Showcasing Surviving 'Nam at Origins 2026

A squad of VC arrive on table, while U.S. soldiers prowl forward through the bamboo & jungle

For the last several years, our Great Lakes chapter of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society, has put on a slate of miniatures events at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH. The convention brings in thousands of gamers of all types -- role players, card players, board gamers, and of course, miniature players. We take the opportunity to put on highly visible events and utilize the show as a chance to recruit members to our chapter. What better place, I thought, to run some games of Surviving 'Nam and generate some interest for the rules imminent release?

    Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division advance towards an isolated Vietnamese hamlet to search it

I scheduled six game over the course of three days at Origins. I would run a different scenario from the rule book each day. Even before the convention began, all four slots in my six games were completely booked! Whoa -- sold out before the first attendee arrives! For the first time ever, I would run two games on Wednesday of Origins. I always considered that just a set up day, and never thought about running games then. However, scheduled events begin at noon Wednesday, so I figured I would run twice on that day since my games had openings for only four players each. I took Friday off, as another GM requested a round table for one day, and I deferred to him so that our HMGS Great Lakes area would fill the tables more consistently. 

    My 4 players in 'Check out the Hooches' contemplate the tactical situation & debate a plan

Through the years running games at Origins, I've always enjoyed the chance to introduce folks who'd never played a miniatures game to the thrill and spectacle of historical miniatures. This year was no exception, as I had players who were typically board gamers or role players sign up and have a great time. I also had my share of miniature gamers, interested in playing a Vietnam War game or who thought the concept of Surviving 'Nam sounded interesting. One player confessed that Apocalypse Now is his favorite war movie. So, unlike at a miniatures convention, GMs tend to get an interesting mix of players around their table.

    U.S. lieutenant, trailed by his radioman, leads his fire team forward in 'Tanks for the Help' 

Tanks for the Help!

The first scenario that I ran is called Tanks for the Help! In this case, a U.S. tank has broken down on a Vietnamese country road. Worried the Viet Cong will sneak up and blow it up while it is being repaired, the U.S. infantry are tasked with fanning out in the woods all around it and keeping any V.C. from getting close. The enemy does hear about the tank, and soon is moving towards the positions that the players' fire teams have taken up. Each player controls one 5-man unit of U.S. soldiers from the Big Red One infantry division. 

   Wednesday evening players move up their fire teams and take positions to repel a VC assault

The game begins in the Countdown to Contact phase, where each player may move his figures one action as they hurriedly take up positions to protect the tank. When a 1d6 roll, plus turns elapsed, equals "6" the V.C. arrive in positions rolled randomly by the players. Most scenarios have a positive or negative modifier to the Countdown to Contact roll. This allows it to occur sooner or later, on average. Still, despite the modifier, the randomness of 1d6 means the players never really know when the V.C. will launch their attack.

    And here they come! Two VC squads, each with an RPG, hoping to blow up the disabled tank

Tactically, this is a fairly straight forward scenario. The players must knock a specified number of enemy out of action to break the spirit of the V.C. attack. At the end of every turn, the V.C. figures on table get an extra movement forward towards the players. If the number of enemy on table runs low, more arrive on the back edge and begin assaulting forwards. In my first game of the convention, the players' rolls were amazing. They rarely failed their activation rolls, resulting in fewer shots against the players than you might expect. When targeted, they typically rolled high and avoided the enemy fire. What's more, the Event Cards smiled upon them, as well. No Light Machine Gun appeared. No Sniper! card appeared. Those are the two deadliest cards for players in the deck, along with All Hell is Breaking Loose (which activates ALL V.C. on the table for a shot if in line of sight or a move, if not. All Hell didn't come up till late in the game when the V.C. numbers were depleted.

    More VC arrive and prepare to enter a thick patch of bamboo & assault the defending Americans

Not to take anything away from the player's tactics. They had a solid battle plan, grasped the mechanics quickly, and used their fire team leader's free activations cleverly to shoot down any V.C. that appeared in dangerous positions. They were by far the luckiest of the half dozen sets of players, though, and they finished the mission fairly quickly and efficiently. I felt bad for them that they never really had that "Oh, crap!" moment when V.C. are popping up all around them and their soldiers are going Down. Still, what player doesn't like to win? So, Surviving 'Nam started off at Origins with a successful first U.S. mission.

