Trip North to Blissfield to Game with Jim & Ted

    Saturday's game at Jim's 'Toy Box' was a scenario set in a post-apoc Ohio/Michigan 'exclusion zone'

It has become a summer tradition. Gather a group from Central Ohio and drive north to my friend Jim's "Toy Box" in Blissfield, MI, for a weekend of gaming. Awhile back, Jim was given a deal he couldn't pass up on a lawyer's building in the center of his tiny town of 3,000 people. It came with all the furniture and would be a perfect place within walking distance of home to store all his stuff, do his painting and modeling, and host games. 

    A stop by the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company was a fun shopping experience!

This year, five of us drove north on Friday to enjoy good times and camaraderie in small village Midwest. I had been wanting for years to visit the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company not too far away in Detroit. I convinced the others to stop on the way up, and it was definitely a great place to shop. I ended up "winning" the shopping wars, edging out Keith by less than $10. Most of my $150+ purchases were from Hydra Miniatures' Retro Raygun line. As the name implies, these are retro or nostalgic looking Sci-Fi miniatures with a wonderfully unique look. 

   Pictures from Hydra Miniatures' website of the Robot Legionnaire command pack I bought

I purchased two packs of five "Robot Legionnaires" to use for my various Sci-Fi games. They could be a units in a Xenos Rampant game, enemies for my Five Parsecs from Home crew, or just about anything else Sci-Fi. The pictures I'm posting are from their website. I obviously haven't had time to paint these up, yet! Plus, the paint jobs are likely from Dr. Matthias of the Lead Adventure Forum -- one of my favorite painters. If you want to see some amazing paint jobs, check out his web page! 

    Three bots or droids from the Hydra Miniatures line that I picked up at Michigan Toy Soldier store

In addition, I picked up some droids or robots they have as part of the line. I had been looking for non-military, unarmed droids for my Sci-Fi skirmishes, and hadn't thought to check their line. As I was digging through the blister packs, though, I found several that I could use. I picked up two each of Simon 6 and Blocko the Squarebot" (got to love the name!), as well as a pack of five Hoverbots. Once again, the pictures above are from Hydra Miniatures' website. 

    My purchases Friday (including a die cast pizza truck from Kroger to be converted into a RV maybe)

I also picked up some grass tufts I needed for bases, a bottle of Vallejo vehicle wash, and a copy of the Rebels and Patriots rules that we've been using for Keith's Revolutionary War games. Earlier that day, while at Kroger, I'd also picked up a die cast pizza food truck which I can hopefully convert into a RV for Zombie RV.

    The battle around Ted's 15mm scale Alamo rages in earnest as the Mexicans move towards the walls

Next, we drove to Blissfield to meet the gang for dinner. Since we were going to be play testing Ted's Remember the Alamo game this October 11-12 at Advance the Colors 2024, we appropriately had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town. That should have given me a clue to choose to play on the Mexican side, but unfortunately I chose the Texans (Texicans?). Ted is upfront about his game. The Mexicans are going to "win." All who don't run off will be killed. The only way for the defenders to win at the Alamo is to inflict enough casualties to make it a far too Pyrrhic victory for General Santa Ana. The Mexican players, on the other hand, are trying to curry the general's favor by killing or capturing the most Texan leaders and flags positioned at various points around the fort. So, I went in knowing I was going to lose. I should also have resigned myself to bad die rolling, too!

    Jim's Mexicans swarm up the ladders while the number of my defenders along the wall dwindles

Ted's Alamo in 15mm is awesome! If you can come to ATC 2024 in Springfield, OH, to play in his game, I would highly recommend it. Hundreds of 15mm Mexicans in various color uniforms and Texan defenders make for a great spectacle. The rules work very well and are quick and easy to learn. There were a few places during the game where my Mexican opponent Jim and I had questions, but they were far between. Defending the mission alongside me were Mike S and Jenny, who were both making their second Blissfield trip. Besides Jim, the attackers were Gene, Keith, and Jason S, who drove up after he got off work. Mike and Jenny did a decent job causing losses among the Mexican attackers. However, I was abysmal at my die rolling. I would roll a dozen six-side dice, needing 4's or better to hit, and score just 2 or 3 hits routinely. On the other hand, Jim is renowned in his gaming group for his lights-out die rolling. It was an uneven matchup, and my side of the mission went down with a whimper.

