2025: Year in Review

    One of my most noteworthy projects this year was my 28mm Vietnam one using the 'Black Sun' figs

I think a good term for this past year (2025) is "Changing of the Guard." Some projects or campaigns that had been going strong were wrapped up and new ones marched front and center. Regular readers of Lead Legionaries are probably well aware of the new ones, so let's talk first about which ones were relieved of their post -- at least for the time being!

    The 'End' has finally come for the Buck Nuts and other post-apocalyptic gangs in my campaign

 Changing of the Guard: Retiring from Duty (Zombie RV and Post-apocalyptic Campaign)

You could consider both of these series of games run for our Sunday Evening group post-apocalyptic, of course. They used two different rules sets and characters, though. Well, for the most part! Some of the figures (and even names) from our long-running post-apocalyptic campaign using Wiley Games rules showed up in our Zombie RV games. We ended up running the Wiley Games rules eight times, if I am counting the After-Action Reports correctly. The final game occurred in March with the Get Your Goat scenario I ran. I felt the action was kind of growing stagnant, with the same gangs of survivors facing off with each other and some growing significantly more powerful. It was a fun series of games, though. My favorite moment in there was when my Planet of the Apes figures made a cameo appearance for the campaign, and the way they caused some alarm in the first game they appeared. 

Will I run the Buck Nuts, Night Stalkers, F Troop and company out onto the tabletop again? Not very likely. One of the cool things about playing a campaign is watching your characters grow and progress. Unfortunately, one of the unbalancing things about campaigns is that, in most cases, different player groups grow at different rates. The longer the campaign, the more "the rich the will get richer," and the more weak the weaker will get. I had an idea how to fix that and am trying it in one of the new campaigns, below. 

    Junior's zombie hunting days are over as I wrapped up the Zombie RV campaign prematurely

The other campaign that took a bow and exited the stage in 2025 was Zombie RV. Sadly, this campaign lasted less time -- only about six games, if you count the two-player games Jenny and I tried to test out the rules set. It avoided the trap of the post-apocalytpic campaign in that it was cooperative. All players were on the same side trying to...well, survive the zombie apocalypse! I don't think it stopped because of player disinterest. One of our regulars asked in the Fall what happened to the game, and wasn't it about time for another Zombie RV game?

I hate to say it, but one of my players caused ME to lose interest in running. Not to point fingers, but he couldn't get out of the habit of questioning zombie physiology and arguing every time the zombies decided to move towards his figures instead of someone else's. Constant questions of how do zombies "see"? Arguing whether they could see his figures on the other side of a vehicle -- things like that. Eventually, I grew tired of it and decided to not run it anymore. Being a GM is stressful enough, at times, and having to constantly deal with arguments about interpreting a very clear set of priorities about where each zombie will go became too much for me. So, my response to the "Isn't it about time for another game of Zombie RV?" explained why I wasn't going to run it anymore. The player in question was surprised, but the others agreed with me that he did indeed to those things. Thankfully, this type of thing doesn't happen very often in our games, though.

    Setup for my 'Viking Town Raid' game with its hexagonal board and cooperative play

2025's Convention Game (Viking Town Raid)

My convention game this year, Viking Town Raid, also inspired one of my 2025 projects (see below). Each year, I typically pick a scenario that I will run at various local or regional conventions, such as Cincycon, DayCon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins Game Fair. In this cooperative miniatures scenario, the players were all Viking raiders and the enemy were the townsfolk and defenders. The rules used were Ganesha Games Sellswords & Spellslingers (minus the fantasy aspects, of course). To make it more accessible to folks reading the event description in a convention program, I included the heroes from the History Channel's "Vikings" miniseries. I picked up Ragnar Lothbrok, his brother Rollo, wife Lagertha, and more from Brigade Games. The figs looked spot-on AND they were domestically stocked. This is the Year of the Tariff and its wrecking ball course through the gaming industry, after all!

