painted up Zoraster (a Wizard) and a Munchkin Mayor as a lesser Wizard.

In the game, the CTTIR is slightly less capable than the ZGIR, but still better than a militia or Landwehr unit. Like the ZGIR, the regiment is composed of 20 figures plus a mounted regimental commander. It is similarly armed with muskets while sporting cool carabiner helmets. In the canon of the Wars of Ozz, Zoraster is “the Wizard Supreme”, and is the creator the Munchkin Army. The Munchkin Mayor figure came with the Kickstarter and confused me for a bit as you’ll see in the discussion below. The scale is 28mm and these 23 figures are metal.

There are 4 figures per 2″ square base, so five bases plus a commander make up a regiment. 16 of the based figures are of the same type, while the fifth base has four different figures – two standard bearers (with the Ozz flag and the regimental colors), a drummer, and another leader figure. This “command” stand fights like the others, but has an aesthetic effect on the tabletop of being nice to see. The regimental commander has his own base and can have special attributes, but its stand never engages in combat. It exists mainly for the attributes tab (on its MDF base) and also aesthetics. If the regiment dies, so does he. There is magic in the game – and Zoraster is a designated Wizard. There are also “unnamed Wizards”, so I will likely use the Munchkin Mayor as one – or maybe just an objective marker.

I pretty much followed the same procedure as to painting these figures as I did with the ZGIR. I prime in white, then wash with a dark shade, then paint and highlight. If I need more shade or highlight, I add it.

A major difference here for me was how to paint up the helmets and officer hats. While Wars of Ozz canon has this regiment in white, it also has all Munchkins as being very fond of blue. But after looking at images of Napoleonic era carabiner helmets (below) I decided that I wanted a similar metallic brass and chrome look.

Napoleonic carabiner helmets

I also decided to give the officers white hats. I did give the drummer a bit of blue on the drum and of course the standards have a lot of blue, so I think I’m safe. For the regimental commander’s pony I went with a slightly sallow pastel yellow. One cool aspect of the universe of the Wars of Ozz game is the use of a lot of color (hence the pastel ponies and more). The rules say that for CTTIR the facings, plumes and epaulettes are red – and that the coats and vests are white. Here I used a lot of Army Painter “Holy White” Speed Paint mixed with Citadel “Contrast Medium”. In fact, I still mix all of my Speed Paints with that medium. The combination of using the Citadel “Nuln Oil” wash post-priming and then the Holy White helped a lot with the less-detailed recesses on the figures. As usual, I list all the paints I used on these at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of information.

As I did previously, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the regiment.

WIP shots…

I started on November 25th. Below, you see the figures are based for priming, primed, and then I added a Citadel “Nuln Oil” wash before moving on to painting them. I have not tried “slap chop”, but I do like this way of using contrast/speed paints as part of my technique.

I was confused (as my Kickstarter order was a while back) as to which figure was Zoraster. Eventually, I determined that the smaller one was a Munchkin mayor thrown into the Kickstarter and that I had mistakenly ordered 2 Zoraster figures! I’ll keep one unpainted for trade. The Munchkin figure looks like the Boston Celtics mascot.

Two Zoraster figures and the Munchkin mayor doffing hats…

During the next three days, I made decent progress. I ended up numbering the specimen bottle labels with mistakes and keeping a list so I could fix them – this helped a lot.

Dec 1 progress morning
Dec 1 progress evening

The figures were all painted less any varnish and flocking by December 2nd.

Then it was on to the varnishing the figures, adding the standards/colors, and thereafter flocking the bases. I noticed that when I cut out the standards from card stock that the edges stood out as white. So, to remedy this, I used a black Sharpie pen to color in the edges as the standards have a black edge as well.

As for flocking, this time I pre-flocked all of the regimental bases with one type of grass, then added the other two types after affixing two, then three, then the fourth figure to each base. It’s probably overkill but I do like how they have come out. For the two Wizards, I just went with the first two grasses and added Shadow’s Edge Miniatures blue forest tufts.

My three sequential grasses, clockwise from the left. The first two may be different iterations of a similar type, but they are different enough to give some texture and more depth to the bases.
Flocking with the first grass type
The command base after two types of grass flocked on it

By December 4th, the CTTIR was done, plus the wizards as well. Now onto some eye candy…

Eye Candy

Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regimental Commander

A look at 2 stands…

A look at the command stand…

A look at the whole regiment…

A look at Zoraster…

A look at the Munchkin Mayor (Lesser Wizard)…

Howdy folks!

I hope that this was interesting for you. I am hoping to take 7-10 days per regiment or battery until I get through the Kickstarter. This should take me into next year, but hopefully I can keep a good pace. I have plenty of space in the box for this in-progress brigade…

Munchkin Brigade to date…

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

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Thanks for checking this post out and please let me know what you think in the comments section. More to come…

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS MUNCHKIN REGIMENT, ZORASTER, & THE MUNCHKIN MAYOR:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. Paper clip wire pieces
  3. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  4. 3/4″ steel washers (wizards)
  5. Poster tack
  6. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  7. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  8. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  9. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  10. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  11. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  12. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  13. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
  14. Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
  15. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
  25. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  26. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
  27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
  28. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
  29. Army Painter “Red Tone”
  30. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  31. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
  32. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
  33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Nighthaunt Gloom”
  34. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Asurman Blue”
  35. Americana “Bahama Blue”
  36. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Pylar Glacier”
  37. Vallejo Model Color “Black”
  38. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
  39. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
  40. Citadel “Longbeard Grey”
  41. Battlefront “Skin Shade”
  42. Battlefront “European Skin”
  43. P3 “Flesh Wash”
  44. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  45. Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
  46. Vallejo Mecha Color “Olive Green”
  47. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  48. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  49. Black Sharpie pen
  50. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  51. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory
  52. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  53. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  54. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  55. Army Painter “Brown Battleground” (flocking)
  56. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Dark Blue Tufts” (flocking)

Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment (Munchkins for Wars of Ozz)

Yes, you read that correctly. Munchkins.

They are one of many factions in the Wars of Ozz game. The rules were written by my good friend Buck Surdu (who also wrote the rulesets of Combat Patrol™ and Feudal PatrolTM . I have been wanting to get going on my Wars of Ozz figures – but first wanted to finish the figures and terrain for my Civilizations Collide games involving the Aztec/Conquistadores/Tlaxcalans/Maya. As I shared in my last post, that has now happened, so onwards to Ozz!

