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

Patriots Drive British from Redoubts in Revolutionary War Battle

    Patriot center crosse the causeway and whittles down the British forces defending the center redoubt

We have been playing Rebels and Patriots from Daniel Mersey's "Rampant" series of games off and on for a year or so, now. It is fast-moving and the mechanics are easy to pick up. Like all games in the series, though, there are tweaks for each rules set. That's actually the hardest part to remember when switching from Dragon Rampant to Rebels and Patriots to Xenos Rampant, for example.  

    Left side of the battlefield, with Mike S's French force pushing aggressively towards Joel's troops

A good example of the minor differences would be testing morale after being shot at. In Rebels and Patriots, if your unit removes any figures due to shooting or melee, you test morale. You modify your 2d6 roll by -1 per casualty received on that particular shot. In Dragon Rampant (and Lion Rampant), you do the same, but modify it by -1 per casualty received throughout the entire game. They're cumulative -- not just from that shot. And in Xenos Rampant, any hits on a unit -- even if they're not enough to overcome the armor level (three hits are needed to cause a casualty against an Armor 3 unit, for example) -- cause a morale test. It is a more modern concept of reacting to being under fire even if you don't take any significant casualties. 

    Allen on left keeps an eye on the Patriots in the center, while Jason watches Tom's encircling move

So, this time I created a document for us that organized the main differences between Rebels and Patriots and Dragon Rampant (the other Mersey set we had played most recently). It was a two-sided sheet of paper and I think it did a nice job of making the game go easier. So, on to the game! Keith had set up a scenario which was inspired by the Patriot siege and assault on Savannah, Georgia. He had set up three redoubts on hills, manned by British or Loyalist troops. Our job, as the Patriots, was to push them out of the fortifications and have a clear path to the enemy board edge.  We had significantly more troops, but not to the 2-to-1 level recommended by the scenario that inspired him.

    Tom's Georgia militia begin their looping way through the swamp, hoping to strike the redoubt's rear

I commanded the Patriot center with decent quality Continental troops, with Mike S as the French on my left and Tom as the Georgia militia on my right.  Keith had given Allen, my opponent in the center, two units of mortars on his baseline. They could fire over his own lines out to 36". However, he also gave them a minimum range, which I believe was 18", coinciding with a raised causeway running from one side edge to the other across the center of the table. So, there would be a beaten zone my center would have to advance through. I hesitated whether to put my line infantry in Close Order, which improves their activation chances and also morale tests, but would allow Allen to hit my guys with his artillery on a 4-6 on each d6 rolled instead of 5-6. I hedged my bets, and kept the unit directly in front of the mortars in normal formation while the two line units to its left formed Close Order.

    Jason's redoubt on the left - bristling with artillery and two units of Loyalist infantry

In the Rampant games, the player rolls to activate each unit. If it fails, it does nothing. Unlike the other games in the series, one failure does not end your turn in Rebels and Patriots. My activation dice were abysmal. All units require a 6+ on 2d6 to activate. They gain +1 if in Close Order and another +1 if their commander is within 12". So, assuming I kept my commander nearby, I would activate on a 4+ with my line infantry in Close Order, and 5+ with the unit marching towards the guns. The number of failures I rolled for those units was mind boggling. I enjoy the rules, but my least favorite part of this set is its "blunder table." If you roll a "double one" or "double six" on your activation roll, you have to roll on the table. Most of the results are random, fluke happenings, such as a unit rolling double 6's charging towards the enemy a full move. That happened twice in the center -- to units of artillery! Are the gunners actually going to leave their guns and go storming across the table attempting to close with the enemy? Really?? The other problem I have with it is probability. If the game were simply a two players, each with a single 24-point Company, perhaps the double 1's and double 6's wouldn't happen as much. However, I had six units. Rolling a double one or double six on 2d6 is a 1 in 18 chance. That meant every three turns, statistically, these should happen. Now multiply that by three players per side. In our game, just between my right wing commander Tom and I, we rolled them five times over the course of the game. WAY too often, I feel! 

