Hold the Line 2025 Purchases & Pics of Games

    One of the 7 buildings I bought from Jeff at the Hold the Line flea market after its spray primer coat

I didn't go to Hold the Line 2025 expecting to buy a lot of things. The only two vendors I knew that were going to be there ahead of time were Firelands Games themselves (who host the con) and RRB Minis & More. At the last minute, I discovered there would be additional tables for a flea market, too, and attendees were welcome to grab one and set up their items. I typically don't buy much from the flea markets myself, but I do enjoy selling things in them. So, I dragged along my four Snap-tite tubs that I took to World at War the previous weekend.

    These buildings could work for Middle Eastern or desert Southwest, or even fantasy, I thought

In addition to bringing along the same stuff to sell, I lowered the prices on most things a bit. I sold ONE item at World at War, so it's not like I had big hopes of selling everything on my table. Much to my surprise, I did very well in the flea market. I had posted some photos of what I was bringing and even received an interested response from an attendee the day before leaving. Sure enough, once I got there, I started selling things right away. And thanks to my friend Tim P, I finally sold all of the packs of unpainted 15mm Fantasy minis that I'd been hauling around for awhile. Before long, I had a nice wad of cash in my wallet. Time to shop for myself!

    If I can get them painted in time, these will see service at Mos Eisley on Tatooine next Sunday

The first thing I noticed was my friend Jeff G's table he was calling "Shieldwall's Last Gasp." Formerly running a business called Shieldwall Gaming Club, Jeff was trying to sell off the last of his stock. Included in there were seven large 3-D printed buildings. My eyes must have bugged out when I noticed a huge Mesoamerican looking temple priced at only $20. In fact, all of the buildings had the same price. It looked so cool. I can't imagine it going for less than $100 anywhere else. There was also another, slightly smaller temple. The seven other buildings would work for as Middle Eastern, desert Southwest, or even Tatooine. They had flat roofs, adobe type walls, and were all very nice looking. Jeff saw me looking and said, "I'll sell you all seven for $100." Once again, my eyes likely bugged out. Even Jenny seemed startled by how low of a price he was charging for so many buildings. She admonished me that I would regret not buying them and that I'd never find similar ones for the same price.  

        The Mesoamerican temple that first drew my eye to 'Shieldwall's last gasp flea market table

My friend Mike S stopped by and I pointed them out to him, too. His comment sealed my purchase: "Are they going home with you or me?" In other words, if I didn't buy them, he would! I counted out $100 of my flea market sale money and handed it over. Jeff reached under his table, pulled out a large plastic tub, and began packing them into there carefully. He said the tub was included in the price. When I asked him if he was sure, he reminded me he now has LOTS of plastic tubs he doesn't need, having shut down his retail business. I didn't argue. What's more, I didn't have any "buyer's guilt" after forking over the cash. The price was unbeatable, I can easily use the desert buildings for my Star Wars games (in addition to other historical scenarios), and it was "paid for" by the sale of things I wasn't using any more. This is exactly how I like to "roll" on buying new stuff, anymore!

    Slightly smaller Mesoamerican temple Jeff was selling -- could easily also be used for Fantasy

 

Since I've begun painting up 28mm Fantasy, I imagine the temples will actually come in handy someday. To me, they look Mesoamerican -- either Mayan or Aztec. However, as Mike and I were discussing, they don't have the obvious ornamentation that mark them as definitively from this area. They did a good job of sculpting it so you could use it for a Mayan building or equally as a generic fantasy temple. In all honesty, it is much more likely I will use it that way before I eventually get around to that "one day" Mayan project I want to do! At worst, these two purchases are like the Acheson Creations Mesoamerican scatter terrain that I've been collecting for years (and haven't painted any of, yet). At best, I'll get a chance to use them for some games of Sellswords & Spellslingers.

    Another of the 7 'other' buildings that will likely see use in a number of different historical periods

Jeff had printed them in a black filament material, which is honestly the way to go, I think. It means that when you are priming it, anything you miss is in a crevice or shadow, which is likely going to be black anyway. The various levels of the buildings fit together very well, with all the roofs and floors coming off. They are sculpted with prongs that fit nicely into the holes of the on the opposite level. I'm really looking forward to getting some of these on the tabletop quickly. In fact, as you can see from the photos, I've already primed three of them!

