Blood on the Streets in 'Troubled Council' Game at Drums at the Rapids

    Town Council ruffians battle monks & citizens loyal to the church in the medieval town of Vespugia 

Would the outspoken Father Leowulf be "priest"-napped by the forces of the Town Council? Or would the controversial priest remain free to criticize the aristocrats of the town for their treatment of the rencnt refugees in Medieval Vesupugia? Each faction in the fight had its own particular way to earn victory points, in addition to capturing Leowulf or helping him remain free. Most would be using the unrest in town to settle old scores or improve their position. Over the course of two games at Drums at the Rapids 2026, the vocal Father remained free in one game and was dragged off to face trial in the other. 

    A band of ruffians with ill intent are led by House Catrine through the muddy streets of Vespugia 

I have been tweaking the rules I used for the game, which are based off of my Mean Streets: War in Gang-infested Cities. I was inspired to do so by one of my internet friends, Cat, who uses them to run an incredibly scenic and popular series of games based off of the same inspiration for my rules -- the 1979 cult movie classic, The Warriors. We are both members of the Lead Adventure Forum, and she responded to my post asking for suggestions for a fast-playing miniatures skirmish game for up to six players. Cat cited Mean Streets as the perfect set, with quick and easy command and control, a simple combat system, and a tiered array of fighters from the toughest to the wimpiest.

    Friday afternoon's players with the Town Council on the left & the church defenders on the right

Inspired by her suggestion, and by the desire to run a cooperative Fantasy skirmish game for my Sunday Evening group, I began tinkering with Mean Streets. After several days down the Fantasy "rabbit hole," I emailed Cat and a couple other friends my ideas. They responded with suggestions and I've been steadily tweaking them after each game. One of the first ideas I discarded was a separate Combat Ratings for figures vs. melee and ranged attacks. Keeping it at one CR made it more streamlined and reduced the "one-shot kills" that were happening in our first play test. From player input, I changed the rules for disengaging from melee and how to calculate range modifiers. I have to say that after three games (which include the two at Drums), I'm fairly happy with the results.

    House Stronghelm's men make a stealthy advance through cover of the market towards the cathedral

It is a bloody game, with characters usually being taken out  after several turns of combat. Occasional "one swing" or "one shot" kills still occur, but that is not the norm. Of the three tiers of characters, the toughest (Heroes) take four wounds, Companions take three, and Followers two. However, if a character's score is doubled or tripled, they take more than one wound (two and three, respectively). I also have steadily increased the number of figures each player controls up to eight per faction in my Drums games. Of course, this game was a two-sided battle rather than a free-for-all, with up to three players per side. On Friday night, I had a full table of six players, while on Saturday morning there were only four of us. It plays very quickly, which I like for a convention game. As I get older, the idea of a six hour game at a con is too much for me. I much prefer games being over in three hours, which includes the rules and scenario explanation. It was even faster on Sunday with only four players. We were easily done in two hours.

    Attackers intent upon "priest-napping" dart past a stable towards the center of town & the church

Friday's game probably took about two and a half hours. An intense scrum broke out at the church wall, with four of the factions involved in it. This was precipitated by the aggressive and immediate charge of the Town Council forces towards the cathedral, attempting to get over its stone walls and onto the church grounds. The Franciscans, loyal to Father Leowulf, and House Duncan, a staunch supporter of the church, tenaciously defended the walls. The Duncans did not even break off when their nearby home was torched and set afire by their bitter rivals, House Catrine. In the end, the defenders held the church walls, though that holy ground was stained by the blood of numerous combatants. 

    Friday's massive scrum as the attackers tried to fight past defenders & get over the church walls

Much as it happened in our Sunday Evening playtest, the Dominicans proved to be the wiliest of the church's forces. They convinced their brother Franciscans to turn over Father Leowulf into their "safekeeping." The black-robed monks immediately dragged the vociferously protesting priest to their corner and off the table. It appears Father Leowulf will now be delivering his sermons from a Dominican church instead of a Franciscan one! Though the Town Council's forces wrong-footed Leowulf's defenders with their quick assault, their dice deserted them early on and remained AWOL nearly all game long. Time after time, their players rolled ones and twos on their 1d8 combat rolls. 

    I was happy with how the table looked with the medieval buildings I've been painting up recently

Eventually, after repeated losses, two of the Town Council's forces had dropped below half strength and had to take morale checks. Since this occurred on the same turn that the Dominicans absconded with Father Leowulf, the demoralized forces of the nobles decided to call off their attack. They realized they had no chance of success at one of their objectives with the priest off the table. Jenny, as the Dominicans, was the highest scoring player on the winning side. I felt bad for the attackers as their rolls just never seemed to improve. But hey! That's miniature wargaming for you!

