Fun Games and Good Times at Siege of Augusta

    Headed down to 'Gator Country' for Siege of Augusta - very cool pool terrain with lurking reptile

It had been quite a few years since I had driven south to Siege of Augusta. My friend Jason, who lives in Columbia, SC, regularly prompts me to come down. Now that I am retired, I don't have the excuse of not enough days off for another convention...ha, ha! So, Jenny and I drove down Thursday, spent the evening with him and his family, and then headed to the convention on Friday.

I'd looked at the games on the Siege of Augusta website, and there were a few that I was interested in. We planned arriving before the noon session of games so that we didn't have to get up ridiculously early. Jason lives about an hour and fifteen minutes away, and Siege's first session begins at 8am, so there was no way I was getting there Friday in time for the morning session! Siege has an unusual system for attendees to sign up for games: it doesn't have one! You have to find the table and ask the GM if he or she has room. Nothing at the registration desk, no sheets on the game table (well, the chariot game had a signup sheet, but that was the only one I saw) -- nothing! I have to confess that I was disappointed with this aspect of the convention. 

    Main hall at Siege of Augusta -- I got to hang out with Jason, play in fun games, & meet nice people

Another thing I wasn't thrilled about was that start times are v-e-r-y approximate. The GM can list a firm start time in his description. If not, you have to assume it starts when the session starts. Except that they don't always do that. For example, I was told by people who got up early enough that the "8am" games that most didn't start till 9am. However, you don't know that. Since you can't sign up for it in advance, if you really want to get in a game, you have to be there at 8am. Or actually sooner, as spots are given to the first players to arrive (assuming the GM hasn't already promised spots to someone). All in all, it encouraged me skip the first session on Saturday morning. I just didn't want to deal with the uncertainty.

As Jenny and I made the rounds checking out the games Friday, we ran into another problem. Which games were which? There was no schematic or map anywhere to be found, so we had to deduce that from the event titles. The event descriptions were online (if you brought your laptop with you). However, the Siege website doesn't work well with mobile devices and condenses the nice, easy-to-understand grid into spaghetti. So, that part is hit or miss, too. We did our best to match the terrain and figures we saw on the tables with event titles on the handout we'd picked up from the registration desk.

    Col. Munro leads his daughters & a British column through the woods in Magua's Revenge

One of the games we talked about getting in was "Magua's Revenge" by Les Faison. He was just setting up when we walked by. We saw the trees and dirt road and figured that was it. We asked if this was the right game, and if he had spots open. Les said he had one of his five spots left. I encouraged Jenny to play, as I had some serious shopping to do from the nice selection of vendors (see yesterday's post on my Siege of Augusta purchases).

   Hawkeye & Chingachgook escort Cora Munro while in the distance Uncas helps Alice

It would have been fun to play, though. As some of you may know, I am the author of the rules he was using -- Song of Drums and Tomahawks. I watched a bit of the game in between my shopping. I was hesitant about stepping in and explaining the rules when players had questions. Les had listed in his description that it was a modified version, so I didn't want to tell anyone the wrong thing. After the game, when he found out I was the author, he said I shouldn't have been so shy. It was only his second time playing the game and he had questions. Jenny has run Song of Drums many times, though, so she was able to assist when I was off wandering around. Les' tabletop was very cool and his 40mm French & Indian War miniatures were awesome. Jenny said she had fun and was able to recreate movie history by having Hawkeye and Chingachgook rescue Cora Munro and get her off the table. Uncas did rescue Alice Munro, but both them were shot down by treacherous Huron as they tried to flee off-table.

    Les, the GM (in red), assists one of his layers as he moves up his Huron to ambush the British

I spoke with Les for a bit after the game and praised his game and adaptions to the rules. I gave him my email address in case he had further questions. I liked how he adjusted the turn sequence so that players would not necessarily have to wait too long if they "crapped out" early on their activation rolls. Typically, I do four players maximum in one game to avoid player frustration when their dice are not cooperating. His system of using a card deck to determine whose turn it was alleviated some of the bad things that poor dice rolling can make occur in multiplayer games of Song of Drums. For only his second game with the rules, he did a great job!

    A U.S. naval landing force of sailors takes position on the rooftops looking for downed airmen

Jason and his high schoolers, Lily and Graham, showed up a bit before the 4pm session. We all decided to get in Mark Young's Banana Wars Mayhem game together. He could take up to nine players and ended up with somewhere around seven, if I remember right. Each of us controlled a faction in early 1900s Nicaragua -- U.S. Marines, Banana Corporation private security, bandits, rebels, and more. I took control of one of the two rebel factions. We each had about 15 or so miniatures (except the more elite Marines and U.S. Naval landing force). The activation order was randomized each turn, which in the end, worked out really well, allowing my rebels to execute their nefarious plans.

    My force of Nicaraguan rebels arrives on the board ready to cause trouble in Banana Wars

Besides being rebels and killing government troops (Jenny's Federales -- I would end up pitted against her all weekend...ha, ha!), we were also on the lookout for two downed U.S. pilots. It would be a feather in our rebel sombreros if we could take possession of them and give them to the leader of our rebel movement (presumably to ransom back to the U.S. for lots of money!). Wouldn't you know it, but the Naval landing force (their to rescue the pilots) came on board to my right, while Jason's bandits entered the table on our left. I immediately began politicking and dissembling. I told the Naval player that we had nothing against the United States. It was our own government we hated and wanted to overthrow for the horrible way it was treating its people. He let me know he was looking for the pilots (everyone had a secret mission), and I told him that I would definitely not fire on him or the pilots. If I found them, I would let him know (heh, heh...).

    Dole Corporation's trucks ferry a shipment of bananas through town, guarded by private security

I moved from the board edge to a large building to our front, and then to another one in front of that on the next turn. We manned the second story windows of the second building looking down the main street. And who should appear in our gun sights but the hated Federales? We shot up Jenny's troops for several turns, though her leader did use his Jedi mind tricks on us to make us miss several times after we'd hit. Apparently, her leader was in charge of the secret police and causes fear in anyone his malicious eyes are turned upon! After a few turns, we'd killed all of Jenny's visible troops (she had others on the opposite sides of buildings, and was busy shooting at pretty much everyone else on the table). She did a great job making the Federales the hated force that they were!