    These larger two-story buildings I held off priming -- I will get to them eventually, I'm sure!

Apparently, my purchasing these buildings from Jeff reminded Mike that he had a couple similar desert style 3-D printed buildings that he had decided he wasn't going to paint up. He brought them over on our next Sunday evening gaming session and handed them to me. They were indeed very similar in style to the five desert style ones I had just bought. They were about the size of the three smaller ones, so I went ahead and spray primed them with khaki the next day. I would be really, really happy if I got the three smaller buildings from Jeff and two from Mike painted up and ready for the scenario I am running this coming Sunday. How's that for deadline pressure?

    The dome helps this look more like a Tatooine building -- given to me by my generous friend Mike S

What else did I buy at Hold the Line? I had actually looked through Firelands Games website the night before the convention and typed in my iPhone notes some things to check out. I had about half a dozen items listed, but as it was, I bought only two of them. Since I will be doing Dragon Rampant fantasy battles soon, I picked up a sprue of the North Star Frostgrave Wizards, which has bodies for four spellcasters and tons of arms, heads, equipment, and ways to customize them. I haven't decided if I'm going to have an evil wizard as the general of my orc and goblin army, ala Saruman, or a big mean orc. Either way, having wizards figures will be useful for Dragon Rampant games.

    I like that so many of these buildings I just obtained have upper stories & roofs figures can fire from

I also picked up two sprues of the Wargames Atlantic Giant Spiders and Victims. I really like how James and Rusty have decided to sell individual sprues to their customers. I may not want a whole box of wizards or spiders, for example, but can certainly use some. Speaking of which, these will more likely see use as monsters in games of Sellswords & Spellslingers than in Dragon Rampant. Although now that I think of it, they could be a unit of Lesser Warbeasts, according to the unit categories in the rules. I went back and forth about a couple other items on Firelands tables at the convention, but ended up buying just those three sprues.

    One of the 2 sprues of Wargames Atlantic giant spiders that I bought from Firelands Games

I dug through the load of items my friend Rich Brown from RRB Minis & More had brought with him. I was tempted by some of the 25mm robots from his Sci-Fi lines, but I wanted to be careful about screwing up my Acquired vs. Painted totals for the year by buying too much! Right now, I am 21 miniatures in the hole, so to speak. With the four wizards, eight giant spiders, and four web-wrapped victims I purchased, that puts me up to 37 figures to paint up before the end of the year. I think I will get that amount done easily, but there is no reason to tempt fate. In fact, that was the reason I did not buy a big bag of Splintered Light Miniatures animals from my friend Dave E at World at War the previous weekend. Just to be sure, he brought them along to tempt me again this weekend...haha! Maybe I will tell him to bring them to Cincycon in 2026 and I'll buy them from him, then. There were a lot of miniatures in there that I could use to flesh out my anthropomorphic animals.

    'A wizards should know better...!' Treebeard says, but who knows whether these will be good or evil?

In the end, I made only a very minor purchase from Rich. I found a bag of eight 28mm tombstones that I could use for Devilry Afoot or other games. I felt bad that I did not buy more from him, but I had already dropped $100 on buildings, so figured I had added my contribution to the convention economy, so to speak. When Rich gets his 3-D printer fixed, I  have at least one building I want him to paint up. So, I'll see him again soon, I'm sure, and be buying more then.

    Some very cool 28mm tombstones that I bought from Rich at RRB Minis & More

Since I am posting about my Hold the Line purchases, I also thought I'd toss in some pictures I took of the games that were being run there. The 28mm Western "Dead Man's Hand" game was one of the most amazing I have ever seen. The work done on the buildings and civilian characters was very atmospheric and worth sharing. So, what else is on my painting desk? I do have a unit of 8 armored orcs that are at least halfway done. And of course, I have a bunch of buildings that I want to get done by Sunday! In addition, I have started work on two 28mm Asian water buffalo from Miniature Building Authority, a 3-D printed hand cart from A Critical Hit, and one more batch of bamboo for my Vietnam games. I have a feeling I'll be saying that a lot for awhile in my posts. Most of the other stuff may be sidelined by those five buildings that I have spray primed, though. Will I finish them in time? Stay tuned to see...!

