Monday, May 12, 2025

Second (3rd really) Batch of 'Big Red One' Vietnam Infantry

    "Incoming!" My next batch of 28mm Vietnam figures take cover as enemy artillery fire zeroes in
I am painting these 28mm Vietnam miniatures from Crucible Crush's "Black Sun" range in the batches of five that they come packaged in. For me, that's a nice, doable group which allows for at least the illusion of quick progress. So, although this is my second post of finished Vietnam miniatures, it is actually the third batch of five I've completed. Because of the way I'm painting them, I've decided to have two to three batches in progress at one time. So, the next batch -- U.S. infantry group #4 -- is about halfway through at the moment. Viet Cong infantry is next in line, though, and getting close to being done. Sorry if this is all confusing!

    I really like the Black Sun range of figures from Crucible Crush - great poses & crisp scultping!
These figures are one of the two "standard" infantry offerings in the line. This pack is called "U.S. Army Soldiers in Combat." There are six U.S. packs in total (not counting reporters, tank crewmen, etc.), meaning 30 unique U.S. infantry castings. I ordered two each of several of the packs and intend to try to paint them up slightly different, if possible, to give more variety. This pack also features the only time I have had to glue anything together in these mostly one-piece, metal castings. One pose has the arm holding its M16 separate from the rest of the figure. And now that I look at the picture again, I glued it on differently than they show on their website...oops! Oh well, I have a second one of these packs, so I will try to remember to glue the army hanging down at its side rather than swinging forward like I did with this one.

Like with batch #2, the recipe for these five figures began with brush-on, white Gesso primer. Next, the uniform was painted in a light olive drab craft paint called Light Timberline Green. Once dry, I painted the pouches, canteens, packs, and ammo belts in a craft sage green. The darker green camo patches on the helmet cover and the poncho are done in a medium craft green. After the figure has dried overnight, I paint it with a mixture of Vallejo Matte Varnish and Military Green. I am continuing to like how the darker shade of green "wash" settles into the folds and creases on the these crisply-cast figures. In my very first post on the project, I show a series of miniatures at these first stages in case you want to go back and look at them.

    I'm adding tattoos to about half of the figures - I think it adds an extra bit to bring them to life
At this point, it is time to do their flesh. That's the opposite of how I normally do miniatures (from inside out, so to speak). I have a ruddy craft paint that I use for the base flesh coat for Caucasian soldiers. Then, I apply a darker flesh wash I created similarly to the Vallejo Matte & Green one. It uses an orange, clay colored paint mixed with matte varnish and gives the white skin a nice, sun-tanned look. For African-American soldiers, I used a dark wood brown with a medium highlight. I go back and forth between dry brushing the color on or painting it full strength on the cheeks, nose, etc. It honestly depends on how deeply cut the folds of the skin are on the figure. I also do a Hispanic flesh tone. It has a medium leather color as a base coat, followed by a watered down brown vehicle wash (that I also use on Caucasian soldiers). African-American soldiers instead get the black vehicle wash that is applied to the uniforms and equipment at the end of the process.

Next up are the other details on the figures. I painted the plastic parts of their M16s black and the metal parts Iron Wind Metals Steel. A Pewter highlight was added to the metal parts that might get the most wear. The boots were also painted black with a dark gray dry brush. The shoulder patches are done in a yellowish color called Maple Sugar, with a tiny red "1" done with a Micron pen. So far, I have been happy with how the eyes have come out on my Vietnam soldiers. I do a flattened black oval first, fill that in with a smaller white one, and then do a Dark brown slit for the iris/eyeball. I know many gamers do not paint eyes, stating that -- at the scaled distance -- you wouldn't see a human's eyes. However, many gamers also pick up the figures and hold them up to take a closer look at them. Then they see the eyes or lack thereof...ha, ha! So, since I am reasonably successful in avoiding the "googly eye syndrome," I will continue to paint eyes at this scale.

    Leaves, plastic plants, and tufts all decorate the bases to make it look more "jungle like"
This batch included one soldier armed with a M79 grenade launcher (there are also two armed with this in the "Specials" pack). So, I will likely end up with more "bloop guns" than I will field. Speaking of which, I have put some more work on the rules that I'm going to be using for my Vietnam games. Inspired by the cooperative nature of Sellswords & Spellslingers fantasy miniatures rules from Ganesha Games, I am intending to do the same here. My thought is each player will control 4-5 soldiers, though I may need to scale that back after play testing. In a six-player game, like we typically have on Sunday evenings, that would mean up to 30 U.S. soldiers each taking their turns individually. That may cause things to slow down too much at that size, as opposed to if they had only, say, three soldiers each. My Viking Town Raid game features six players each controlling three figures. It pretty much finishes up in three hours or so (at conventions, a true finish may take a bit longer due to the rules explanation I have to do ahead of time that I won't need to with my group). 