    A VC rifleman spots the squad's radioman and stalks forward, hoping to get off a clear shot at him

The next game did not have the same easy path to victory. They suffered losses, but were ultimately able to inflict enough casualties to break the back of the V.C. resolve. After the game, I walked the players what they would do if they were playing this game as part of a campaign, which Surviving 'Nam is intended to do. Each game represents a mission during one month of their yearlong tour of duty in Vietnam (13 months if Marines). So, I'm hoping players will fight their way through all 12, with the goal of getting as many of their soldiers through their time "In Country" alive. 

    Players used my new 'measuring sticks' (3-D printed sticks with 1 inch bands from RRB Minis)

After the game, players must roll for each wounded U.S. soldier, even if they were Lightly or Walking Wounded. If they were carried off-table by friends, and if the wounds were lighter, they receive bonuses to the roll. The resulting out come can result in the loss of the soldier to the fire team, for example if they roll low and geet Killed in Action or Lost a Limb. The soldier could also have suffered a Million Dollar Wound!, which gets the soldier a ticket home but without horrible disfigurement or debilitating injuries. Or they may roll Enjoy Japan! (three months recuperation), Enjoy Japan! (two months) or REMF for a Month! (one month). The players enjoyed that aspect of the game, too, and were also interested in the rolls to see what kind of replacement they would get if their numbers fell too low. All in all, the showcasing of the rules was off to a solid start on the first day of the convention. In hindsight, I would probably bring a more tactically challenging mission to a convention next time, as well as one that has more cool looking terrain on it for eye candy for passers by!

    Four friends from Utah all signed up for my Thursday evening game & were a blast to play with

Check out the Hooches

I have to confess that the games I had on Thursday were likely my favorites of the convention. I had fun all six times I ran Surviving 'Nam, of course, and enjoyed my groups of players. I think I got very lucky as everyone seemed to have a positive attitude and no curmudgeons seemed to sign up for any of my games. Nevertheless, whether because of the way Thursday's games played out or the nature of the scenario, Thursday was an absolute blast! At the end of each session I ran, the players seemed very, very excited about the game. Many said they were looking forward to its release (I told them my best guess was about a month or so until that happens). Some asked about the figures and where they could get them. I helped them navigate to Crucible Crush's Black Sun range page on their website. It was exactly the kind of day  someone writing a new rules set wants to have.

    Peaceful Vietnamese hamlet with villagers doing daily chores about to be disrupted by the US arrival

In Check out the Hooches, which was actually the first scenario I play tested solo back in August of 2025, the players' fire teams need to conduct a search of two hooches in a small hamlet in a jungle clearing. Along with a vegetable field, barn, and pig pen, the hooches are surrounded by patches of jungle. This is where the V.C. pop up when the Countdown to Contact phase of the game ends. And in the morning game on Friday, the players' troops paid in blood for the successes the Americans had yesterday. Light machine gun bunkers opened up on the players from the table edges, snipers appeared taking pot shots at key leaders, and All Hell was breaking loose many times. 

    As the soldiers arrive in column, the villagers begin to panic & flee -- like granny on the far left!

In fact, one unfortunate player on right wing of the American advance, ended up facing the bulk of the V.C. who arrived (including both enemy bunkers). Prior to this mission, I had never had one player's entire fire team be knocked Down or Out of Action. In Surviving 'Nam, when a player does not roll high enough to avoid an enemy shot, he is "Down." He cannot activate until another player goes over to check on him, and hopefully patch him up and get him back into the fight. The roll on the Down chart provides a series of possible results from Out of Action to a lucky hit that was deflected by a piece of equipment. 