    One of the beautiful buildings Ivor Evans had on his tabletop for his 'Dead Man's Hand' game

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 306
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 269

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 62
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 67

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 144
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 212

    Two more buildings from the same 28mm Western game replete with amazing signs

    My friend Abel D ran a Song of Drums & Shakos Big Battle game featuring these 12-13mm figs

    There was a HUGE Bolt Action doubles tournament - a Jungle Board from the tourney

    Close up of miniatures on the jungle board (designed by my friend Tim P, I believe...)

    Some of the Bolt Action players, including Tim P at left

    Okay - one more pic from the amazing 28mm Western board and some of his civilians populating it

Surviving 'Nam at Hold the Line - 'It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times..."

    A squad of Viet Cong stalk towards the players in Friday's "Surviving 'Nam" game at Hold the Line

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" -- for the Americans in my Vietnam game, that is! Same rules, same scenario. Different players, different tactics and dice rolls...and wildly different results! I ran my Surving 'Nam rules this past weekend at Hold the Line convention. Both games were full with four players ready to take on the role of a U.S. platoon sent to search Stone Buddha Market for signs of it being a Viet Cong supply depot. Both games had experienced miniatures players who understood tactics. So, why did the U.S. go down to their worst defeat in my eight play tests on Friday afternoon, yet succeed better than any so far on Saturday?

    American troops from the Big Red One infantry division advance towards a village in Vietnam

I have had some time to analyze the two different games since then. Yes, some of it was due to some seriously bad luck. On the whole, the players rolled much better on Saturday than they did on Friday. However, I don't think more Viet Cong popped up to attack them on Friday, though. It wasn't "How Many?" but rather "Where?" the V.C. showed up. I think it came down to half the American force getting bogged down in a killing field on the tabletop. There is a rice paddy and open area on one side of the board edge where the U.S. soldiers enter. The two right flank squads were unable to press past this area and into the village. Meanwhile, the HQ element and other squad mostly went the other direction and made good progress, separating the two. Unfortunately for those on the right, most of the of the V.C. that arrived on table showed up right across the river from them in the light vegetation along the river. The soldiers themselves had little cover, and all too often failed their rolls to avoid enemy fire. When other soldiers would run to check on the Down soldiers, and try to get them back on their feet or at worst drag them to cover, they were shot and went Down, too.

    On Saturday, one U.S. squad crossed the river and effectively guarded the platoon's flank that way

In my Surviving 'Nam rules, a soldier that is targeted by enemy fire must try to roll above the foe's Danger Level modified by cover. If they roll exactly the Danger Level (or one above or below), they are Pinned. If they roll below that, but more than a "1" (natural one is out of action), they are counted as Down. However, if a friendly soldier spends an action checking on a "Down" soldier, the player rolls on a chart. Results can vary from out of action, disabled, walking wounded, lightly hurt, or unhurt at all (maybe the bullet hit an item of equipment and knocked the force knocked them down and stunned them). The rule rewards historical behavior. Soldiers would check on their friends who had been hit, and help patch them up. 

    Right flank squad led by Sgt. Rogers motioning his men forward, crossing the river into the scrub

In Friday's game, the two squads that advanced across the rice paddy and open ground did so slowly, often failing their activation rolls, which causes the draw of a card from the event deck (which can possibly bring fresh V.C. onto the table). As the left wing disappeared into the jungle or buildings on the left,  those squads on the right began to take casualties and get bogged down. Joe M, playing the far right flank -- and frankly responsible for many of the atrocious dice rolls -- at one point had all five of his soldiers out of action. Jeff G, the next squad in, tried to send guys out to help, but as they ran to their buddies they were shot down, too. Jeff cleverly used smoke grenades to block off the visibility of some of the V.C., but there simply were too many enemy opposed to just one part of the American force.

    Sgt. Summers points his squad towards the village & its market, which they are ordered to search

The other thing that really hurt the Americans on Friday was the HQ element was out of position to spot the bulk of the V.C. Two of their biggest "guns" are in the HQ squad -- the M60 machine gunner and the lieutenant himself and his ability to call in fire missions (off-board artillery) on the enemy. I honestly remember the M60, whose suppressive fire can sometimes effectively pin an entire V.C. squad, firing only ONCE the entire game! And the lieutenant had "gone left" so wasn't in position to see the overwhelming amount of V.C. popping up to attack the American right and call in fire on them. There are two "Fire Mission" event cards that come up in the deck, and there was a significant drought of them being drawn during the Friday game, as well. Because a number of cards call for the event deck to be reshuffled, it can mean that some cards simply never come up, while others come up more often because the reshuffling puts the former on the bottom and the latter near the top. I actually like how this makes each game different. 