    Jason's bandits arrive on board, hungry and looking for some bananas to steal from Dole

Just then, a rocket flare went up not far from us. I guessed it was the pilots signaling the U.S. forces of their location. We returned closer to our board edge, which fortunately was near where the pilots had secretly moved. The Naval player asked what I was doing and I said that we'd killed all the Federales. Did the sailors need any assistance? He was suspicious, but I'd done nothing negative to him all game, so he seemed satisfied. Soon enough, the pilots ran to the building the sailors had occupied, adjacent to the neighboring building where all my men were huddled. As the last turn began, I hoped we would move after everyone else. Fortune smiled on the Revolution -- everyone else moved before me. 

When our turn finally came, we sprang our treachery and dashed into the sailors' building, seizing control of the pilots. It was likely the last turn, but there was no guarantee I would be able to maintain control of my hostages if we'd played another. So, I told the player controlling the landing party maybe we could come to an agreement. The pilots were apparently carrying a wad of cash to bribe their way out of trouble. I suggested we do a trade. They hand over the cash and I would give them their pilots. He agreed, and thus I declared a "cinematic victory." After all, our fearless leader off-table was going to ransom them anyway, right? I just saved him the trouble! Victory -- with an asterisk!

    A gorgeous looking game I would have LIKED to get in -- 'Mythic Earth' run by Mike Frang

Jason and Lily decided they wanted to go to dinner and skip the evening session of games. Jenny and I agreed, as spending time with them was the main reason we'd decided to attend the convention. Graham is a hard core convention goer, though, and he stayed and played in Renaissance Naval Warfare game. When we returned from dinner (bringing carryout for Graham), we walked around and shopped a bit. Jason and I marveled at the 3-D printed terrain that Bryan Stroup of Garrison 3D had brought. He picked up some Egyptian statues from him, and then admired an Ancient, domed temple. I could tell he wanted it, but Jason is a very deliberate shopper. He's not prone to impulse purchases and likes to think things over. I warned him it might be gone tomorrow, but he stayed true to his nature and held off buying it (until the next evening!). We closed out the night with a game of Settlers of Cataan, which I somehow managed to win (no asterisks this time).

    Deer Hunter, left, moves up to guard our flank while Pork Chop hurries towards cover

As mentioned earlier, I skipped the early session of games. Thankfully, the folks at Bad Goblin Games had saved Jenny and I a spot in the noon running of Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse. We had both played in this game at Historicon 2024 and had a blast. I had chatted with three members of their group Friday and had been encouraging them to follow through on their idea to run it at Cincycon 2025 this March. Two of the members will be in town for work, and they thought, "Why not stay in town for the weekend and attend the convention?" They live in Florida, though, and are flying to Cincinnati. I offered to bring down my own trailers I had bought from them, as well as a game mat and other terrain for them. I hope they follow through. I think Cincycon players would enjoy playing their game.

    Monster truck in the center of the board (at left), is everyone's objective - but first, you need the pig!

It was the same scenario I had played at Historicon, and I even controlled the same faction, aka the "awakened" mutants of Team Road Kill. Jenny had won that game in cinematic fashion. The goal is to seize control of a pig who has a surgically implanted monitor which deactivates a kill switch on a Monster Truck that all four factions were drooling over. If you try to start the truck without the slippery pig with you in the cab...BOOM! The other factions included Jenny's "Bubbas," Dave's Childen of the Soil plant mutations, and Lily's Bubbas. We each began in a corner of the 4'x4' board out of sight of the other factions. 

    Col. Clucker takes advantage of the cover in the trailer park to move towards the board's center

Over the first few turns, we crept forward utilizing the cover (chiefly provided by eight of their trailers, as well as various other buildings, walls, and dumpsters. I really like their activation system. You begin the turn rolling 1d10 per figure you control (we all started with four). Then, each round you secretly choose one of those dice to use that turn. First to activate are 10's, then 9's, and so on. That way, the order of activation switches each round. Some turns you may want to move (or fire) first, other turns you may want the react to what the other players do. There is a card deck, too, which can affect Initiative, protect you from damage, give you an extra turn -- all kinds of interesting possibilities. You draw back up to five cards at the beginning of each turn, though there are some cards you may want to hang onto. I hung onto one the entire game in case a player got a "kill shot" on one of my figs, which thankfully never happened.

    On our left, the Children of the Soil move towards the center, threatening our flank

The pig begins the game on the truck, but then moves about the board controlled randomly by one or more players each round. If the 10-sided die you used to activate that turn matches the one rolled for the pig that round, you get to move it. In a weird statistical occurrence -- which my friends would laugh at and say is just my bad luck -- I think I activated the pig only twice over the entire game. Jenny was fortunate on pig activations, and was the first to grab the pig. Unfortunately for her, that also made her the target for the other players. My leader, Col. Clucker (a mutated chicken) blasted away at Joe, her leader, a couple times along with other players and Jenny was soon down one gang member. I had placed Deer Hunter (a deer armed with a hunting rifle) on my left to keep a bead on the plant people. He ended up killing their Mushroom Man and wounding his large carnivorous plant, Audrey (yes, from the movie). 

    Pork Chop's gambit - sprinting across the street and snatching up his distant porker cousin

My own mutated pig, Pork Chop, dashed into the trailer bordering the street where Joe lay bleeding. Using an extra action card, he dashed across the street, snatched up his distant cousin, all the while keeping an eye on huge, lumbering two-headed Jethro in his bib overalls not far away. Naturally, someone else activated the pig before Pork Chop could carry it towards the monster truck, and I lost the opposed die roll with my 5d10 vs. the pig's 2d10 (there's that statistical occurrence again!). He squirmed away, squealing, "Four legs good, two legs bad!" (Hopefully, some readers get the Animal Farm reference!) Things got real confusing after that. Lily's faction entered the fray, blasting away at Jenny's depleted ranks. She returned the favor, lining up her flame thrower to fire up three of Lily's gang members with one shot!