    House Stronghelm dashes up to the walls intent on grabbing Father Leowulf, seen here at the doors

In the morning, the game took a decidedly different turn. Ted and I, as the Town Council forces, made a steady but stealthy advance. The Dominicans marched forward quickly, singing hymns and swinging their clubs, crosses, and cudgels. The Franciscans were a bit more slow, though. So slow, in fact, that my forces -- when presented with a turn of great command & control activation rolls -- darted forward, leapt the walls or opened the church gate. House Stronghelm's ruffians grabbed Father Leowulf, and dragged him around the opposite side of the church from where the Franciscans were advancing. Meanwhile, a companion and Follower from my force formed a wall and blocked the rescue force from chasing after the "priest-napper", holding double their number for several rounds of combat. 

    Once the priest was grabbed, 2 ruffians blocked the Franciscans from quickly chasing after him

Rather than wade into combat, my Hero stayed near the middle of my forces, controlling the action. In Malevolent Streets -- as I'm calling this variant -- you combine the command dice you roll for each figure that is within 6" of the leader. That way, you can select the higher rolling dice and assign them to those who need more actions, while giving the lower ones to figures for less important actions. This allowed me to assign the maximum 3 action "6's" to the Companion who had Father Leowulf in his grasp and he steadily moved further and further away from the Franciscans. Meanwhile, the rest of my forces were blocking them from mounting a rescue attempt. 

    Meanwhile, House Faroli exacts revenge upon the turncoat soldier leading the Dominican forces

Meanwhile, Ted, as House Faroli, was exacting a bitter revenge on the captain of the Dominican force. This veteran soldier was formerly an employee of House Faroli. However, the noble house claims the soldier absconded with some of their funds and defected. Their secret objective was to cut down the turncoat. Ted's opponent, Steve, was the unfortunate "balancing" effect for the Town Council's poor dice rolls the previous evening. His ones and twos were making up for all those rolled by the opposite side in the previous game -- or at least that's the way it seemed! Soon, the Dominican force was in disarray, their leader cut down, and the monks and soldiers hired by them were fleeing from the table. The forces of the Town Council scored their first victory in three games! Ted, with both his secret and open victory conditions satisfied (the captain cut down and Father Leowulf in our hands), AND lots of kills (+1 Victory Point per enemy figure killed), was the clear winner of our game. 

    Father Leowulf howls mightily as he is 'priest-napped', urging the Franciscans to come rescue him

Even though they lost, both Heidi (Franciscans) and Steve (Dominicans) praised the game. They liked the simple rules and felt the game flowed very quickly. I received lots of praise from my players on both days about how my medieval town looked, as well as from passers by. So, I chalked up my first two medieval town skirmishes up as a double success -- the players had fun and the Mean Streets tweaks provided for an enjoyable and fast-moving game. I'm not sure when I will run the rules next, though. The next convention I am scheduled to run games at is Origins Game Fair, June 17-21. I'll be running my Surviving 'Nam game there six times at the Columbus Convention Center. In the meantime, I will keep working on the fantasy aspects of the rules in anticipation of using them again soon!

        Poor Father Leowulf - have the nobles found someone to 'rid' them of 'this meddlesome priest'?

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 99

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

My purchases at Drums at the Rapids 2026

    Two of the five buildings that I received from RRB Minis -- one a very nice gift from him to me!

Prior to heading up to Drums at the Rapids this past weekend, I cleaned off several shelves of my closet where I stage my unpainted terrain and scatter. I knew that I'd be picking up some more medieval buildings from RRB Minis & More, and I needed the room! Plus, there is a free flea market at the show, and I usually take things and set them on the table next to my game that I'm running. I also unloaded a good sized plastic tub of all the rule sets that I had taken but never sold to previous shows. I marked everything down with a sticker, ranging from $1 to $5. This stuff had to go...this time!

    House on the left is from the Ferisia line, and the one on the right is the Stormhill City Farmhouse

Thankfully, nearly all of it did. So, I had room for the five, 3-D printed medieval buildings that I bought from Rich at RRB. Two of them are simple, one-story homes. I have so many large buildings that I've purchased recently, I needed to get some ordinary houses for the streets of my town. These are from a couple different lines that Rich produces. I like the way they look and I will probably do them next. It should be a contrast from the epics I've been painting, and I'll probably be shocked to see how quickly they go! One of them is from the Ferisia line -- "Small Farmhouse." The other was actually a gift from Rich to me for all the nice mentions he gets on Lead Legionaries. It is called Stormhill City Farmer House.

    The sprawling Dwarven Bath House, which I bought because it was such a cool looking builidng

 

    Interior of the Bath House -- which looks very much like a bathing spot or spa, unlike the outside

The largest of the ones I bought is from the Ferisia line, once again. It is called Dwarven Bath House. The pictures I'd seen were only of the exterior, and I liked its unusual look. The almost domed roof, octagonal shape and the two and one story sections looked appealing. I was quite surprised at how big it turned out to be (horizontal space for this one, not vertical). And the interior is definitely a bath complex. I may paint it up with the bathhouse style components not attached, so I can use it as an ordinary building in games, too.