    A V.C. machine gun team inside a bunker ambushes the American advance

So, even though the Colonel on the Horn card came up and modified the player's mission on Friday, the players eventually got to a point where they felt there was no hope of collecting their wounded and getting off the table. For the first time in my eight personal play tests, my players cried "Uncle!" and admitted they had lost the mission. They were simply going to have to leave wounded on the field to be able to get the other two squads off the table. I actually have 7-8 other groups play testing the rules in the U.S., U.K, and Italy, and that has happened once or twice to others. However, that was before I made changes and toned down the lethality. This was the first time I witnessed it in action myself, so I was trying to figure out why it happened, and especially when I felt I had the mechanics "bloodiness" tweaked to the right level.

    'Incoming!' V.C. mortar fire begins to impact near the HQ squad - the lieutenant seems unimpressed

Although it may seem I am blaming the HQ squad player for being out of position, it was the group's plan that his squad move to the left. All players tried their hardest to do the tactically correct thing to do. Jeff's smoke grenades were a clever tactic that mitigated the danger of an enemy machine gun bunker and a deadly V.C. sniper. Ultimately, I fee the players were victim of bad luck with most of the enemy showing up concentrated in exactly the wrong place for their plan. And when it came to critical rolls, they seemed to fail them regularly. All of that said, I had some serious soul searching going on that night! 

  V.C. machine gun has downed one G.I. already, and is one of the deadlier enemy weapons in the game

I honestly felt that I had fixed Surviving 'Nam from being too bloody for the Americans. adjusted to the correct level. And then suddenly, I had the worst outcome in all of my play tests! Over dinner and beers, I talked to my friends about it. My friend Jim W, who had played in the previous weekend's play tests in World At War (and had his group win handily), chimed in. He said that is the beauty of a balanced scenario and rules. Things CAN go to Hell if the players meet the "perfect storm" of bad luck and unfortunate tactical choices. He argued that, if the players can't struggle when luck is not going their way and they make bad choices, then the scenario or rules are too easy. Jim felt it was bound to happen if you play a scenario often enough. What he said made sense, and I looked forward hopefully to Saturday's game.

    On Friday, the U.S. soldiers swarmed the bunker and took it out with grenades and M16 fire

So, what went different, Saturday to make the same scenario go so well? As I mentioned earlier, their rolls were better. However, remember that patch of light vegetation across the river? The right flank squad instead crossed the river and occupied those two patches of vegetation. Most of the event cards that place new enemy troops on table stipulate the new enemy be placed in cover NOT occupied by the player's forces. The American right wing moving quickly along the opposite bank of the river cut off any enemy squads from arriving there -- except for isolated individual V.C. soldiers popping up in spider holes. Plus, my friend Mike S (playing Surviving 'Nam for the first time) made it a point to use his M60 machine gun regularly and keep his lieutenant where he could best see patches of cover where enemy troops might spring up. Even though Mike didn't get many fire mission cards (bad luck there), his HQ squad was in better position to support either wing of his platoon. He maneuvered his M60 gunner into position to suppress the enemy bunker and its machine gun when it appeared. Then, he shifted position to hammer the biggest enemy main ambushing force when it finally arrived on the table.

 The players on Saturday also did a better job of keeping their squad leaders near their heavier weapons support (M60 for the HQ and M79 grenade launchers for the other squads). This allowed them to use the squad leader's free action he can hand out each turn and give those weapons a second chance to fire every turn. Between the grenade launchers and M60, effective fire was promptly laid down on enemy immediately after they appeared. More than once, a squad of V.C. would appear, and within short order, grenades fired by the "bloop gunners" would devastate their ranks. In fact, when the Colonel on the Horn card came up on Saturday, the players decided to hold off obeying his directive to break contact and exfiltrate. Instead, they chose to continue with their mission searching the market awhile longer. They felt they had the situation under control, and indeed the results showed that they did.