I hope to figure out all of those parameters in the play testing phase, which will initially be solo. After that, I may invite just a couple players to test it out in smaller games. I'm really looking forward to getting this project on the table. I've been reading a lot of great books on Vietnam and using them for inspiration. I looked at about a half dozen lists of "Best Vietnam Histories" and compared them, looking for the ones common to most. I've been working my way down them, having just finished Hal Moore's memoir (made into a Mel Gibson movie), We Were Soldiers Once...And Young. If you haven't read it, I would recommend it highly, if nothing for the whole Landing Zone Albany segment of the story that gets left out of the movie. Right now, I've just begun reading Mark Bowden's book on the Battle of Hue.

    Another shot of the whole fire team with enemy mortar rounds getting dangerously close!
I hope to update this project fairly often, what with painting figures in batches of five. However, I promise not to laboriously go through how I painted each figure in future posts...ha, ha! I apologize if this was repetitive. I try to strike a middle ground between talking about how I painted up a figure or terrain with other discussion, such as how I will use it or what I learned. I think I will also begin to create some jungle vegetation pieces using plastic plants from craft stores and flocking. I'd like to scratch-build some termite mounds. The Vietnam memoirs I've read all mention those as being key cover in firefights. I'll try to include those items alongside posts with finished miniatures for more variety than, "Here's another five Vietnam figures"...ain't they purdy??

What else is on my desk? Next to be completed will be the first Viet Cong, as mentioned earlier. I've also been doing some modern or Sci-Fi scatter that I had been meaning to finish. I'll probably save those up till I have enough to do a post on them.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 75 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  • Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 57

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Photos from Zombie RV at Buckeye Game Fest

Coop and Big Bass battle zombies in one of my games of Zombie RV at Buckeye Game Fest 2025
I realize that Zombie RV is not a historical miniatures game, of course. However, since the HMGS Great Lakes mission at Buckeye Game Fest 2025 was to entice board gamers to try out a miniatures game or two, I thought Zombie RV would be a perfect fit. I imagine the board game Zombiecide is still popular in the board gaming community, and figured many would see it as an easy jump from cardboard to fully 3-dimensional miniatures battle. Plus, my trailer park looks really nice when all set up. And a nice looking table is a key part of recruiting players to your game, I've found over the years.

    My trailer park setup for BGF 2025 with charcter cards & noise tokens ready at the bottom
Still, neither of the games I ran (Friday night and Saturday morning) went off completely full. I had four players Friday and five on Saturday. Zombie RV scales very easily, though. In the base game, a solo player controls four survivors battling hordes of zombies, which are run by the game's A.I. I've scaled it up to six players controlling two survivors each and it moves fast, providing a tension-filled, thrilling game. So, it was no problem to adjust to less than six players.

    Jackie fires her pistol at several zombies who are pursuing her in one of my ZRV games
In the scenario, the survivors have come upon a trailer park where they spot no movement from a distance. They decide to risk exploring the trailer park because they are short on supplies. Their goal is to scavenge a certain number of supplies. I set that number to equal the number of survivors in the game. Each trailer or building on the tabletop has supplies in it. Survivors can keep searching until they find it, and then it is depleted. 

    "Woops!" While Woody is searching, a spawn roll brings zombies out of a back room into his trailer
A complication is that the "spawn points" (I used two in each game) are random and inside the trailers. Once a building has been searched, though, it can no longer spawn zombies. Instead, they appear in the treeline on the board edge closest to that building. Yes, that means you could move into a building and suddenly have zombies spawn there at the end of the turn! Surprisingly, that happened only once over the course of both games. Woody, that survivor, immediately fled the trailer and decided to look for easier pickings...ha, ha!

    Look at the top of the picture & you can see Coop in the water tower watching over the trailer park
Both games saw the players collecting the necessary number of scavenge tokens. On Friday, they lost poor Coop to a horde of zombies when the survivors were fleeing the field back to their vehicles. I let the players arrive in 1-3 vehicles, which they position in contact with a board edge. Their survivors must exit by one of the vehicles. It does not necessarily have to be the one they arrived on -- just any of their three vehicles. When Coop went down, he and Big Bass had been living dangerously, battling zombies in hand to hand. Coop began the game climbing the ladder to the water tower, firing away at zombies until his rifle jammed. With a horde of zombies waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder (only Fast Zombies & Nasty Zombies can climb, I ruled), he decided to take a risky exit. He leapt from the platform, landing on the wooden outhouse behind one of the container buildings. I told the player to roll a "Quickness (Dexterity) Check," and to roll HIGH. Wouldn't you know it, but she rolled a six on 1d6. High enough, I said!