    I like the little balconies in the Ferisia line -- like the one on the Brunbir Blazeforge House

Another from the Ferisia line that Rich printed at my request was Brunbir Blazeforge House. This building is much more compact than the Duncan or Catrine House, with the third story being entirely the rooftop. My favorite part is the little, angled stone balcony over the doorway. It is mostly stone, like many of the other Ferisia buildings I bought from Rich. I like how many of them have overhangs, this one included. This one is stone, though, and has a definite angled look that fits with many of the others in this line.  

    The Ferisia Bakery is a nice corner style building like you often see in Europe

The last of the five buildings is the Ferisia Bakery Store. It has the same look as many corner buildings that are part of row houses. This one is stand alone, but would be a nice one to put in a medieval intersection. It also came with a bunch of benches or tables and an outdoor oven. At two stories tall, it is nice in between sized building that will help with the look of my burgeoning medieval town.

    I need a 28mm Huey for one of my Surviving 'Nam scenarios, so my friend Ted printed 4 for me!

As I am finishing up my work on my upcoming rules publication, Surviving 'Nam: an Infantryman's Year In-Country, I wrote my final few scenarios. I plan on including a dozen with the rules (one for each month of a soldier's tour of Vietnam). One of the last ones I wrote is a helicopter deployment in a "hot LZ" -- and I wanted to be able to run it at conventions with actual model Huey helicopters. My friend Ted had a STL for one and kindly printed off four 28mm scale Hueys for me. Why four? Well, I typically have four players in my convention games and I wanted one for each player. Honestly, I could have used just one model as each fire team arrives on a different turn, but the spectacle of four 28mm Huey will likely be a draw in a convention hall. Eye candy is important in miniature games!

    Ted came through in providing me some pilots in need of rescuing for my 'Downed Airmen' scenario

Speaking of figures for my Vietnam games, Ted also printed up three American pilots for me. I had ordered two metal ones from Gringo 40s, but they sent me only one of them. My "Downed Aircrew" scenario requires two pilot figures. Once again, Ted stepped up and provided 3-D prints for me to use. They look like quality prints and I hope to get to them sometime soon. I still have nearly my entire Gringo 40s purchase order to paint up, yet. I'll start working on them after my 28mm Elves for Dragon Rampant are complete.  

    I picked these rules up from Firelands Games just in case they catch on locally

My final purchase was the Pillage: Ransack the Middle Ages skirmish rules set produced by Victrix. I had almost picked it up twice before from Firelands Games, but each time I went back to get it at a convention, they had just sold it. I snatched it up immediately when I saw it, so lightning wouldn't strike thrice. I don't know if I will actually play it anytime soon, but I always like to support the vendors. James and Rusty from Firelands Games are such nice guys, and support all of the local conventions loyally. Apparently, one of the local stores in Columbus carries the rules and has sold dozens of copies of it. Maybe, once I try it out, I can run it at the store and see if I can recruit some more local, historical gamers for our HMGS chapter. We'll see..!

    Forgot to mention more gifts from Rich: 28mm Outhouse and 4 stick-like 8" measuring sticks

Otherwise, what's on my tabletop? I have the six Elven spearmen at least halfway completed. There are five horror/monster figures for my Devilry Afoot games that I picked up last year. They are primed and have their first base coat done on them. Terrain-wise, I decided I wanted to finally paint up the two bags of Viking rune stones that I bought from Sword & Scabbard a couple years ago. They should go very quickly -- another reason I chose to start one them! 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 99

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

A 'Cottage' for my Medieval Town...A Big One!

    From the 'Misty Hollow' line of Medieval/Fantasy buildings, the humbly-named 'Cottage'

I've always thought of a cottage as a relatively small, rural building. I recently picked up a 3-D printed building from a new source while at Little Wars 2026. Phalanx Games & Sundry carries the Misty Hollow line of medieval/fantasy buildings. This one is called simply "Cottage," but at two stories and a soaring, peaked roof, it is the little cottage that could! Don't get me wrong -- these are gorgeously designed buildings, with all kinds of neat details like weather vanes on the roof, metal cupolas, and a combination of building materials in its construction, including wood, stone, brick, and stucco.  

    I really like the variety of textures -- wooden beams, stone, stucco, brick, wood tile roof & more!

Although these are more expensive than Rich Brown of RRB Minis is selling me the Ferisia line of 3-D printed buildings, I always try to support the vendors at shows that I attend. So, in addition to four ziploc bags full of MDF bases from their buckets, I snagged this cool building to add to my growing medieval town. An interesting twist is that the windows, door, and weather vane come in a ziploc bag and you must attach them yourself. Unfortunately, my bag was short one of the windows, so I left it open until I could scratch-build a replacement. It is very nicely printed with deep details, particularly in the wood grain. It fits together easily, and feels sturdy -- except I imagine that if I drop the roof on the weather vane, it will snap off easily and be a goner...ha, ha!