    Allen's two units of British infantry in the redoubt, one in the gap with cavalry, & mortars in the rear

I am trying to convince Keith and the other players to leave out this rule in future games, but so far have been unsuccessful. Otherwise, it provides a fast-paced and fun game. My command's halting advance across the center seemed logical, with them being under constant bombardment. The artillery fire caused a slow attrition, usually just one figure per shot. Keith had given me very large units in anticipation of the casualties from bombardment. The defending British had much smaller units -- all only six figures strong. So, as my medium and light battery began to pick off the enemy, his two British units manning the redoubt were slowly withering away. I also like the shooting system in Rebels and Patriots. You typically roll 12 dice, needing a certain score (often 5-6) to hit on each 1d6. The number of casualties that are removed per hit scored depends on cover or distance. On one one glorious roll, I hit nine times. However, my target were more than 12" away (which increases casualties from one per two hits rolled to 1:3), and they were in hard cover, which increased that from 1:3 to 1:5. So, even though I had a bizarre roll, I stilled did only one casualty as excess are removed. I like that! It keeps a system with lot of dice rolling from being overly affected by outlier die rolls.

British redoubt on our left -- more lightly defended because Joel lacked the troops Allen had

In the center and our left, the greater Patriot numbers (and clever tactics, of course) began to tell. Mike S quickly routed Joel from his redoubt and drove his command from the field. Unfortunately for Joel, he had the smallest command of the three British ones and Mike had our best-rated troops. It took a lot of hammering away at Allen's troops to make headway. However, late in the game, we had whittled their numbers down to below half strength, where it appeared they would be unable to hold back our advance anymore. The struggle on our right seemed much more evenly matched, though. I didn't watch it closely, but heard something about Tom's troops getting lost in the swamps. I did see they ended up executing an encircling movement all the way behind Jason's redoubt, firing on their rear. Still, it was looking like a close-run struggle.

    Patriot center is approaching the causeway with their light artillery opening fire on the redoubt

I thought the Rebels and Patriots system did a nice job of replicating the grinding assault on a redoubt. In my attempts to whittle down Allen's troops behind his fortifications, I needed a good roll on 12d6 to inflict a casualty. A completely average roll missed that by one hit. I also liked how Keith's rule for indirect mortar bombardment gave us another defensive modifier. It meant Allen similarly needed a good roll to cause casualties against my advancing troops. My poor activation dice rolling (and below average morale checks) meant things swung in his balance for a bit. If I had normal 12-figure sized units, the British could likely have driven us off. It was a good game, all around!

    The join between the South Carolina rifles on the left followed by my third large unit of Continentals

As we were discussing the game afterward, we all agreed that units survive casualties better than expected. Not so fast, though! We actually forgot a very important rule. When a unit falls to half strength, it is supposed to immediately receive what is called a permanent disorder marker. If that is in addition to testing for the hits it just received, then potentially that could make a big difference. I'll have to ask on the Facebook group for the rules to see what the timing of that disorder marker should be. All in all, Rebels and Patriots continues to provide for fun and fast games that feel like the period. 

    Vive le France! The French infantry have swept the British from the redoubt on the left & occupy it

    Tom's Georgia militia firing on the rear and sides of Jason's redoubt -- the encirclement worked!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 29

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 2
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24 

    Dam appears broken and French & Patriot troops flood their way through the depleted British lines

Rebels & Patriots: Cutting Off Philadelphia

    Mike and Jason Stelzer, left, face off against Allen and Jenny in a game of Rebels & Patriots

We played our fourth game of Rebels and Patriots this past Sunday evening with seven players. Jenny, Allen, and Joel took on the role of British commanders trying to usher a supply column towards the garrison in Philadelphia. Mike and Jason Stelzer, Tom, and myself were rebel commanders intent on preventing the wagon train from making it across the table. Keith had designed the scenario and provided the figures and terrain. 

    Early stages of the battle with the American forces advancing towards the roadway against the Brits

The road ran down the length of the table, about 2/3's of the way across from the American starting positions. Mike S commanded the left, Jason the center, and Tom the right wing of the Americans. I took control of the a (point-wise) weak force of militia in the woods lining the far side of the board. I had five units, but all worth only one point according to the game's point system. Just one unit in some of the forces was equal to my entire force, but I had the advantage of position, which I intended to use aggressively. My first moves were to advance my entire force to within shooting range of the column and its support troops. After that, I would simply hunker down and fire and hope not to be driven off by counter-fire.