    Jenny's Tennesseans, led by Davey Crockett, holding off the Mexican attack early on in the game

Everyone had a good time. I felt bad I almost single-handedly caused our side to lose. Mike S inflicted quite a few casualties against Keith and Jason's troops, but I certainly did not hold up my side of the bargain. If I had equaled his successes, we would have had a chance. It is definitely a different mindset playing in a game where you know your forces will be eliminated. I don't think I minded that part -- Ted warned us at the beginning. What bothered me was my die rolling was so pathetic it almost became a joke. So, if you play the Texans at the Alamo, be sure to bring your hot dice! Either way, you'll be in for a good time with lots of laughs. The climax of the game came when Jenny was down to Davey Crockett and a few Tennessean companions. She decided to have him drop down from the walls and make a run for the river. She rolled the absolute worst she could for his landing, and Crockett suffered an ignominious death, bayoneted while he lay on the ground with two broken legs!

    Jenny's Michigan National Guard unit sets a road block at the intersection and defends it zealously!

We were right back at it on Saturday morning, rolling dice again. I'd requested Jim to run a scenario of his post-apocalyptic campaign for us. Normally, he has just 2-3 players, so I appreciated him cooking up a bigger scenario than he's used to running. Jim uses the Wiley Games rules, but with a dose of Zona Alfa thrown in. His "exclusion zone" (think Chernobyl) is based off of an actual nearby nuclear facility. In his campaign, there has been an "incident" and the area is blocked off from the public and patrolled by various government agencies. Well...supposed to be blocked off! The Zona Alfa concept is players are crossing into the zone on behalf of various employers or looking for valuable equipment and artifacts.

    Much to their surprise, the road block includes Mike S's police cruisers! 'No one' means nobody!!

Interestingly, Jim had picked an actual location near the nuclear facility from Google Maps and recreated the terrain on the tabletop. The miniature version of the intersection of the county and state routes resembled it in a very skillful and realistic way. I was playing a crew of four from an unnamed government agency driving in a black SUV (of course). My goal was to investigate reports of "lizardmen" in the zone, and if possible, bring one back alive or dead to study. I wasn't friends or enemies with any of the other five factions played by Jenny, Ted, Mike S, Jason, or Keith. In fact, my briefing said I was fairly "dismissive" of them! Jenny was a Michigan National Guard unit rotating in to keep trespassers out of the zone. Ted's group was another army unit taking on a semi-independent role exploring the exclusion zone. Mike S was the local police in two patrol cars. Jason was the "Cold Ones" -- Eastern Europeans who have been mutated by their forays into other exclusion zones and show up to loot them. And speaking of Looters, Keith was simply local looters hoping to score some stuff and make some money.

    A patrol cars spots a looter exiting the window of a home and sets off a game-long gun battle

The action began when Keith's looters were accosted by the zealous local law enforcement, who saw one of Keith's guys suspiciously exit a home via the window. The two would engage in a running gun battle which saw none of Mike's officers or Keith's looters actually get knocked out of action! Shooting was very Hollywood style (LOTS of misses!). Meanwhile, my government SUV passed them by and parked in a driveway between two patches of woods. Two of my agents got out to investigate each patch of woods. We were looking for Lizardmen, and animals live in the woods, right? What we found was not what we were looking for, as an "anomaly" sent a massive heat blast scorching its way across the board. Apparently, these happen frequently enough in the exclusion zone that we'd been warned about it in our briefings. Of course, it happened right after my four guys exited the air-conditioned SUV! The agent nearest the anomaly was knocked out of action, two others were wounded, and the leader momentarily stunned. Similar effects happened to everyone else on the board not inside an air-conditioned vehicle (or not a Cold One -- Jason's guys were apparently immune).