    Many villagers scattered quickly once the Americans arrived, this poor granny froze on the bridge

Thankfully, even the players who cried "Uncle!" on Friday night said they had a blast with the rules. The rules have been tightened up to the point where, after my play tests, the gamers really don't have any rules changes they would suggest. Instead, they say it worked great and excitedly talk about other periods the mechanics would work for, as well. It is always satisfying as a GM to provide a good time for your players. It was also a thrill for me to see the players gel together as a team and work their hardest to help accomplish the mission. After running my Viking Town Raid earlier this year, and running Surviving 'Nam twice at conventions, I am becoming more and more of a fan of cooperative miniatures games. The players really seem to enjoy reacting together as a team and covering each other's backs. Their smiles when they accomplish their mission or overcome the more dangerous enemies, such as the V.C. machine guns and snipers, is a reward for me as a GM. 

It may be time now to pivot my play testing to designing and test-driving scenarios instead of looking for things in the rules that need changed. I'll shift my own writing from making changes in mechanics to editing the text of the rules so that they are clear and well organized. To be sure, you will read more of my own solo Vietnam games and accounts of my Big Red One platoon as I play test more scenarios. I also want to run through an entire year campaign -- 12 missions -- and see if anything else comes up that I might need to fix in those mechanics. So, stay tuned and see how the platoon fares in its upcoming fourth mission when it is one third of the way through its time "In Country." Hopefully, it will be the best of times for them and not the worst...haha!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 290
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 269

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 67

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 136
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 212

"They Have a Cave Troll...!' Goblin Archers and 3 Trolls

    Latest additions to my orc and goblin horde -- 8 Gripping Beast goblin archers & 3 trolls

I have my Dragon Rampant 2nd Edition rulebook -- woo-hoo! James from Firelands Games dropped it off to me at World at War gaming convention this past weekend. I can't wait to start looking through it and receive more inspiration to work on my orc and goblin army. Speaking of which, I finished a batch of eight 28mm goblin archers from Gripping Beast's Ragnarok line. I also completed my first set of three Ragnarok trolls. I had ordered two of the trolls from Firelands previously, before knowing I would get a bumper crop more of them from Jeff G when I bought my orcs and goblins off of him earlier this year. So, my orcs and goblins don't have "A cave troll...", they have about a dozen of them for me to paint up!

    Ragnarok 'Hill' goblin on left & 'Mountain' on right -- you gotta love those faces & expressions!

The goblins are from three different "packs" of Ragnarok goblins. I'm not sure I buy into their division of them into various tribes or localities, but the figures are nice. Three of the archers have only a loin cloth and are mostly flesh. Ragnarok labels them Mountain goblins. These are the most Tolkien-looking of this batch, in my opinion. One of the figures is from their Hill Goblin line and wears a long robe from neck to feet. The other four are from the Forest Goblin line, and have an large, animal-skin cloak thrown over their shoulders and a loin cloth at their waist. Weirdly (in my opinion), they wear cultist-like hoods with only tiny eye slits. I don't think I have ever envisioned goblins or orcs that way, but it makes them pretty interesting looking!

    'Forest' goblins -- I get the fur cloaks and loin cloths...but cultist-like hoods?? Not sure about them!

I used my normal orc and goblin process for these figures: Liquitex white Gesso primer, then for the skin, a Walnut brown base coat, Raw Sienna dry brush, and Khaki highlight. Their clothes I painted in a variety of darker or paler tones, each with an appropriately colored lighter highlight. For the Forest Goblin fur cloaks, I did two in a gray and the other two in a brown fur. One gray and one brown was lighter toned, while the other was darker. Each received a lighter dry brush to make the detailing on the fur stand out. The inside of the cloak was painted in a leather color. 

    More Mountain goblins -- these are the most "Tolkien" looking of the three types, in my opinion

Once again, I scribed Orc-like writing on the quivers, with my micron pens. The quivers themselves I painted in pale or leather colors. These goblins progressed very quickly as they had little to no equipment -- no pouches, knives, or anything besides their clothes and bow and quiver. To be honest, I did set them aside for a few days last week when I was hyper-focused on getting Vietnam terrain done. Even doing that, I feel like I am making good progress on my orc and goblin army. Once I read through the rules, I'll have a better idea if there are any other troops I need to paint up besides the orcs, goblins, and trolls which I bought back in June.