    One U.S. sergeant leads his fire team quickly to encircle the right side of the village

The terrain of the village also does not provide clear lines of fire for the Americans. There is no one place they can set up their M60 light machine gun to sweep the entire village. Fields of fire and lines of sight are restricted, and the skirmish degenerates into a number of separate actions. Unfortunately, the player on the right suffered greatly because of it. His sergeant and all four soldiers were Down or Out of Action for the last half hour of the game, it seemed. However, the left faced less opposition and fought their way forward to the hooches and was able to search them. Reinforcements from another player's squad were able to get some members of the team up and moving and help carry off the others for a very narrow escape.

    Meanwhile, another fire team begins to ascend the stairs of the closest hooch to search the interior

The butcher's bill was much greater in this firefight than in the two previous games. At least one soldier was KIA and another lost a limb and would be going home after recuperating at an army hospital. One of the things I really like about Surviving 'Nam is how each game plays out so differently. Player activation rolls tend to be streaky. One moment they're cruising along, gunning down V.C. riflemen. The next minute, they're rolling multiple failures in a row for activations. Snipers appear and gun down a squad leader or officer. Light machine guns open fire and pin key troops. And every time they un-pin, another burst of LMG fire sends them diving back for cover. The Event Cards are streaky, too. It may seem like forever till the first Fire Mission! card comes up (which enables them to call in mortar strikes on the enemy). And just when things seem their bleakest, Fire Mission after Fire Missions seem to appear, as you reshuffle the deck after each time that card comes up. The players cheer as a bunker is neutralized or a enemy squad that appeared on their rear is blown up by artillery.

    Just then, the VC spring their ambush and pop out of the jungle to open fire on the Americans

All of this seemed to happen on Thursday in the two runnings of the scenario. One player had such a great time he showed up Saturday to play again. Afterwards, as Jenny and I were walking back from a nearby brewpub, I confessed that I think that Surviving 'Nam is my strongest rules set to date. Of all the ones I've written, it seems to be the most tight and do the best job of abstracting certain things while still giving players the visceral thrill and uncertainty of combat. 

    A bloody firefight begins on the right that will end up with the entire U.S. fire team going down

Temple at River Bend

On Wednesday in Tanks for the Help, I informed the player's ahead of time what the number of V.C. was that they had to dispatch to stop the enemy attack. On Saturday, in Temple at River Bend, I decided to keep that secret. The U.S. player force is taking the role of the "hammer" in a hammer and anvil attack. They are to engage a V.C. who have made camp in a ruined temple complex in the jungle. They need to cause enough casualties to get them running in the opposite direction -- straight into an off-board ambush laid by the rest of the company. 

    Saturday morning's crew was also very fun, alternately bickering with & encouraging each other

I guessed the board might be my best looking one of the convention, so had told earlier players during the week to stop on Saturday and check out the tabletop. It included three scratch-built, ruined temple buildings or stupas, along with an aquarium scenery temple that I prettied up with vegetation. The wide greenish-brown river bend looks the right color for a jungle river and the scattered pieces of jungle-choked ruins look very evocative, I feel. The fields of fire for the attackers are also restricted by the various patches of jungle, and the shape of the river forces them to expose themselves to enemy fire at closer ranges than they'd prefer to gain line of sight on the enemy.

    Bend in the river opposite the temple complex presented a tactical challenge for the U.S players

Like many of the 12 scenarios which will be included in the rules, they are based on actual incidents I've read from the memoirs of soldiers who served in Vietnam. This one even occurred to members of the Big Red One, which is the unit my 28mm Black Sun figures are painted up to depict. I fought this one solo back in August of last year, too. Check out that more detailed battle report here if you're interested. When I am running games at a convention, I always try to set up my table as far in advance as possible. I hope the table layout will "sell" the game and encourage folks to sign up. Or in this case, to show up and hope to fill any spots of no-shows (which was actually a bit of a problem this year at Origins). Saturday morning's game had two no-shows, which allowed me to include both players who were waiting and hoping to secure a spot in my sold-out event. One of those was a very enthusiastic returning player from Thursday.