    My federal agents bypass the looters and pull up in a driveway to investigate two patches of woods

The wounded agent spent several turns dragging the unconscious one back to the SUV, plopping him in the back seat, and getting back behind the wheel. Meanwhile, my leader and his pal explored the other woods, finding nothing. My leader, skeptical from the beginning about "lizardmen," began to think that a giant game of "telephone" had taken place at his agency. You know the game, right? Someone at one part of a circle whispers something to his neighbor, who is supposed to repeat it to the next in line. By the time it makes its way back around to the original one, the message is unrecognizable. Hmmm. "Cold Ones?" Lizards are cold blooded. Maybe I am supposed to capture one of Jason's Cold Ones? That became my leader's new goal as he worked his way through the woods.

    My leader and another agent begin a trek through the woods to the opposite side of the table

Incidentally, in the Wiley Games rules, you can heal wounds/stun with a Queen of Hearts/Spades, or any Ace which you play and declare as one of those cards. Jim even included a Joker in this deck, which also acted as an Ace. On the very first turn of the game, I was given two Aces. For the next 11 turns, not only did I not receive a queen, I also did not receive an Ace in the four cards I was given each turn. That's 44 cards out of the deck of 53 with no Queen or Ace! Needless to say, it appeared that my luck was continuing from last night!

    Lizardmen? On the Ohio-Michigan border?? This comes as a surprise to these hapless civilians

Of course, no one was paying attention to my skulking around by this point. Jenny had decided to enforce her road block in the center of the table zealously and enthusiastically. When anyone tried to pass -- including local law enforcement or fellow soldiers (Ted's faction) -- she blasted away at them, disabling their vehicles. This began a running gun battle between the rival U.S. Army soldiers and anyone else that decided to join in. Meanwhile, Keith and the local cops were continuing to fire away at each other ineffectually. Jason's Cold Ones on the far edge of the board shot a young, hoodie-wearing man when they spied him through the window. No questions -- just shoot first! Eastern Europeans!! When they went into the room to ask him where they might find artifacts, the man was unsurprisingly uncooperative. In fact, it took three of the Cold Ones several turns till the wounded local was knocked out. 

    Lizardmen stalk towards the gun battle between the army units, leaving an unconscious one behind

About this time, Jim made a decision. He may have noticed me shaking my head every time I looked at my cards, but he decided it was time for the Lizardmen to make an appearance. REAL lizardmen! The leader of my agents whipped off his sunglasses cinematically and muttered, "I'll be damned...there really ARE lizardmen in here!" He called the wounded agent to bring up the car. He headed towards the house which Jason's Cold Ones were hurriedly vacating at the sight of humanoid lizards carrying guns. The Cold Ones piled into their pickup so fast that they left one of their own behind upstairs. The truck peeled off and headed to the opposite board edge, encountering Mike's two patrol officers afoot (their wheel had been shot off by one of Jenny's trigger-happy guardsmen). Because the local police were being played by his dad, Jason opened up on them -- of course!

    The Cold Bloods in their battered pickup fire upon two local police officers, wounding them

The lizardmen, robbed of their cold-blooded prey, began to track down a civilian vehicle that had unwisely driven onto the tabletop. One chased the car, stuck its head inside the window, and was knocked senseless when the driver floored it and smacked him with the car as it sped away. The other lizardmen were having none of that and chased the car. That led them straight to where the Cold One who'd escaped out the second story window was stalking the soldiers battling each other. The lizardmen proved once and for all that being reptilian beats simply having cold blood, and knocked Jason's unlucky guy out of action. The other lizards smelled blood from the gun battle raging between the two army units and stalked forward, as well.

    Distracted by all the action around the army units, my agents make off with a knocked-out lizardmen

Perhaps the most humorous part of the gun battle for me was Jenny's sergeant firing her turret-mounted .50 caliber machine gun at Ted's guy armed with a grenade launcher. Each was about 10 feet from the other, but as turn after turn went by, neither was knocked out of action. Hmmm. I mused about the feasibility of firing a grenade launcher at someone so close. Jim asked, "Have you fired one?" I had to answer yes, that I indeed had fired an M203 grenade launcher when I was in the military. Still, it is a game, and adjustments are often made to weapon effectiveness by rules writers!

