To the Toy Box! Time for Another Blissfield Trip

 

    The rebels are on the attack in an American Revolution game at Jim's 'Toy Box' in Blissfield, MI

Typically, August is a slow month for me for conventions. However, there's one event that month becoming a tradition among my friends. HMGS Great Lakes newsletter editor Jim W hosts a handful of us every summer at his gaming clubhouse, aka the Toy Box. We meet for dinner on Friday evening, retire to the clubhouse for an evening game, and then follow that up the next morning with another game. Jim usually runs one game and his buddy Ted runs the other. This year, they would be showcasing the American Revolution on Friday and 30 Years War on Saturday. 

    Jim, left & Ted prove to the players at the Toy Box that they know how to count during the game

Friday's game featured a Rebel assault on a stone walled village by a command of Continentals on the left, French regulars in the center, and American Militia on the right. Both wings of the British army were aggressive and marched out to meet the rebels with drums beating and flags flying. I was commanding the French, and my opponent in the middle of the board, Mike S, cannily stayed behind the walls for the most part, and let us march upon him. On my left, GM Jim W advanced steadily, swatting aside all of Dave E's attacks and clearly inflicting more casualties. Things were a bit more even on my right, as Jenny advanced initially, but then stood to receive Ted's oncoming British. 

    Jim's command of Continentals advance on the left in our game using Saratoga Soldiers rules

I was a bit more methodical in my push up through the village and woods towards the our objective village. Jim and Ted had warned me that the rules we were using, Saratoga Soldiers (the AWI variant of the more well-known Gettysburg Soldiers) were bloody. Interestingly, for all the years that Larry Reber has been running his Gettysburg Soldiers rules, I had yet to play in them or Saratoga Soldiers. Part of that is because I've never been a big American Civil War buff. Another likely reason is that at conventions we both attend, I'm also running a game! The rules are very straight forward and easy to learn. Combat, whether shooting or melee, resolves extremely quickly.

    Jenny's Militia advanced towards the fence where they will halt to take on Ted's advancing redcoats

My French command was doing their best to utilize the woods and village we advanced through to cut down on the casualties from fire we received on the way in. Still, about the time my force was only a couple moves away from the enemy blazing away at us from the stone wall or in the open to the right, our numbers had dwindled a bit. I muttered to Jim that I would likely not have the strength to drive the British out of the village. He told me not to worry, that he'd be there soon to help. His command was wading through poor Dave's British. Pretty soon, Dave had only a few stands left. On my right, Jenny and Ted were killing swaths of each other's troops. Like me, Ted has a reputation for poor die rolling. Tonight that wasn't happening, and he and Jenny were mowing each other down with wild abandon.

    Jim's Continentals close with Dave's British commander on that flank & inflict a 'royal' drubbing

When Jim's help did arrive, I decided to follow his example and charge the enemy at the wall. It would be suicide, I thought, to simply exchange volleys with me in the open and the British in hard cover. To my great surprise, both Jim and I were successful, and we recoiled the redcoats away and seized their position. Before Mike S could mount a counter-attack, we hammered his troops with a couple more volleys, and he conceded that we had won the position. We looked around, and saw almost nothing left on the right. The Militia had fought the British to a standstill, and most of the troops on both sides were gone. Each army had only their commander and one stand of troops left. Dave's command was completely gone, so it was obvious that the Americans (and French) held the field. 

    By game's end both the Militia & Ted's Brits had disappeared as the two inflicted great slaughter

As Jim and Ted had warned, the rules were extremely bloody. The only morale in the game is when the attacker rolls a result on the combat chart that dictates the enemy to retire a move. Otherwise, battalions can grind each other down to nothing with shooting, neither side giving ground. I'm assuming that the losses are reflecting not just men actually killed by volleys of fire, but also those who have had enough and are taking to their heels to fight another day. So, battalions in this game wither away bit by bit, rather than suffering a catastrophic morale failure and running away as a unit. The rules reminded me a bit of the Colby Rules, named after a Toledo gaming group, the Colby Street Irregulars. Their games are similarly bloody, though feature a card-driven activation sequence rather than one side going and then the other. 