    I guess you could paint these guys up as generic fantasy evil cultists and the hoods would work great

Speaking of the trolls, these were easier still than the goblin archers. I read up some discussion online on troll skin color. Tolkien describes them as covered in green scales, but these miniatures are obviously inspired more by the Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. So, I decided to go with a gray skin tone for them instead of green. I used a base coat of Charcoal gray and a Rain gray drybrush. I wanted to do a highlight of pale green, just to give a hint of Tolkien to their appearance. First, I used a sage green and it looked okay. Then I went with a light olive drab called Timberline Green, and I liked its look much better. What I didn't count on was the final dark black wash muting that green so it is almost invisible!

    Despite my devotion to Tolkien, I went with the Peter Jackson look for my trolls because of the figs

The troll's loin cloths and weapons were the next thing I had to paint. I used leathery colors for the loin cloths, except for one I painted tan. These received their usual dry brush, of course. The weapons were done in a medium brown for the wood parts, with lighter highlight. The metal portions in Steel, bronze, and pewter, while the stone club and axe I painted dark gray with a lighter highlight. I went back and forth about how to do the shields. I'd chosen three different types from the selection that came with the miniatures. I decided to make one a beaten bronze shield, another leather, and the third a black-painted, iron-bound one. Variety is always good, and with these three figures being almost identical, painting their shields differently will add to the look.

    'Gorka' (as Ragnarok calls him) is my favorite pose of this amazing line of 28mm metal trolls

The next decision was whether to do shield designs or not. Since all the orcs were going to have their individual patterns, it didn't make sense to leave their shields plain. So, I went back to the tribal images I'd downloaded off of Google, and used the designs for inspiration here. Somehow, I did the one on the leather shield off center, and no matter how much more I added to its face, I still think it looks a little off, unfortunately. The iron-bound one with its black face and red design is probably my favorite of the three. The triangle image on the bronze one is hard to see, but it does look pretty cool when you pick it out.

    I love 'Bor' (as he is called), but the pose leans forward too much & I'm afraid he'll tip often...

Since I based these big, clonking heavy metal figures sideways on pill-shaped bases, I added some various sized rocks to the flocking. Otherwise, it is similar to the other figures in this army and my new "standard" miniature base flocking. I was encouraged by one of the readers on Lead Adventure Forum to do a group photo of the horde so far. I've painted 45 orcs and goblins and 3 trolls since starting in mid-August. If I remember correctly, I have about that many more to go, too! I have the next eight primed and ready to go on my painting desk, so hopefully progress will continue to move along.

    My weapons may not match what GB's site shows, but I like Urug's pose a lot, too

What else is on the desk? I continue to work on bamboo stands. However, that's it, besides the eight primed orcs and the five woodland animals I hit "PAUSE" painting a few weeks ago. I'm sure I'll slip them in the queue sooner or later. The next blog post will likely be about my two games of Surviving 'Nam that I'm running this weekend at Hold the Line. I'm gratified to see the Friday event is booked full already, though there are spots available in the Saturday game. Hopefully, they'll go as well as the ones did at World at War!

    My three shields for my trolls -- I'm not as crazy about them as I hoped that I would be...

Scroll down for BONUS PICTURES of my entire orc & goblin horde so far...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 290
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 269

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 67

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 136
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 212

 

    Bonus pics! My horde so far -- 45 orcs & goblins and 3 trolls...it continues to grow!!

    Someone on Lead Adventure Forum thought I should do a "horde so far" pic, so here it is...!

Surviving 'Nam at World at War convention

    I ran two play tests of "Surviving 'Nam" at World at War convention this past weekend

I'm lucky in that my games tend to be popular at regional conventions. Whether that is because of setting up a pretty tabletop or reputation for running a fun game, I don't know. So, I would normally feel bad about running a game that could take only four players. However, World at War at Fort Meigs, Perrysburg, OH, is a smaller convention with fewer attendees. So, it seemed a perfect fit to take Surviving 'Nam up there and run a couple more play tests. Each game would have four players --- the most I've had yet. And it was also the first time I have taught the rules in a convention setting. My good fortune continued as the weekend arrived, and I had a full table in each game.