    The board at the end of  the game - most of the action was near the road block in the center

Meanwhile, Jim had done my federal agents a huge favor. The other three lizardmen left their unconscious egg-brother laying in the dirt by the house. My agents crept as quietly through the woods, trying to remain as out of sight as they could. Once they were near the house, my leader darted out, picked up the lizardmen, and drag him off into the trees. He was joined by another agent, and together they carried the creature back to the SUV. They bundled him into the back and got ready to drive off. By the way, this was the final turn of the game. After 11 turns of drought, Jim had dealt me an Ace and a Joker! Still, it helped speed our way back to the vehicle, and make good my agents' escape from the table. Once or twice, Jenny said she'd been tempted to shoot up our SUV with her .50 caliber machine gun. However, since I wasn't bugging her, and Ted's soldiers were actively shooting back, she left me alone.

    Jim smokes a cigar in front of his 'Toy Box' in Blissfield and next to the sign the village installed

So, we decided to call it a game. Although my four agents had fired only once the entire game (long range at a lizardmen), we had accomplished our mission. I was kept entertained by the success and failures (mostly the failures) of my friends as they tried to carry out their missions. We had a more than two hour drive back home to Columbus, so we said our goodbyes and headed out. We enjoyed our two days of fun gaming in Blissfield, and were heading home with loot in the back of Mike's SUV from Michigan Toy Soldier store (but thankfully, no unconscious lizardman!), and lots of stories to recount on the drive home. 

Thanks, Jim, for having us up to your Toy Box, again! As usual, it was a blast!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 168
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 140

Back to the "old place" for Old West Miniatures

    The balcony of Andy's MDF Saloon was where Mike W's "Gamblers" set up to gun down all comers

It had been awhile since we did miniatures gaming on Sunday night at our regular spot (which I call Wallace's Brewpub). With Covid dialing down, host Mike W felt good about us gaming in persons again at his place. His basement is spacious, well-lit and includes two of his home brews on tap -- so, I missed gaming there for more reasons than the camaraderie! 

    Joel's gang set up a couple doors down from the saloon in Andy's Old Western town

The game for the night was Old West miniatures, run by Andy S. He's been collecting buildings for 28mm Old West and has a good selection of miniatures already painted up. We kind of nudged him into running a bit earlier than he was planning. Keith promised he'd bring along terrain to supplement what Andy had so far, so the slight arm twist worked. Andy set up a very intro level scenario with each of us controlling three figures from a faction -- townsfolk, in my case. Mike W played the Gamblers (or as Joel called them, the professional assassins!), and Mike S the Ranchers. Now that I am writing my report, I don't remember what Joel and Keith's factions were called! Andy had given figures the weapons the miniature had cast on and a skill for one or two of the miniatures in the faction. Everyone was basically equal, though.

    The last mistake Mike S's Rancher made was peeking around the door to shoot at the Gamblers!

We talked about it and decided to have Andy secretly write who each faction had a score to settle with. Two of the other four opponents were written on your roster, and my Townsfolk were supposed to go after Mike S's Ranchers and Mike W's Gamblers. This didn't necessarily mean they were out to get me, though. We had no idea who was gunning for who. In the end, the only other faction I ended up shooting at was Keith's because it seemed obvious to me that he was coming after me. Mike S's faction wasn't deployed far from mine, but he went out of the other entrance of the barn onto the main street, fairly far away from Ma, Pa, and Jeb's house my figures were deployed in (I felt I had to name them!).

    Another dead Rancher - this one the lone figure killed by accumulating three wounds

The main street was the location of the Swingle Saloon (yes, Andy had the MDF sign made for him!). Upstairs, the Gamblers were deployed and immediately stepped out onto the balcony and began blazing away at Mike S's Ranchers. Mike earned his "assassin" nickname honestly, quickly taking out two of Mike S's figures. Andy was running Fistful of Lead rules, which are a fast, beer and pretzels set. When you hit an opponent's figure with a shot, you roll another 1d10. On a 1-5, you pin the enemy (which they have to roll to recover from on their turn). On a 6-8 you wound them (three wounds and you're dead). On a 9-10, they're killed immediately. Want to guess what Mike W was rolling a LOT of...??