    My white-coated French are almost to the walls & are cheered to see Jim's troops arrive on our left

Still, one advantage of simple bloody rules is that games are easy to learn and they go very quickly. We were done before it got too late, and sat around and chatted for another hour or more while Jim picked up the troops and cleared the table. It's nice to shoot the breeze with fellow history buffs and gamers, and talk about various projects we're working on or rules sets we've played. At Jim's Toy Box, it is also fun to wander from room to room and examine his buildings and terrain for various periods displayed on the shelves. Most of the miniatures are in a giant wooden filing cabinet which the lawyer's who'd owned the building before him used to store deeds, blueprints, etc. Now, they make excellent drawers for Jim to organize his troops by scale and period.

    Continentals & French regulars have seized the walled village and won victory in Friday game

The next morning, Gene joined us from Jim's group, and Mike's son Jason drove up for the day's festivities. Mike and his son are both interested in the 30 Years War, which is the period Ted's game was set in. I had never really had much interest in this historical era, but am always willing to play a game and try it out! Ted and Jim had added another extra table to the gaming room and we had a full 12' of table length, I believe. By the time we arrived, Ted had the table set up with terrain and crammed with troops facing each other. With 8 players this morning, we had four players per side. Once we figured out who would be Catholic and who controlled the Protestants, we sat down and Ted explained the rules.

    The panorama that greeted us Saturday morning when we arrived at the Toy Box -- a Ted game!!

We would be using another set that I had never played before called On Bloody Ground. Ted handed out troop rosters and quick reference sheets, and then explained how to play. Jim interjected occasionally to clarify or specify important points. While I was looking at the reference sheet, I noticed a tagline saying it was for games with "individually mounted 28mm figures." I looked at the troops, who were a mix of 10mm - 15mm figures, based in units -- some very big. The pikes, for example, had four ranks of 10 figures in their stand. I pointed to the line about "individually based 28mm figures" to Dave, and he smiled and shrugged. Some gamers like pushing the envelope and making things bigger, with a more massive spectacle on the tabletop. Ted is definitely one of those!

    From left at top, Gene, Ted & Jason survey the battlefield as Jenny & Jim discuss tactics

Each of the four commanders on a side were given their own individual special victory condition where their command could earn more victory points. Mine was probably the easiest of them all, I felt. My commander was disdainful of the C-in-C's decision to engage the enemy here, and considered it a minor insignificant skirmish. We didn't want to waste troops in this unimportant battle. So, I had to preserve my two most expensive units -- my armored pike blocks -- and have them been still on the table (and undamaged? I don't remember) at the end of the game. Thus, I decided to advance only enough to get into range of the Gene's troops, opposite mine. Then I would let our cheaper shot units blaze away at the enemy while I preserved my four more expensive units of pike with attached shot in a second line. 

    Part of the Catholic center and right wing - not the pike blocks flanked by groups of shot

The game commenced and players were soon rolling lots and lots of dice. I mean LOTS of dice...ha, ha! Remember that individually based tagline? Yes, you rolled one dice to shoot (or melee) for each figure. So, a 20-man unit of shot rolled twenty dice. A 40-man block of pikes rolled forty dice! And it wasn't just hit or miss. First, you rolled to hit. Then the opponent rolled for armor saves, if he was wearing any. Then, you counted the number of hits that got through and rolled to Wound. Yes, this seems a lot like the standard Warhammer roll it hit, roll to wound, roll to save -- just in a slightly less convenient order. I remember when one of Ted's pike blocks was fighting one of Jenny's in what seemed like a never-ending struggle, I looked over at Dave, again. He smiled and shrugged again. 

    My troops at the bottom, reluctant to die on this day and more than willing to skirmish ineffectually!

Since most shot units didn't have armor, when Gene and I were rolling away at each other, it was just a two step process. We'd roll to hit and then roll to wound. The game in our center portion of the battlefield proceeded fairly quickly. My command and Gene's kept our distance from each other and simply blasted away. Ted had developed a system with 10-sided dice of various colors to keep track of your casualties. With all figures multi-based, there wasn't going to be any figure removal. I am thinking that players using On Bloody Ground with 28mm troops would probably have smaller units, too. So, I'm sure things flow much quicker with these rules in that case.  

    Dave's Catholic command on the left & his vaunted (over-rated in this game!) Polish winger hussars

As it was, things bogged down when we got to hand to hand. The other three sectors did get involved in melee, mainly because they had the mounted troops. Time and again, Jim would finish his brawls with Jason's command opposite him and say, "Okay, you guys can do your firing." Gene and I would smile and say we were already done! Jim struggled to repeat his success of the previous evening. Jason's troops kept his command on its back foot, and Jim was losing men rapidly. On my left, unfortunately (this time, since he was on my side) Dave was having a repeat performance. His Polish winged hussars -- he had requested to play that command -- were over-matched by Mike S's armored cavalry. The Poles big advantage, being able to charge two commands at one target, was too difficult to pull off with the command rules. One unit against one, the armored cavalry had 50% more men, hit better, and had heavier armor. Dave was slowly but steadily losing on our left flank.