The game rules and figures are available from the following two places:

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Of course, there are now many new factions for Wars of Ozz. Currently, I have Munchkins and Winkies (think orc-like dudes) and some pretty cool allies – which I’ll eventually post about here. However, first I am going to finish a Munchkin brigade. It will consist of two infantry regiments, a light cavalry squadron (on pastel ponies), and an artillery battery. One cool aspect of the universe of the Wars of Ozz game is the use of a lot of color (hence the pastel ponies and more). I find, like I did in my Mesoamerican projects, that having a lot of color can be a lot of fun.

Here, the units in Ozz are made up of mass armies – this is not skirmish gaming. There are wizards and witches, so some magic, but the game is primarily black powder type warfare. The gaming engine of Ozz has also been used as the basis for WOOD (Wars of Orcs and Dwarves) for mass fantasy battles. But let’s get back to my first regiment…

It is OZZ-101 – Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment (hereafter referred to by me as ZGIR). The scale is 28mm and these are metal.

Zoraster is “the Wizard Supreme”, and created the Munchkin Army. As for ZGIR, it’s a tough unit, as one would expect of a guard unit, with excellent marksmanship and melee values. It is armed with muskets. It also has great resolve and elan values which help it in combat. It’s also the most expensive Munchkin unit. Of course, I had to start with this one…

It, like all infantry regiments in Ozz, is composed of 20 figures plus a regimental commander. There are 4 figures per 2″ square base, so five bases plus a commander make up a regiment. 16 of the based figures are of the same type, while the fifth base has four different figures – two standard bearers (with the Ozz flag and the regimental colors), a drummer, and another leader figure. This “command” stand fights like the others, but has an aesthetic effect on the tabletop of being nice to see. The regimental commander has his own base and can have special attributes, but its stand never engages in combat. It exists mainly for the attributes tab (on its MDF base) and also aesthetics. If the regiment dies, so does he.

I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the regiment.

WIP shots…

I first cleaned up the regiment (filing, washing) then worked on drilling out a couple of holes on the two figures for the regimental commander to be able to be mounted onto his pony. I inserted a paper clip wire into the pony to match the hole under the commander. This also allowed me to mount the upper torso of the commander for painting on a screw on a specimen container.

The regiment as received
All washed
Inserting wire for mounting commander

Then, I needed to find a way to mount the other figures. The figures’ bases are less than 3/8″, and as mentioned will eventually be mounted on 2″ square bases. For the individual figures, I decided to use 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases – both the 2″ and 1/2″ square bases are from Wargames Accessories.

Munchkins are small!
Based and primed for painting.

I decided to use Citadel Contrast and Army Painter speed paints as much as possible. As these are mass units, I thought this would be fine. I want to get them into games!

The figures themselves are nice, but not differentiated much. The faces are all mustachioed, and all have a “puppy dog” look with an open mouth and tongue sticking out. Still, they have a certain character.

As it’s Mo’vember, I chose to vary the mustache colors. After priming, I gave them all a wash with Citadel “Nuln Oil” and then dry brushed them in white before adding any colors. As is my habit, I do list all the paints I used on these at the end of this post for those interested.

After priming and wash application.
Started painting with the hats, skin, and facings.

I started working on these on 11/14 – by 11/22 I had made good progress. I found highlighting with Citadel “Doomfire Magenta” over its “Baal Red” was effective. The regiment has a somewhat British redcoat look to it.

The commander and his mount
Why not a pink pony?

Then I assembled the Regimental commander’s MDF base.

Gluing together the regimental commander’s base.
Ready for their air brush varnish application.

While the base set, I matte varnished the figures in preparation for mounting on the 2″ square steel bases.

The ZGIR post-varnish needed its standards attached and also basing completion – to include flocking. The flags are available on the Wars of Ozz Facebook page as downloads. I cut out the flags after printing them out on cardstock. I glued them together on with PVA and bent them to get a wind-blown look. As for mounting the figures, I drew a pair of lines with a sharpie on the steel bases corner-to-corner. Then I took a blank 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel base and aligned it in the center of the 2″ base, using the lines to align the 4 corners of the 1/2″ base. Then I traced over the little base in pencil, such that I could going forward use the corner of the little traced square and the sharpie lines to orient the bases. I believed that flocking with the figures all affixed to the 2″ square bases would be too difficult. Therefore, I glued on two figures, flocked, then the third, then flocked, then the fourth. All this time I flocked the spaces where the figures would not be. This way I was able to apply the flocking effectively to give some depth of grass. In this case – I used three different flocking products from Army Painter sequentially with PVA to give this depth to the otherwise bland steel bases.

Cutting out flags.
Mock up of the lining up of the figures using the lines.
Sequential flocking!

These sound similar, but they are not. Clockwise from the left, I sequentially used Battlefields Grass Green, followed by Battlefield Field Grass, followed by Battlefields Field Grass. Confusing, but it worked as you see below.
Close up of flocking.

Now on to some eye candy with a new background!

Eye Candy

Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regimental Commander

A look at 2 stands…

A look at the command stand…

A look at the whole regiment…

Zoraster’s Guard Infantry Regiment in modified line. The regimental commander here is in the back of the command stand.
Side view with the regimental commander up front.
Here, the commander is put in back as the regiment is about to enter melee…
A different orientation – still in line with 4 stands abreast and the other stand just behind. All 5 stands could be in line – but not if I want a group photo!

I managed to finish the regiment on 11/22 – so 8 days. This post had to wait for Thanksgiving (and for me to overcome a bad cold). I enjoyed painting these and am moving on to the rest of my Munchkin brigade.

Thanks for looking, and always please let me know what you think of this new project in the comments section.

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS MUNCHKIN REGIMENT:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. Paper clip wire pieces
  3. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  4. Poster tack
  5. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
  6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  7. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  8. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
  9. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  10. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
  11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  12. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Volupus Pink”
  13. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
  14. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
  16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  17. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  19. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  20. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
  22. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  24. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
  25. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  26. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  27. Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
  28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
  29. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
  30. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  31. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
  32. Vallejo Mecha Color “Olive Green”
  33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
  34. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  35. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  36. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory
  37. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  38. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  39. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  40. Army Painter “Brown Battleground” (flocking)

My Fall In! 2022 Roundup

I was fortunate to attend the HMGS Fall In®  gaming convention last weekend (November 3-6, 2022) in Lancaster, PA. The Maryland-based Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (H.A.W.K.’s) were kind enough to adopt me (a Massachusetts-based Mass Pikeman) and invited me to be a game master in their dedicated gaming room at Fall In!. They are a great group of folks and I am very grateful for their hospitality! Lancaster is a 6-hour drive for me – but the trip was well worth it.