    Zombies spawn from one of the many doors in my Shanty Town Souk from MBA
In the Saturday game, Mophius was the one swarmed over by zombies and taken down. His partner, Jackie, was in contact with a Fast Zombie at the end of the game, but I ruled that she would have been able to break contact and flee off-table safely. So, each group lost one of their survivors to the ravenous zombie hordes, and might have lost more on Saturday if I played it out to the bitter end. I think the mobile and random spawn points makes for a much more challenging and interesting game. I will likely continue to find a way to use that mechanism in future games. For the trailer park, there were 12 buildings. I simply numbered then 1 to 6 with two different colors of dice (dividing the park into 2'x3' sections, in essence). The players would roll for which trailer spawned the zombies on each half of the board, and how many.

    Things are looking desperate as a horde of zombies trail Big Bass & Coop fleeing back to the vehicles
Everyone seemed to have a good time playing Zombie RV. Nearly all of my players were new to the game, so it was fun to introduce folks to these simple, fast-play rules. I saw a number of players using their phones to scan the QR code I had on my game sign to go to the page on Wargame Vault where you can download them for free. Author David Bezio of Grey Area Games wrote a winner with these rules. I even have written an unofficial campaign supplement that is on RRB Minis & More's website for download, for those interested.

    Sadly, Coop did not make it...wounded, knocked down, and surrounded by a hungry horde!
So, what's on my painting table, now? I have another five U.S. soldiers from the Big Red One in Vietnam in the flocking stages. My first five Viet Cong are next -- probably about halfway done. And a fourth set of five U.S. soldiers is about halfway through. I'm also working on touching up some terrain that I am taking up to Drums at the Rapids next weekend to sell in the flea market there. This includes stone temple ruins pieces, two wooden, provincial gladiator arenas, and other miscellaneous stuff. And yes, that arena comment means I am indeed selling my 28mm gladiators, which you can see here and here. These are nicely painted, so if you're in the area and interested, feel free to show up and snag as many of them as you want. I am selling them $6 each or two for $10. They are excellently sculpted gladiators by Crusader Miniatures, and would look fine augmenting any collection, I think!

    More zombies spawn from a trailer, pouring out of one of the doorways

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 70 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  • Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 57

    Jimmy fights off a Nasty Zombie (brick base) on the porch of my newest trailer before fleeing

    A group of survivors sneak around the trailer park hoping to stay out of sight of the zombies
    Coop ensconced in the water tower with his rifle...what could possibly go wrong...??
    Another good shot of Big Bass & Coop heroically holding off the zombies in melee

 


Saturday, May 10, 2025

Photos from Viking Raid at Buckeye Game Fest 2025

    Mounted Saxon nobles attack Bjorn Ironside while his companions leads off a string of captives
It has been a busy week here, and I am finally getting around to posting pictures and an account of my games at Buckeye Game Fest 2025. Jenny ran my Viking Raid on an Anglo-Saxon Town scenario twice -- once on Thursday evening and again on Friday morning. Both times we had the full six players. The whole point of us running miniatures games at this mostly board gaming convention was to expose new players to minis. My fellow game masters from HMGS Great Lakes were hoping to recruit folks who are already gamers to historicals, or at least miniatures.

    The players on Saturday morning study their character sheets while Jenny explains the rules
If that was a goal, it must have been a success as only one or two of our players were folks we knew. Most seemed to pick up the Sellswords and Spellslingers rules very quickly. Our job simply became flipping and implementing the event cards that come about because of player characters failing to activate (which moves or puts new defending foes on the board). It is interesting how the randomness of dice and event cards that are shuffled and reshuffled regularly begin to tell a story. One Viking player and his band of raiders may suffer counter attacks of the defenders time and time again, while another is left alone to break down doors of homes, take slaves, or steal livestock. 

    A Saxon fyrd archer leaps out of concealment and fires an arrow of Floki and his companions
In one of the games, the raiders made a concerted attacks on the church. A battle raged in the courtyard, and most of the Saxon hearthguard were fighting to protect their holy site. However, it was too little, too late, and the Saxons held out long enough for us to call the game. Still, the players said they had fun, which is the main goal of a game, right? Viking raiders did fall to the Saxon defenders from time to time, but most players had their characters survive, even if they did suffer wounds. It is interesting for me to watch the players and their different strategies in this game. Most of the time, they are quite careful, and take care of any Saxon defenders popping up before advancing further into the town. In the half dozen times the game has been run, I've yet to see a grand strategy among the Viking players. Each seems to take my advice that the game is cooperative, yet competitive, to heart.