    U.S. soldiers advance to get within line of sight of the VC inside the ruined temple complex

One thing I thought was humorous all convention long was that the first players to arrive chose NOT to take on the role of the lieutenant's fire team, and instead picked one of the sergeants'. Even the lure of the M60 machine gun team wasn't enough for players to step forward to be the "Looey" -- perhaps they'd read or seen too many accounts of Vietnam which mention the sometimes short life expectancy of an officer in charge of an infantry squad! Anyway, Saturday morning's lieutenant was a younger player who hadn't played too many historical miniatures games, I surmised. Still the other players encouraged and helped him along, joking with him much as veteran sergeants might with a brand new officer. The four players probably had the best chemistry of any of the half dozen games I ran. They rooted for each other to succeed and laughed off the pitfalls their fire teams encountered.

    Enemy mortar fire begins to zero in on the Americans as they near the bank of the muddy river

Unlike in the other scenarios, two V.C. light machine gun teams appear immediately when Countdown to Contact ends. Along with the Sniper! Event Card, these are the deadliest dangers the players face. As the LMGs began to pin the players, they began to grow a little desperate. The desire to move their soldiers out of line of sight of the machine gun was very real. However, that left precious few shooters to have eyes on the enemy and try to take them out. It was interesting watching how the players dealt with this danger in the scenario. 

    Taking cover in some jungle near the river, American soldiers fire upon the VC to drive them out

In the final game Saturday evening, I honestly felt at one point that the players might lose and have to withdraw. Two fire team leaders went down within minutes of each other. That robs the players of the free action that the leader can grant to one of his men when he activates. That second shot in a turn by the M60 gunner or M79 grenade launcher can often be the key to suppressing the enemy's biggest squads or heaviest weapons. The push on the players' right stalled and the Fire Mission cards never seemed to arrive. 

    VC mortar barrage somehow threads its way through a group of Americans without hitting any

Suddenly it broke open, though. The young man in charge of the lieutenant decided to risk him moving forward so he could see both enemy machine guns. And wouldn't you know it? That was just when battalion artillery called back and asked for the fire mission coordinates. First one and then the other machine gun was taken out of action by the barrage. The players were nearing their goal when a potential disaster occurred. The We're Outflanked! event card was drawn, and a six-man enemy squad appeared in a patch of woods right behind the squad medic, machine gunner, and assistant gunner. The only figure that had not activated yet in that turn was the assistant gunner -- who was an FNG. These new guys have the worst percentage chance to activate. 

    'We're Outflanked!' card gives U.S. players an "oh, crap!" moment with VC arriving on their rear

The young man controlling the lieutenant's fire team rolled two successes, though. He had the FNG prep and throw a grenade which took four of the six enemy out of action. The first turn of the next turn, his machine gunner spun around and KO'd the remaining two. Those six enemy eliminated took them over their target score and won them the game. The older players cheered the young man's success, which was heart-warming. It was especially good to see him to get a chance to redeem himself, as the M60 had been engaged with one of the enemy LMGs for most of the game. He just never seemed to roll high enough to take it out, pinning it time after time. 

    Picture of a VC bunker (roof taken off) from an earlier 'Check out the Hooches" game

The weekend was full of moments like this, it seemed. Although I apologize to any of my players reading this if I got minor details of their game wrong. After six games run during an extended weekend of gaming, the action tends to blur. I had a sign with a QR code next to my table, linking people to the Surviving 'Nam posts on Lead Legionaries. So, welcome aboard to any new readers of my blog. I tend to update it a couple times a week. I hope you become regular readers. Rest assured, I will definitely announce it here first when the rules are published and ready to purchase as print on demand book or download as a PDF. Stay tuned! 

    My game was one of many (and NOT the best looking!) of many put on by HMGS Great Lakes

Thanks to everyone who played in my games and all the kind comments from passers by at the convention about how my tabletop looked. I really appreciated the positive feedback given. For my players, though, know that you gave me every bit as much of an enjoyable time as my game did for you! 

 MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 125

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

My purchases at Drums at the Rapids 2026

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

Little Wars 2016 & Purchases

    The 1st game I played in at Little Wars 2026 - Marty's 'Pulp Alley' Chaos in Cairo game was a blast!