There were close to 400 games – or more too many to count – at the convention. The event was amazing and very well-run for sure. I played in two games, and ran 4 of my own. As this situation begs for visual inputs, I will have A LOT of photos and a couple of video links to share.

Click on the photos for a better view.

Thanks to Chris Palmer for some of these photos below as well. I hope that you find these enjoyable.

Thursday Night, Marines versus Japanese, a Combat Patrol™ Game

After I set up my first game on Thursday night (for Friday morning), Eric Schlegel of the H.A.W.K.’s ran a pick up  Combat Patrol™ game Thursday night. It involved US Marines storming a Japanese island. I played on the Japanese side and the USMC overwhelmed the defenders and won. It was a fun quick game. Here’s a couple of photos:

Kurt Schlegel plans his landings. Greg Priebe looks tired…
Opposite view of the tabletop

Friday Morning, “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game

After a good night’s sleep, I arrived early to set up my Feudal Patrol™ game of “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli”. It’s a pre-Spanish Conquest fight between the Aztecs and their neighbors the Tlaxcalans. The Aztecs attempt to conduct a raid of a Tlaxcalan village to gain captives for slavery and blood sacrifice, and the Tlaxcalans fight back!

The game went very well – as you will see below. The Aztecs made a valiant assault across open terrain into a hail of Tlaxcalan arrows – and went into melee. The Tlaxcalans were ready and gave as good as they got. In the end, they Aztecs eked out a minor victory 34-27. The casualties were separated only by 3 figures out of 18 total on both sides. Both sides were totally excited about their prospects and the battle. Here’s a gallery of photos from that game:

The game set up
A great group of happy gamers! (no fighting yet!)
The game starts
Aztec Arrow Knight move up – and attract a LOT of Tlaxcalan arrows
Right flank fight
The big scrum begins
Big fight by one of the game objectives – the maize storage structure.
Battlefield overview – lots of mayhem.
All were realy engaged by the game!
Final moments of chaos!

Near the end of the game, an official of the convention briefly interrupted the game – and to my surprise awarded me a PELA award (my first ever) 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”.”

I was really shocked and honored – and as a cherry on the sundae I got a rousing applause from the players too. There were about 30 games in my time slot – so not a lay up to be chosen by any means. The award was a lovely Samurai figure on a plinth and a voucher for the vendor hall.

Yes, I’m happy! And honored!
My award!

After picking up the morning game, I and Greg Priebe walked around the event before preparing for our evening game that we had collaborated on. Here is a gallery of just some of what was there- some truly amazing stuff.

Greg Priebe’s France 1940 (BEF)
Dave Wood’s Wars of Orcs and Dwarves
This Japanese tabletop was amazing.
This NYC gangster game was shockingly beautiful. It was electrified – lights everywhere, the steamer had a horn going, WOW. WOW. WOW!!!

I mentioned Dave Wood above – my West Point roommate – always good to see my good friend, my brother from another mother…

Me and Dave, USMA 1984

Greg and I then set up our game, Vikings vs. Aztecs!!!

Friday Evening, “Vikings vs. Aztecs!!!”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game

Greg Priebe and I had worked out this scenario over the phone and Zoom.

The Morin/Priebe Collaboration
Tenochtitlan set up for battle

Obviously this is not a historical recreation, but a “what if”. Greg had brought the Viking figures and I of course brought the Aztecs – and we co-GM’ed the game.

The game went well. The Aztecs, led by Acamapichtli, needed to prevent the Vikings, led by Carl the Jarl and Brunhilde the Shieldmaiden, from raiding and looting various structures – and of course casualties counted as well for both sides. In the end, the Aztecs majorly triumphed – partly due to the Vikings having probably the WORST luck of the draw in any wargame that I have seen in 20 years. That’s not to detract from the Aztec play – which focused on defense and won the day. However, I did not tally a score. Here’s a gallery:

Happy Gamers!
Battle begins…
Vikings advance…
Aztecs go up in the temple…
Aztecs and Vikings fight on the temple steps
The Vikings reach the top of the Temple – but fail to kill the Aztec leader…
The Temple is covered with warriors!
Mayhem in Tenochtitlan!

It was a fun game nonetheless and the players on both sides displayed excellent camaraderie. Greg also gave me a bunch of Viking sprues so that I could have my own Vikings too. I do have some old school metal ones, but I will (someday), assemble and paint these up to run this game again. I just need to help out the Vikings!

We then cleaned up and I then set up most of my next day’s afternoon and evening games – as I planned on playing in Chris Palmer’s Ozz game on Saturday morning.

Saturday Morning, “Wars of Ozz: Attack on the Emerald City”, a Wars of Ozz Game

When I had visited Florida and Buck Surdu (as described here) I played a Wars of Ozz game at Recon. Buck’s Wars of Ozz rules and figures are available from Sally4th in the UK here, and in the US at a dedicated Old Glory Ozz site here.

As I have factions (Munchkins, Winkies, Greater and Lesser Pumpkinheads), I wanted to play another game to make sure that I understood the rules since it had been a while. Chris Palmer ran his outstanding scenario of “Attack on the Emerald City“. This involved Nomes (yes, Nomes), burrowing underneath the walls of the Emerald City and undermining its defenses/taking out a wall section. Meanwhile, Winkies, Giant Bears, and Skeletons are assisting the Nomes by attacking from outside the walls. Quadlings and Tin Men inside attempt to defend, while Munchkins defend outside.

In the game I was outside the walls with a medium battery of Munchkin artillery, two infantry regiments (Tik-Tok and Landwehr), and a small Munchkin cavalry regiment. I sent the cavalry to disrupt the Nomes coming after my teammates rears (that sounds wrong but you get it), and succeeded so that they could face the oncoming Winkies and skeletons and not get hit on two sides. This was successful but the cavalry was badly weakened and did not reform until the last turn of the game. My artillery ended up in a counter-battery duel with a couple of Winkie batteries – and was wiped out. Meanwhile, my two infantry regiments held their respective grounds and heavily damaged two attacking Winkie regiments AND wiped out a regiment of Giant Bears. Then, my cavalry reformed and drove off the Nomes on my side. So, victory! Here’s a couple of galleries:

The tabletop
View of the walls as Chris (on left) GM’s
Nomes hole they attacked from
Top view of the walls – just beautiful.
My forces
My Munchkin cavalry and the Landwehr
Eric Schlegel (teammate) on my flank faced attacks on two sides with the Nomes coming up
Skeletons and Winkies attack Eric
My cavalry attempts a spoiling attack on the Nomes
Nomes swarm out of their burrow into the Emerald City against the defenders
Winkies and Bears move up to attack me…
…and then they were gone!
Eric hold the line..
Tin men and Quadlings drive the Nomes back into their hole.

