Some Scatter Terrain & an Alien Monster

    Town scene set up with my 3 new pieces of scatter -- the shrine, town well, and campfire logs

For the last month or so, batches of scatter terrain in various stages of painting have been mixed about on my desk. As I get to a stopping point on whatever figures I am working on, I pick them up and do some more work. Maybe I'll add a base coat, dry brush - whatever. However, it feels like there is little organization, so that's why this update seems to have little rhyme or reason to it.

    'Town Water Well' from Diabolical Terrain - assembles nicely and paints up very easily

One of the scatter pieces is a Town Water Well that I picked up from Diabolical Terrain at Historicon last month. Its four pieces glued together very easily with two-part epoxy. I decided to permanently attach the wooden lid to the ring of the well, as I couldn't envision a need to have to remove it during a game. It isn't big enough to fit a figure inside, and doing it in one piece would make it go much faster. I spray painted the well with Krylon Acrylic Matte Black, following that up with my usual 50/50 mix of black paint and water. Once it was dry, I decided to start with the wooden parts using my normal wood recipe. That is a dark brown wet brush, Camo Brown dry brush, and khaki highlight. Then I did the stone base with two dry brushes of a medium and lighter gray. Finally, I did the details. I decided to paint the wooden tiles of the roof in a light blue, weathering them with an even lighter blue. I finished off the metal bits with Iron Wind Metal and Bronze. The tiny bits of rope you could see I did in a lighter brown with Dun Yellow dry brush. The town well received a black vehicle wash to complete it. I really like how it looks, and am glad I picked it up from Ron at Diabolical.

    I modified this 'misprint' from Miniature Building Authority by adding in the saint in the shrine

Next up was a 3-D printed shrine that Kirk from Miniature Building Authority had sold me at a deep discount because it was a "misprint." One small corner of the roof of the shrine had not printed well and was turned up. I added some pieces of craft sticks to that corner to make it look like it had been damaged and shoddily repaired. Once again, I started with the wooden part of this structure. I used the same recipe as above on it. The tiles on this model looked more like standard ceramic ones, so I did them in a red brown with Middle East Flesh dry brush. I picked out some metal bits on the structure in the same Iron Wind Steel and Bronze as above. I also painted the cobblestones stone surrounding the shrine as above, too. With that, the exterior of the shrine was finished.

I decided to add a miniature to the interior of the shrine. I searched my unpainted lead collection, looking for something that could perhaps pass for a saint. I wanted it to be a little roadside shrine or one in a square in a town. I finally found this miniature, which for all the world, looked like a Byzantine noble lady. I base coated her black, and then followed my normal stone recipe for her. I glued her in place, then unhappy with which of the four sides of the shrine she was facing, popped her off and reattached her inside. And yes, this statue counts as a miniature painted for the year! I really like this little MBA shrine, and plan on adding it to the tabletop with the Diabolical Well next time I set up my medieval town.

    This campfire ready to be lit came with my Bad Goblin Games campfire & bonfire purchases

This campfire in ready to be set aflame actually came with the two Bad Goblin Games scatter pieces I finished up a week or so ago. I guess it was included as the "Before" and the LED-lit campfire is the "After"? Not sure why someone would expect that to be included, but the folks at Bad Goblin are awesome. This type of extra touch fits their personality, for sure! I'm really excited that they are coming this October 9-10 to Advance the Colors 2026! Anyway, I think you can guess how I painted this pile of logs surrounded by a small ring of stones. And you also see why these all were finished around the same time, as I was doing lots of stone and wood on these pieces. I'm sure I will find a use for this campfire on the table in one of my games, someday.

    Pre-painted hot dog cart a friend gave me years ago -- I did some weathering on the tires & cart

Yes, that is a hot dog cart! My friend Derek from Indiana bought it for me as a birthday gift a couple years ago with a bunch of other cool, modern scatter terrain. It is probably a little small for 28mm scale, but hey -- it's a hot dog cart! Do YOU have one for your miniature tabletop? Boy, that sounded a bit like my friend Keith...ha, ha! Well, if you're my friend Bill who I will be visiting in update New York next month, you do have one! And it was his post on Dice, Doubloons, and Random Musings about his own hot dog cart that inspired me to get this one readied for the tabletop!" This pre-painted piece is either plastic or resin. I am not sure which. The tiny metal pole holding the umbrella up was probably the trickiest part -- gluing the pole in and then making sure it was set in place without too much lean. After it was all assembled, I thought it was a bit bright, though. So, I did some weathering on the cart with my black vehicle wash to tone its bright, plastic look. I also painted the tires dark gray and added lighter gray highlights. Otherwise, they were too Matchbox car shiny black plastic. So, I DID do brushwork on this, but the signage, little hot dogs, condiments -- all of that, came pre-painted. Still, I'm glad I finally got it ready for the table. Thanks, Derek!