    The other players, including Jenny's 'Jethro' here, would keep Porkchop from succeeding

As we headed into the last turn, Jenny looked ready to pull off her trailer park magic, again. She played the right combination of cards and one of her gang members scurried to the cab of the monster truck with the pig. Unfortunately for her, she had moved first in that round. EVERYONE opened up on her. Jenny was secretly holding onto a card which allowed her to heal 1d10 wounds immediately. She played it after her last character moved, but before my final one. If she rolled high, she would survive and win. If she failed, I had -- you guessed it -- another nefarious plan. I m-a-y have chanted, "One, one, one!" to influence her roll, which was indeed a "1"! With that, Col. Clucker fluttered down from the sandbag emplacement on a nearby trailer and hopped into the cab with her many-holed corpse, but more importantly, the pig. We pressed the start switch and lobbied for a cinematic victory. I did not have control of the pig, true, but it was already in the cab. So, the truck should rumble to life and not explode, right? 

    As it turned out, the Children of the Soil didn't cause my Team Road Kill any harm

The GM conferred with his partner, and they said they do like to allow for the "Rule of Cool" in their games for strange things that occur. So, they admitted they were leaning towards awarding Team Road Kill the victory, albeit with another asterisk! Either way, it was once again a very fun game that came down to the last turn to decide who would drive off with the monster truck. If you get a chance to play in their game at an upcoming convention (or buy their rules), I encourage you to do so. 

With that, Jenny and I decided to hightail it out of Augusta, Georgia, as snow was forecast the next day in the mountains for our drive home. We stole a march on Mother Nature and made it home shortly after 1am Saturday. I had fun hanging out with Jason and his kids, played in some really fun games, and bought cool stuff from nice vendors. A successful trip to Siege of Augusta! Will I be back next year? Hmm...I do wish they'd fix their event registration system. If so, definitely. If not, I would have to think about it...

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

Zombie Mayhem as Convoy Passes through Mechanicsburg

    The center of the 5'x3' board, with creek, bridge, and cluster of buildings on the outskirts of town

After cooperating on a couple supply runs, several small groups of survivors met in a safe spot to make plans. They agreed that there is strength in numbers, and that they should all stick together for safety. Several argued that when it comes to the zombies, numbers is the problem. Specifically, Ohio and the Midwest's relatively dense population. They should get out of town and head West to "Big Sky" country...Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana -- wherever. Anywhere that there was fewer people meant fewer to have turned into zombies. And so they packed up their supplies and belongings, and the convoy from Columbus set out.

    Small group of buildings standing in for Mechanicsburg - the first town the convoy passes through

Sticking to the side roads and avoiding the often blocked and zombie-infested highways, the convoy made their first stop just outside of Mechanicsburg, OH. Many of the survivors didn't even have firearms yet, and they were running low on food, again. An intersection near a small creek seemed a likely spot to circle the vehicles and take a handful of people in for a quick run. Hopefully, things would turn out better than at the creepy farmhouses near the cornfields, when they'd lost nearly a quarter of their group!

    Sunday evening gaming group did a much better job cooperating in this mission of Zombie RV

It was time to stage another game of Zombie RV for our Sunday evening gaming group. I urged all of the players to spend the Experience Points (XP) they'd accumulated from the last two missions. Most did so, hopefully beefing up their characters' effectiveness. The 5'x3' board would have two zombie spawning points -- a hotel amidst a small cluster of buildings in town and a graveyard (of course!) across the river in the outskirts near the trailer park. Since there would be 12 survivors, I would also need a third spawning point. I decided to repeat what I did last time and have the zombies from the third spawn point show up on random board edges. Interestingly, the random arrivals often showed up very near where survivors were, complicating their situations nicely.

    The trailer park end of the board, with the graveyard spawning point at the top of the picture

The players decided to drive on board in four vehicles to maximize the number of "safe spots" to return to and exit the tabletop. Keith and Tom's survivors arrived in the group's RV, pulling off the dirt road into the driveway leading to the trailer park. Allen and Joel's van showed on the opposite board edge, not far from the two-story apartment building. Jenny and Mike stopped each of their vehicles on the street running behind the hotel at two widely spaced places. All twelve survivors quietly exited their vehicles, gripped their weapons, and headed out into danger.

    As Fredrik gets ready to enter one of the trailers, the zombies spot him and begin to surge forward

Keith's survivors Junior and Roman darted out of the RV and into the trailer park's dilapidated, stone office building. Tom's duo ran past them, splitting up, with Fredrik headed towards one of the trailers and Mophius shouldering his shotgun and beginning to climb the water tower. The cluster of zombies outside the graveyard spotted Fredrik, and began shambling towards him. 

    It doesn't take long before zombies spot Earle and hungrily begin to chase him across the board

Joel and Allen's van pulled up alongside a wrecked SUV that looked promising, as its back seat appeared to be stuffed with boxes and sacks. Big Bass and Benny combined to pop open one of the doors and search through the stuff inside. They secured a well-stocked First Aid kit for their efforts. Earle ran past them while they were searching, towards the center of the board, pausing by a dented red sedan. Jimmy hung close to Big Bass and Benny, covering them with his pistol. The cluster of zombies milling outside the hotel spotted Earle as the darted past and began to stagger slowly towards him.

    Daisy, at right, finds a cache of supplies that someone had to abandon on the balcony of the hotel

Jenny's two survivors exited their silver sedan and investigated the shipping truck flipped over in the road. Jackie and Curly combined their efforts to wrench open the back doors, with Curly hopping inside to investigate. He tossed some useful supplies from the truck's load into his backpack. Meanwhile, Coop and Daisy pulled not far from the refugee car -- or at least that's what they called it, with all of the stuff piled onto its roof! Coop began rifling through the abandoned belongings, looking for useful items. Meanwhile, Daisy bravely tip-toed up the stairway to the hotel. She'd spotted a bundle of items at the top of the stairs. Someone had obviously collected things together to leave hurriedly, then had to leave them there for some reason. Considering the number of zombies pouring out of the hotel, Daisy could guess what had interrupted them!