   I think the pink...er, salmon stucco turned out really nice & blends well with the red window panes

I did my usual Krylon Fusion matte black spray primer followed up (once dry) by a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint. Then, I had to sit back and decide on colors. The roof is composed of wooden tiles -- modeled to look like some of which have "fallen off," exposing the wooden boards beneath. There is both stone and stucco in its construction, with exposed brick beneath the stucco. On the inside, there are stucco walls with wooden beams. The floor on the first floor looks like it is some kind of decorated tile, while the upstairs is wooden. There is a wooden staircase on the first floor leading through a rectangular hole in the floor of the second. Interestingly, the windows on the website picture are a different style than the ones I had included.   

    Nice look at the roof tiles and the pale green coloring I added to their worn, wooden look

I began with the wooden tiles of the roof, which is a lot of the surface area. The building is designed with what I call "dormers," places where it projects on from its main axis -- each with its own little roof. The effect is a very cool and interesting looking. I decided that the wooden tiles have faded over the years and not been repainted recently. So, I did a medium brown wet brush over the black prime, followed by a craft paint Khaki highlight. I set the "dry brush" aside, and picked up a finer point brush. I used a faded green "mossy" color to pick out lines of color on each roof tile. It was time consuming, yes, but I thought it would give a great effect to have a faded, worn roof effect. 

    2nd Floor of the Cottage, which certainly deserves a more grand name than something so simple!

The heavy wooden beams that frame the roof I painted in dark brown, then after it had dried overnight, added a dry brush of Camo Brown. I also used that color on roof boards where the tiles were missing. Once again, I waited for it to dry, and then I did a Khaki highlight on the beams. There is so much rich woodwork in this building's design, I wanted to bring out the full effect of the colors. In fact, doing the woodwork and beams was the most time consuming part of this building.

    1st floor of the cottage -- I really like the recessed pattern printed onto the floor & wooden staircase

Simultaneously, I was working on the interiors of the first and second story sections. I always like to finish the interiors first on buildings before I start on the exteriors. That way, I can grasp it by exterior while painting the interior, and vice versa when I move on to the outer part of the building. I chose a Maple Sugar craft color for the interior stucco, and then once it had dried, highlighted it with a very light tan. Next, I picked out the wooden interior beams with same dark brown/Camo Brown/khaki that I used on the wooden beams on the outside. For the window frames and diagonal "leading," I chose a darker, Moroccan red. The tiled floor I painted a orange-brown color, with a Maple Sugar highlight. Then I did a dark red wash over the floor to tone down the brighter color and make it look less like the color of the walls. I really like the effect of the floor pattern.

    Narrow frontage of the cottage, with the door that swings open and closed

Moving on to the exterior, I painted the stucco surfaces on the outside in a salmon color. What?? You're painting a building pink, Mike? A faded pink stucco is actually not that uncommon, plus I planned to dry brush it so it ended up being a very dulled-down pink. Moving on to the stone, I decided to try to paint the stone sections in contrasting colors. One block would be a dark gray and the next one would be light gray. Kind of like the alternating bands or stripes of color on the stone archways of the Great Mosque/Cathedral of Cordoba, Spain. There was a danger that this would be one step too far, with all the other decorations on this building. However, I thought that the way the stonework was designed, it could work and give a clever accent effect. So, I did a very dark gray base coat on all the stones first. The dark stones would get only a medium gray highlight, while the lighter stones would receive a light gray dry brush to look much lighter. You be the judge whether the alternating stone pattern worked well or not!

    This 3-D printed building, bought from Phalanx Games & Sundry, fits together very well

For the stucco, I painted it a salmon first, followed by a khaki dry brush. Through the years, I have found that color combo gives a nice faded rose look. Of course, all of this was after doing the exterior woodwork in the same trio of wood colors of the roof, and the windows in their red. Because I liked the photo of this building on Phalanx Games' website, I copied their two-tone metal cupola and weather vane. All parts received a Steel base coat, then Pewter highlights for the silver/steel sections. The Bronze sections were painted bronze with a bright gold highlight to hopefully give the effect of the sun gleaming off its metallic parts. I did a black wash on the building to tone it down and keep it from looking too bright. I also felt this would tie the whole building together.  

At Little Wars, this building had caught my eye. I like it even more all painted up! I'm sure it will add to the look of my medieval town tabletop. Hopefully, the mish-mash of various manufacturers I've used for the buildings end up improving the look of the tabletop, not something that detracts from it. What do you think? 