This was an EXCELLENT game and motivates me to hurry up and get to my Ozz figures. Of key note, Chris Palmer deservedly won a PELA for this game the day before! Congrats Chris!

A PELA for Chris!!

As I had set up my afternoon game, after lunch it was time for:

Saturday Afternoon, “The Battle of Lake Texcoco”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game

I planned to run two of this scenario back-to-back. I had FULL tables for each iteration – and I’ll share each in turn. Greg Priebe was a BIG help at both games – thanks Greg!

The scenario is best summarized below:

In the first game, the Conquistadores sailed towards the Aztec war canoe fleet. The Conquistadores needed to fire their falconets and lombards into Tenochtitlan for Victory Points, while the Aztecs got their big points by boarding the brigantines. VP’s were also awarded to both sides for inflicting casualties. Some of the brigantines raised full sails – notably El Dólar (The Buck after Buck Surdu) & El Gregorio (The Greg after Greg Priebe). The other three brigantines are named El Perro de Guerra (The War Dog), & El Conquistador (The Conquistador of course), and El Marcos (named after, well, me). All made it towards Tenochtitlan but the Aztecs were able to board them all and disrupt them sufficiently. El Dólar ended up hitting an underwater obstacle at full speed and settled to the mud bottom, allowing the Aztecs to swarm over it. It’s cannon was unable to bear on the city, and no other ship managed a shot into the city. The Aztecs won a minor victory as no shot hit the capital – but killed a LOT of Aztecs. But the game ended with a score of 226-207 in favor of the Aztecs. Here’s a gallery of that game:

Set up Spanish side
Aztec side set up
The afternoon gamers
El Dólar is boarded!
Forces close in on each other
El Dólar gets stuck and is swarmed
El Marcos is boarded
A very active tabletop

The game was a success, and I reset it for:

Saturday Evening, “The Battle of Lake Texcoco”, a Feudal Patrol™ Game

After resetting from the afternoon, the play recommenced with a different yet FULL slate of gamers. In this game the Spanish were more cautious, and that let the Aztecs close on them sooner. Unlike the first game, the Conquistadors did get one shot off at Tenochtitlan from El Gregorio – but it missed! The final score was 290-172 in favor of the Aztecs. It did not help the Spanish that an arquebus misfired/exploded and killed that arquebusier, another arquebusier, and Alvarado (a key leader). It was nice to have several HAWKS in the game – especially Greg and Chris and Geoff. Here’s a gallery of round 2:

New crews
Aztecs advance
Conquistadores move up towards the city
I adjudicate!
El Dólar gets boarded again
El Gregorio is boarded
El Dólar, El Perro de Guerra, & El Conquistador are all boarded!

Both games were well-received and I really appreciate the help in cleaning up from Chris Palmer, Greg Priebe, and Dave Wood as it was after midnight!

Videos links showing Fall In! 2022 and some of these games

There have been two videos on YouTube that I think are worth seeing if you want more shots of the Fall In! 2022 convention.

The first is by Walt O’Hara called “Fall IN! 2022 at sub light speed“. Click here you will see this video with some nice overall shots of many other games plus some amusing commentary. Chris Palmer’s “Wars of Ozz: Attack on the Emerald City” shows up at 1:52. Our “Vikings vs. Aztecs!!!” game show up at 2:09. His PELA comment was a joke of course- though I did win for my “Raid to Satisfy Huitzilopochtli” as discussed.

The second is from Little Wars TV, called “Fall In” 2022 Show Recap”. It is very well done and you can see a few seconds of me and my Lake Texcoco game at 10:50. Click here to see that video.

Thanks so much to the folks that ran the convention – it was outstanding. Special thanks again to the H.A.W.K.’s for bringing me in and making me feel welcome and a part of the group. Of course, to all who played in my games, please know how much I appreciated sharing my game with you.

Lastly, and as a side note, you may remember that I won a PELA. As part of that award, in addition to the miniature I got this:

So, I took my $12 voucher for my PELA and on Sunday morning after packing up hit the vendor hall. I decided to get some dice etc., and then saw a steel conquistador’s helmet. It called to me. Now it’s mine!

After a long drive home – I showed my wife. Somehow she was not very pleased! Oh well, sorry honey…still love ya…

Thanks for looking and to my regular followers I hope to post more figures soon as golf season has basically wound down.

Escape (albeit temporary) from Massachusetts 2022 – Orlando, Golf School, and Wargaming at RECON

With the unhappy demise of our beloved Caesar on New Years Day (discussed here), and Lynn having subsequently joined me in retirement, we found ourselves for the first time in many years being able to travel. We decided to drive down to the Orlando Florida area in April to visit with friends, for some recreation, to attend a Marriott golf school, and to attend the RECON HMGS South Gaming convention. It was a needed break. The garage+ project would continue while we were gone – so no need to hang around in Massachusetts – off to Florida!

We drove because frankly we prefer it. We were in no mood to deal with airlines, masking requirements, and the rest. Besides, we could more easily bring all the stuff we wanted to take that way.

The morning we left was a chilly start.

It took us three days to get down to Florida (really two and a half). It’s a roughly 1200-mile drive. We left on 4/13, and stopped south of Richmond, VA and in Savannah, GA on the way.

X5 is packed, let’s hit the road!

The ride down was mostly done on I95 (avoiding NYC metro as that’s a nightmare). However, the most surprising aspect of the drive down was the number of dangerous/reckless drivers we saw – and really seeing no traffic enforcement to speak of on the way. Even while we were in Florida (where along with the metro DC area) we saw many drivers who were totally oblivious to safe driving practices. The only times we saw any cops on the highways happened twice in Florida when they shut down I4 – both for fatal crashes. Maybe this chaos was so because it was spring break week – but for the ride back we took a longer path inland towards I81-I84 and it was far less like a post-apocalyptic Road Warrior movie or a game of GASLANDS.

Arriving at our first hotel on Friday the 15th (the Wyndham in Kissimmee), we checked in and hit the pool deck for some needed drinks and relaxation. This hotel was also the site for the HMGS South RECON Gaming convention, but that was not to happen until the following weekend. That night, we got together with the Surdu’s (Buck and Candy) for dinner with them which was great fun.

Arrival and hanging out at the pool

As for Easter weekend, we decided that Disney and Universal costs were way too expensive – and we had visited both previously. Nearby SeaWorld owns both itself in Orlando, and Busch Gardens in Tampa. They had a decently-priced deal for visiting both parks in 5 days (well better than the ridiculous fortune that the other parks were asking for). We had not been to either before, so the plan became Busch Gardens for the 16th, and SeaWorld for Monday the 18th, with Easter Sunday being a hangout day at Casa Surdu.