    After several turns of gunpowder firing, the field became obscured - giving shooting a minus to hit

Remember how I said Ted was know for his bad dice rolls? Yet didn't manifest that in the AWI battle? Well, his curse came home to roost this morning! His dice were simply awful. He would roll 40 attack dice for his pike block and end up with only a couple hits. Jenny began to mow down his troops. Soon, Ted was removing entire blocks of troops. On Bloody Ground has a peculiar melee mechanic. After one round of fighting, the loser withdraws and tests morale. If he fails, the winner slams back into him and they immediately fight another round. This continues until one side either passes his morale or loses a third consecutive round (when they are removed). So, yes, it means one side can win two rounds, then the other side wins two rounds, then the first winner wins again. On and on. One memorable struggle between Ted and Jenny went on for at least six or more rounds of combat in one turn. And yes, that meant everyone else just sat back, ate popcorn, and watched the fight!

    Closeup of the Polish winged hussars as they engage one of the Protestant armored horse units

In the end, Ted lost so many Protestant troops from his command, the Catholics actually narrowly won the battle. This was despite Jason defeating Jim's command handily on our right and Mike S driving Dave back on the left. Jenny won so big, in essence, it made up for two defeats! Not surprisingly, Gene and I skirmished to essentially a draw in the center -- exactly as my commander had hoped. Even though the mechanics seemed a bit cumbersome and could definitely use some streamlining of the dice rolling, we all had fun. Jason is a big fan of the period and said he would probably pick up the rules. I didn't try to talk him out of it as he actually uses 28mm figures, and waaaay fewer of them than the masses Ted had on the table that afternoon! It will definitely play a bit more quickly with smaller forces. So after four hours of gunpowder smoke and cavalry charges, Ted counted up the points and read out the verdict that God was narrowly on the Catholic's side, today.

    Jenny's unit of 'Trotters' catches Ted's pike block in the flank and begins driving them back

It is always a fun weekend at the Toy Box. I almost always get to play something new and different from what we do on my Sunday Night gaming group. Thanks Jim and Ted for hosting the games, and the Columbus crew looks forward to next year's Toy Box weekend!

    Final sweeping look at the battlefield, with my command in the center - happy to keep our distance!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 166

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
• Terrain painted in 2026: 36

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
• Scatter painted in 2026: 71

Dragon Rampant: Rescue (or Capture) the Civilians!

 

    How would my Wood Elves fight as small, 6-man units of Scouts instead of 'mixed weapons' units?

We had four games of Dragon Rampant! going side by side this past Sunday for our regular game night. Most of the armies taking the field would be in their first battle (or at least the first for one of our DR! evenings). It would be the first appearance on a Sunday evening  for my Wood Elf army, who would be matched against Keith's Chaos army, also taking the field for the first time. Next to us, Mike S had created a new Greek Mythological list, which would battle Mike W's High Elves that he'd borrowed from Keith. Andy was also fielding a new army for him, a Woodland one featuring Hobbits and Ents. He would square off against Allen's Orcs. On the octagon table, Joel's Desert Goblins would face the army of the Evil Jungle Princess Salunga, yet a new iteration of Tom's beastmen.

    Sunday night's festivities with 4 games of Dragon Rampant! side by side (photo by Andy S)

I created the scenario we were playing, calling it "Rescue (or Capture) the Civilians!" It was inspired by a Lion Rampant scenario and each board featured four civilian figures. The players would want to move towards and take control of them before their opponents. Each was worth 1, 2, or 3 Glory points (DR! terminology for victory points). The civilians started roughly in the middle of the board and would move at the start of each player's turn a random direction and distance. Players would also get points for destroying or routing enemy units, of course. The civilians were meant to give them some tactical problems to consider besides the enemy army.