    Later in the game, my militia units at the edge of the woods pour fire into the British flank guards

The British had the disadvantage of having to march along the road in addition to firing back at my sniping. My compatriots on the opposite long table edge would have to advance to get within range to add their weight of fire to my shooting for us to be successful. Keith's rules were that the wagon train would move 4" each turn automatically, unless it was fired upon. In that case, it would have to dice to advance. Jenny's rolls for the wagon train were below average at first, and then finally caught wind. Would it be too little too late, though? How much damage could the Americans do to the convoy escorts?

    Tom's Continentals and state line troops advance on our right flank to cut off the British convoy

For 1-point units, I felt my militia were not that bad, actually. Keith gave them the ability to choose the "Fire" action, rolling all 12 dice, if they were stationary. I'm not sure if American militia are supposed to be able to do that or must always take the "Skirmish" action, rolling only six dice for firing. Keith said he'd checked and that we should be able to use the Fire action. In that case, I think my troops were a bit overpowered at 1 point. Four of the British units turned to face my skirmish line in the woods. However, I was able to inflict as much damage on them with my five inferior units as they did upon me. I did have two militia units flee off-table due to casualties from British musketry. However, I destroyed or drove off three of the enemy units. At the end of the game, I was hovering around 50% losses, figure-wise, but were still in the fight!

    Early game, Brits try to (1) Keep moving (2) Deal with my sniping (3) Face the American main force

Keith actually took command of the small garrison of two artillery and one dragoon regiment at the table edge the British were marching towards. If anyone's dice were terrible that evening, it was Keith (the GM's). He lost two of his three units and inflicted essentially no damage on Tom's advancing forces. The African-American Rhode Island light infantry shrugged off every one of the artillery shots he was able to get off. Of course, I was rooting for my compatriots to get in the battle quicker and to hammer the enemy harder. They did well, though. We ended up calling the game after only 2+ plus hours as it was obvious the supply train was not going to get off-table.

    British wagon train struggles to move forward as we pour fire into the lead wagons, slowing them

Both Jason and I made it a point to shoot the wagon train whenever we could, forcing them to dice to be able to move. As mentioned early, Jenny's activation rolls were below average, meaning they moved forward infrequently. Both Jason and I cleverly focused our shooting on the lead wagons, so that when they didn't move, they stalled the entire column. Keith did let them move off-road since it was winter and the ground would be frozen. However, that just meant we focused our fire on the new "lead" wagons. 

    I felt good that four higher point value British units were turned to face my sniping the entire battle

We did struggle a bit with the morale and rally rules this game. It had been since September that we had played them. In between, we played both Lion Rampant and Xenos Rampant from the same stable of games. Unfortunately, each rules set does thing subtly different. All three due morale checks (or "Courage checks") differently. We did things wrong in the early part of the game and it wasn't until three quarters of the way through that we finally got the rules all down pat. On one hand, it is nice to use a similar game system so that was are familiar with the basics. However, the subtle differences in each set make it a challenge to get your head wrapped around each one's way of doing things. I think that I honestly need to sit down and create a cheat sheet going over the differences between the three sets. Heaven forbid we start playing another game from the "Rampant" stable (as Keith is talking about doing)! I enjoy the games, but it is challenging keeping them straight in our heads!

    Mid-stages of the battle, as the British convoy guards are getting worn down by American musketry

I guess that's kind of a blessing, because it means we get to play a variety of games, right? I asked the group after the game if they're enjoying the Rampant system and they seemed amenable to continuing to keep playing them. They work, provide a game which makes sense for the most part, and they do play VERY fast. Once again, we were done in less than three hours for a six player game. Granted, we often don't play till the bitter end, and "call it" when it is obvious one side has won. However, we tend to do that in most games (except board games, perhaps?), so that doesn't take away from their fast-play aspect.

    Firing takes place along the length of the battle line, with Americans slowing gaining the upper hand

It was a good time, my troops "punched well above their weight class," and we laughed and enjoyed ourselves. What more can you ask for in an evening of gaming, right? Our normal host, Mike W, returns this week from snowbirding in Portugal. So, we will likely be gaming back at his abode next week (or soon). In the meantime, look for another update from me in a day or so detailing my two newest, 3-D printed trailers that I painted up from Bad Goblin Games.