Little Wars in Chicago, HMGS Midwest's flagship convention, is usually not on my itinerary. Spring is such a busy time for cons here in Ohio that most years I can't squeeze it in. However, I had been telling myself since I retired that I wanted to attend more shows, and Little Wars is not that far away -- just under six hours driving (depending on traffic). We had attended a couple times in the past and had a fun time. So, when I saw how reasonably priced the hotel rooms were, I decided to make 2026 the third time!

    My 'haul' from Little Wars -- I kept my spending under control, for the most part

The next decision was whether I would run games or simply just shop and play. I went back and forth for a couple weeks, and finally decided I would go just as an attendee. When the event list was published, I sat down and picked out five games that I wanted to play in. When registration opened, I was ready, waiting on Tabletop Events with five tabs open -- ready to pounce! I successfully registered for all five of the games I wanted, and Jenny was able to get in most of them, too. 

    My 2nd favorite game at Little Wars was the 1970s IRA raid on British operations on Saturday

The drive to Chicago went much smoother than I expected. We got there earlier on Thursday afternoon than we had planned -- even before registration opened up. After checking in, we went to a local brewpub for a beer and stayed for another (and to get something to eat). We were joined by our "Michiana" (Michigan & Indiana) friends -- Steve S, Greg, Steve B, Tim, and his son Pat. It was good to see them. Since they stopped coming to Advance the Colors, sadly, we are lucky to see them once a year. Despite all of the good games I played in, hanging out with good friends and sharing laughs was truly my personal highlight of Little Wars. We doubled down on that Saturday evening, going out to dinner with Rich and his wife Gwen from RRB Minis & More. Vendors are always so busy at conventions that it was nice to spend a couple hours with them, too!

    My Pulp Alley league surveys the street -- spotting the first plot point that we needed to investigate

My first game Thursday evening was Pulp Alley -- a very fun system that we played about 10 years ago but hadn't in awhile. In 2014, I ran an Indiana Jones-themed series of games for the Sunday Evening Gaming Group called, Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventures. Not wanting to be "that player" who doesn't know or understand the rules, I downloaded Pulp Alley's free Quick Start guide and read through it the night before. I was glad that I did, though GM Marty Devine did an excellent job going over the rules before the game. In fact, this would prove to be my favorite game of the entire convention. My "League" (as a player's group of figures is called) consisted of three miniatures trying to beat the other three factions to finding clues to the location of a secret map. We had a blast, attacking each other in this free-for-all, playing "Peril" cards on each other, and in general, trying to outfox the others.

    The center of the board with traffic, soldiers, and pedestrians making it a 'perilous place' to be

It was a thrilling finish to the game, too. On my last figure's activation, she charged into the player holding the major plot point and knocked them out, sending the prized possession flying. With no figure technically in possession of it at game end, the my league ended up in a three-way tie for first. The Little Wars staff give a medal to the GM of each game to hand out to the winner or player who performed best. I won my first of two for the weekend, but more importantly, had a great time. Marty ran Pulp Alley throughout the weekend, and Jenny went back for a second game of it, having an equally good time.

    I eyeballed this 3-D printed building RRB Minis had in their booth all weekend before buying it

Friday morning was a bit of a disappointment, as I screwed up the time my event started. I had utilized the "My Schedule" feature of Tabletop Events to pull up a spreadsheet of the games I had booked. What I didn't realize was that by saving the tab in my phone's browser, and not refreshing it when we arrived in town, my times were all off by one hour. For some reason, TTE has a "time zone" feature and adjusts your schedule to show your own local time when you pull it up -- not the scheduled actual start time for the game. So, if you were on the West Coast and pulled up your "My Schedule," game start times would be two hours off from Chicago's Central Time and three from my Eastern Time. Mine was one hour off, and Jenny and I showed up about 45 minutes after it had started. I felt awful for the GM in being a no-show, and bummed that I didn't get to play in his pirate game. 