    Keith's Chaos Heavy Riders backed up by a Greater Warbeast Demon with spellcasting & Cunning

    Other half of Keith's center, another unit of Heavy Riders & his Chaos Lord with Elite Infantry

In our game, Keith's Chaos warriors and my Wood Elves couldn't be more different. He had only five units (none of which could shoot), while mine had nine. Here were our army's compositions:

• Chaos Warriors 
• Warlord with Elite Infantry @6AP
• Demon Lord - Greater Warbeast with Cunning and Level 2 Spellcaster @10AP  
• Chaos Knights - Elite Riders @ 6AP
• 2 units of Chaos Heavy Riders @8AP 

    Right wing of the Wood Elves with 2 units of Scouts & the Birds of the Forest, alongside the center

    Left wing of the Elves - Heavy Riders, 2 Scout units (one in trees already), & Heavy Elven Foot

• Wood Elves
• 4 units of Scouts @ 8AP
• 3 units of Heavy Foot (1 with Warlord, 2 with Level 1 Spellcasters) @14AP
• Elven Cavalry - Heavy Riders @4AP 
• Birds of the Forest - Lesser Warbeasts with Flying, Weak, and Cowardly @4AP 

    Wood Elven Cavalry trots out to face off against the much heavier Chaos elite knights in the distance

So, it was the classic Quantity vs. Quality matchup. After my first game, I had been unhappy with my infantry fielded as Light Foot with mixed weapons. Since they are wood elves, I felt they should fight more effectively in terrain, not less (Light Foot are penalized in melee when in rough terrain). So, I was trying something new with my archers field as small, 6-figure units of Scouts. I had never used Scouts before, but knew they should try to stick close to the terrain, where they were more survivable. One of my spellcasters chose Crimson magic (to be able to blast away at enemy at range), and  the other chose Magenta, chiefly to be able to enhance my Scouts shooting or my heavy foot's melee ability.

    Once the Chaos lord stopped his advance short of their range, the Scouts emerge from the trees

Keith was the attacker, so deployed first. His center was composed of his two Heavy Rider units on either side of his Elite Infantry. Behind the battle line was the big scary Demon (Greater Warbeast). He deployed his Elite Knights to the right to outflank me. The battlefield had four medium sized patches of woods, two on each half of the table. I lined two Scouts units each to occupy the woods on my left and right, while the heavy foot stretched across my center between them. The foot with the spellcasters were up front line while the warlord's foot bodyguard supported them from behind. Further to their rear were my Cavalry. The birds of the forest were on the right, positioned to support the Scouts.

    The Chaos Demon charges impetuously into a company of Heavy Elven Foot, who push him back

Keith's warband initially marched forward, but after their second move halted. They saw my Scouts infiltrating into the woods, and didn't want to move into the forest to face them OR get within their 12" of their shooting range. My army was not succeeding in its movement rolls like Keith's was, so my advance was in fits and starts. Our group plays a relatively common modified version of the activation system that the author introduced in his Rebels and Patriots rules. Rather than forfeiting your turn immediately when one unit fails to activate, you are given an opportunity to activate each unit every turn. You can still fail and do nothing (which my army did often enough in this game), but your turn doesn't immediately end with the other units not getting a chance. We feel that there is enough randomness in DR! with the shooting, combat, and magic system. You don't need to have the game thrown because one player fails his first activation for several turns in a row!

    Elven archers, cavalry, and heavy foot close in on the demon, who the Elf Warlord says must DIE!

That said, our modified system DOES make less expensive units like Scouts, Light Foot, and archers more effective than they might be otherwise. It also helps armies composed of lots of low-cost units perform better than they would be under the standard activation system. However, we figure that as long as everyone is aware of that, we are on a level playing field. In our game, Keith was having second thoughts about my four units of archers. With three of his five units counting as mounted, he felt they tilted the battle against him. So, the Chaos Lord refused to advance any further. He had snatched up three of the four civilians already and was ahead on points. In essence, he was saying, "Your move, Mr. Pointy Ears!" Knowing that I could shoot 12" but his Riders or Knights could charge no more than 10", my Scouts began to advance out of the woods and use the Skirmish ability to move and fire on the enemy. 

    2 units of Elven heavy foot march forward, ready to do battle with the hesitant forces of Chaos

My wizard tried to enchant the arrows of the Scouts to make their fire even more effective. Scouts normally hit on 5+ on each d6, or "6" if Skirmishing. The spell "Sharp Darts" would enable me to re-roll all of my misses. The Elven enchantress was doing her part. Over the course of the game, she successfully cast the spell five times. However, every time she did that, the enhanced unit of Scouts would immediately fail its Shooting action. Not once or twice, but five times in a row! Not once in the entire game did I get a chance to re-roll any of my shots. Doing some quick math, it appears that there is about a 1% chance of that occurring! I also kept track of the times my attacks scored hits but were one short of the armor level of my target (thus, no casualties). Over the course of the game, I did that 12 times. Augghh! Shades of the last outing with my Elves! 