On Saturday the 16th, we drove to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens theme park. It has a LOT of roller coasters and is a pretty good zoo. Neither of us like roller coasters, but the experience was good. The animal exhibits were quite good. Below I have put up a few photos:

Busch Gardens map
The kangaroo pavilion – made me think of you Aussies…
The kangaroos and wallabies were cooling out – I sent this to IRO and he said it reminded him of his buddies after a good amount of beer consumption!
We did ride the carousel!
Tiger in back right
“Petting” a sleeping hyena
My favorite image – a Nile crocodile (not an alligator) and a very oblivious Florida egret that flew in to hang out. Apparently the croc wasn’t hungry.

We had an enjoyable day. The next day, Easter Sunday, was excellent as we got to hang out with Buck and Candy – whose hospitality was superb and thanks again you two.

On Monday the 18th we went to SeaWorld. Of course, it is known for its orcas. I have to say it was a very nice sea-themed park with fauna from all ends of the globe. Certainly they have changed practices with all of their animals since the unfortunate trainer death a decade+ ago.

This walrus was in the arctic section of the park – along with beluga whales and others from that area. This walrus really hammed it up for us at the window, blowing bubbles and cavorting.
The killer whales (orcas) were amazing to see.
Great to see these but we stayed out of the “splash zone”!
Wow!

Both Busch Gardens and SeaWorld have partnered with Sesame Street to have a kids section of their respective parks. I thought it was tastefully done.

Juvenile dolphin pool.

We also had purchased the “all-day dining” package – which was really not all it sounded like. It did not cover beer, and any food purchased under the plan started a 90-minute clock that prevented any other freebies until that 90 minutes was up. Also, most of the special kiosk foods were not covered (like the pretzel one below). Otherwise, we enjoyed the park – which also is loaded with roller coasters that we didn’t ride. The exhibits were really cool, as were the special show-type ones such as for the seals and the orcas.

Time for a beer (not free under the dining plan), a pretzel (also not free), and a selfie with Lynn.
Met a new friend – but he only cared for cookies…would not share as they were not under the plan either…

Now both at Busch Gardens and at SeaWorld there were some promotional displays. This one also made me think of our favorite Aussie gardener/landscaper IRO. And no I did not spend my entire vacation thinking of him – just being reminded of him was enough!

Does IRO mow with Bad Boys?

That night we left the Wyndham for the Marriott Golf Resort/School for two days of relative luxury and golf school for us both. Lynn picked up a lot, and I used the opportunity to rework my swing (which is now coming around as I write this in early June as expected two months later). Lynn and I have been playing golf more and it’s nice to have the chance to play together. She’ll never be a die-hard like me, but we’re having fun. The Marriott resort there is really nice too.

At the Marriott Golf School.

After two days (the evening of the 18th-20th) at the Marriott, it was back to staying at the previous Wyndham where HMGS South was having their RECON gaming convention. Lynn was indeed missing the Marriott…so I plied her with a blue drink…

I think she misses the Marriott…

Still we managed to have fun on the 18th – the Wyndham had an interactive game of dodgeball with zombies on a projection screen. Apparently the blue drink does not help accuracy with dodgeball against the undead.

Yes, zombie dodgeball!

Still we were having a good time.

Hey that’s my hat!

The next day (April 21st), I had the privilege of gaming with with Buck back at his amazing gaming room (which you can see below). As a bonus, my old West Point roommate Dave Wood and Buck’s buddy JJ were there. We were also joined via Zoom for this gaming session with Greg Priebe and Chris Palmer of the Maryland-based HAWKS gaming club. While Candy took our spouses out, we wargamers playtested a massive Napoleonic game using a derivative of Buck’s Wars of Ozz rules. It is in development and will be called Wars of Eagles and Empires.

Wars of Eagles and Empires game
This game was a lot of fun, and despite its size, it only took about three and a half hours – not bad for a playtest.

Then we moved on to run a final test of Dave’s RECON WOOD (Wars of Orcs and Dwarves) game. This also uses Buck’s Wars of Ozz-type mechanics, but with changes for fantasy gaming. It is close to publication. Here are some images – we would also play this game at RECON after any modifications.

The pig-faced orcs defend a bridge and river against the halfling onslaught.
Halfling cavalry on goats and giant roosters attack.

The next day (22nd) was our day 1 of RECON. We reran the Hobbits raid on the Orc village scenario at the convention and it was a hoot.

Hobbits on purple pachyderms force a bridge crossing!
The mighty GM (Buck) surveys the carnage.

I want to give EXTRA credit to Lynn as she agreed to game the whole day with me. During a lull in the game, I asked her with iPhone in hand if she was enjoying herself…

Having fun dear?

Seriously, she was a good sport but one day of gaming a year is the best I can expect!

We then played in a Combat Patrol™ game involving Star Wars figures that was fun.

Dave and Buck GM’ing the Star Wars game.
Buck had a nice tabletop here.
All had fun – though I think my side (clones) lost against the droids.

The last game Friday was a 7ITV game that Lyn and I played. There were three side-by-side games – and Lynn and I played the Scooby-Doo scenario.

Lynn and I play the Scooby-Doo scenario. Hey, she’s smiling! Next to her is JJ playing against Buck in a Jonny Quest scenario.
Here you can see the three scenarios – some other sci-fi scenario is on the end. Buck is looking distracted. I think the GM had a wonderful set of terrain but the games dragged as we took a while to grasp the mechanics. Also, I found it tough to get his attention with three games running simultaneously – so not as fun as I expected. But Lynn had served her gaming sentence and was free to hang out with Candy at a blueberry fest on Saturday while the con went on.

Saturday morning Buck ran a Philippines 1941 Combat Patrol™ scenario that I helped him as an assistant GM. I truly enjoyed this!

Buck surveys the tabletop in his happy shirt.
The Japanese players move up their Ha-Go tanks towards the bridge. Neither the tanks nor the the bridge would survive long as the Americans reacted.

The next game was my favorite – a massive Wars of Ozz game where I commanded a brigade of Winkie zilk-riding cavalry (think giant birds of prey). I maneuvered the brigade to assault the Quadlings and Munchkins opposing me.

My Winkie cavalry forms up.
The tabletop – my cavalry is in the foreground.
My Winkie cavalry moving into action!

The game was an overwhelming Winkie and Gillikin (my allies) victory.