    Coop & Daisy took advantage of their friends' distraction of the zombies to net 3 caches of supplies

The players alternated who would roll for the number (and type) of zombies appearing at the spawn points. In general, their rolls were excellent. Perhaps three quarters of the rolls were a 1, 2, or 3 on 1d6, spawning the minimum 3 ordinary zombies. In the entire game (8 turns, perhaps? I didn't keep track), only two "Fast" zombies were spawned, and a couple "Nasty" zombies. Joel played a clever game using Earle as a "rabbit," essentially, luring the zombies one way and then another. In Zombie RV rules, the zombies generally go after those in sight and making the most noise. Joel would run one direction in his first action, and then fire off a shot to draw the zombies towards him. The next turn, he would run for both his actions ending out of sight, and the zombies would meander off towards another survivor making noise. The following turn, Earle would lead them back another direction, running and firing. Although he never killed a zombie, his actions were very valuable to his teammates, as he kept the zombies busy and allowing them time to find the supplies.

    Junior (actually inside - not on the roof) blasts away at zombies coming from the graveyard

In the trailer park, Junior stuck his head out the window and blasted away twice at the zombies chasing Fredrik, killing quite a few. This allowed Fredrik to creep into the trailer and hide, out of sight, behind some furniture. When the zombies instead streamed towards the office, Roman braced himself against the door to prevent them from bursting through. Meanwhile, after climbing to the platform halfway up the water tower, Mophius discovered his shotgun didn't have enough range to really do a good job of picking off zombies. He sighed and began to descend. Once the zombies were fully focused on Junior firing out the window, Fredrik stood up and began searching the trailer. He found another survivor, Moe, terrified, and hiding in one of the closets. He motioned him to follow him. One of the things players can find in a cache is more survivors. For some reason with the Sunday evening group, it comes up regularly more regularly than it should! Fredrik and Moe snuck out of the one trailer and dashed across the yard to the second trailer.

    Big Bass and Benny face off against a group of zombies in the alley way near the apartments

Meanwhile, Big Bass and his crew hurried across the street to the apartment building. Benny was the first through the door and began a thorough search. Once again, they found a terrified survivor hiding in one of the rooms. He was named C.J., and confirmed there was nothing much of value left in the apartment building. C.J. was very eager to join Benny's group rather than hiding out alone. Outside, they could hear both Big Bass and Jimmy firing at the zombies who'd began shuffling towards the apartment building. C.J. motioned to the back door, and the duo ducked out, only to find themselves being converged upon by zombies coming up the alley and from the hotel.

    Coop & Daisy begin firing on zombies streaming towards Allen's characters to draw them away

This began probably the most dangerous fight for the survivors as Big Bass, Benny, and C.J. fought hand-to-hand against numerous zombies. Jimmy hung on the periphery, remaining out of the range of zombie charges and firing ineffectively at them. Both Benny and Big Bass were wounded. C.J. proved a tough new addition, though. Twice he was hit by zombie attacks and twice he passed his "Grit Check" to shrug off the damage (needing a "6" on 1d6!). As more zombies converged on Allen and Joel's crew, Mike S moved a bit closer to help out. His rifleman Coop began firing, picking off zombies, and making enough noise to draw the zombie reinforcements towards him instead of Allen's hard-pressed trio. This was key, and doubtless just as responsible for their survival as Allen's good dice rolling!

    Zombies spawning at the graveyard, left, pour after Earle, firing from the far end of the bridge

On a quieter section of the board, Jackie and Curly waded the creek and crept as silently as they could past the graveyard. They tried to stay crouched behind the walls and out of the zombie's sight. Back at the trailer park office, Junior had run out of ammo at the office. He was instead bashing zombies trying to crawl through the window one at a time. He was also shouting to keep their attention. Roman kept bracing against a Nasty Zombie that was trying to batter down the door, muttering to himself, "Hold the door! Hold the door!" Mophius was trying to remain inconspicuous, staying out of sight of the mob near the office door and blasting with his shotgun at the wandering zombies that showed up all too frequently (for him) in his sector of the board. Eventually, he joined up with Fredrik and Moe as they finished searching the second trailer.

    Jackie blasts away at zombies honing in on her from the porch of a trailer

By then, Jackie had scurried up onto the porch of the third trailer and fired at the recently-spawned zombies that were now filtering towards her and Curly. Earle helped her out, too, by dashing onto the bridge, and firing to draw the attention of more zombies -- especially the dangerous Fast Zombie that had appeared. Earle then scampered off as half the zombies streamed towards him. Jackie and Curly entered the trailer, with Curly bracing himself to keep out the half dozen zombies hot on their heels. After a quick search, Jackie was dismayed to see there was no back door. They were trapped! Curly pointed to a pull down ladder in the hallway, doubtless leading to the roof. Once Jackie found some supplies, they both agreed it was time to get out of the trailer park! They felt the safest way was climbing onto the roof.

    Benny & Big Bass are both still standing and battling zombies, but are going to need to run soon

Allen's trio of brawlers had also decided it was time to go. The supply of new zombies staggering out of the hotel and towards them seemed never to let up (it doesn't in Zombie RV!). The sight of a huge, red-coated Nasty Zombie closing in doubtless help convince them that the game was up. All three sprinted for the van. Jimmy was already in the driver's seat, gunning the engine to let them know he was ready, too. Through the alley way, Coop and Daisy had decided it was time to go, too. Daisy picked off the wandering zombies who showed up with her pistol and dashed for the driver's seat. She tapped the horn to let Coop know she was ready, and he sprinted towards the car, opening the door and diving into the back seat. Daisy punched it, knocking aside a zombie and accelerating down the street.

    Earle spent nearly the entire game playing 'rabbit' and luring the zombies one way and then another

Back at the trailer park office, both Junior and Roman agreed they needed to get back to the RV. They jumped up onto a desk and crawled out the back window. A wandering zombie showed up right at that moment, but Roman split its skull with his axe. As they ran towards the RV door, they noticed Mophius, Fredrik, and a new guy (Moe) doing the same thing. All five piled through the door at about the same time that Jackie, leaping off the trailer roof, sprinted across the dirt road and dove into the driver's seat of the RV. She rolled the window down and blasted away to cover Curley He did not land his leap to the ground as well as she had, twisting his ankle badly. Luckily, the zombies were drawn to Jackie's gunfire and ignored her hobbled friend. As more and more zombies clustered around the RV, Jackie saw Curley shake his head and point back the way they'd originally come. He'd try to quietly limp over there, and join up with them away from the zombies. There was no way he could get through the mob.