    Demon lord slain, the Elves scent victory and advance all along the battlefield

Keith then sprang the trap that the Demon Lord had cooked up in his crafty, evil mind. He cast Transpose (which requires an 8+ on 2d6, incidentally), switching his demon's position with of one of my Scout units in the woods on the right. For some reason, I forgot the Demon Lord was his spellcaster, and we allowed it to follow up the spell with an immediate charge into the other Scout unit in that woods he'd appeared alonside (with a puff of brimstone, of course!). Of course, the Scouts failed their 7+ on 2d6 Evade roll, and the Demon Lord crashed into them. Perhaps realizing he shouldn't have been able to cast a spell AND charge, Keith rolled abominably, not wiping out the Scouts as he could have. He did win the combat, though, and scooped up the fourth and final civilian from the Scouts. Meanwhile, the Chaos Heavy Riders charged the magically misplaced Scouts out in the open. They were j-u-s-t over 2" away from the Wood Elves. These Scouts were a bit more inspired and did Evade, staying just out of reach of the cavalry. The Elven warlord saw the danger the Demon Lord presented in the midst of his battleline and immediately threw every unit he could against it. The birds of the forest charged in and caused two hits on the demon, driving him roaring out of the woods. The enchantress targeted him with magic, archers shot arrows at him. However, this was my time of the game where I was missing doing damage by one on most of my attacks. The next turn, the Demon Lord -- subject to "Wild Charge" -- crashed into one of the units of Elven heavy foot. Halberds twirled, two-handed swords sliced, and spears impaled the demon, driving him back, again. 

    Early stages of the Woodland Folk vs. Allen's Orcs & Goblins (photo by Andy)

More archery and spells failed to finish him off, though. Eventually, the Elven cavalry moved up to be in charge range. I knew I couldn't let the demon escape. Keith was up +8 points with the civilians, and was beginning to pull his battle line back towards his board edge. We needed to kill this 10-point Greater Warbeast to claim victory! The demon noticed the approaching cavalry and wild charged into them. Luckily, the cavalry counter-charged and did enough damage to finish the demon off. With the Chaos Lord disconcerted by the potential effects of Elven archery, the rest of his army continued to fall back.

    After their drubbing, Allen's Orcs may call Andy's stalwart spear, 'Nasty hobbitses!' (photo by Andy)

On the left, my two units of Scouts had damaged one of his Heavy Riders units, taking it down to one remaining strength point. It finally shook itself out of its stupor and galloped back out of their range. Keith made it clear his army was withdrawing and not coming any further forward. The elves were willing to chase them down with archery and spells, but there was nothing to prevent his forces from simply marching off the table. So, we agreed to call the game. The elves had avenged their defeat at the hands of the Bonefish Band a few weeks earlier. 

    Ents close in on Orc halberdiers, while the hobbits draw nearer in the distance (photo by Andy)

Meanwhile, the Greeks and High Elves on the battlefield next to us skirmished almost to a stalemate. They'd split the civilians between them, and only one unit was lost by the Greeks. This gave the edge to the High Elves, who eked out a victory. I believe Keith's "Shooty Elves" (as he calls them) are now 3-0 under various commanders. Keith constructed the list so that every unit shoots. The foot are mixed weapon light foot (like my Elves were in the first battle) and the heavy riders are equipped with bows, too. On the next battlefield further down, the clash between Andy's Woodland Folk and Allen's Orcs & Goblins was a slaughter. Andy said his forces destroyed or routed every unit in Allen's army!

    One of Salunga's units with control of a civilian - 'Lady Greensleeves,' I was told her name was!

There was one game still going on, though, so I drifted over to kibbitz and watch the match between Joel's borrowed Desert Goblins and Salunga, the Evil Jungle Princess. It was a bitter struggle. Tom's beastmen had six units, all of which had a spellcaster. He was having my dice rolling luck, though, and failing to cast fireballs amidst the goblins' ranks time and time again. Joel has played Keith's Desert Goblins a number of times and has gotten quite canny with them. In fact, after this weekend, he's tied for the second-most victories in our games of Dragon Rampant, having a 3-2 record. He used his savvy and pulled out a victory here, too.  