    Only part of the building that I'm not crazy about is the flat, featureless dragon wind vane

So, what else is on my painting desk? The next batch of Elves is underway. It feels like its been a long time since I painted Elves, but I'm sure it really hasn't been. As for terrain, I'm not sure if I am going to start on another of the large buildings I have or wait till I pick up some of the smaller ones that Rich will have ready for me at the show. Stay tuned to see what I end up deciding!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 176
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 99

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

More Armed Townsfolk for Medieval Town Games

    Eight more 28mm townsfolk for my medieval skirmishes from Old Glory & Gripping Beast (I believe)

In keeping with my plan to alternate a batch of old figures from my unpainted lead pile with newly-bought stuff, I decided to paint up some figures that could be used as townsfolk for my upcoming Medieval skirmish game. I believe four of these are from Old Glory, while the others are Gripping Beast. The archers and crossbowmen definitely look medieval, while I admit the spear are more generic Dark Ages looking, but could work for a number of periods. They are meant to represent more poorly equipped soldiers, so the plan was to paint them up very simply.

    Two Gripping Beast Dark Ages spearmen (Saxons?) that should work for simpler townsfolk

I did add wire spears to all of the spearmen, and shields to two of them. I have been using North Star brass wire spears almost exclusively -- at least since I began playing Saga a number of years ago. I buy mine from Brigade Games here in the U.S. Honestly, I refuse to use cast on lead spears anymore. They are just too bendy and end up looking like pool noodles after you've gamed with them a handful of times. After the figures were all ready and based up, I primed them with white Liquitex Gesso and let them dry overnight. The flesh was next on all of them, also waiting overnight to dry before putting my darker flesh wash that I created and have in a bottle. 

    I gave the guy on the left a patterned border on his cloak -- must be just a bit richer than the others!

Otherwise, I used fairly simple pale and and light colors. Since these are likely people who wear the same clothes over and over again, and can't afford to own a closet full of tunics and pants, their colors would be faded. For this reason, I didn't give them shield designs -- just simple wooden shields bound with iron. One spearman actually has a green cloak, so I gave it a border with a simple design of dots along its border.  He's the wealthy one of the group, I guess! 

    I like both this archer pose and the crossbowman sculpt -- very 'medieval' looking in dress

The crossbowmen and archers have mantles done in a solid color. The archers are also wearing a typical medieval hat with a jaunty feather, while the crossbowmen are bare headed. I'm assuming that whoever hired them provided them with their weapons. Speaking of the crossbowmen, it surprised me that these are the only two soldiers I have in my entire 28mm collection armed with that weapon! Well, I guess my Pictish Saga army has a unit of crossbowmen, but those were much simpler designs from the Dark Ages. Their checkered cloaks would look a little out of place on a later medieval game. I guess that is something I will need to keep an eye out for while I am in flea markers or in game stores browsing the miniatures on their walls. 

    The archer is kind of 'Robin Hood' like with his hat and jaunty feather!

I wanted variety, so used a bunch of different colors, but kept all of them faded, as mentioned before. They didn't take long to paint up, being so simple. What else is on my painting desk? Right now, I have my next batch of 28mm Warhost Elves progressing along through their beginning stages. I'm doing a batch of six rather than eight because I had three packs of four left, it was either six or 12. With all of the detail I put on these figures, a dozen is just too many at one time for me...ha, ha! After this, I have only a batch of archers, another group of six spearmen, a mounted unit of six horsemen, 3-4 wizards, and six birds of prey left in this army to do. I'm getting closer to being done with my second Dragon Rampant army!

    A group of simple townsfolk ready to defend their homes from an invasion of...? Enemies? Orcs??

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 176
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 99

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 25

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

After Years on the Shelf, My Moors Take the Field Again

    One of my units of Moorish horsemen in their usual spot -- sheltering behind the infantry shieldwall

I'm on a group text chat with the Saga Ohio guys who meet weekly at the Guardtower West in Columbus. They were short one player and reached out to me to see if I could come so they would have an even number. I had a very boring week, sitting at home while repairmen tried a couple times to get installing a new water heater right. Jenny said I deserved an evening out of the house, so I drove off to meet Dan N, Joe D, and Janner H for a game of Saga. It was only my second time playing in more than a year, so I would definitely be rusty.

    From left, three of the regular Thursday crew - Dan, Joe, and Janner (Bob B couldn't make it)

The guys were wanting to practice Age of Crusades armies for an upcoming tournament, so I brought my Moors -- one of my favorite armies to play. They're probably the best looking Saga army that I've painted, in my opinion. Everyone insisted that I match up with Janner, who was trying out the Medieval Spanish list. We would be fighting one of the battles of the Reconquista -- a thematic historical battle (for a change...ha, ha!). Janner had never played the army before, and it had been several years or more since I played the Moors. Both had been vastly changed  or "nerfed" by the all-too-frequent Studio Tomahawk updates. In fact, the copy of the 2024 FAQ for the Age of Crusades army wasn't even the most recent -- there had been another one this year. 