    Zombies swarm the RV, with Jackie in the driver's seat blasting away to lure them away from Curley

As the vehicles peeled out and exited the way they'd come, Earle trotted over to Jackie and Curley's vehicle. He grabbed the keys from the console, started it up, and roared out after his friends. As far as he could tell, everyone had made it out alive. This was so much better an outcome than at the creepy farms where they'd almost lost Big Bass, and had lost Wrich, Red, and more!

    Big Bass and C.J. run back towards their blue van with a Nasty Zombie hot on their heels!

The players were very fortunate this game in not losing any of their crew. Consistently low spawning rolls and excellent die rolling by Allen (again!) meant they survived the one big melee that could have gone bad for them. They also showed better teamwork in this game. Joel helped out both sides of the table with Earle's fleet feet and noisy rifle. Mike S's Coop and Daisy intervened and diverted overwhelming zombie reinforcements from Allen's three survivors that were trying to brawl their way out of trouble. Keith's Junior and Roman kept the attention of the zombies long enough to allow Tom to find the supplies in the trailers. The crew from Columbus was on their way west with lots of looted medicine, some supplies, and even a new weapon or two. It's a long way to Wyoming, though, and the convoy will doubtless face many more dangers on the road. Stay tuned for more adventures with Zombie RV!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

Refugee Car & 4 New Survivors

    Four more survivors protecting their belongings piled upon a MBA 'Refugee Car'

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good set of holidays. Mine were fairly relaxing, which is nice, and also helped with my productivity! I'd begun both of these projects well before the New Year, but they were slow going -- especially the refugee car. The resin car is from Miniature Building Authority and is an awesome piece of eye candy for the tabletop. I picked it up at Historicon 2024 this past July, among other things I purchased from Kirk. Three different manufacturers are responsible for these four survivors: Foundry's Street Violence range (Crisanto), Copplestone Castings' Future Wars (Martina & Reef), and  Battle Valor Games. Thanks to my friend Jason for correcting me on Martina and Reef's manufacturer!

    This resin car from Miniature Building Authority has a LOT of detail that took serious time to paint!

Starting with the refugee car, as you can tell by looking at it, there was a LOT of detail. Now, I could have taken a short cut and made all the bags tan, etc. However, I didn't think it would look as nice. So, I was determined to look at each item affixed to the car and decide what color to paint it. I was hoping the riot of different colors would really make the model stand out. I tried to go with a more dull slate of colors, except for maybe the bright blue couch! I figured the less bright colors, the dry brushing, and the overall black wash, would unify the look enough once I was done.

    You gotta love the couch heaped up on the car - I mean, wherever we're going, we need comfort!

It took more than a week, picking out maybe a half dozen items to paint each session, then dry brushing them the next day. I would then pick out a new group of things to paint, dry brushing them the next day. I actually started with the body of the car and tires first. After priming everything black, I painted the body a Pewter metallic color. Why that color? Mainly because there are a lot of silver sedans driving through our neighborhood with what appears to be a recent arrival to the U.S. being taught how to drive! So, the color choice was an inside joke for myself -- plus, when rusted and dirtied up, I thought silver would look good.

    I was pretty happy with the rust effects that I added -- it looks like a beat up car barely on the road

Speaking of the rust, I used Autumn Brown first for the areas of rust, then filled it in with fluorescent orange. Once the entire thing was done, I gave it a black vehicle wash. The windows, which had previously been painted solid flat black, were painted a bluish glaze at the top to give the effect of reflected sky. I have done this on other cars, and it tends to look good and work about half the time. You be the judge whether it worked this time...! All in all, I'm very happy with the car, and it will likely appear on the tabletop in my next post-apocalyptic or zombie game. Pick one up from Kirk next time you see Miniature Building Authority at a show!

    My favorite of this batch of survivors, a tough-looking ex-marine with braided hair - Martina

The four survivors are the heavier armed ones from the batch of eight I'd picked out from my unpainted lead a few weeks ago. Three are armed with assault rifles and one with a shotgun. I really like how all of them look except maybe the cop in riot gear. I think I simply made his color scheme too black and gray and he looks like a dark blob unless you pick up the miniature and examine it closely. My favorite of the four is Martina. She is from Copplestone Castings' Citizen Militia pack. I love the long, braided hair going down her back. I decided to give her woodland camouflage pants and a tan colored shirt. I gave her a darker skin tone, too, using a leather color with a lighter tan dry brush. I also gave her some tattoos because she looked like a tough lady. I'm not sure if you can read the "USMC" on her right forearm. I was tempted to call her Vasquez from Aliens ("Hey Vasquez! Have you ever been mistaken for a guy?" "No...have you?"). However, I figured that one day I make actually pick up the Vasquez figure from the Another Glorious Day in the Corps board game, and that would make things awkward between the two...ha, ha!

    Surfer dude Reef is an interesting figure with sweat pants and 'slides', or sandals in old people speak

My next favorite is Reef, who I thought looked like a surfer dude armed with an AK-47. He appeared to have sweat pants and "slides" (we call them sandals, but kids today call them slides). So, I gave him blond hair, purple sweat pants, and a bright green shirt. His slides are white with purple trim, and in true surfer fashion, his mirrored sunglasses having matching purple lenses. The green of his shirt was considerably darkened down by the black wash that I did, so it looks less like beach wear than I was hoping. I also gave him some tattoos. I was tempted to give the shirt a Ron Jon surf wear logo, but once I pulled up an image of the company's symbol, I didn't think I could execute it with my micron pens! He is also from the same pack as Martina.