    Ragnar Lothbrok (center) and his friends and family were the player's leaders in the Viking game

I like to make my games good for up to six players, which I was worried would be a bit of a challenge for the rules system. I pared down the number of characters each player controlled to three, and created a hexagon shaped game mat that was roughly 4 feet across in all directions. That gave everyone equal access to the Anglo-Saxon church in the center of the table where the highest value loot would be. Although the game was cooperative, players were competing to amass the most victory points from loot, captives, and livestock.

The game worked out great, and players loved it all 16 times (!) that I ran it over the course of 2025. I figured out a way to keep the game moving quickly so there wouldn't be long waits for players for their turn. Players had a blast, they said, and the scenario really played to the strengths of SS&SS's game mechanics. The dice rolls of the players, or more accurately their failures at dice rolling, activate the enemies. Since dice are random, that meant each game was a bit different. Outcomes ranged from many of the monks inside my scratch-built Anglo-Saxon church being taken captive to no raiders making it that far into the town. It was definitely a success, and actually led to next year's convention game!

    My Orc warlord and his bodyguard - part of my '2026' project of an orc & goblin army

 Changing of the Guard - New Projects (Vietnam War and Dragon Rampant Orc & Goblin army)

At some point while I was running my Viking Town Raid game, a thought entered my head that the mechanics would actually make a great system for gaming the Vietnam War. Not knowing where foes will pop up next in a game of SS&SS, the randomness of things going along fine and then suddenly going to Hell in a hand basket because of a streak of bad player rolls, all screamed Vietnam to me. I reached out to Andrea Sfiligoi of Ganesha Games and pitched my idea to him. He cautioned me that SS&SS is mostly a melee game while Vietnam is pretty much all shooting. He said if I could overcome that to my satisfaction that he would love to publish a Sellswords variant set in Vietnam. And so, 16 Viking Town Raids lead to writing the rules for Surviving 'Nam: An Infantryman's Year "In Country." 

I hit up my friend Jim W for miniature recommendations because he was currently running 28mm Vietnam skirmish for his gaming group in Michigan. I ended up deciding on Crucible Crush's Black Sun range (essentially, Pulp Figures). I ordered the figs which got to me from Canada before our nation's lovely, disruptive tariffs were in place. I began painting them up and fell in love with their personality, animation, and ease of painting. This last fact meant I finished with painting up the project much quicker than I had expected. This accelerated my play testing schedule, which began with solo games. Since it is cooperative, the players take on the role of U.S. or allied soldiers while their Viet Cong foes appear on the table and move and fire based on the event cards and failed dice rolls of the players.

    In my Surviving 'Nam rules, the Viet Cong (above) are controlled by the event cards & players' rolls

My posts about the play test games on here, the Lead Adventure Forum, and Facebook prompted a number of folks to reach out to me interested in helping with the play test. At this point, I have about 10 different groups in the U.S., U.K., and Italy running games of Surviving 'Nam and getting back to me with the results. The most enthusiastic group has been Bob F and Pete S from the U.K. (and Lead Adventure Forum). They have replied after every game and we have had an incredibly productive and helpful back and forth on their comments. I also ran four games of Surviving 'Nam at a couple regional conventions, World at War at Fort Meigs and Hold the Line in Port Clinton, OH. Following those November games, Bob, Pete, and I pronounced ourselves satisfied with the mechanics (there will be tweaks, of course, leading up to publication). Now, it is on to the writing the campaign and background portion of the rules, and playtesting the scenarios which will be included.

The other "New Guard" this year were orcs and goblins for Daniel Mersey's 2nd Edition of Dragon Rampant. These came out in the Fall and are part of a stable of games using the same basic mechanics. We have used them for a number of periods ourselves, including Ancients/Medieval (Lion Rampant), English Civil War (The Pikeman's Lament), American Revolution (Rebels and Patriots), Colonial (The Men Who Would be Kings) and Sci-Fi games (Xenos Rampant). If it is good for all these periods, why not another one (Fantasy)? Although this was intended to be a 2026 project, my friend Jeff G reached out to me earlier in the year with an offer I couldn't refuse. He wanted to sell of his collection of 28mm Gripping Beast orcs and goblins from the Ragnarok range. The price was unbeatable, but it was way more figures than I needed. I reached out to my friends and Rusty P said he'd be willing to go in on the collection with me. In fact, he bought Jeff's Dwaves, too.