    3-D printed 'Megaguirus' which will stand in as the next alien monster for 'Critter Control' to fight 

And finally, the other miniature in this batch. When I attended Cincycon 2025 earlier this year, I was searching for minis I could use for alien monsters in my solo games of Majestic 13. At the booth of my friend John from JS Wargamer Printing, I found two I could use, including this one. It was labeled Megaguirus, which is apparently a Kaiju that fought Godzilla at some point. It certainly looks like one, but next to a 28mm miniature, its size is a perfect alien monster for my Critter Control team to fight. In fact, the whole reason I pulled it out and painted it up was because I was getting ready for another game. I rolled up my opponent and this figure seemed perfect for the alien my team would fight.

    Closeup of my 'Rakire Winged Hunter' -- I used a bumble/dragonfly look to its paint scheme

Thankfully, the wings are already in place and it is a one-piece print. The only gluing needed was to attach it to an MDF base with a piece of piano wire. There was already a notch on his underside, but my piano wire was probably a bit too thin for it to fit firmly. The whole time I was painting it up, the creature wanted to rotate slowly around on its post. After attaching Megaguirus to hits base, I did my usual Krylon black spray to prime it, hoping to strengthen the fragile nature of 3-D prints a bit. I went back and forth in my head on what color scheme to use. I never did a Google search to see what Megaguirus is supposed to look like. Remember, this wasn't supposed to be a kaiju. According to Majestic 13, it is a Rakire Winged Hunter!

    Back of the model, showing the detailing I did with my micron pen on the wing fabric

I finally decided on a metallic brown and Iron Wind Steel alternating banded pattern -- kind of like a bumblebee's stripes. I painted the entire model -- except the wings -- Steel first. I added the alternating pattern of Metallic Chocolate Brown in, adding in gold highlights on the spikes, talons and such. I painted his six smaller legs Pewter, and gave them black striping, as well. I left the wings for last. I decided continue the metallic brown for the "fingers" of the wings, so to speak. The thin material in between I first painted pale yellow. I drybrushed it white and was immediately unhappy with the look. So next, I decided to give it a faint orange wash. I liked that color much better! Finally, I did an image search on dragonfly wings and found some pretty cool photos. I decided to mimic the veining or pattern on on one of the pictures with my smallest nib micron pen. I really, really like how the wings came out. This afterthought is actually my favorite part of the model -- even more than its yellow jacket looking eyes.

    Hungry yet? A look at the other side of the cart with its drink case -- nicely frosted window!

I worked on this figure during breaks between painting my Valkeeri faction and the almost completed Viet Cong women soldiers. All together, this small group was perhaps not worth their own update. However, I decided to go ahead anyway and take pictures and write them up. I'm happy with how all of the pieces of scatter and the miniatures came out. Doubtless, this post will be followed quickly by those V.C. fighters in the next day or so. Definitely soon!

    Another look at the town scene and my newly-painted scatter terrain

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 173

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: 75

'City in the Clouds' Project Begins - the Valkeeri Faction

    My first squad for a new Pulp Sci-Fi project and convention game -- the Valkeeri from Hydra Minis

Over the last couple years, I picked up some Pulp Sci-Fi figures from Hydra Miniatures. These are amazing looking 28mm metal sculpts that needed to get onto the tabletop. One of them had became part of my crew in my solo Five Parsecs from Home campaign. Another became a member of the Rebel Alliance in my Star Wars skirmish campaign. However, I had many more of the figures sitting unpainted, waiting for me to find a use for. At one point, I thought I could use them for games of Xenos Rampant, but we haven't really been playing that much, lately.

    Actually only 1 of the 5 (with cloak) is a 'Valkeeri' model - the rest are Hydra Minis 'Astro Angels'

One possibility was that they could be small, 4-5 man (er, woman) factions for games of Space Weirdos. I had purchased them in groups of roughly 4-5, so that would work the figures I had on hand. One evening, almost unbidden, an idea for a convention game sprang into my head. I envisioned a 4'x4' table whose ground level was clouds of various colored smoke, representing the upper surface of a gas giant. Rising out of the clouds would be clear acrylic rods, supporting a City in the Clouds. There would have to be a good support network anchoring those rods into place to support the terrain and figures atop them and keep them from being tipped over. I could work that out, though!

    I love these miniatures from the 'Retro Raygun' line - so much Pulpy character in them!