    I like how Crisanto's urban-style camo pants turned out - he is a 28mm Foundry 'Street Violence' fig

Next in line of my favorites of this group is Crisanto. He is from the "SWAT team Alpha" pack in the Street Violence range. I used my Asian flesh that I'd mixed up to paint my Saga Mongol army. Once I painted his black hair and mustache, I thought he looked more Filipino than anything. He wears body armor and elbow and knee pads, which was going to be a challenge to make gray yet still give some color to the figure. So, I decided to give him urban camouflage patterned pants and a dark bluish-green shirt. That proved to be enough lighter colors to avoid the "dark blob" look that his buddy Hondo suffered! I lined the dark gray pads with a lighter gray rather than dry brushing them. I wanted to make sure they stood out more distinctly, so chose that method. The only part I don't like about the miniature is the assault rifle slung over his shoulder. The strap was messing with my mind, trying to figure out where it started, ended, and connected to the gun. Otherwise, I really like how he turned out.

    Did I do a good enough job making the detail visible? Or is Hondo a 'dark blob'?

The final figure, Hondo, is a Battle Valor Games policeman in riot gear. Like with Crisanto above, I tried to make color choices that would keep it from looking like a dark blob, but I honestly think I failed here. I should have rethought how I painted his riot gear rather than going with standard black or dark gray. I have more than one of these left from my pack of police in riot gear, so if I paint more, I will get more creative. Perhaps doing Google Image searches will reveal somewhere in the world that has more brightly colored riot police. Anyway, four more survivors are done, which is just in time. I will likely be running a game of Zombie RV for my Sunday night gaming group soon.

What's next? Terrain-wise, I will be painting up three Acheson Creations Dark Ages thatch roof huts. They are spray primed and have also had their 50/50 mix of black paint and water brushed on. As for miniatures, I debating between a couple choices. Stay tuned to see which ones I decide upon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

Year in Review: 2024

        2024 was definitely the "Year of Sci-Fi" for me and my painting and modeling projects!

Looking back over my most prolific year posting here on my Lead Legionaries blog, two main periods were dominant. Science-Fiction was by far the most dominant period I posted about, whether writing about new miniatures I'd painted or buildings or scatter. Second place was Post-Apocalyptic, as I began an entirely new type of game (Zombie Apocalypse), while continuing to run games, paint miniatures, and get buildings or scatter ready for the tabletop. Modern gaming was a distant third, though to be fair, much of what I created for post-apoc games could also be used for ones set in a modern (non-apoc) setting.

    Contingent of 3-D printed Stormtroopers from JS Wargamer Printing guarding an Acheson building

Science-Fiction

Part of the reason that I posted so much about Sci-Fi was because there were three separate sets of rules or types of games I was playing (or getting ready to play).  In the beginning of the year, I was heavy into getting things ready for a Xenos Rampant game. Although virtually every size game likes to call itself skirmish nowadays, no matter how many figures are on the tabletop, I would call this a "big battle" game. We typically have six players for our games on Sunday evening, so I had to build forces for six different factions. I went with what the rules recommend, 24 army points. That typically means 4-6 units of anywhere from 5-10 miniatures. In some cases it may be fewer, like a war machine or bot. For the rank and file, though, 5-10 figures is the most common.

    We found that my table was a little small for six full-size Xenos Rampant detachments

In the end, I used two factions belonging to my friend Keith to run our 6-player game. Still, fielding miniatures for four factions was a lot of work. That's around 20 units, so maybe between 100 and 200 miniatures? Some were painted last year, or taken from my post-apocalyptic factions. Still, it was a LOT of work. And the worst part about it is I haven't gotten around to running a second game. We agreed after playing that six 24-point factions on my 5'x12' table was just too crowded. After discussing it, we settled on 18 points per faction for future games. Hopefully, that future game will be soon, possibly in January. I will be hosting for much of January and February while our regular host, Mike W, is out of town "snow birding."

    The Inconceivable crew sneaks up on the objective in one of my Five Parsecs from Home solo games

In addition to Xenos Rampant, I began playing regular solo games of Five Parsecs from Home. Ostensibly, I was "testing" the system out to see if it would work as a game for our Sunday evening crew. As fun as Five Parsecs is, I didn't think it would be a good fit for six players. I was enjoying the way the rules create a story arc as you continue along on your campaign. In fact, Capt. Alistair Valentine and his merry crew will finish their quest with the next mission -- so I definitely want to play that one out in 2025. My trip to Morocco in November derailed the captain and crew of the Inconceivable temporarily, but hopefully readers of my blog will be enjoying more of their adventures soon.

Although I got in only one Xenos Rampant game in 2024, I hope to play more in 2025

The third Sci-Fi game or period that I was busy prepping figures for was going to be a true skirmish (players control 4-6 figures -- not units!) in the Star Wars universe. I was bouncing around trying to decide which rules to use. Of course, we could use Wiley Games' Galactic Heroes rules as we are familiar with them. We've played a couple games with them already, plus it is the same basic rules engine and system I use for the post-apocalyptic campaign. However, I wanted to try something to give a different flavor, and an old friend suggested I download Space Weirdos (thanks Steve P!) from Wargames Vault and look over it. I liked it enough to say that's what I will try first for my Star Wars skirmish, which hasn't had a game played, as yet. I have all the factions completed (a LOT easier when you're painting 4-6 figs instead of units...ha, ha!), though. Look for that in January or more likely February. I still need to create cards for each of the player's characters and the measuring sticks it uses.

    I took these fantasy Gatorfolk from Beldolor Studies and converted them into Sci-Fi figures

Just to give you an idea of how heavily focused I was this year on Sci-Fi, I made about 16 posts about painting miniatures for the period, along with about 10 blog entries about buildings or scatter. So, a big part of my output was geared towards Sci-Fi, it seems! And now that I have all these figures, look for a lot more game reports covering these rules!

    This downed chopper was the focal point of a scenario in my post-apocalyptic campaign

 

Post-Apocalyptic

Like my Sci-Fi projects, my production in the Post-Apoc period was a mix of old and new games. Our post-apocalyptic games using Wiley Games Core Rules is still continuing into its third year. That's great news. I think my players would like me to run it more often than I do, and hopefully I will be better at cranking out scenarios for them in 2025. For our most recent game, my friend Mike S provided the scenario so he could use the city block terrain he'd been busy building. I'm sure he wanted a chance to game with it on the tabletop, so he talked me into GM'ing the scenario he'd created. For the scenarios that I create, they tend to revolve around a particular piece of terrain or scatter I've created. One example was the "Chopper Down!" game I ran where the factions were converging on a helicopter that had auto-rated down into the middle of a ruined city. There had been no explosion, so hopefully that meant some great salvage! 