    We decided the convoy did NOT get through, starving the Philadelphia garrison of supplies...

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

    Everyone had fun, & finishing a game with seven (really 8) players in just over two hours is a bonus!

 

 

 

 

 

Year in Review: 2024

        2024 was definitely the "Year of Sci-Fi" for me and my painting and modeling projects!

Looking back over my most prolific year posting here on my Lead Legionaries blog, two main periods were dominant. Science-Fiction was by far the most dominant period I posted about, whether writing about new miniatures I'd painted or buildings or scatter. Second place was Post-Apocalyptic, as I began an entirely new type of game (Zombie Apocalypse), while continuing to run games, paint miniatures, and get buildings or scatter ready for the tabletop. Modern gaming was a distant third, though to be fair, much of what I created for post-apoc games could also be used for ones set in a modern (non-apoc) setting.

    Contingent of 3-D printed Stormtroopers from JS Wargamer Printing guarding an Acheson building

Science-Fiction

Part of the reason that I posted so much about Sci-Fi was because there were three separate sets of rules or types of games I was playing (or getting ready to play).  In the beginning of the year, I was heavy into getting things ready for a Xenos Rampant game. Although virtually every size game likes to call itself skirmish nowadays, no matter how many figures are on the tabletop, I would call this a "big battle" game. We typically have six players for our games on Sunday evening, so I had to build forces for six different factions. I went with what the rules recommend, 24 army points. That typically means 4-6 units of anywhere from 5-10 miniatures. In some cases it may be fewer, like a war machine or bot. For the rank and file, though, 5-10 figures is the most common.

    We found that my table was a little small for six full-size Xenos Rampant detachments

In the end, I used two factions belonging to my friend Keith to run our 6-player game. Still, fielding miniatures for four factions was a lot of work. That's around 20 units, so maybe between 100 and 200 miniatures? Some were painted last year, or taken from my post-apocalyptic factions. Still, it was a LOT of work. And the worst part about it is I haven't gotten around to running a second game. We agreed after playing that six 24-point factions on my 5'x12' table was just too crowded. After discussing it, we settled on 18 points per faction for future games. Hopefully, that future game will be soon, possibly in January. I will be hosting for much of January and February while our regular host, Mike W, is out of town "snow birding."

    The Inconceivable crew sneaks up on the objective in one of my Five Parsecs from Home solo games

In addition to Xenos Rampant, I began playing regular solo games of Five Parsecs from Home. Ostensibly, I was "testing" the system out to see if it would work as a game for our Sunday evening crew. As fun as Five Parsecs is, I didn't think it would be a good fit for six players. I was enjoying the way the rules create a story arc as you continue along on your campaign. In fact, Capt. Alistair Valentine and his merry crew will finish their quest with the next mission -- so I definitely want to play that one out in 2025. My trip to Morocco in November derailed the captain and crew of the Inconceivable temporarily, but hopefully readers of my blog will be enjoying more of their adventures soon.

Although I got in only one Xenos Rampant game in 2024, I hope to play more in 2025

The third Sci-Fi game or period that I was busy prepping figures for was going to be a true skirmish (players control 4-6 figures -- not units!) in the Star Wars universe. I was bouncing around trying to decide which rules to use. Of course, we could use Wiley Games' Galactic Heroes rules as we are familiar with them. We've played a couple games with them already, plus it is the same basic rules engine and system I use for the post-apocalyptic campaign. However, I wanted to try something to give a different flavor, and an old friend suggested I download Space Weirdos (thanks Steve P!) from Wargames Vault and look over it. I liked it enough to say that's what I will try first for my Star Wars skirmish, which hasn't had a game played, as yet. I have all the factions completed (a LOT easier when you're painting 4-6 figs instead of units...ha, ha!), though. Look for that in January or more likely February. I still need to create cards for each of the player's characters and the measuring sticks it uses.

    I took these fantasy Gatorfolk from Beldolor Studies and converted them into Sci-Fi figures

Just to give you an idea of how heavily focused I was this year on Sci-Fi, I made about 16 posts about painting miniatures for the period, along with about 10 blog entries about buildings or scatter. So, a big part of my output was geared towards Sci-Fi, it seems! And now that I have all these figures, look for a lot more game reports covering these rules!