    Some of the Gripping Beast orcs & goblins I painted up this year from the 'Ragnorak' line

When the horde of unpainted orcs and goblins arrived, and I divided them evenly between Rusty and myself, I honestly despaired of having my Miniatures Painted ever attain my Miniatures Acquired numbers. However, the speed with which I finished the Vietnam project allowed me to get a head start on them. As it stands, my "2026 Project" is pretty far along as 2025 draws to a close. My Sunday Evening group is pretty enthusiastic about playing some games of Dragon Rampant, with Mike S, Keith F, and Andy S all having armies lined up for it. I foresee us getting a game in no later than this January, I imagine. I made it a point to paint up my orcs and goblins as "Tolkien like" as possible. No Games Workshop greenies here...ha, ha! Response to how they're turning out on this blog and the Lead Adventure Forum has been very encouraging. I'm happy with them, too!

The final project -- ALSO more of a "2026" one -- was for a series of horror games set in frontier America. Specifically, I wanted to set them in Franklinton, OH, which is now pretty much part of Columbus, where I live. I went back and forth about whether to use Devilry Afoot (created by a Lead Adventure Forum member), Silver Bayonet, or Dracula's America. I envisioned the games to be cooperative, with each player controlling a couple of characters. They'd be battling monsters and enemies summoned by a native American tribal resistance to American settling of Ohio. I ended up selecting Devilry Afoot because it is the only one of the three that is truly cooperative. The other two are meant to be competitive (and one vs. one), with the monsters as non-player dangers in the scenarios. After the post-apocalyptic campaign experience with some player forces outstripping the others in effectiveness, I decided to go with Devilry Afoot. Plus, I am really excited and into cooperative games, nowadays.

    My first batch of 28mm figures for games of 'Devilry Afoot' set on the American frontier

I picked up a bunch of figures at Historicon 2025 (further torpedoing my chance of evening up Painted vs. Acquired, I thought). When the guys asked if I was going to run another Halloween themed game this October, I decided to kick things for Devilry Afoot into high gear so I could do so. This was only possible because, once again, I had finished the painting for the Vietnam project so quickly. I was successful in getting enough figures and monsters ready for the tabletop. So, in honor of Halloween, I ran The Coming Storm -- the debut for my series of games in this fully armed and operational 2026 project...ha, ha!

As two campaigns ended this year, another one took off fairly successfully. I began running a Star Wars skirmish campaign using Space Weirdos rules. Most of the figures were painted in 2024, and I had been planning to start up the campaign at the end of last year. I decided to have each player select a faction on a continuum from Empire to Rebel. Since we normally have six players show up, they included (Empire (Mike S) - Corporate Security (Joel S) - Mercenaries (Keith F) - Criminal Syndicate (Allen S) - Local Rebels (Tom G) - Rebel Alliance (Mike W). On the couple of times that Andy S could show up, I had him take on the role of the Tatooine locals in Mos Eisley. I would design the scenario and tailor each faction's Victory Points to their level of "All In" for their side of the continuum. Or I would give them side missions that intersected with the main opposed mission between the Empire and the Rebels. 

    One of my Star Wars skirmish games using Space Weirdos rules set in Mos Eisley on Tatooine 

Space Weirdos is a great set of rules, and everyone seems to be enjoying them. Each player controls a handful of characters who activate in a spiraling initiative system. When it is a player's turn, he chooses one of his unactivated figures and executes their three actions. Then it is on to the next player in Initiative Order, until everyone has activated all figures. This keeps folks involved, especially since Space Weirdos uses opposed die rolls to resolve shooting, melee, etc. I have another Star Wars game scheduled for January, and hope it continues to be enjoyable for my players throughout 2026. 