    Bjorn's Vikings burst into a Saxon home and begin to subdue the women & children to sell as slaves
I will run the game at Drums at the Rapids next weekend -- once on Friday evening and another time on Saturday morning. After that, it will be run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Origins Game Fair, June 18-22, Columbus. Once Origins is over, I will likely put the game on the shelf for awhile. I have run it a LOT lately. Time to come up with some new ideas!

    Battle rages in the courtyard in front of the church, as Saxon hearthguard try to hold off the raiders
In the meantime, enjoy some of my favorite photos of the Viking Raid from last weekend. If you get a chance to sign up and try your own hand at raiding an Anglo-Saxon town, I look forward to seeing you at the table!

    Lagertha's swordsman Fafnir dashes along the walls of the church to join the battle in the courtyard
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 70 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  • Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 57

 

    Two Saxon mounted hearthguards charge Bjorn as he tries to escape with some chickens

    Meanwhile, Floki's swordsman is sorely beset by both Saxon fyrd and mounted hearthguard

    A Viking raider is overwhelmed by a horde of Saxon fyrd banded together to defend their homes

    Ragnar's wife Lagertha faces down the mounted charge of a Saxon hearthguard

    Ragnar Lothbrok & his two Viking companions cut down a horde of Saxons who have charged them

    Ragnar's son Bjorn & his men round up Saxon women & children captives they've taken

    Ragnar Lothbrok heads for the church, trading axe blows amidst the market stalls

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Vietnam Project - First Squad of U.S. Troops

    My first 10 U.S. soldiers for my Vietnam project trudge through the jungles of SE Asia
I posted last month pictures of my two test figures for my 28mm Vietnam project, but here's the first look at completed and flocked miniatures. If you remember, I am using the Black Sun range from Crucible Crush, aka Pulp Figures. These are awesome miniatures with a lot of personality in each pose. Only one figure in the first 10 needed any kind of gluing...inexplicably, one arm requires being glued to the shoulder while the rest are cast as one piece. They take a very small amount of flash clean up. After painting all those 3-D and plastic figures lately with my Sci-Fi project, it was nice to get back to painting some good old metal castings (which I prefer). 

    Zooming in on the line of march of my first squad of soldiers from The Big Red One in Vietnam
I gave a rundown of how I paint these in the previous post, but I'll do a quick recap for those who didn't read it. First I brush on white Gesso as a primer, then after drying, I paint the whole uniform Light Timberline Green, a Ceramcoat craft paint color. Once dry, I paint the web gear, ammo pouches, canteens, pack, and other equipment a sage green craft paint. I do this so that there is some contrast between the uniform and gear, and the details stand out more. Next, I paint the poncho and camouflage splotches on the helmet cover a medium green craft paint. Once those have dried, I dry brush the equipment with a very light gray. Then, after that dries -- lots of stages that require waiting to dry with this painting recipe -- I paint it with "wash" that is a mix of Vallejo clear matte varnish and a darker, "Military Green." This settles into the folds of the uniform and gives it a nice, blended look -- much better than on my dry brushed test fig. Then, I paint the weapon Iron Wind Steel (with Pewter highlights) and black, while the boots are black with dry brushed dark gray. 

    African-American soldier with M79 grenade launcher and an NCO (?) directing the squad traffic

For flesh tones, I'm trying to give a nice ethnic mix of soldiers. The first batch of ten includes five Caucasians, four African-Americans, and one Hispanic soldier. It helps that Crucible Crush has painted examples of each pose on their website, so I can tell which ones are "supposed" to be which, although I won't feel tied to that. I have not painted any rank insignia on these figs, though I may go back and add that later once I start playing some games with them. The intention is each of my players will control four or five U.S. soldier (or so), and the game will be cooperative. The Vietnamese foes will be directed by the game A.I. (Event Cards and activation failures). If this sounds familiar, it should. I will be attempting to modify Ganesha Games' fantasy rules set, Sellswords & Spellslingers, for this. I have been given the blessing from owner Andrea Sfiligoi to produce it for publication if it works out. 

    A good look at the flocking for my Vietnam figures, as well as a M60 machine gunner
I'm also going all out on the flocking for this project's figures. Though I begin with my usual mix of Woodland Scenics Blended Turf and Grass, I'm adding in not only tufts, but leaves and bigger fronds of vegetation onto the base, as well. I decided to go with 1" round bases because I wanted a lower profile base. I wanted the figures to blend in with the terrain more than my thicker square bases do that I use for units in Ancient/Dark Ages/Medieval miniatures. The fronds I used were from Gamers Grass, but I was disappointed when I opened the package to find out they're just printed paper. I went out to a craft store and found some plastic plants that will be more realistic and 3-D looking. I'll use those on the next batch, which actually has been started on and is about halfway along on my desk.