    Jeb peers around the family home sensing trouble as furtive shapes are seen moving his way

I thought the rules worked out well, but I was a little bothered by the high amount of insta-kills that we had. What's the point of having a rules mechanic where you take three wounds if all but one of the figures gunned down were killed by a roll of 9-10? I think the rules show good potential for a quick skirmish, but I was a tad concerned whether this was a die rolling anomaly for the evening or how most games of Fistful of Lead progress. Ever the wiseacre, Keith replied to my comment that it was an anomaly, kind of like the way I roll dice but in reverse!

    Poor Ma...she spent the entire game dashing around trying to draw a bead on someone but never did

On my turns, I sent Jeb and Ma to sneak alongside or through the buildings to get an eyeball on the action in the main street. By the time we got close, most of the Ranchers lay bleeding in the street and the Gamblers had pulled back inside the building from the balcony. Two of Keith's figures were headed my way, so I pulled Jeb back to help Pa. Pa was my "Deadeye," but I think Andy meant to write "cross-eyed." As Keith had mentioned, my die rolling was poor and Pa's shots were going alarmingly awry. Keith felt so confident that he could rush up on Walleye Vision Pa that he ran right up to the first story window of Pa's house. Pa dashed downstairs (without falling) and blazed away through the window (pronounced "winnder"). To everyone's shock, Keith's gunfighter fell dead. I theorized that the distortion of the window pane meant Pa hit where he wasn't aiming and actually nailed the guy. With an "immediate kill," of course, as the theme was for the night.

    "Walleye Vision" Pa finally hits something -- one of Keith's gunfighters through the window

That was most of my action. Ma was having a hard time getting into position to take a shot and ended up never firing the entire game. Jeb fired once and missed -- proving that he was his father's son. In other action, Keith traded gunfire with Joel for most of the evening with (I believe) each losing one. Keith had deployed in the Gentleman's Club, and we assumed when his remaining guy withdrew from the fight, it was actually his "turn." He put away his pistol and pulled out his...well, you can figure out where our banter was headed.

    Another look at "Swingle's Saloon" as the action unfolds, and guns begin to blaze away

I think everyone enjoyed the game. It was great to be back together pushing minis across the tabletop and rolling dice. I can normally take or leave Western games (not my favorite type of movie either), but Fistful of Lead is quick and simple. I like that there is enough chrome to customize figures and give them some personality. I will probably end up buying the PDF from Wargame Vault, just so I can tinker with them, too. I have been wanting to find something to play some beer and pretzels Pulp style games with, and these may work. We'll see. Hopefully, we will also see if the immediate kills were an anomaly or if that is indeed how the rules play out. It would be easy enough to adjust the rolls down to 6-9 is wounded, and only a 10 is a kill.

    These were the rules we used for the evening and they provided a fun, fast game

In the meantime, it gives me fresh incentive to work some more on my post-Apocalyptic rules. I even came home Sunday night and fished through my drawer of unpainted lead and pull out the figures for the next faction I plan to paint up. So, maybe look for those soon on here, along with another batch of Saga Mongol cavalry that is nearing completion!

Head West for a Western Game

Mike's MDF buildings that were our town we had to defend from claim jumpers

One of our regular Sunday night gamers, Mike S, drives over from Springfield, OH, pretty much every weekend. So, we thought it was time to return the favor and headed west out to his place this past Sunday. I think most having Memorial Day off the next day convinced them that the extra drive time to get home was okay, but we started early to be on the safe side.

My leader Dakota (spitting image and grandfather of the Pulp character in our games) peeks around a building

Mike has been wanting to do Westerns for awhile, and has been collecting and painting 28mm characters. Still he asked Keith and I to bring along some of ours, so we had plenty. Each player had two gunfighters -- one was the leader type who had two action cards in the deck, and the other was the follower type, with only one. Mike was using Gunfighters Ball -- the intro version being a free download from Knuckleduster Miniatures. We had played games with it the previous weekend at Drums at the Rapids in the Toledo area. Mike adopted the rules modifications that two GMs there recommended. In hindsight, we decided to back off the modifications next time and play the rules "as is."