    Frustrated at the ineffectiveness of their magic spells, Tom's beastmen charge into Joel's goblins

I continue to enjoy DR! rules, and it seems they've really caught on in our group. More new armies are making it to the tabletop. Players seem intrigued by what they can create with this very open toolbox list building system. I look forward to fielding my Elves again, soon. It was great to see the army deployed on the tabletop after months of painting them up!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 166

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
• Terrain painted in 2026: 36

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
• Scatter painted in 2026: 71

Running Surviving 'Nam at Summercon Game Day

    U.S. soldiers enter a village tasked to search a Vietnamese market using 'Surviving 'Nam' rules

I took Surviving 'Nam, along with my new stock of printed rulebooks that had arrived earlier in the week, to Summercon -- a game day run by Lowell and Jeff of Battle at the Crossroads convention, Cambridge, OH. I set up the "Stone Buddha Market" scenario and ran two groups of players through the game. Both groups said they had a great time and enjoyed the game, more than one of them purchasing the rules from Rich Brown of RRB Minis & More, who also attended (and got a chance to play)! Another vendor that is coming to Advance the Colors, Discount Hobbies, showed up and bought some copies for his online store, as well. 

    My morning players beginning their mission, moving in from the far side of the board in the photo

Both games saw the "Countdown to Contact" phase end quickly. This part of the game is before the enemy appears, and each player can move his team onto the board and begin to advance towards their objectives, never knowing when the Viet Cong will spring their ambush. In this scenario, it can end the normal way with a d6 roll adding in the number of turns elapsed and adding/subtracting the scenario modifier. If the total is 6+, that was the last turn of Countdown to Contact movement. The next turn begins with players dicing to activate a single figure of their team, progressing around the table in a continuous circle until all players have attempted to activate and resolved any actions for all of their figures. In game one, one of the civilians next to their sampan by the river turned out to be a V.C. and opened fire on the nearest soldier. In the second game, the player controlling the lieutenant rolled a "6" on the second turn of the game.

    Sgt. Worthington & two of his fire team arrive at the back of one of the huts they have to search

The quick start to the battle meant that none of the soldiers had advanced into the market area, yet, when the shooting started. The morning players pushed forward more aggressively, moving into the hooches and along the river into the sampans to search. One soldier dashed forward and took cover behind the stone statue of Buddha. When shooting died down, he searched the nearby market stalls for contraband. 

    Seeing the U.S. soldiers arrive, many of the civilians in the market 'Didi May' (run fast) away

In the second game, the players admitted they were probably too tentative in their advance. The V.C. had moved forward quickly from the opposite board edge and also across the river. They took up positions or took cover along the wooden bridge and fired on the advancing U.S. soldiers. An enemy light machine gun team set up along the dike of a rice paddy and fired upon the Americans advancing between the houses. 

    

    A Viet Cong bunker with light machine gun team opens up on the advancing Americans

The morning game also ran into enemy LMG fire, too. One of the first Event Cards drawn brought an enemy bunker onto the table. It began to fire on the left of the U.S. advance. Rather than get into a firefight with the deadliest enemy on the table, the players cleverly through smoke grenades to cut off the line of sight of the bunker on their flank. When the LMG shifted firing ports to open up on the soldiers advancing in the market place, more smoke grenades followed, frustrating the V.C. and limiting their chance to deal damage on the invading Americans.

    Undeterred, American soldiers press on, closing in on the village and ready to engage the enemy

In both games, the rest of the civilians did a quick "Didi Mau" and fled the table. At the beginning of each turn, the players roll 1d20 to see what each civilian will do. Most of the time they flee either away from the soldiers or the V.C., but sometimes they simply freeze in place. A roll of "20" means they are actually a V.C. in disguise. The civilian moves to cover, pulls out a weapon, and opens up on the Americans, like happened in the morning game. Both groups of players suffered losses, the first game having more get hit and go down -- probably because of their more aggressive assault on the village.

    Afternoon players march their fire teams onto the board during 'Countdown to Contact'

The players in both games picked up the mechanics quickly, and grasped the tactics of using cover and taking firing positions that let them open up on groups of enemy. Both experienced the "Oh, crap!" moments, such as when a squad of V.C. suddenly appeared on the rear. I would probably say the morning players were a bit more fortunate in what Event Cards were drawn as a result of activation failures. Players choose to roll either one or two d20s to activate a figure. Each failure results in the draw of an Event Card, which typically either brings on new V.C. or activates enemy already on the table. The morning group never drew the dangerous "Sniper!" card, and got a lot of the not-so-dangerous cards, such as "Snake," and "What the Hell?" which do no damage and represent jumpy troops panicking to creatures in the jungle moving near them. 