    "PBY Streetgang, do you copy?" A radio operator and tattooed soldier take a break in the jungle
In fact, I think I it will be most efficient have one or more batches "in progress" with the way I am painting these Vietnam figures. With all the overnight pauses for drying, I want to make full use of my hour or so each morning that I spend painting. So, right now I have another batch of five U.S. riflemen in progress and also my first five Viet Cong figures. I'll talk more about how I am painting those when I finish that first batch. All of the Vietnamese that I bought are supposed to be VC, not North Vietnamese Army. Once I'm sure my Sellswords mashup is working, and we are having fun with Vietnam gaming, I'll likely buy some NVA. 

    I love the details on these figs, like the pack of cigarettes in the helmet band on the M16-armed fig
Despite the pauses for drying, the two batches in these photos actually painted up very quickly. I think these are easier to do than, say, Saga Ancient figures. The decision to use the Vallejo paint wash, if you can call it that, really speeds things along. There is only one step that goes slowly and that is when I am painting the equipment prior to the green wash. I can see me getting this project ready for the tabletop within a month or so, I hope. Conventions tend to slow me down, though. I had Buckeye Game Fest last weekend, Drums at the Rapids in Toledo May 16-17, and Origins Game Fair June 18-21. I am game mastering at all three, so there will be no morning paint sessions on those days. After that, I have off till Historicon, a month after Origins. So, if the project is not completed by Origins, I fully expect it to be in the wrapping up stages by Historicon. I know that's ambitious, but as quickly as these figures go, I think it is doable.

    The fig on the left was my test figure for simply dry-brushing these - I prefer the "washed" method
I was very happy with how these first 10 figures came out. They have actually been done and partly flocked for 3-4 days. However, Ohio unleashed one of its mini-monsoons on me (appropriate for Vietnam, eh?). I was unable to spray coat the figures in the high humidity. That's one thing a miniature painter learns, usually to their chagrin, relatively early in their career. Humidity equals fogging, so I sat there and looked at the minis all ready to go and were unable to post about them until the skies cleared yesterday and the humidity finally died down. My friend Jason in South Carolina has actually given up on spray coating his miniatures because his humidity down there is even worse. It is so much faster that I haven't given up on it here, though. 

    Another look at the first two batches - two player's worth of troops - humping through the bush
So, what else is on my paint desk at the moment? As mentioned above, the next five U.S. and first five Vietnamese soldiers are partway through. As for terrain, I did paint up another couple pieces of Sci-Fi scatter from A Critical Hit, as well as a Menards die cast semi-tractor trailer. Those are actually completed, so expect to see pictures of them soon. I am also priming up some random scatter to take up to Drums at the Rapids and sell in the Flea Market. We'll see how much I get done -- May 16-17 is coming up fast!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 70 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  • Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 55

Monday, May 5, 2025

Star Wars Using 'Space Weirdos' - These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For...


    Stormtroopers stop a droid in the central market of a town on Tatooine in my first Star Wars skirmish
I had been steadily getting things ready to finally run Star Wars skirmishes with Space Weirdos rules. When our regular host pointed out the first Sunday in May would be the 4th, he suggested we play a Star Wars themed game. So, I hurried my last preparations and was able to finally run a skirmish using these rules and the miniatures I've been painting up for more than a year, now. I cooked up a scenario with a nod to the iconic Obi-Wan line, "These aren't the droids you're looking for..."

    The Rebel Alliance from off-world: (L-R) Ylena, Knox, Jambru Gassu, & Mango

In my Star Wars games, each player controls one of the factions from that universe. Since we typically have six players, I created that many factions: Empire, Corporate Security, Mercenaries (Bronze Legion), Criminal Syndicate, Local Rebels, and Rebel Alliance. In this game -- stop me if you've heard this before -- the rebels have pulled off a big feat and stolen the plans to the imperial security facilities on Tatooine.  However, the agents were caught in the act and prior to be arrested were able to download the plans into a droid, send it out into the streets of the city, and inform their colleagues what they'd done. The only problem was the transmission was cut off prior to identifying the exact droid with the plans. Based on where the heist occurred (and the memory required), it could only have been an R1 Logistics droid or B3 Engineering droid, though.

    The Empire's strike team: (L-R) Darth Pylos, Lt. Echo Five, Trooper EA-01 & Trooper EA-02
The empire and their corporate security also discover what has happened and launch a search for the droid, several hours later. Meanwhile, the Tatooine Local Rebels and the off-world Rebel Alliance (who cooperated to pull off the feat) have sent teams into the city to locate the droid. Waiting for them there, though, are mercenaries from the Bronze Legion. They've been hired by the town's insurance companies. A maddening number of "droid-nappings" have been occurring locally, and they've given up on the Empire or their local security's ability to handle the problem. Tired of losing money on insurance claims for stolen droids, they hire the elite Bronze Legion to watch over droids in the busiest section of town. In addition, paid informants inside the imperial security staff have let the local Criminal Syndicate know what has happened. They also mobilize a team, but not to find that one particular droid. Instead, they intend to take advantage of the chaos about to break out dowtown to steal some more droids!