Joel's man in black also peeks around a building to take a shot at Steve's claim jumpers taking cover in the trees

There were eight players, three of which (Joel, Allen, and myself) were the townies -- defending our settlement from claim jumpers, who accused us of cheating them out of their proceeds. Things looked bleak for us when a couple random deadeye "head shots" from Steve V and Jason S took out one each of Allen and my characters. At that point, the other five must have felt sorry for us and began shooting at each other. This turned it into a free-for-all on their side, while us three never took a pot shot at each other. In the end, with bodies laying all over the table, the claim jumpers skulked off into the woods and we had held onto our (ill-gotten or otherwise) gains.

Black Hats have a 'Bonanza'

    "Pa" and Cain find good firing positions near the fenced-in chicken coop

Mike S had a hankering to do a 28mm Cowboy game, so after raiding Keith's Old Glory Western terrain, he set up a White Hats (good guys) vs. Black Hats (bad guys) scenario. This episode feature myself as the Cartwrights seeking to chase off some outlaws who have been trespassing on our ranch. Joel was the Texas rangers, come to help us round up the scofflaws, while Keith and Tom played the bad guys.

Mike had made some changes to Ganesha Games' "Flying Lead" rules to better reflect the Hollywood Western. Essentially, every character was "Tough," which meant taking a wound merely worsened their Quality by 1 to 3, depending on how badly they were hit (beaten, doubled, or tripled). Once a character's Quality rose to a "6", he was out of action, or dead. In general, the rules worked well, though Mike had some changes he'd like to see, and we had some we suggested, as well. One odd feature -- more of a random aspect of cards and dice -- saw 5 of the first 6 turns the player whose card was drawn last had his drawn first in the following turn. The infamous "double move" before your opponents can respond is one of the reason I dislike card activation games. I prefer an established turn order, and feel you should win or lose based on your tactics (and dice, perhaps) -- not a fluke of the cards.

We deployed first, and I foolishly focused only on where my own troops were, ignoring where me ally Joel had deployed. Both Tom and Keith deployed near one corner of the battlefield, directly across the table from me. I had my Cartwrights dash across the field to take up good firing positions and fill the bad guys with lead as they attempted to cross the battlefield and escape into the mesas on the opposite edge from them. I was successful in putting Pa and Cain inside the fenced-in, chicken pen, while my other three dashed into a two story house that overlooked the bad guys. I was the first to benefit from the "double move," so blasted away at Keith's gang of outlaws, all of who were named Bob. Since an abnormally high number of my hits were "retreat" outcomes rather than wounds (depended on whether my die score was odd or even), we laughingly called them the "Running Bobbs." Even worse, they lined up for cover behind the outhouse, which provoked howls of laughter saying they all had the "runs" and were scrambling for the outhouse.

    The rest of my gang find a great firing position in the two story house overlooking the bad guys' position

What I had not noticed, though, was that Joel deployed his troops "a fair piece" away from mine. In fact, they couldn't have been in a worse position to support my attack -- they were hidden away in the mesas, and it would take a number of turns for them to advance to where they would be a factor in the battle. We have a saying on Sunday nights, and it proved true again this night: "Tom's winning!" Tom cleverly deduced they could gang both of their forces up against mine, and he proceeded to move his entire force into the house I'd holed up in, or blasting away at me through the windows. My three Cartwrights inside were cut down relatively quickly.  And when Keith woke up from his die rolling slump ("crapping out" twice in a row on activations, early on -- which meant none of his troops were able to act at all for two turns), the Cartwrights began to drop like flies.

    And here's why it wasn't such a good idea...Tom's entire gang uses his "double move" to race around the side of the house and rush it, outnumbering my guys 6-3...

The Texas rangers did race in impressively when Joel got the double move, firing at the hip as they came. However, with my men whittled down to essentially just Cain -- and he was bleeding badly -- it was now Joel's turn to ganged up on by Tom and Keith. Tactically, the White Hats blundered this game. Joel deployed too far away, but worse, I stuck my neck out too far and the Black Hats were only too glad to slip a noose around it. We went down kicking, though, and shot up Keith's "Running Bobs" fairly heavily. However, it was obvious that the Cartwright Ranch would be under new ownership come sundown.

The game worked well enough that I'm sure we will see another Western episode on Sunday nights. Hopefully next time the good guys will prove to have a little more between their ears than a big white hat...!