    Janner wanted to test out the Medieval Spanish board and proxied his Ancient Iberians

This would cause some confusion for both Janner and I, as abilities we thought were very deadly and to watch out for ended up being not so scary. I understand avid tournament players want balance and updates to be made as some armies or abilities end up being too overpowering. However, the problem is the changes often radically redefine how the army plays. It was certainly the case for my Moors. One battle board ability that I relied upon regularly is called "Torrent of Iron." It was certainly weakened in the FAQ, and other board abilities were changed, as well. For Janner's Spanish, there was an ability that allowed his javelin-armed horsemen to move and shoot for free which frankly terrified me. Turns out, it terrified Stuido Tomahawk upon retrospect, and the "nerfed" version ended up being watered down enough that Janner never even used it.

    The two armies deployed, my Moors at the bottom, bunched up with flanks guarded

I deployed and moved first, decided to not advance and instead reinforce and wall off my right flank which was being held by only one unit of spearmen. Janner began a general advance with his army, but held off sending his cavalry too far forward. I rolled my best "Saga dice" at the start of turn 3, with 3 Rare dice. I loaded up my battle board with particularly lethal abilities, pulled the screen of spearmen aside in the center, and dashed both of my units of horsemen forward. In the old days, I would send them forward, have them throw their javelins, and then dash them back behind my infantry battle lines. However, the Moorish army has been reconfigured by the FAQ's into a charging army -- not a javelin tossing army.

    Worried about the free-moving Spanish (an ability which had actually been 'nerfed') I redeploy

Since only one of the two Moorish cavalry was in javelin tossing range, I said "What the heck?" Let's charge them in with the nerfed version of Torrent of Iron. The first unit plowed into his large unit of warrior missile men. I played all of my tough abilities, expecting to destroy the unit. I scored 14 hits, and with saving throws only on a 5 or 6 on 1d6, I expected carnage. Janner had his own amazing roll, saving seven of those, and killing two of my horsemen in return. NOT as good as I'd hoped! I decided to charge in the other unit into his javelin-armed horsemen. Once again, Janner's saves were amazing (6 of the 10 hits on a 1/3 chance!). Two more of my horsemen died. When I went to pull back my fatigued horsemen, he shortened one of the unit's move by using my fatigue, leaving them "hanging" out, unsupported and tired. Even though my two charges had reduced his two units badly, my two "hammers" were down to 2/3's strength.

    The Spanish had moved up, so I dashed my two units of heavy cavalry forward and charged

Lady luck helped me a little on the next turn. His horsemen rested and then charged in to mine, buffed up by his Saga abilities. He'd used a board trick to give my Moorish horse an additional fatigue before that. Amazingly, we won the battle, killing 4 of 5 of his horsemen and losing only one of ours. On my next turn, I pulled back both of my horse units behind my infantry battle line, resting them up. We wouldn't have long to recover, as Janner hurled his other cavalry unit, supported by a large infantry unit, towards my once again depleted right flank. The Moorish infantry held firm, though, and battered his cavalry while taking only one casualty ourselves. His infantry followed up and charged the same unit. Once again, the Moorish infantry on the right hurled the enemy back. They were definitely the heroes of the game, so far!

    You can see at the top my horse have pulled back, their targets depleted but not as bad as I'd hoped

Meanwhile, I began moving my rested units (and the rest of the army) towards the right to help out. Before they got there, Janner tried an interesting (and risky) gambit. He sent his general in to charge the same spearman unit that had been holding up his attack. This time, they were reduced to just three figures. Janner decided to pull his general back behind his cavalry unit we'd fought earlier. My second unit of infantry arrived and charged into those cavalrymen, shattering them. On our next turn, we charged his infantry unit that had been pushed back and reduced them, too. 

    Spanish are massing on my right, time to pull the horsemen back (if I can) to reinforce that flank!

My reformed and rested (but depleted) cavalry units were waiting, behind the infantry, ready to exploit. Janner and I looked at the board and agreed to call it, though. His forces were depleted to the point that he had only one full strength infantry unit far away across a steep hill, and his general, to contest the battle on the right. Barring some crazy dice rolls (which we had seen, granted), the Moors looked like they would carry the day. It was fun to get the Moors out on the battlefield, again. Janner was not particularly thrilled with the Medieval Spanish battle board. He declared it a one-shot wonder, and that he wouldn't be playing it again. Dan and I both quipped that it was no loss, as the figures he'd been using in our game were Spanish for the Ancient Iberian list. He could still use them to play that board!