    This downed chopper was the focal point of a scenario in my post-apocalyptic campaign

 

Post-Apocalyptic

Like my Sci-Fi projects, my production in the Post-Apoc period was a mix of old and new games. Our post-apocalyptic games using Wiley Games Core Rules is still continuing into its third year. That's great news. I think my players would like me to run it more often than I do, and hopefully I will be better at cranking out scenarios for them in 2025. For our most recent game, my friend Mike S provided the scenario so he could use the city block terrain he'd been busy building. I'm sure he wanted a chance to game with it on the tabletop, so he talked me into GM'ing the scenario he'd created. For the scenarios that I create, they tend to revolve around a particular piece of terrain or scatter I've created. One example was the "Chopper Down!" game I ran where the factions were converging on a helicopter that had auto-rated down into the middle of a ruined city. There had been no explosion, so hopefully that meant some great salvage! 

    Mike S brought his city ruins terrain he'd bought and had been working on for another scenario

By far the most posts I did on this period in 2024 was a new niche, or mini-period -- zombie apocalypse! I was inspired by purchasing the County Road Z rules and began accumulating the necessary zombie horde. As I was working on it, though, I read about another set of rules called Zombie RV. It was much shorter, way less expensive, and had a fun, quick, and bloody feel to it. I was so intrigued that Jenny and I pulled out some of my post-apocalyptic figures, I set up a tabletop, and we played a game of it. Although our mission to collect supplies failed miserably, we both agreed it was fun and we'd just had some awful luck leading to our deciding to flee the field prematurely. 

    Zombies swarm towards the survivors in one of our Zombie RV games over the course of the year

I reached out to the rules author David Bezio, and he sent me an unfinished "campaign" introduction in answer to my questions about running a continuing series of games. He encouraged me to expand on what he'd started and work up my own rules for experience and improving character skills and abilities. The next step was to inflict it on the Sunday evening group. I ran three side by side battle boards with two players sharing the four survivors like Jenny and I had done. It went over really well, except Keith had issues with zombie senses -- how do they see? Do they smell? Hear? Everyone else took the simple rules with a grain of salt, but Keith had questions. So, for the next game, I wrote out an even more detailed Zombie A.I. that the rules come with to hopefully answer his scientific inquiries...ha, ha!

    3-D printed fortified trailers from Bad Goblin are one of the highlights of my Zombie RV tabletops

Of course, more players meant more zombies would be needed! My zombie horde ended up totaling 74 figures, which included a handful of "Fast Zombies" and "Nasty Zombies," according to the Zombie RV rules. The first half of the zombie horde were 3-D printed ones from JS Wargamer Printing. After that, I was able to get ahold of some Wargames Factory male and female zombies to finish out the horde. A couple people suggested using Zombiecide figures, but my initial 3-D printed batches were way too small compared to the oversized ones from the board game. Luckily, the Wargames Factory zombies were close in size, so it all looks good together on the tabletop.

    Painting female zombies from Wargames Factory were a nice change of pace in the horde

I do have to admit that I got a little tired of painting zombies! Thank goodness for the female zombies my friend Keith gave me -- I know, that sounds weird! They spiced things up and I could have some fun with various outfits including party dresses, bikinis (hey, that's how they molded them!), evening gowns, and more. I was getting so tired of painting the walking dead that by the end I was painting them to resemble my gaming friends. Of course, no one thinks "their" zombie looks like them...!

    This 3-D printed bridge from Rusty's Jarls Workship was the centerpiece of my Mean Streets games

Mean Streets Gang Warfare

My "Convention Game" for 2024 was Mean Streets, my self-published rules covering rumbles between street gangs. I ran it at Cincycon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins. It was a big success at all three conventions. I had lots of interested players and sold some copies of the rulebook (which is also available at many other places, including Ganesha Games, Shieldwall Gaming Club, On Military Matters, RRB Minis & More, Brigade Games and other places). It turned out to be the 25 anniversary of the movie that inspired the rules, Hollywood's 1979, The Warriors. So, it was appropriate I ran a Warriors-inspired scenario in 2024. 