    Enforcers from a Tatooine Criminal Syndicates: (L-R) Foxhurst, Quiddo, Sluggr, and Trumonkar
Each player would control four figures that I created using the Space Weirdos rules and the Sci-Fi miniatures I've been painting. Only the Stormtroopers are actual Star Wars forces. Otherwise, I'm using the forces I've been building over the last year or so to fill in the other factions. They are from a wide variety of sources, too. The Local Rebels, Bronze Legion, Corporate Security, and Knox from the Rebel Alliance are assembled from Stargrave kits. The Stormtroopers and the Mon Calamari rebel are 3-D prints from JS Wargamer Printing. A couple miniatures are from Wiley Games (Darth Pylor and Sluggr) or freebie giveaways from past Cincycons (Foxhurst, Trumonkar). The leader of the Rebel Alliance, Ylena, is a from Hydra Miniatures' Retro Raygun line and Mango the orangutan is from Sgt. Major Miniatures (now Battle Valor Games).

    The Mercenaries from the Bronze Legion: (L-R) Hex Ruudo, Xessa Vat, Brun Wot, & Krits Muurd
As you can imagine, both rebel and imperial factions primarily want to recover the droid with the plans. They know it is one of the three R1 or three B3 droids. A successful "Willpower check" under the Space Weirdos rules when in contact with a droid can ascertain if it is indeed the droid they are looking for. Each figure from all six factions carries a "Droid Clamp." It takes one of a figure's three actions in a turn to apply it to the droid in contact. After that, the droid will dutifully follow the character wherever it goes. Their goal is to get off the board with that particular droid. The rebel or imperial faction which succeeds in doing that receives 5 Victory Points. Their ally faction gets only 2 VP, though (rivalry and desire to appear the most competent, right?). They also get VPs for knocking figures out of action from the Empire and Corporate Security (Rebel Alliance only) or Criminal Syndicate (Local Rebels only). The Empire gets VPs for knocking out figs from either faction of Rebels, while Corporate Security gets points for Alliance figures and Criminal Syndicate ones. The thought is the two native-staffed factions (Local Rebels and Corporate Security) aren't crazy about killing their fellow Tatooine residents.

    Local Rebels from Tatooine: (L-R) Zimeon, Ziahra, Craix, and Rarely

But what about the Mercenaries? They are hired by the insurance companies, so get points for knocking out of action ANY figure in contact with a droid. They also get a decreasing amount of VPs depending on how many droids are "kidnapped" during the scenario, maxxing out if no faction is successful in removing any droids from the table under their custody. To represent them already being in town keeping an eye on things, I let my friend Keith (who was playing the Mercenaries) deploy inside or on any buiding surrounding the central market (or in the market itself). Surprisingly, Keith deployed all of them visible -- none inside the buildings. He did institute a very aggressive defense, though, shooting players who came anywhere near the market -- not just in contact near droids. This resulted in him being at odds with most of the other factions in the game. As alluded to, the Criminal Syndicate got points for simply getting as many droids off-table as they could. They wanted the high-value ones, naturally the R1s or B3s, but also the floating FX drones. The smaller droids will still gave them points but not as much as the bigger ones (which, not coincidentally, the imperial and rebel factions wanted as well).

    The Empire's hired Corporate Security: (L-R) Lt. Shrukar, Sgt. Ithran, Cpl. Valla, & Cpl. Teyran

The droids began the game mostly near the central market plaza, with some of the smaller repair or street-sweeping droids further out. Each type of droid had a secret path they would follow, moving once each turn after all the player figures had acted. The R1s (one of which had the plans) would circle the market clockwise, then exit off the opposite board edge furthest away from where they started. The B3s would do the same, but moving counter-clockwise. The FX stayed a building away from the market, circling then exiting similarly to the R1s. The other smaller droids would simply circle buildings and wander in what would appear to the players in an aimless path. Which one had the plans? The green R1 was the designated R2D2 for this game, which was made from a piece of Sci-Fi scatter I purchased from Diabolical Terrain (who also makes the Tatooine buildings) and treads from RRB Minis & More.  