Lastly, Buck, JJ, and I (Dave left Friday) played a neat Spanish-American scenario for Blood & Steel. The GM did an excellent job – and the game came down to a final roll of the dice, which went for Buck and JJ, but it was a lot of fun to play them. The scenario was a very fun skirmish game. (no pics sorry).

After this, we said goodbye and I headed back to my room where Lynn and I packed up for the return trip to Massachusetts.

I have to say it was a great trip – and one I will always remember. Big thanks to Buck and Candy!!!! Dave and JJ too!!

Next up – how I built a Conquistador fleet for the Battle of Lake Texcoco for HUZZAH 2022 (in between taking this trip and HAVOC 2022)!

My 2021 Hobby, Gaming, and Blogging Roundup

2021 was another one that we all want to forget in many ways, but not all.

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. Back when I was working in “the dreaded private sector”, I had sales goals to hit every period – be it yearly, quarterly, thrice annually, or whatever. Every manager would ask you for “stretch goals” – which was pretty unnecessary as the sales quotas you were given from corporate were never layups anyways. Still, it’s always good to have a plan and try your best. It’s also good to be honest with yourself and be accountable to yourself. Hopefully, that’s what I did with regards to my goals in 2021.

How did I do versus my 2020 goals?

Paint 250 figures or more

That did not happen, though my production was pretty good at 104. For three months I did not do any painting (August-October) as I was pretty involved with the new garage+ project.

Not even all of them now…

Complete the figures and terrain for Civilizations Collide

I have to give myself full credit here – the building of the Aztec cityscape was an epic project. However, I still am finding that I have more to do as I develop scenarios for my Spanish Conquest scenarios booklet – so yes I built what I planned – I just have more to do to flesh out the other scenarios with terrain and figures.

Historicon 2022

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

Big miss here – did not get to them. I did get to play a game at Christoricon though – commanding the Greater and Lesser Pumpkinheads.

I gotta paint mine (these are not).

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

Big miss here – did not get to them either.

Attend and run games at conventions or club nights or both, if possible – to include Combat Patrol™ retro sci-fi games, What a Tanker©  Battle of France May-June 1940, and Aztec games (live or virtually) for Feudal PatrolTM using my “Civilizations Collide” supplement

No retro sci-fi games or WaT games this year – but I did run multiple games of for Feudal PatrolTM using my “Civilizations Collide” supplement, to include at Historicon.

Christoricon

Get my golf handicap down below 15

HA! I have hovered around 20-21 all year. I did get new clubs this year, and I won my flight in the Club Championship (and as a caveat it was the D Flight, but I am proud of that).

I did get a trophy…

Play golf (in season) at least twice a week

I did do this!

The new G425 toys! I also got G710 irons.

Make between 30 and 36 blog posts of value and quality

As far as quality, I would judge them as up to standard (but that is the reader’s judgement, no?). Quantity-wise, I did 54, so that’s a “check”.

Get back on the Imperial Rebel Ork podcast

Well IRO euthanized his podcast earlier this year, so that wasn’t possible. Understandably, the man had a cabin to build!

Build a new garage

As most of you know, that is on-going, so not yet done.

Through early December

Personal Highs for 2021

  1. Continuing to serve my Town (East Brookfield, MA) as the elected Board of Health Chairman during the pandemic. Specifically, getting over 500 seniors vaccinated (1/3 from neighboring towns even), and getting nearly 100% of the 56+ residents vaccinations.
  2. Completing the Aztec cityscape and bringing it to the gaming at Historicon – and playing with Harry (borderguy190 at War Across the Ages and Other Dark Horrors).
  3. Getting together with Dave Wood, Buck Surdu, Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, and Duncan Adams in person and on Zoom games. Even had The Imperfect Modeller on one game as an observer (which was cool).
  4. Winning my flight in the club championship at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club in Oakham, MA.
  5. Having fun Zoom chats with Luke (IRO), Dave (The Imperfect Modeller), Dave (Wargames Terrain Workshop), Mike (despertaferres), and Pete (S/P Project Blog).
  6. Getting the garage started and mostly done.
  7. Getting together with family especially my daughter Ellen and my granddaughter Tabitha.
  8. My wife Lynn, every day (seriously).

Personal Lows for 2021

  1. One that comes to mind I’ll save for next year as it was 2022. Still a fresh wound.
  2. That pandemic thingy from China, ’nuff said.

My goals for 2022

Well, its time to set my goals for 2022.

  1. Paint 150 figures or more.
  2. Complete the remaining conquistador figures for Civilizations Collide.
  3. Complete the remaining terrain for Civilizations Collide, to include the brigantines.
  4. Complete the remaining Maya figures for Civilizations Collide.
  5. Complete the scenario booklet for Civilizations Collide.
  6. Complete my figures for Wars of Ozz, ok at least 40 of them.
  7. Paint up a platoon from Wargames Supply Dump for Combat Patrol™ .
  8. Try to get my Nomonhan WaT project off the ground.
  9. 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 .
  10. Get the Mass Pikemen more active once the pandemic diminishes.
  11. Celebrate my wife’s retirement (and mine belatedly) with a nice trip.
  12. Finish the garage+ and launch that baby successfully.
  13. Post on the blog 48 times or more – and in good quality.
  14. Be a good blog follower.
  15. Have multiple Zoom chats with fellow hobbyists.
  16. Go to a golf school and get my golf handicap down below 18.
  17. Play golf (in season) at least twice a week.
  18. Win my flight in the Championship.
  19. Be a competitive golfer.

Again, thanks to all who make the time to read this blog – Happy New Year!

Lastly, here follows a detailed list of the 2021 production. You can access more details here.

2021 Production
  • 104 figures painted
  • 0 figures cast
  • 25 figures assembled
  • 144 terrain pieces made or assembled
  • 145 terrain pieces painted
  • 1 figure or terrain piece conversions
  • 1 creation or component sculpted or scratch-built
  • 0 molds made
  • 1,051 game pieces/game aids made and/or painted

Historicon 2021, Christoricon, and Axis & Allies

This post will cover my wargaming over the extended Veteran’s Day weekend – hopefully you will enjoy the discussion and the photos of the games here. Hell, grab a beer or a wine or whatever! Some cool pics and links to be sure.

I had been planning to attend the last Historicon – but it got moved (I think there was a pandemic or something, I (try) to forget). The event was then rescheduled for November. As Historicon and the other HMGS events have been on my bucket list, I wanted to go as a GM anyways and player too.