    Among the many games at Advance the Colors 2025 were Steve Verdoliva's Napoleonic ones

 

Conventions I attended in 2025

 So, I probably made it to more shows than I ever have before this year. Retirement will give you that opportunity, I guess! In January, I attended Siege of Augusta while visiting my friend Jason M in Columbia, SC. I think this was my third or fourth time at the convention, which Jason uses as a carrot to get me to visit him down south. Next up were three usual Spring-time ones: Cincycon (guess where?), DayCon (ditto), and Drums at the Rapids at Fort Meigs. I added in a new one when I helped organize a series of historical miniatures games at Buckeye Game Fest in late May. A friend had volunteered to do it, but had something else come up. So, I stepped in at the last minute and we did a decent job of collecting GMs to run miniatures games at this mostly board game convention.

Once again, I helped with the HMGS Great Lakes effort at Origins Game Fair in Columbus. This used to be a mainstay of our chapter, and a lucrative one for recruiting new members. However, Origins pivoted in directions it was going a decade or more ago, and we no longer felt welcome. That management has thankfully moved on and the all-genre convention actively sought us out to return and run games. Each year, we've gotten a little larger, I think -- especially in numbers of players signed up. My six runnings of Viking Town Raid were all full, if I remember correctly. If you want to get in on the fun, we need to have your event in PRONTO, ASAP, QUICKLY. Contact me in the comments or if you have my email, reach out, please. We'd love to have your game in our dedicated HMGS Great Lakes area inside the main miniatures hall! 

    A Bolt Action tournament was one of the many historical miniatures games at Origins Game Fair

After Origins, it was our historical miniatures hobby's biggest show in the U.S., Historicon 2025. We had a big group drive over from Columbus, where we met my friend Jason M and his son. I didn't run any games and instead declared it would be a weekend of playing miniatures games. Imagine that! There was a bit of a layoff until our Great Lakes chapter's flagship convention, Advance the Colors in Springfield, OH. We continue to grow every year and just missed my goal of attaining the 250 attendee mark, this year. Next year, for sure! I do administrative duties for this convention, so no running games or playing for me there. I wrapped up the year with the aforementioned November conventions, World at War and Hold the Line. My Surviving 'Nam was full all four times and I received great encouragement and some feedback in those games. I count that as 10 conventions (my friend Mike S would comment that is because that's how many fingers and thumbs I have!), which is almost one a month. Will I attend that many (or add more?) in 2026? We shall see!

    The finale of my 'Five Parsecs from Home' solo campaign features my crew completing their quest

Solo Games

 This was a completely new aspect of gaming for me in 2025. With the good fortune of having a regular weekly gaming group as well as an active local convention scene, I've never felt the need to do solo games. However, I began using solo games to test out a couple cooperative rules sets to see if I felt the mechanics would work with six players and a GM. The first one of these was Five Parsecs from Home. Prior to beginning the Space Weirdos campaign, I was still actively looking for a Sci-Fi rules set. I didn't want to use Wiley Games rules because of their strangely short weapon ranges and the fact it would seem like duplication of the post-apocalyptic campaign. I had read a lot of threads and game report on Lead Adventure Forum about Five Parsecs, so I decided to give it a try.

I created my own crew and began running a series of games using the rules. The campaign mechanics are simply top notch in Five Parsecs (and its fantasy precursor, Five Leagues from the Borderlands). The various charts and die rolls do honestly create a storyline and narrative for your characters. Of course, some of it the player creates in response to the roll, finding a way to rationalize that outcome. I had fun creating the background and story of the crew of the Inconceivable (of course, a nod to The Princess Bride). When my story arc ended, aka we completed our quest, I judged that the rules mechanics really weren't what I wanted for a six-player Sci-Fi game. Still, I had fun with it and encourage anyone interested in solo gaming or cooperative with a much smaller group to look into them.

    The Splintered Band escorts a wagon full of supplies in my first 'Sellswords' solo adventure

My other solo venture was using Sellswords & Spellslingers. I was thinking of running a semi-historical (or semi-fantasy?) campaign for the Sunday Evening gamers set in Dark Age Britain during the time of the Viking invasions. The players would be the heroes of Britain -- Saxons, Picts, Scots, Britons, etc. -- fighting off the Viking incursions. Think of it as a reverse of the Viking Town Raid game that I ran in 2025. Once again, I wasn't 100% sure of the mechanics fitting such a big group. So, I decided to run my own solo series of fantasy games using the rules to test them out.