    On the opposite side of the village, V.C. riflemen advance through a rice paddy while villagers flee

The morning players did a nice job of having their left advance the interdict the enemy, preventing them from firing on the troops searching the village as much. In the game, all V.C. except snipers usually fire at the closest American soldier. By pressing forward, the two teams on the American left drew the fire on themselves. The other two teams were able to infiltrate the village and along the river, and eventually had searched all five positions they were tasked with by the scenario objectives. At this point, they were able to exfiltrate, using the cover to make their escape without being fired upon by the V.C., which they did a good job of keeping pinned down.

    While in the rice paddy on the American side of the village, more Americans enter the village

Surviving 'Nam scales to the number of players, with the amount of initial enemy placed on the board at the end of Countdown to Contact being on a "per Fire Team" basis. And with fewer players in the afternoon, that in theory also means fewer chances at failures which bring on more enemy. The afternoon group had a more difficult time dealing with the enemy LMG team in the rice paddy. They also drew the sniper card twice, which caused some hairy moments as the lieutenant and radio man came under fire. The lieutenant was actually wounded, and after being patched up, began hobbling off the table. One of the sergeants was forced to pick up the radio and continue to try in Fire Missions on the enemy.

    In the afternoon game, the V.C. ran forward quickly and took up positions near in the market

Speaking of sergeants, both groups of players did a good job utilizing the free action that the team leaders can give to one of his nearby men when he activates. In both games, the M60 gunner and assistant were kept nearby and used to pin down groups of enemy. Players learned to use the machine gun's suppressive fire, as they shifted fire regularly to pin down as many groups of V.C. as possible. I really like how the rules highlight the value of the M60 to an American squad. In previous games, when the M60 gunner is under-utilized, the players tend to struggle. In games where he is used well, they are typically more successful.

    American M60 fire has pinned down this V.C. LMG team dug in on the dike of the rice paddy

The morning group successfully completed their mission, and we were able to see that the V.C. could do little to impede their withdrawal. So, their game was considered a victory. The afternoon game was still at a stalemate, though. The V.C. were more aggressive, and moved across the river, in amongst the village huts, and firing on the Americans. The players eventually decided that they were going to withdraw, and chocked the mission up as a failure. They were able to get all of their wounded off the table and exfiltrate through their entry point. Doubtless, they would call in air strikes on the village and hope that the choppers and fixed wing aircraft could finish the job!

    Fierce firefight breaks out in the village in the afternoon game as the V.C. proved relentless

It was a good time and I had fun players in both of my games. At this stage, it looks like the next time that I run this at a game day or convention will be Advance the Colors, Oct. 9-10, Springfield, OH. I am running it in the evening both Friday and Saturday. Since it is my HMGS chapter's flagship convention, I typically work the registration desk during the morning and afternoon. In the meantime, I'll have to select what scenario I will be running and make sure I have all the terrain ready for it! I'm very happy that Surviving 'Nam: an Infantryman's Year "In Country" continues to sell well in both PDF (on Wargame Vault and Ganesha Games) and print (Amazon and Lulu). Any day now, professionally printed Event Card decks should be available on DriveThruCards, too. I'm looking forward to getting the proof copy in the mail soon, and can't wait to see the artwork of Uriah Groves on the official cards!

    Enemy RPG blast impacts near the attacking American troops squeezed in the gap between the huts

 MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 166

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
• Terrain painted in 2026: 36

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
• Scatter painted in 2026: 71

Elven 'Guardians' - Creepy-masked Halberdiers

    Six 28mm, masked Elven Halberdiers from Warhost stand guard in the forest

I've always enjoyed the iconic flashback scene in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings where Elrond and the Elves are receiving the charge of hordes of Orcs. As the enemy closes, the Elves whip up their halberds and then spin them downward cutting down the first two ranks of chargers. So, when I saw this pack of Elven Guardians on the Warhost website, I wanted to get some for my Dragon Rampant army. I wasn't 100% sure about the creepy faceplate mask, but figured I could decorate it up on the style of Late Roman or Early Saxon ones rather than an evil clown mask. As it stands, this will be the final batch of Elves for the army, though after my first game I am exploring different troop type options for fielding Wood Elves. So, you never know...!