    Mike S brought his city ruins terrain he'd bought and had been working on for another scenario

By far the most posts I did on this period in 2024 was a new niche, or mini-period -- zombie apocalypse! I was inspired by purchasing the County Road Z rules and began accumulating the necessary zombie horde. As I was working on it, though, I read about another set of rules called Zombie RV. It was much shorter, way less expensive, and had a fun, quick, and bloody feel to it. I was so intrigued that Jenny and I pulled out some of my post-apocalyptic figures, I set up a tabletop, and we played a game of it. Although our mission to collect supplies failed miserably, we both agreed it was fun and we'd just had some awful luck leading to our deciding to flee the field prematurely. 

    Zombies swarm towards the survivors in one of our Zombie RV games over the course of the year

I reached out to the rules author David Bezio, and he sent me an unfinished "campaign" introduction in answer to my questions about running a continuing series of games. He encouraged me to expand on what he'd started and work up my own rules for experience and improving character skills and abilities. The next step was to inflict it on the Sunday evening group. I ran three side by side battle boards with two players sharing the four survivors like Jenny and I had done. It went over really well, except Keith had issues with zombie senses -- how do they see? Do they smell? Hear? Everyone else took the simple rules with a grain of salt, but Keith had questions. So, for the next game, I wrote out an even more detailed Zombie A.I. that the rules come with to hopefully answer his scientific inquiries...ha, ha!

    3-D printed fortified trailers from Bad Goblin are one of the highlights of my Zombie RV tabletops

Of course, more players meant more zombies would be needed! My zombie horde ended up totaling 74 figures, which included a handful of "Fast Zombies" and "Nasty Zombies," according to the Zombie RV rules. The first half of the zombie horde were 3-D printed ones from JS Wargamer Printing. After that, I was able to get ahold of some Wargames Factory male and female zombies to finish out the horde. A couple people suggested using Zombiecide figures, but my initial 3-D printed batches were way too small compared to the oversized ones from the board game. Luckily, the Wargames Factory zombies were close in size, so it all looks good together on the tabletop.

    Painting female zombies from Wargames Factory were a nice change of pace in the horde

I do have to admit that I got a little tired of painting zombies! Thank goodness for the female zombies my friend Keith gave me -- I know, that sounds weird! They spiced things up and I could have some fun with various outfits including party dresses, bikinis (hey, that's how they molded them!), evening gowns, and more. I was getting so tired of painting the walking dead that by the end I was painting them to resemble my gaming friends. Of course, no one thinks "their" zombie looks like them...!

    This 3-D printed bridge from Rusty's Jarls Workship was the centerpiece of my Mean Streets games

Mean Streets Gang Warfare

My "Convention Game" for 2024 was Mean Streets, my self-published rules covering rumbles between street gangs. I ran it at Cincycon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins. It was a big success at all three conventions. I had lots of interested players and sold some copies of the rulebook (which is also available at many other places, including Ganesha Games, Shieldwall Gaming Club, On Military Matters, RRB Minis & More, Brigade Games and other places). It turned out to be the 25 anniversary of the movie that inspired the rules, Hollywood's 1979, The Warriors. So, it was appropriate I ran a Warriors-inspired scenario in 2024. 

    The Eastmoor Kings gather on the bridge after running the gauntlet of rival gangs in 'Mean Streets'

My big terrain piece for that scenario was probably one of the biggest ones I have ever assembled and painted. It is a modern, stone city bridge that I bought from Rusty at Jarl's Workshop. I went for a yellowed, golden stone work and really like how it came out. I added in graffiti as it will see use more often in my Mean Streets games, or maybe even post-apocalyptic ones. In the scenario I ran, it was the goal for the Eastmoor Kings, who were taking on the role of the Warriors and trying to move from one side edge of the board to the opposite one. I didn't paint up any new gang members in 2024, but I did paint up some civilians.

    More than 14" height, this is my tallest terrain piece, a 28mm water tower from Bad Goblin Games

Speaking of big terrain, I also painted up the tallest terrain piece I've done to date. Once again, 3-D printed, it is a water tower from Bad Goblin Games. It has yet to see action on the tabletop, but it went together very easily and painted up quickly, as well. At $20, it is a bargain and I highly recommend Bad Goblin's 3-D printed terrain. Their fortified trailers were featured in a couple of my Zombie RV games and are fantastic. 

    My gaming year included a trip up to Blisffield to visit my friend Jim and play in two of their games

What DIDN'T I Paint?

Compared to other recent years, there has been one (probably) noticeable period missing in my 2024 posts. I may as well talk about it, too, as it does influence my gaming. I have found myself taking a break from Saga over the course of the year. I began the year finishing my Thracians, and painting their severed head fatigue markers. However, the only other painting I did for Saga otherwise was Warlord stands to give away as prizes at the Advance the Colors and Origins tournaments. And speaking of tournaments, I have also taken a break from being the one running them, too. Thankfully, others in the Saga Ohio community, such as Lee, Joe, Dan, Rusty, and James stepped up and took over running the ones I did.

    I enjoy making specialized fatigue markers for each Saga army - severed heads for my Thracians!

I was still playing Saga through the first three quarters of the year, though. I simply was not writing up blog posts about our Saga Sundays or my tournament entries. I played in both the DayCon tournament (run by Adrian and Jim) and the Hold the Line Ancient tournament (run by Rusty and James). We were still getting together on Sundays at the Guardtower East, but our number of players was steadily shrinking. Sometimes, we had just four show up -- and that is counting Jenny and myself. We did some Facebook polling and text discussion, and eventually in the Fall decided to suspend our once-a-month, Sunday get-togethers. There was another group at the Guardtower West who were gaming weekly and were much more active. We thought, "Why split up the player base into two groups?"