    Until help gets there, the infantry are on their own against Spanish horse and infantry behind them

Does this mean I will be returning to Saga regularly? No. I don't mind an occasional friendly game. It is still fun to play. I have no desire to return to the tournament scene, though. Saga has such a high learning curve and the constant changes are difficult to keep up with and frankly frustrating. I painted an entire Mongol army only to have Studio Tomahawk "nerf" it, and drastically change how it plays. I'm done with that "now you know your army, now you don't" aspect of their regular FAQs. Even the upcoming release of Age of Caesars book will not be drawing me back in. I much more enjoy playing games of Lion or Dragon Rampant. Much more relaxed. Much more simple.

    Help is on the way in the form of one of my cavalry units and my intrepid general

Still, it was fun to sit down with some great guys and roll dice (mine did eventually get better, and gave Janner a taste of his own medicine towards the end). I expect I will make it out to Guardtower West again, especially if they play some American Revolutionary War like they are currently building forces for. If you have Thursdays open, reach out to Dan or Joe to find out what they're doing that week. They typically meet around 4pm. Good times are guaranteed (good dice...well, that's up in the air...ha, ha)!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 176
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 91

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 25

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

    Another unit of infantry joins in, as well, and leads the way to counter-attacking the Spanish thrust

    With 'Janner-like' rolling, the infantry turns back and breaks the Spanish attack, winning the battle

Troubled Council: Urban Unrest in Medieval Vespugia Play Test

    Medieval Vespugia's streets are quiet but soon blood will be shed in a clash between church & town

Town leaders nearly came to blows last night at Vespugia's council meeting. Although violence did not break out, many left muttering that "mayhap on the morn' blood would be shed" on the town's streets. By one vote, the council voted to arrest Father Leowulf, whose sermons against the rich and powerful families had angered them. The priest has been railing against the "un-Christian like" treatment of the refugees who had been arriving in town, recently. Will Father Leowulf be arrested tomorrow? Will the priest's supporters take up arms and defend him? It's medieval "gang warfere" on the streets of Vespugia!

    House Faroli's men, firm backers of the Town Council, flood through the streets towards the center

This is the event description for the my upcoming convention game at Drums at the Rapids, which is held on Armed Forces Day weekend every year at Fort Meigs, a reconstructed War of 1812 fort in Perrysburg, OH. As readers of my blog know, I have been collecting and painting 3-D printed medieval buildings for about a year, now. I wanted to do a small scale skirmish in an urban setting, but had been scratching my head about what rules to use. Eventually, I decided to use a set of my own: Mean Streets: War in Gang-infested Cities modified to be used in the Middle Ages. Since my game was set in the romanticized look at urban street gangs, portrayed in the 1979 cult movie classic The Warriors, I felt that it wouldn't take much to adapt it to this setting.

    Town Council players, on right, make their opening moves to threaten Father Leowulf in the church

I wrote up a draft of rules modifications for a medieval and fantasy "Malevolent Streets" and sent it to a few friends, who gave me great feedback. Once I was happy with how it was looking, I designed the Father Leowulf scenario -- absolutely NOT based on current events -- and play tested it on my friends in our latest Sunday Evening gaming session. I had seven players, four of which would take on the role of the Town Council trying to arrest Father Leowulf, and three defending him. I gave most of the player groups different objectives. Two noble families on opposite sides also wanted to burn down their rival's homes on the town square, while all factions wanted to take possession of the "meddlesome priest." Many wanted to be the one who had their hands on him spiriting him off their entry point on the board. All factions wanted to kill their rivals, and received points for knocking enemy figures out of action.

    Archers from the Town Council take an advantageous sniper perch on the balcony of House Catrine

The sides were roughly even, with the attackers having a slight advantage in numbers. This was offset by each of their four individual commands being slightly smaller than those of the defender's. I let each player deploy one of their figures forward on their side of the main street that ran diagonally across the board. Although it appeared the Town Council forces made the most tactically clever deployment, placing two archers on the third story balcony of House Catrine. However, appearances can be deceiving. The Dominican monks marching up the street to rescue Father Leowulf cleverly placed one of their figures inside the cathedral with the preacher. Their goal was to spirit him away to their deployment edge on the far side of the board. 

    Attackers cross the street & close in on House Duncan -- staunch defenders of the Father Leowulf

In Mean Streets rules -- sorry, "Malevolent Streets" -- you roll a die for each figure in your command. Any figures in command range of the leader roll them together and the player can choose which figure receives which die. Figures off on their own outside of command range are rolled for individually. A roll of 1-3 gives one action to the figure assigned that die, 4-5 provides two actions, and a 6 three actions. So, there is an advantage in keeping figures within command range, balanced out by trying to achieve more strategic objectives. In Malevolent Streets, the "Gang Boss" is called a Hero, a Warchief is a Companion, and Punks are Followers. The die that is rolled for combat and morale is a d8 instead of a d6, though. I wanted more swing and more granularity to accommodate larger monsters in a fantasy version of the game.