Also, as followers of this blog know – I have been deep into building out a series of games for the Spanish Conquest over the last year-and-a-half. This has involved many aspects – writing a rules supplement, painting figures, and building a series of games and battlefields much more for the for Feudal Patrol™ games for the period of the Spanish Conquest in Mesoamerica 500 years ago. I also recently rewrote my supplement Civilizations Collide – which will be a free download (as will a scenario booklet with multiple historic scenarios that I am working on now). So, I was very much looking forward to Historicon 2021.

Therefore, I signed up to run two games – both of which are scenarios on my in-progress booklet. I planned on running both my “Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost” and “Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt” games on Thursday night and Saturday morning respectively.

The Maryland-based H.A.W.K.’s were kind enough to admit me as a game master and share their room. I have been long-time friends with two members, Dave Wood (my old West Point roommate) and Buck Surdu (who also has been a friend since our West Point days which are now going back aways). Buck is also the author of many games, to include  Feudal Patrol™ and Wars of Ozz© (see a nice review of Ozz here).

My friend Craig Hogan, myself, and Dave Wood back at USMA – probably Ring Weekend in the Fall of 1983. Craig sadly was killed a few years ago now in a private plan crash.
Thanksgiving 1987 in Hagenbach, Rhineland-Pfalz, West Germany, Buck, myself, and my daughter Ellen (who is 34 now). We got together for gaming and the holiday. Buck came up from Vicenza, Italy where he was stationed to my place with a buddy, and we gamed and we had fun.

Through Dave and Buck, I have been lucky to make new friends with others of the H.A.W.K.’s, like Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, and Duncan Adams (and many more too – like Zeb, Don, Eric and others – please don’t feel left out if I did not mention you). Due to my ongoing garage+ build (of which there are a number of updates that are listed here), I missed BARRAGE in September. So, I was pretty stoked about the opportunity to get together with friends (and make new ones) and push lead around the tabletop.

However, as fate would have it, some folks would not be able to attend Historicon due to personal reasons. As seeing and gaming with friends are as much a draw for me as the convention itself, I needed to make a change in plans. We had a Zoom call, and collectively arrived at a new plan. I would drive down from Massachusetts and meet Dave in Maryland for a gaming afternoon on the 11th at my hotel room. Then on Friday morning I would run my “Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost” game in Chris Palmer’s gaming room in Maryland, and then play in an Ozz game afterwards until I needed to leave for Historicon (about 90 minutes away). Friday night I would drive up to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to set up my “Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt” game for Saturday morning play.

So, on a 28-degree morning in Massachusetts, I defrosted my loaded car (12 boxes of terrain, plus 2 mats, a wagon, plus a suitcase) and headed to Maryland – arriving around mid-day – where it was 4o degrees warmer. Ah, New England!

Frosty morning departure.

Axis & Allies

Dave and I have now gamed since 1982 – so coming up on 40 years. We have played Avalon Hill’s “Victory in the Pacific” (as well as other titles) dozens of times over the years. On Thursday, after I arrived, we decided to be different and try Milton Bradley’s “Axis & Allies” this time – a board game with plastic miniatures that we have discussed many times but never played before. I got this game back in the mid-80’s. At one point there was an on-line version but we never got around to playing that either. For this game, we picked sides at random, and Dave played the Axis, and I the Allies. It was Veteran’s Day, and as we are obviously both vets, it was a nice add.

The game went back and forth. A lot. I managed to keep Russia in the game – and built an industrial complex in India for the British. This allowed me to build 3 units per turn there in an attempt to keep the Japanese off the Russian’s back.

After the first turn, I had consolidated a nice position in Mother Russia to try to thwart Dave. And yes, the shirt says what I am impressed with – Dave has run dozens of marathons and many runs up to 50 miles and maybe more in distance.
We had a back and forth fight over the Karelia territory that had a factory I did not want to lose. Eventually, I did.

Meanwhile, my Indian gambit attracted a lot of Japanese attention – maybe too much. Dave hammered away at it and while the Japanese were unsuccessful he did attrite my forces and that prevented me from exploiting my force buildup.

Dave made multiple attacks on India supported by carrier-based fighters and land-based bombers. I had sent the American-supported Chinese infantry in to help defend. Meanwhile, Russia fell.

Dave kept hammering away at India, and eventually had his Germans violate Afghan neutrality – hitting India for the decisive blow. Yes, the Germans took India by blitzing panzers through Afghanistan…

I built India up and flew in American air support, but the next turn it fell.

I did desperately roll for Weapon’s Development for both the Americans and the British – with only the British succeeding in getting 3 – Rockets, Super Subs, and Strategic Bombers. My rocket and strategic bomber attacks slowed the German’s production, but it was too late…congrats to Dave!

Christoricon – Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost

Originally I was supposed to run my one of my games at Historicon on Thursday night – that being a rural one where Aztecs are making a surprise raid on a Tlaxcalan village (acting as a Conquistador supply depot) – only to see that there were indeed some Spanish there. Instead, we went to Chris Palmer’s house and I ran the game on early Friday morning. We joked and called it “Christoricon”. I hosted and there were 5 players – Buck, Duncan Adams, and Dave for the Aztecs, and Chris and Greg Priebe for the Spanish/Tlaxcalans. The defending Spanish/Tlaxcalans had one Warband of three Elements – 23 figures worth 41 points. The attacking Aztecs had two Warbands of 3 Elements each – 53 figures worth 78.25 points. Buck has already written a great post about this game and the others that day on his blog here – and his write-up and pics are great. I took some photos that you see below, but for me, simultaneously being a GM and a photographer is not easy – so I do recommend you take a look. Meanwhile, here are my pics.

The game is ready to begin. Chris and Greg elected to place the Conquistador Element armed with arquebuses further away from their leader in their secret deployment in lieu of their Element of Sword & Buckler men. This meant that they were “pinned” with their black powder weapons only activating at best on half of the turns. They could have “unpinned” but as luck would have it the dice did not let that happen. Note also that Franco the unlucky Conquistador made the trip!

Chris chose to send out his war dogs towards Dave’s Aztecs as a screen, and they promptly took atlatl damage. Dave, Duncan and Buck moved up quickly, while Greg took up a position in the maize field with his dangerous Tlaxcalan bowmen.

Dave moves up his “twinned” Elements of veteran/novice warriors towards a wounded war dog.

The Spanish then had their Catholic Priest take possession of the gold (possession of the gold was one of the game objectives) and drag it to a more secure location while they contested the Noble House (another objective) – (insert joke here).

Battle starting at the Noble House – the war dogs are already going down here. Their priest has already dragged away the gold to a safer location.