    An Ancient Warlord stand that I painted up as a prize for the ATC 2024 Saga tournaments

Interestingly, in this time of my declining Saga interest I finally got around to trying my "Saga Lite" ideas. With Saga Lite, there are no Advanced Abilities. Players use only the Basic Activations, Combat Bonus, and Activation Pool on the top half of their battle board. I was happy with how it worked out, and may run that for friendly games on Sunday evenings when we have a hankering for Dark Age, Medieval, etc. battles.  

    We tried out 'Rebels and Patriots' rules for the Revolutionary War and liked them, playing 3 times

Odds and Ends

In the early part of the year, I didn't do too good of a job blogging about what our Sunday evening group did on our game nights. True, it was often board games, and sometimes the same ones over and over. Let me tell you, if I never play Seven Wonders: Architects again...ha, ha! However, looking at the rules sets I did blog about, there are nearly 20 different ones listed. Granted, many of them were "one-off" games, typically when Keith got an urge to play PT Boats or Age of Sail or something similar.

    My long-time gaming companions, Joel & Allen, enjoy an Age of Sail game put on by Keith

However, one that I think will stay is Rebels and Patriots, which are the American War of Independence version of the popular Lion Rampant series. It is what I would call a "big battle" game, and we played it three times (I believe) over the course of 2024. It uses the same engine as Xenos Rampant, which should be a positive, right? We will be more familiar with the mechanics when we play a game. The only thing that worries me about sets of rules that use the same mechanics in a wide variety of periods is will the games feel different? When I run another game of Xenos Rampant, I don't want everyone to say, "This feels like the American Revolution but just with space figures. Does this make sense? A game system's mechanics should give the feel of a period. I worry that systems like Rampant and Wiley Games may suffer from sameness. Honestly, that is why I chose to try something different than Galactic Heroes for my Star Wars skirmishes. I don't want it to feel like a Western gunfight or post-apocalyptic game simply set in space.

    After 3 games, our group has the basics of how 'Rebels and Patriots' works -- which is always good!

Still, Rebels and Patriots has gained traction in our group. I enjoy it, Keith likes running it, and the players are become more and more familiar with the rules. We will see when I run Xenos Rampant again if anyone remarks, "Hey, this feels like an AWI game..."! I'd be interested in hearing from readers if you have encountered this in your own game clubs or feel that way yourself. Perhaps I'm the only one who worries about this or feels this way? Feel free to comment below.

    Although not mentioned on the blog often, we are avid board gamers, too, on Sunday evenings

Speaking of comments, this has probably been the most prolific year by commenters on Lead Legionaries, too. I really enjoy reading your feedback and hearing your thoughts. So, thank you to Bill, Donnie, Jason, Neil, Ray, Tom, and the man who seems to be everywhere, Anonymous! Ha, ha! Seriously, I really enjoy your comments as it confirms for me people are actually out there reading my blog. I'm sure every blogger wonders about that. Lacking any passive feedback such as "Likes" that you see on Facebook or "Times viewed" on Lead Adventure Forum, your comments are what I have to go on. I have had friends or acquaintances tell me they read my blog regularly, so I appreciate that, as well. 

    Expect more Zombie RV AARs in 2025 - more close escapes and characters that don't make it!

A Look Ahead (and some stats)

I mentioned 2024 was my most prolific year. If I get this posted tonight (New Year's Eve), it will be my 86th post of the year. That beats by about 20 my previous high, which was 66 in 2014. December 2024 has been my busiest month ever, too. This will be post #15, eclipsing the previous high pf 13 in October 2013. I actually started Lead Legionaries in September of 2013, though you will see posts dated 2007 through 2009. Those were "re-posts" of After-Action Reports from games played in those years.

    Keith, at right, gets a hankering from time to time for random periods -- like Civil War ironclads!

Why all the productivity this year? Well, it should be obvious - RETIREMENT! When people ask me how retirement is going (I finished teaching in May), I answer, "Every day is a good day." Unless I am out of town, I begin every day by going downstairs into my hobby room and putting in about an hour on whatever I am painting or modeling at the moment. I do get an occasional chance to sneak back downstairs during the day, but this steady one hour a day had done wonders for my output. As you may have seen at the bottom of my posts throughout the year, I have been tracking my Acquired vs. Painted totals. I ended up this year painting 254 miniatures. I took in 227. I hope to make the gap even bigger in 2025 with a full year of being retired.

    My 'Five Parsecs' crew investigates some of the Sci-Fi scatter & buildings I painted up in 2024

What projects will you see posts on in 2025? A number will continue -- my post-apocalyptic campaign and Zombie RV games are both meant to be continuing series. So, my players' characters will improve (though some will likely die -- especially in Zombie RV!), which hopefully means they'll want to keep playing games. I like campaigns, though nowadays this means a continuing series of linked skirmishes rather than the old school Ancients ones where players controlled a kingdom. What else? I will likely finish the story arc of Five Parsecs from Home and then reevaluate whether I want to keep playing solo games. You will see the start of my Star Wars skirmishes, with players controlling factions ranging from the Empire to the Rebel Alliance and all shades of opinion in between. I hope to keep running one-off games of Xenos Rampant, too.

    'A new period...?' Admiral Akbar asks..."It's a trap!!" Mon Calamari 3D-printed figures

 What about new stuff, you ask? Wellll...I enjoyed how Sellswords & Spellslingers worked for my Viking Town Raid. I plan to use that system for a series of linked skirmishes set in Britain during the Viking raids. The players will control a couple characters, seeking to help the inhabitants of Britain survive the fury of the Norsemen. And I plan on tinkering with that system to adapt it to...Vietnam! I have long been tempted to run Vietnam games, but balked at starting a new period (and not having a set of rules I liked). I like the idea of running Vietnam cooperatively, with each player being a sergeant in control of a squad of grunts. Their goal will be get as many of their men to survive their 13 month tour of duty in Vietnam. I will likely test it out solo, first, using my 20mm modern Africa figures. If I like how it works, I will probably invest in a new period in 2025 -- 28mm Vietnam. We'll see, though -- no guarantees!

Thanks for reading my Year in Review! I know it was long, but your readership is appreciated...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 254