    Probably the most heavily armored of the infantry, these actually painted up very quickly

Anyway, these actually went faster than either of the previous batch of spear or cavalry. They appear to be more heavily armored, so doing the base coat of Gunmetal Gray, then Bright Gold, and finally metallic yellow accent was the most time consuming part. Once that was done, the tunic and cloak seemed to be a breeze to finish. I stayed with the lighter green shade under tunic and darker cloak on top that I've been using in this army, so far. I did my usual pattern of dots on the colored borders for the cloak. This time, I added in a border on the bottom of the tunic, too.

    With this final batch of six, my Dragon Rampant Wood Elves army is now officially complete!

I gave them the usual shades of blond hair (where you could see it), and more brown tones on the equipment and shoes and such. I certainly have Elves down to a routine, by now -- almost 70 figures later! I'm definitely going to be taking a break from painting up DR! armies for a little while and give a little more attention to my other projects. That doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed watching my vision of Wood Elves come to life. They were always my favorite fantasy race, and I like how Warhost evokes the Tolkien mythos. Of course, my friend Keith -- who thinks the Orcs of my Bonefish Band look like Saxons (I know, but you just can't talk to him sometimes) -- will probably say they look like Huns or Celts or whatever! Honestly, I'm pretty sure he does it to "poke" people to get a reaction. Yeah, Keith, all those commenters on this blog and the Lead Adventure Forum are wrong -- they don't look Tolkien-like, they look like Uhtred Uhtredson...ha, ha! Maybe we can all join in together and say, "No, Keith, you're wrong...!"

    I decorated the armored face masks with my smallest nib black micron pen - how do they look?

The trickiest part of these figures was doing the face masks, of course. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about them, yet. I would honestly love to hear your comments whether the tiny Micron pen patterns make them look less creepy and more "Ancient race decorative," or what. Given a choice, I would have preferred that Warhost didn't sculpt the Guardians with their masks, but hey! I bought them anyway, right? I used my smallest nib black pen to do swirls, dots, and even a leaf petal design. After the decoration was done, I painted the eye slits in the masks. Then I did the eye itself -- so there was a lot of work done on those masked faces!! Hoping they look decent, but as I said, I'd love to hear your opinions pro or con.

 

    Another look at the detachment of the Warhost Elven 'Guardians' in the woods

The bonfires that the Elves are gathered around in these photos are more amazing 3-D printed scenery from my friends at Bad Goblin Games. I bought one each of their Large Bonfire and Campfire at Historicon 2026 a few weeks ago. They are printed in an orange translucent material. Typically, for their flames, I do a orange-red wash on it so that it softens the bright, plastic look. After that was done and dry, it was a snap to paint the logs with my usual wood tone recipe, and then the rocks, and finally apply the ground and flocking. I painted both the pieces identically, and once done, slid the supplied watch battery into the LED light holder. I pressed the LEDs into place from underneath the fires and voila! A very cool, flickering bit of scatter for the gaming tabletop. 

A few second video of the Large Bonfire flickering away, with an Elven Halberdier standing watch

So, now that the Wood Elves are officially done, what's going to be the next project to cross my painting desk? Actually, there will likely be three that I'm juggling simultaneously. Regular readers will remember my decision to alternate a batch of older figures (bought prior to this year) and newer ones (2026 purchases). Well, luckily the three projects fit neatly into that scheme! The older figures (and next batch waiting in line) are Pulp Science-Fiction figures from Hydra Miniatures. Originally, I purchased them to be a faction in games of Xenos Rampant. Since then, I've had an idea for a convention game using them that I think will be really cool. Building the board for it (a city in the clouds, ala "Cloud City" from The Empire Strikes Back) will likely be a late year or 2027 project. In the meantime, I want to get a half dozen factions for the game done using Hydra Miniatures amazing Retro Raygun line. Previous purchases of them give me enough for three factions, so that will be one of the things I'm working on.

Small, 3-D printed LED campfire from Bad Goblin Games

 The other faction is to finally paint up some reinforcements for my Viet Cong in games of Surviving 'Nam. These will be figs bought earlier this year from Gringo40s (but not 40mm scale...ha, ha). I will also continue to work on batches of figures for my Devilry Afoot games set in Franklinton on the American frontier. Yes, yes, I know it has been a long time since my first game...! I've been busy!! So, look for batches from those three projects soon, along with more buildings and scatter terrain!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 166

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
• Terrain painted in 2026: 36

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
• Scatter painted in 2026: 69