    Villagers arrive at the weekly Stone Buddha Market in Piit Baub village unaware soldiers are coming

Throughout the course of my previous four play tests, and based on feedback from more than half a dozen playtesters in the U.S., U.K., and Italy, I have been steadily scaling back the lethality of the event cards and mechanics. Not only would I see how my rules played out with four live players (not me running solo), I would also get a good feel for how deadly the newest iteration of these cooperative miniatures rules would be. I was very pleased to see that both games played out similarly, and it was not too lethal at all. In fact, both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning's games saw the fewest casualties inflicted on U.S. forces yet in one of my games. I feel I may have adjusted the danger level correctly. Now, it will simply be tightening up things here and there and writing some actual rules for, say, when the Viet Cong have suffered enough casualties and break contact (ending the game). Players could continue taking turns until every U.S. soldier has withdrawn from the table, but I found that there comes a point in the game when the outcome is obvious. Either the U.S. is going to be able to withdraw with no problem, or the V.C. are reduced to so few figures left that realistically they would break off contact and not continue the fight.

    I had two full tables of players over the weekend -- here is the Saturday group moving troops

The mission for these two games was my version of a "Market Day" scenario my U.K. play testers, Bob F and Pete S,  ran a few weeks ago. My game -- "Stone Buddha Market" -- would have the U.S. enter from one of the short edges of a 3'x4' board. They would move to the center of the table where a small village was hosting a weekly market in its center, alongside the river (one of the long edges) and where a wooden bridge crosses the water. The four U.S. squads (Fire Teams, actually, in size) had to search two designated larger hooches, the market itself, and both sampans tied up beneath the bridge. Once they had done that, the whole platoon could exit on their choice of three board edges. 

    Sgt. Rogers motions the platoon forward as the Big Red One soldiers arrive on the table edge

My games feature a pre-battle portion of the game called "Countdown to Contact." During this phase, players do not roll for activations. Each soldier receives one and they move onto the table and can make progress towards their objectives before the V.C. launch their ambush. At the end of each turn, a die is rolled to see if Countdown to Contact ends and the V.C. arrive. At that point, I deploy a number of enemy soldiers, dictated by the size of the U.S. force for balance purposes. There was a mosquito in the ointment in this game, though. The game begins with 12 Vietnamese civilians scattered across the table, but mostly in the market near the riverside. At the end of each turn, the players roll on a chart to see what each villager does. They could be freeze in fear, move away from the U.S. troops (or V.C., if present), panic and sprint towards a board edge, or are revealed as a V.C. If they are V.C., they immediately move into cover and fire on the U.S. soldiers.

    1st Lt. Xavier 's column heads towards the first hooch in Piit Baub while a farmer is in the rice paddy

Both games saw more villagers than expected turning out to V.C. and opening fire. This automatically brings a halt to the Countdown to Contact type of movement. From this turn forward, players do the normal movement turn sequence -- rolling one or two 20-sided dice to activate each of their men. However, I decided that I would not deploy the ambushing V.C. until the end of the turn when players rolled a single d6 score high (as would normally end Countdown to Contact). That would spring the ambush. On Friday, this happened at the end of the third turn. However, on Saturday, it did not occur until the end of the sixth turn. This gave the U.S. forces time to deal with the locals turned V.C. and any enemy that arrived via the event cards (which are turned over, one-for-one, when players fail their activation rolls). I think this helped the U.S. players survive the initial V.C. attack. In effect, it simulated the V.C. committing themselves piecemeal rather than in one massive hammer blow.

    Two squads of the platoon march along the river, while the rest move in from the jungle fringes

Both games progressed similarly, with the soldiers of the Big Red One (U.S. First Infantry Division) taking surprisingly few casualties. One scary moment occurred in Saturday's morning's game. Just as 1st Lt. Xavier's column of five men took shelter behind a small hut on stilts, someone's failed die roll resulted in the placement of an enemy bunker with a machine gun team inside. Random roll had it show up directly behind Xavier and his men! They were bunched up close enough that all five were pinned by the fire, with Xavier going "Down." My Saturday players got VERY lucky, as the machine gun's fire seemed to have rejuvenated their dice rolling abillty. There were no failures of consequence by players on their activation rolls until after they had managed to take out all three members of the machine gun team. The medic was right there, too, and checked on Xavier. He discovered that the C.O. was only lightly wounded. Apparently, he was also pissed off at the Vietnamese! He and his men sprinted towards the market.