The game part would use Space Weirdos and have factions of 4-5 figures flying around on jet packs to achieve some mission -- steal a vital component from the city, kidnap an ambassador, free a prisoner -- you name it! I would base figures on clear bases and players would move them from one acrylic platform to another -- "flying" above the surface. In my mind, it sounds amazing -- at least if it ends up looking like I see it in my head! The first step -- before building the city -- is to paint up the factions themselves. I looked at my list of unpainted miniatures that I keep on my phone. I already own enough Hydra Miniatures for three of the six factions. So, here we go -- we are off and running on another project!

    To look more alien, I decided that MY Valkeeri would have green skin instead of Caucasian

Hydra Miniatures Retro Raygun line has a number of factions, one of which is the Valkeeri. Their website has painted models on display of all the packs. You really should check them out, as they were painted by my favorite miniature painter of them all, Dr. Matthias from the Lead Adventure Forum. Back in my Five Parsecs days, I stole the name of one of their factions, Valkeeri, for my crew member's race. My Valkeeri would be green skinned, rather than Caucasian, though. I painted my Star Wars rebel also with green skin. So, these green skinned ladies would be my first faction. Here's where it gets a little complex, though. For my "Valkeeri" miniatures, I used figures from another of their factions, the Astro Angels. They're another group of "hot chicks in leotards." However, for their leader, I used one of the actual Valkeeri models (Leader B). So, yeah, I'm taking Hydra Miniatures' ideas and changing their Pulp factions into my own. And I will likely use the other Valkeeri models I own as a second, as yet unnamed, faction -- keep up with me here! 

    And here she is, the leader and lone figure actually from the Valkeeri line - very sinister looking, eh?

Once I had the "Valkeeri" of my first faction assembled -- you had to glue their jet packs on -- I primed them white with Liquitex Gesso. I did their faces first, even though with their gloves and boots, that is the only part of the model showing any skin. I painted them a very bright "Parsley" green, and did a wash of a darker green to give some shading to their faces. Next, I did their one piece, skin tight leotards in a dusty purple. I dry brushed it a lighter shade and then moved on to the black. This consisted of their gloves, boots, and the leader's cloak. This got a gray dry brush to give some definition.

The most time consuming part of the figure is the metal. Their helmets, collars, guns, armor and knee joints, and their belts were all painted first in my favorite metallic, a very dark one from Iron Wind called Steel. Details were then picked out in a bright bronze with an ever brighter shade of it as highlights on the bronze. The jet packs were done in a subsequent session, identically to my previously painted Valkeeri, as were the guns, using a variety of bright metallic colors. 

    The 'girls' check out the control room of an enemy facility, looking for a secret device to steal

For their faces, I painted the eyes with a dark, bluish-green socket first, then a bright yellow for their "whites" (Hey, they're aliens!), followed by a very dark blue for their iris. I gave them medium green lips, and much to my surprise, was suddenly done. Those went much faster than I expected! I went back and forth on whether to do any kind of dark wash, finally decided to do a half strength of my normal black vehicle wash. This was mainly because I feel metallics look better with a dark black wash over them. Perhaps I thinned it down too much, as it didn't seem to make a lot of difference -- just a very small one.

I wanted to base these on clear bases -- since they'll be zooming across the sky. The only problem was that I didn't have any! Plus, in my impetuousness to get started, I failed to trim them off their metal bases first. Oops! In the end, they trimmed off pretty easy with wire cutters and an X-acto knife. A friend lent me some 1" round clear bases, so I was able to get these based up before ordering more from Litko. I'd heard that using superglue to attach figures to clear bases is problematic, as it may sometimes "fog" the plastic. So, I stuck with my tried and trusted two-part, 5-minute epoxy. I thought about drilling the bottom of their feet and inserting pins to "peg" them and get them to stay even better. Instead, I decided that I could do that on subsequent batches IF I am having problems with them popping off. So, here they are -- the first five figures for my City in the Clouds project! Hope you like them!! Note that this also brings down the gap between my Acquired vs. Painted in miniatures down to less than 40. As long as I stay disciplined and don't run off and buy stuff for a new project, I would say getting ahead is within sight.

    My prototype 'Valkeeri' (yes, another Astro Angel!) figure from my Star Wars skirmishes

What else is on my painting desk? For miniatures, I have finally begun painting up some of the Gringo 40s 28mm metal Vietnam figures I bought. First up is a batch of six V.C. female fighters. Also on the desk is loads of more scatter terrain and also a very tall minaret for my medieval town. I thought about cutting off the crescent so it wouldn't so obviously be a minaret, but figured that painting it in the same basic color scheme as my other buildings would be good enough to allow it to not look out of place. So, stay tuned for more updates soon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 171

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

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