    Early in the game, from left, Keith, Joel, Mike W, Mike S, and Allen investigate the town layout

After I explained the rules and scenario, I gave the players a choice whether to roll and choose the side of the hexagon-shaped game board they began on, or to simply deploy on the edge where they were already sitting. Unanimously, they chose to begin where they were sitting. This meant the droid with the plans began near the market closest to Mike S's Empire faction and Allen's Criminal Syndicate. Its programming was to circle the market wall clockwise and then exit between Keith (Mercenaries) and Joel (Corporate Security). On the very first turn of the game, Allen moved one of his faster figures to within one move of that droid. However, by then, the Bronze Legion had begun opening fire on anyone who came within a move of of the walls of the market. Allen decided not to stick his neck out further and withdrew to pluck lower hanging fruit, so to speak. If he had decided to grab it, and had gotten off the board, his faction would have had the upper hand in the game, even though that wasn't technically the droid he was looking for!

    So many droids to investigate in this scenario -- luckily the Rebels knew it was one of two types
Keith's Mercenaries quickly got into a firefight with the Corporate Security, Criminal Syndicate, and Tom's Local Rebels. The return fire of those factions (and also Mike S's Empire when Keith later opened up on one of their Stormtroopers, too), kept him hopping all game. All of the Mercenaries wore Heavy Armor, though, and this helped them time and again throughout the game, causing an opponent's shot to miss instead of hit. The way Space Weirdos works, each figure has stats in Speed (number of actions they can move in a turn), Firepower (shooting), Prowess (melee ability) and Defense (used when targeted by shooting or melee). The stat is expressed as a roll of two dice of a particular size, from d6 (weakest) to d8 to d10 (best). Modifiers such as cover, aiming, moving fast, etc., cause the dice type to go up or down, with a max of d12 and minimum of d4. Each player rolls their two dice and results are compared. If the Attacker's roll beats the Defender's, a second roll with 2d6 is made on a chart to see what happens. A particularly low roll on this chart could have the target return fire or counter-thrust in melee. Or the result could be for the target to run or dive for cover. Good rolls will knock down, "Stagger", or take them Out of Action. 

    Led by Darth Pylor, Mike's Empire faction moves past the power station towards the center of town
Another tactical wrinkle in Space Weirdos are the Command Points. Each player gets two per turn and they must be used during that turn and don't carry over. They can be very powerful. The most commonly used one in our game was "Dodge." Once the attacker declared a ranged shot on the target, the controlling player could play Dodge and move the figure one stick (5") out of line of sight, negating the enemy's shot and wasting those action(s). There's also Power Up, which gives the attacker or defender a dice type bonus. Hustle allows a character to move one more action than their Speed would normally allow (great for escaping off-board with a droid!). There were also Overwatch, First Strike (target of melee gets to attack first), and Regroup, which gives a bonus to next turn's Initiative roll. 

    Local Rebel trooper Craix eyes three Criminal Syndicate enforcers creeping towards the market
Space Weirdos plays well with multiple players in a game. However, the rules appear to be intended for a 1 vs. 1 game. So, I felt that I had to modify the Overwatch command. I think I may have made it too weak. I will talk to the players about how to make it more attractive of a play, considering it was used only once and on the first turn of the game. I asked the players afterward about whether they thought the command point themselves were too powerful and if their number should be reduced. Only Tom (and honestly, myself) felt each player should be given only one instead of two. I was worried that players would get frustrated, moving into place to take a shot, spending an action aiming (to bump their dice type), and then shooting only to see the opponent play a Dodge and scamper away, wasting their entire turn, essentially. Players are limited to using Dodge, First Strike, or Overwatch only once per turn. To keep track of them, I gave each player two Hershey Kiss candies and said they were to unwrap and eat them when they use a command point. That way, we could visually verify if they had used their both, one, or none. Did they follow my rules? Ha, ha...only partially! There were a number of command points eaten before they were played, or not eaten at all!

    Rebel trooper Mango charges up the stairs and enters melee with one of the Bronze Legion
The action unfolded with the Bronze Legion mercenaries merrily blasting away at anyone who came in sight. I whispered to Keith to make sure he understood he only got VPs by knocking a figure out of action in contact with a droid, and he said he knew that. He was just fighting an aggressive defense! The Corporate Security troopers, perhaps resenting the Mercenaries usurping their role as hired guns in the town, skirmished aggressively with the armored mercenaries. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance moved up, nailing one of the security troopers and knocking him out of action. When Rebel leader Ylena and her Mon Calamari companion neared the market, the mercenaries blasted away at them, too. The hulking orangutan Mango joined the firefight, eventually charged up the stairs at one mercenary and backhanding him off the stairway and into the shadows of a silent mechanical drill nearby.