    The Eastmoor Kings gather on the bridge after running the gauntlet of rival gangs in 'Mean Streets'

My big terrain piece for that scenario was probably one of the biggest ones I have ever assembled and painted. It is a modern, stone city bridge that I bought from Rusty at Jarl's Workshop. I went for a yellowed, golden stone work and really like how it came out. I added in graffiti as it will see use more often in my Mean Streets games, or maybe even post-apocalyptic ones. In the scenario I ran, it was the goal for the Eastmoor Kings, who were taking on the role of the Warriors and trying to move from one side edge of the board to the opposite one. I didn't paint up any new gang members in 2024, but I did paint up some civilians.

    More than 14" height, this is my tallest terrain piece, a 28mm water tower from Bad Goblin Games

Speaking of big terrain, I also painted up the tallest terrain piece I've done to date. Once again, 3-D printed, it is a water tower from Bad Goblin Games. It has yet to see action on the tabletop, but it went together very easily and painted up quickly, as well. At $20, it is a bargain and I highly recommend Bad Goblin's 3-D printed terrain. Their fortified trailers were featured in a couple of my Zombie RV games and are fantastic. 

    My gaming year included a trip up to Blisffield to visit my friend Jim and play in two of their games

What DIDN'T I Paint?

Compared to other recent years, there has been one (probably) noticeable period missing in my 2024 posts. I may as well talk about it, too, as it does influence my gaming. I have found myself taking a break from Saga over the course of the year. I began the year finishing my Thracians, and painting their severed head fatigue markers. However, the only other painting I did for Saga otherwise was Warlord stands to give away as prizes at the Advance the Colors and Origins tournaments. And speaking of tournaments, I have also taken a break from being the one running them, too. Thankfully, others in the Saga Ohio community, such as Lee, Joe, Dan, Rusty, and James stepped up and took over running the ones I did.

    I enjoy making specialized fatigue markers for each Saga army - severed heads for my Thracians!

I was still playing Saga through the first three quarters of the year, though. I simply was not writing up blog posts about our Saga Sundays or my tournament entries. I played in both the DayCon tournament (run by Adrian and Jim) and the Hold the Line Ancient tournament (run by Rusty and James). We were still getting together on Sundays at the Guardtower East, but our number of players was steadily shrinking. Sometimes, we had just four show up -- and that is counting Jenny and myself. We did some Facebook polling and text discussion, and eventually in the Fall decided to suspend our once-a-month, Sunday get-togethers. There was another group at the Guardtower West who were gaming weekly and were much more active. We thought, "Why split up the player base into two groups?"

    An Ancient Warlord stand that I painted up as a prize for the ATC 2024 Saga tournaments

Interestingly, in this time of my declining Saga interest I finally got around to trying my "Saga Lite" ideas. With Saga Lite, there are no Advanced Abilities. Players use only the Basic Activations, Combat Bonus, and Activation Pool on the top half of their battle board. I was happy with how it worked out, and may run that for friendly games on Sunday evenings when we have a hankering for Dark Age, Medieval, etc. battles.  

    We tried out 'Rebels and Patriots' rules for the Revolutionary War and liked them, playing 3 times

Odds and Ends

In the early part of the year, I didn't do too good of a job blogging about what our Sunday evening group did on our game nights. True, it was often board games, and sometimes the same ones over and over. Let me tell you, if I never play Seven Wonders: Architects again...ha, ha! However, looking at the rules sets I did blog about, there are nearly 20 different ones listed. Granted, many of them were "one-off" games, typically when Keith got an urge to play PT Boats or Age of Sail or something similar.

    My long-time gaming companions, Joel & Allen, enjoy an Age of Sail game put on by Keith

However, one that I think will stay is Rebels and Patriots, which are the American War of Independence version of the popular Lion Rampant series. It is what I would call a "big battle" game, and we played it three times (I believe) over the course of 2024. It uses the same engine as Xenos Rampant, which should be a positive, right? We will be more familiar with the mechanics when we play a game. The only thing that worries me about sets of rules that use the same mechanics in a wide variety of periods is will the games feel different? When I run another game of Xenos Rampant, I don't want everyone to say, "This feels like the American Revolution but just with space figures. Does this make sense? A game system's mechanics should give the feel of a period. I worry that systems like Rampant and Wiley Games may suffer from sameness. Honestly, that is why I chose to try something different than Galactic Heroes for my Star Wars skirmishes. I don't want it to feel like a Western gunfight or post-apocalyptic game simply set in space.