Buck’s advancing Elite Cuahchicque (“Shorn Ones”) took the full volley of arquebus fire from the less-activating pinned Spanish. Despite these Elite Aztecs taking a lot of damage and having a ton of Morale checks to overcome, Buck was able to rally his troops successfully against the odds twice. Meanwhile Duncan moved his Jaguar and Eagle Warriors against Greg’s Tlaxcalan bowmen in the cornfield – hoping to best them in melee.

Dave and Buck confer while surveying Duncan’s advance – and their chances at victory – with concern. This shows the second volley that Buck’s Elite Shorn Ones took and the blue beads are Morale checks he needed to pass. He did. Twice.

Slowly, the tide of battle started turning in the Aztecs’ favor. Dave’s attack on the Aztec right was making headway, and they were gaining control of the objectives.

Priest still dragging the gold away here.
Lots of carnage on the tabletop.

Eventually, the Spanish and Tlaxcalans were overwhelmed.

The final break through.

The game ended as a resounding Aztec win, as they had control of three objectives, as well as dragging off 9 pour souls for sacrifice, killing 2 more, and making one run away. The Spanish had only the gold, but did dispatch 15 Aztecs and capture one more. The final score was 86-40 as you see below. I think the players had a good game. Congrats to Dave, Buck, and Duncan!

Christoricon – Ozz

After the Aztec/Spanish game, Chris Palmer ran a Wars of Ozz© game that I played in briefly – again, Buck’s blog post has an excellent account as I left after having stymied Dave’s advance a bit (though I was pretty well smashed force-wise in that effort). I commanded a force of Winkies with allies (Greater and Lesser Pumpkinhead Warriors). My sacrifice was not in vain, and it allowed Chris and Greg to smash the Munchkin center.

Greater Pumpkinheads
I had a Winkie medium cannon…
…and 2 Winkie Regiments
My Winkie and Pumpkinhead troops ready to contest control of the Yellow Brick Road.

I love the Ozz figures!

I then drove to Historicon, and set up for Saturday morning’s game.

Historicon – Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt

The drive up to Valley Forge Resort Casino was uneventful – though finding the H.A.W.K.’s room was a challenge. The gaming was not located in one location at the resort. Unfortunately, it was also a Friday night at a casino and all the close parking was gone. Luckily, I have a little collapsible wagon and was able to get into the room with my stuff in a few trips and set up the terrain and the troops for Saturday morning’s game, Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt.

My game flyer

You can see a short Instagram video of the set up here.

It’s a BIG battle. The Spanish/Tlaxcalans have three Warbands of three Elements (2 Spanish, 1 Tlaxcalan) plus support – 77 figures (including the 4 war wagons) worth 161.75 points. The Aztecs have five Warbands of 2-3 Elements each – 109 figures worth 154.25 points. 186 figures in total. This battle is Cortes’ second attempt to escape. He would do a second on the following day, and three days later a third – La Noche Triste. Originally, on the Historicon listings, the game was supposed to be La Noche Triste – which again happened three days later (and of which I will have that scenario written soon) – but I needed war canoes for that one. Those I don’t have yet, and will be mentioned here in a bit.

Back to the game set up. As I was setting up, I had a number of people come by to remark positively on the game visuals – terrain and figures. They had seen my posts on different forums (or fora both are ok!). To all of you, thank you so much for your kind words and interest.

Besides all of the cityscape – and it’s a lot I know – but with everything predeployed I just needed to put players on their troops and let them know what they needed to do on their part of the battlefield.

As I mentioned before, I had previously needed to cancel my Thursday game – and I got a comment from one of our blog community – Harry (aka borderguy190)- that he was disappointed as he had signed up for the game. I apologized, as I wish I could have ran that too at Historicon as well. But the good news was that he would be playing in this game!

He joined 7 other players. They seemed to grasp the concepts of the game quickly – and I did get some help from Greg Priebe and Buck Surdu in the early turns before they had to help run an Ozz game.

The game set up.
Troops deployed and dashboards out. My undermagnets and game markers really have proven their worth – especially in big melee scrums.

In this game, the Conquistadores are surrounded, and need to fight their way out from the Palace of Axayacatl where they were holed up with their hostage/puppet Montezuma II. They have war wagons, and while these are helpful in providing cover against missile weapons, they are also rickety and slow – and prone to breaking. In fact, all of them broke during the game and were unable to move afterwards. The Aztecs are trying to get to the Conquistadores and avenge the massacre that the Spanish perpetrated at the Festival of Toxcatl. Their Tlaxcalan allies are mostly on the other end of the tabletop and trying to break into Tenochtitlan to help their Spanish allies escape.

There were ups and downs for both sides all over the table. The Conquistadores breakout went slowly, but they did take out a lot of Aztecs. On the other end where the Tlaxcalans were trying to help, the two sides traded missile fire and got into a scrum but were unable to change the status quo.

Lots of action! Harry (in red) ponders his next move.
Aztecs swarm the war wagons and wound the crossbowmen and arquebusiers inside.
Thinks get more contested in Tenochtitlan.

One of the aspects of the game is the importance of The Banner of Cortes. It provides inspiration to the Conquistadores and helps them to reduce negative Morale effects. However, I also made its capture (as well as incapacitating Cortes and dragging him off for sacrifice) game objectives. The Aztecs took some heavy losses BUT were able to take out the bannerman and seize the banner. This lead to the Spanish having to try to satisfy Honor and retake the banner. However, this did not happen before the game’s end. As it was worth 50 points (see below), it was decisive.

The Banner of Cortes is taken!
Aztecs won 78-35. The 50 points for the capture of The Banner of Cortes made all the difference!

Thanks so much to all who played! I did not win any awards for the game – though many said I should have. Anyways, the best reward is happy gamers afterwards – and I got that in abundance!!

The gamers! Very cool group – thanks to all!

After the game, I got a lot of positive feedback, and learned of some areas to help make the play easier. Those suggestions have already have already been acted upon when I got home (mainly on the dashboards such as linking the undermagnet colors to the dashboards).

After the game, I then went with Greg and Buck to the vendors and the Flea Market. It was nice to go to the Badger Games booth and actually be remembered! Also, I was looking for canoes to use as war canoes, but only found one from Firelock Games that was $20. That is way too expensive when you need as many as do. I also found one in the Flea Market – a balsa wood scratch-built one from an estate sale- for $3. I am going to use both for gaming and as ideas on how to make my own. Of importance, Greg is a big lover of his 3D printer – and in exchange for me painting up some Viking figures for him, he will make me a good number of canoes! Win-win! So, my next job will be to paint those up.

I look forward to returning to the gaming and convention scene as a GM and a gamer. I hope you found this interesting – thanks for looking.

For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.

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