I love my Splintered Light Miniatures anthropomorphic animals, so used that as an excuse to bring them onto the tabletop again. They had not seen light of day since our short delve into Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago seven (!) years ago. Thus began the Tales of the Splintered Band (see what I did there?).  I managed only two or three games, but I would like to go back this coming year and continue the adventures of Badger mage Jemmy Tar and his animal kingdom friends fighting against the incursion of the rat hordes. 

    Two Acheson Creations Vietnam buildings from Miniature Building Authority that I painted up

 My Painting Goals

In 2024, I tracked Painted "Stuff" vs. Acquired "Stuff", lumping in both terrain and scatter. That made for a weird mix, so I decided this year to split that into Miniatures, Terrain, and Scatter. I decided that the difference between "terrain" and "scatter" is mainly size and made an arbitrary call for each piece completed. A resin or 3-D printed building is definitely terrain. A 3-D printed basket of fish is scatter. Scratch building a rice paddy is terrain. Creating flocked markers to track which figures have moved in Space Weirdos is scatter. Yes, it is still a judgement call. However, I am very happy with how this division worked out in 2025. Here are my results, reproduced here:

• Miniatures: 306 Acquired, 307 Painted
• Terrain: 62 Acquired, 80 Painted
• Scatter: 144 Acquired, 213 Painted 

    Three new Mos Eisley buildings from Diabolical Terrain for my Star Wars skirmish games

I consider these numbers a whopping success! Remember my despair a couple times this year that I would ever get my Miniatures Painted above the lofty number my "Ooh, shiny!" tendency had set for me. So, what were some highlights of the terrain and scatter that I painted up this year? I would have to say finishing so much Vietnam terrain was very heartening. My favorites were the formerly Acheson Creations resin buildings that I picked up from Miniature Building Authority. What's more, I still have more to do in 2026. I have the Diabolical Terrain 3-D printed huts on stilts to do for buildings. I also want to do something for elephant grass, which I read about regularly in the historical accounts of the conflict that I've been devouring in 2025.

I also churned out more trailer park buildings and scatter for my post-apocalyptic and zombie games. Many of these were from one of my new favorites in 3-D printed terrain -- Bad Goblin Games. Sadly, with me pulling the plug on both post-apoc campaigns, all of that is sitting unused on the display shelves of my downstairs closet right now. However, I'm sure I'll find a use for them in 2026, as well. There's that idea I have for a modern-day trailer park battle sparked by a federal raid on an illegal moonshine still. There's simply too much good stuff from Bad Goblin and MBA completed and on the shelves to sit unused!

    I painted up 213 pieces of scatter terrain in 2025, including these clothes lines from MBA

There was also a nice output of buildings and things for my Star Wars campaigns in 2015. I painted up a number of 3-D printed "Tatooie" buildings from Diabolical Terrain for my take on Mos Eisley. I also scratch-built a squadron of TIE fighters that appeared in two scenarios. There was another influx of adobe buildings that I could use in my Star Wars games bought off my friend Jeff G at Hold the Line. So, I think I finally have enough buildings for my city games set on Tatooine in the Star Wars universe!

All in all, I would say that I had a VERY successful year of gaming in 2025. One indicator is this blog itself. This should be post #130. That is a more than 50% increase over last year's 86 -- previously the most ever in the 13 years I've been recording my gaming on Lead Legionaries. Doing the math, that means I am uploading a new post on an average of once every three days (actually more -- 2.8!). I thank all of my regular and occasional readers -- Bill, Donnie, Jason, Simon, Graham, Shaun, Neil, Ray, Richard, Johan, and anyone else I forgot to mention. And of course, Sunday Evening Gamer "Anonymous" (who will hopefully figure out how to create a Google ID in 2026...ha, ha!). Thank you all -- and see you in 2026!!