    A couple well-armed townsmen defend the gate & doors of the cathedral as attackers cross the walls

The game opened with the sniper archers in the Catrine House balcony loosing their arrows at the cathedral defenders. The rest of the Town Council forces began a fast advance, closing in on the both the cathedral and House Duncan -- one of the wealthy families that supported Father Leowulf. The defenders moved up more cautiously. Leowulf's defending forces -- a band of Franciscan monks and a few well-armed veteran citizens did not deploy anyone in the cathedral with the recalcitrant father. This proved to be a big mistake, as the Dominican Companion immediately moved Leowulf to the back of the church and towards the rear doors. Throughout the game, he would drag the sometimes reluctant priest out of the church, over the walls, and towards the Dominican corner of the board.

    Simultaneously, House Duncan comes under assault by the Town Council - blood is being shed!

 Meanwhile, the players focused on each other's forces as primary targets. After all, each enemy killed was +1 Victory Point -- why not take out the other players' troops? It took us a couple turns to begin to easily calculate the archer's range modifiers (-1 for each complete 6" away the target is), but otherwise, folks picked up the rules fairly quickly. After the game, we discussed what needed changed. To my surprise, there were fairly few tweaks needed, according to my players. I know that Mean Streets "works" as a game, so shouldn't need major retooling. However, I thought with the change in period and the move to a d8 die my players would have more concerns. As it was, the players said they were happy with how the game worked.

    While the attacking players are distracted by the fighting, Keith at left has a wily plan...!

Then I sprung my entire evil plan on them. I wanted to use Malevolent Streets for a cooperative fantasy skirmish game, with each player controlling a Hero, Companion, and Follower. I would control the foes. Thus, why it needed to be fast and simple. They sat back for a moment and said yeah, it would work. They liked it -- and said they preferred it over Four Delvers, which we had tried recently. They also gave me a few suggested tweaks for the scenario. 

    A well-armed retainer hired by the Dominican monks hustles Leowulf out the back & over the wall

So, how did the action unfold? The archer snipers in the House Catrine balcony kept the defending forces' heads down, and made them move up cautiously. In fact, they distracted Father Leowulf's Franciscan monk defenders so much, they didn't notice when their Dominican allies hustled the priest out the back doors of the cathedral and towards their own lines. House Duncan, faithful to Leowulf, was also distracted by the aggressive advance of the forces of the Town Council. Lord Duncan and his Companion waded into the less-skilled ruffians hired by the Town Council and began cutting them down. Meanwhile, some of Duncan's own retainers were being killed by House Faroli's men, who vaulted the walls of the cathedral -- further distracting Leowulf's Defenders.

    Attackers are over the cathedral walls -- unaware that Dominican monks are spiriting Leowulf away

Meanwhile, Duncan's mortal enemies on the Council, House Catrine, also launched an all-out assault on his fortified home. Two of Catrine's thugs even broke into the house and set fire to the first floor. Lord Duncan, seeing the smoke, barged in after them and cut down the two unskilled ruffians. However, Duncan's forces were slowly being whittled down, and it was all he could do to save his own house. Father Leowulf was in the hands of the Franciscans and Dominicans, as far as he was concerned. He and his men were holding off two to three of the enemy bands. 

    Leowulf's defenders rush to oppose the incursion & men begin to die upon holy ground!

On the far side of the board, House Stronghelm, declaring for the Town Council, was probably the least aggressive of the attackers. They crept up one side of the table towards the Dominicans, killing one or two, and burning a home that others had holed up inside, driving them off.  Too late, Stronghelm and his men saw Father Duncan being hustled across the board by their foes. They tried to intervene, but the wily monks had consolidated their forces and formed an armed wall between Stronghelm's men and the priest. The captain of the Town Council's ruffians sprinted the length of the table, once he saw the danger of the Dominican plan. However, he was unable to break through the men protecting Leowulf's reluctant escape from his own cathedral.

    More attackers press forward on the right, setting fire to a home that the monks had holed up inside

In the end, although it appeared the Dominicans won handily, they actually only tied House Duncan in victory points. The noble defender and his men killed enough enemies, plus received bonus points that the father was out of the Council's clutches. Mike S proved that sometimes fighting and killing your enemies effectively is enough to win a game! I look forward to getting one or two more of my newly-purchased medieval buildings painted up before the game on May 15-16. That should allow me to make the table a bit denser, and possibly also swap out a few of my more rural Acheson Creations Dark Age resin buildings on the table. It was a fun game, though, and I'm glad the players enjoyed the system.

    After his home is set afire, Duncan himself bursts in & slays two ruffians hired by House Catrine

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 176
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 91

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 25

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

    A Franciscan monk defending Leowulf assaults House Catrine to get at the balcony archers

 

    Attackers realize the peril too late! Leowulf has been taken off-board by the Dominican player