    Bad place for a bunker to show up! As the lieutenant's group passes by, it opens up on the soldiers

Once there, Lt. Xavier managed to get on the radio and call in a series of Fire Missions on the growing number of V.C. all around the board. Squad after squad was decimated by mortar and helicopter gunship fire. From looking very bad, suddenly the board began to open up. The only V.C. remaining were in remote corners of the board where their fire was relatively ineffectual because of long range and cover. The battalion's lieutenant-colonel chimed in on the radio calls and ordered the platoon to abandon the search mission and simply rack up the body count, then exit the battlefield. There is an Event Card in the deck called "Colonel on the Horn" which can cause various things to happen. It is shuffled into the deck on the first reshuffle, and actually came up and both days, helping players each time. Potentially, it can make a mission harder or easier, or simply waste the platoon commander's actions as he gives "sitreps" to the micro-managing senior officer.

    "The L-T is down!" Members of his platoon cluster around to check on their C.O.

Both Friday and Saturday's players ended up having to carry only one comrade off the table -- not counting any Lightly Wounded who could walk off on their own. Sitting back after the game was concluded, we judged both times taht the platoon had completed their mission. One of the players commented that, having read all my previous posts with after-action reports, these two missions at World at War were probably the two most successful, so far. I definitely agree! Even more heartening was the fact that the game flowed very smoothly and did not bog down at all with four players. In the beginning, I admit that I would play "border collie." I would urge the next player in turn order to select his figure to activate and roll immediately after we had resolved any event cards for the previous player (while that player was resolving movement or firing). The players got in the habit of anticipating their turn and being ready to go. With only a three hour time slot for the games, I was happy to see both games easily finished in time.

    Incoming V.C. mortar fire lands amongst members of the platoon as they dash towards the ville

Speaking of happy, all of the players said they had a lot of fun. A number of them are also regular players of a different Vietnam rules set, so I wondered if they might be predisposed to question the rules mechanics when they differed from what they were used to playing. However, they all internalized the rules quickly and figured out tactics to take advantage of the mechanisms. Everyone said they enjoyed themselves. At the end, when I asked for feedback or suggestions for the rules at the end, there were no real rules quibbles. The one or two comments were more cosmetic, like perhaps have linear templates for a gunship's fire mission, or maybe wrapping their heads around the scale of visibility and shooting. They felt that the ranges I was using were a good compromise and "looked right" for 28mm figures shooting.

    Viet Cong guerrillas lurk at the edges of the rice paddy ready to open up on the platoon

The next two play tests are less than a week away. I'll be headed up to the third annual Hold the Line convention in norther Ohio, run by the Firelands Game Group. I'll do the same thing (once each on Friday and Saturday) and same scenario. I'll be curious with a larger sampling pool (four games as opposed to two), will I see worse activations rolls and thus more struggles for the Americans? Or will the scenario play out like the previous games and see the U.S. handle the V.C. at Stone Buddha Market? Stay tuned to see!

    U.S. soldiers begin to enter the market place, ready to begin searching for V.C. & contraband

So, what else am I working on, in the meantime? I probably will continue to create more bamboo stands. I have another 15 bamboo trees finished and ready to glue onto their base. My two larger rice paddies are ready for the edging strips to represent the rice plants. Figure-wise, I also have eight 28mm goblin archers that are in the flocking stage. Just this morning, I pulled out three of the Gripping Beast trolls I bought earlier this year, and epoxied their weapons and shields onto them. They also received their White Gesso primer, and will be started on tomorrow. Oh, and James from Fireland Games was at World at War on Saturday and hand-delivered my copy of Dragon Rampant, 2nd Edition rules. Woo-hoo! I'm looking forward to reading over it this week.

V.C. reinforcements appear near the bridge, ready to ambush the American soldiers

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 290
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 258

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 67

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 136
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 212

    U.S. troops enter the market place, driving off the V.C. so they can begin to search 

 

    A lightly wounded Lt. Xavier calls in fire missions to clear the way for the platoon to extricate