    A Stormtrooper takes a shot at a Mon Calamari rebel trooper as he ducks around a building
The Stormtroopers began to sneak up on the Rebel Alliance, though, and bring them under fire. Mike S was the first of the Sunday Evening gang to choose a faction when I announced the games, and he chose Empire. He is normally one of our most aggressive players, which I felt made perfect sense for the Empire. However, that night his advance was much more tentative than normal. His leader, Darth Pylos, used his dark powers to bring droids closer to his troopers for them to check out, but he didn't use any of his attack abilities. In particular, I fully expected Mike to use the "Mind Control" ability and have his opponents open fire on friendly figures. Or to use the "Mind Stab" to try to knock them out. He stayed focused on droid-hunting, though. His dice rolls were not up to snuff, either, and the Empire struggled to accomplish much other than inconveniencing the neighboring Rebel Alliance troopers.

    Darth Pylos tells the Stormtroopers to fan out and search the R1 Logistics & B3 Engineering droids
Interestingly, the Local Rebels and Criminal Syndicate seemed to have a de facto truce going on. Tom had multiple opportunities to fire into the backs of Allen's criminal enforcers, but for the most part, declined. Allen, likewise, saved his shooting for the mercenaries who'd been trying to pick off his guys since the start of the game. On the face of it, Allen's criminals had the simplest mission -- just grab droids. However, that would put him at odds with the Mercenaries immediately. Also, if the droid he grabbed happened to be a possible type carrying the plans, the imperial and rebel factions would likely unload on him. Still, Allen balanced his aggression with mission focus, and was actually able to put the clamps on three separate high-value droids. If his leader Foxhurst had headed off-table with his clamped droid instead of moving to try to heal one of his downed troops, Allen would have won with 6 VPs.

    Late game chaos at the market! Rebels and Stormtroopers blast away as they rush to secure droids
Actually, I was impressed with all of the players and how they attempted to carry out their missions. Mike W's Rebel Alliance were dogged foes of the Mercenaries and Empire, shooting them repeatedly and investigating droids that were close by. He simply had bad luck in the one with the plans was on the other side of the board. He played his rebels like you'd expect in the Star Wars universe, and would end up tied for second. His ally on the other side of the table had the good fortune of being closest to the path the droid with the plans would take. Local Rebel Tom used cover wisely, and aggressively advanced to return the fire of the mercenaries and to get as near to the target droid types as possible. When the green R1 came close enough, he had his leader (with the highest Willpower) check it out and confirm it was the one. He immediately began to flee the table, using a Hustle on his following turn to escape with his prize.

    Criminal enforcer Sluggr slithers away with an FX Hover droid, heading for the table edge
The shooting broke out early and kept going all game long. From the battle reports I'd read on blogs or watched on YouTube, I was under the impression Space Weirdos would be a bloody game. However, fewer than one figure per faction was knocked out of action. I think that there were a few reasons why my scenario was less bloody than ones I'd read or watched. First, the rules recommend you have a lot of terrain to break line of sight or provide cover. I had a lot of buildings or big pieces of machinery on the board, which made it very easy to hide behind or use "Dodge" to avoid a shot. Plus, instead of your opponent getting only one Dodge per turn, potentially all five other factions could have a Dodge to use against you when you were shooting. Finally, the players admitted their rolls on the second table to ascertain damage after they hit with a shot were terrible. I repeatedly saw them roll "5" or less on 2d6. So, I think those three factors mitigated the bloodshed a little.

    One of the Corporate Security troopers exits with an R1 droid, crossing his fingers its the right one
Still, I asked the players to be honest. Did they enjoy the system? I would not be offended if they didn't, and we could easily play the Wiley Games Galactic Heroes rules if they preferred.  They said they enjoyed them and were willing to keep using Space Weirdos for Star Wars skirmishes. They liked the scenario in honor of "May the 4th Be With You," and said they had fun. I already have an idea for the next chapter, so hopefully we will get a chance to play again in a month or so. 

 

    A look at the 17 types of droids (names are my creation) that were meandering around the board
Sunday's game capped off a very busy gaming weekend for me. You should shortly see a report from Jenny and my two runnings of the Viking Town Raid scenario at Buckeye Game Fest. We also ran Zombie RV - Scavenging in the Trailer Park twice. So, I have lots of photos to sort through and will put out a blog post on the miniatures games our HMGS Great Lakes GMs ran at this mostly board gaming convention. What about painting? I have the first ten 28mm Vietnam War troopers done, but am mired in the flocking stage by our rainy, humid Ohio weather. I am waiting for a day where I can give the figs a good preliminary spray coat and then finish the flocking stage that I'm stuck halfway through. Since I don't have so much to work on, I've pulled a few pieces of scatter out of the closet and am working on them. So, stay tuned for a flurry of updates!

    The 'score' in my Star Wars skirmish campaign after one battle...kind of like the movies, eh?
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 60 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  • Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 55