    After 3 games, our group has the basics of how 'Rebels and Patriots' works -- which is always good!

Still, Rebels and Patriots has gained traction in our group. I enjoy it, Keith likes running it, and the players are become more and more familiar with the rules. We will see when I run Xenos Rampant again if anyone remarks, "Hey, this feels like an AWI game..."! I'd be interested in hearing from readers if you have encountered this in your own game clubs or feel that way yourself. Perhaps I'm the only one who worries about this or feels this way? Feel free to comment below.

    Although not mentioned on the blog often, we are avid board gamers, too, on Sunday evenings

Speaking of comments, this has probably been the most prolific year by commenters on Lead Legionaries, too. I really enjoy reading your feedback and hearing your thoughts. So, thank you to Bill, Donnie, Jason, Neil, Ray, Tom, and the man who seems to be everywhere, Anonymous! Ha, ha! Seriously, I really enjoy your comments as it confirms for me people are actually out there reading my blog. I'm sure every blogger wonders about that. Lacking any passive feedback such as "Likes" that you see on Facebook or "Times viewed" on Lead Adventure Forum, your comments are what I have to go on. I have had friends or acquaintances tell me they read my blog regularly, so I appreciate that, as well. 

    Expect more Zombie RV AARs in 2025 - more close escapes and characters that don't make it!

A Look Ahead (and some stats)

I mentioned 2024 was my most prolific year. If I get this posted tonight (New Year's Eve), it will be my 86th post of the year. That beats by about 20 my previous high, which was 66 in 2014. December 2024 has been my busiest month ever, too. This will be post #15, eclipsing the previous high pf 13 in October 2013. I actually started Lead Legionaries in September of 2013, though you will see posts dated 2007 through 2009. Those were "re-posts" of After-Action Reports from games played in those years.

    Keith, at right, gets a hankering from time to time for random periods -- like Civil War ironclads!

Why all the productivity this year? Well, it should be obvious - RETIREMENT! When people ask me how retirement is going (I finished teaching in May), I answer, "Every day is a good day." Unless I am out of town, I begin every day by going downstairs into my hobby room and putting in about an hour on whatever I am painting or modeling at the moment. I do get an occasional chance to sneak back downstairs during the day, but this steady one hour a day had done wonders for my output. As you may have seen at the bottom of my posts throughout the year, I have been tracking my Acquired vs. Painted totals. I ended up this year painting 254 miniatures. I took in 227. I hope to make the gap even bigger in 2025 with a full year of being retired.

    My 'Five Parsecs' crew investigates some of the Sci-Fi scatter & buildings I painted up in 2024

What projects will you see posts on in 2025? A number will continue -- my post-apocalyptic campaign and Zombie RV games are both meant to be continuing series. So, my players' characters will improve (though some will likely die -- especially in Zombie RV!), which hopefully means they'll want to keep playing games. I like campaigns, though nowadays this means a continuing series of linked skirmishes rather than the old school Ancients ones where players controlled a kingdom. What else? I will likely finish the story arc of Five Parsecs from Home and then reevaluate whether I want to keep playing solo games. You will see the start of my Star Wars skirmishes, with players controlling factions ranging from the Empire to the Rebel Alliance and all shades of opinion in between. I hope to keep running one-off games of Xenos Rampant, too.

    'A new period...?' Admiral Akbar asks..."It's a trap!!" Mon Calamari 3D-printed figures

 What about new stuff, you ask? Wellll...I enjoyed how Sellswords & Spellslingers worked for my Viking Town Raid. I plan to use that system for a series of linked skirmishes set in Britain during the Viking raids. The players will control a couple characters, seeking to help the inhabitants of Britain survive the fury of the Norsemen. And I plan on tinkering with that system to adapt it to...Vietnam! I have long been tempted to run Vietnam games, but balked at starting a new period (and not having a set of rules I liked). I like the idea of running Vietnam cooperatively, with each player being a sergeant in control of a squad of grunts. Their goal will be get as many of their men to survive their 13 month tour of duty in Vietnam. I will likely test it out solo, first, using my 20mm modern Africa figures. If I like how it works, I will probably invest in a new period in 2025 -- 28mm Vietnam. We'll see, though -- no guarantees!

Thanks for reading my Year in Review! I know it was long, but your readership is appreciated...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 254