    The Bad Squiddo figs that I picked up -- I kept in under control as their range tends to be very pricey

It did give me a LOT more time to shop, though! One of my favorite stops at Historicon was there, Badger Games, and I spent time looking through their extensive line of miniatures they brought to the show. They carry a HUGE number of figure lines, and curious, I asked the owner who'd attended about what percentage they were able to bring to the show. She estimated 10% -- the remaining 90% was sitting in their warehouse. I picked out five packs that I wanted from Bad Squiddo Games line, including a pack of "May Queens" that I think will make good female wizards for my Elven army for Dragon Rampant. That had been one of my shopping goals, as I hadn't bought any wizards with my Warhost army (which I got from Badger Games, by the way). 

    Phalanx Games was there with their MDF bases - $5 for as many as you can stuff & seal in a ziploc

Friday night's game (which I DID make it to on time!) was a hit and miss. It was using The Men Who Would be Kings from Daniel Mersey's "Rampant" stable. However, the GM wasn't very familiar with the rules, and I had to step in a number of times and help him figure out how the system worked. He was also a bit brain fried, he said, as this was his third game in a row. He also admitted he had yet to the play test the scenario, which quickly became evident when the Mahdists wiped our British and Egyptian forces off the table in half the time the game was scheduled for! Jenny was even less happy than I was, because the GM was clearly getting frustrated with players who weren't picking up the rules. The fact that it was his own two friends who were the most clueless of the bunch didn't make his badgering the players any better. Chalk that one up as a "miss," and hope the rest of the games are better. Unfortunately, bad games, bad scenarios, and bad GMs are all part of attending a convention. You have to accept your losses with your wins.

    Another of the lovely buildings that were part of the very fun IRA game I played in on Saturday

Saturday morning was much better. I played in a 1970s IRA vs. British scenario. The GM's board was beautiful! He had 3-D printed all of the buildings and it was definitely immersive. He explained we had two missions we needed to complete -- ambushing a Laundry Delivery Service van (a front for British counter-intelligence) and taking out a massage parlor, which was another intelligence effort trying to extract information from the "loose lips" of its customers. He let us plan every detail of our mission, whether to complete the missions simultaneously or consecutively, how many of our eight operatives to assign to each, and exactly how we would carry each out.

    Rich Brown of RRB gave me a good 'package deal' on these 2 smaller buildings & boulders

So, instead of 30 minutes explaining the rules to us, he kept that part of the game relatively secret. He wanted the preliminaries to be us hashing out our mission plan amongst ourselves. There was one of the five players who was a bit of a holdout, but we eventually brought him around to the group consensus. Once the missions themselves got under way, the system moved very quickly. In fact, the three of us players (and four operatives) ambushing the van completed it in record time, the GM said. We took no casualties and eliminated all four of the British agents quickly. He mentioned it was the best any group had done. The other team was having a bit rougher of a time, and ended up clearing only two of the three floors of the massage parlor. They lost one operative and had two others wounded, I believe. The other three IRA agents were able to exfiltrate, though, and soon joined us as we melted away into the pro-IRA neighborhood, with the sounds of British sirens drawing nearer.

    Lion Rampant, a very fun system, recreating the Battle of Enna in Sicily between Arabs & Normans

My final game Saturday afternoon was a Lion Rampant game between Arabs and Normans in Sicily. It was a four-player game with two commands on each side. Interestingly, the GM had us alternate activating one of our commands (one Arab, one Norman, etc.). We also re-rolled for Initiative each turn, so the possibility of a "double move" -- going last one turn and first the next -- existed, and actually happened. Personally, I think the game would have been better and faster moving if both commands on one side went and then the other side, and kept up that order throughout the game. Still, it was a fun game. My shooting and combat dice were pretty bad in the beginning, but eventually came around at the end. On one amazing charge, my "Bloodthirsty" general and his bodyguard cavalry rolled 13 hits on 12 dice against a Norman light cavalry unit. With his trait, each roll of a "6" caused two hits, and I rolled six of them on 12 dice!

    Last purchase of the con, an interesting looking 3-D printed medieval building from Phalanx Games

I wrapped up my shopping after that session of games, because Jenny and I would be leaving right away Sunday morning. In addition to the Bad Squiddo minis, I picked up two small medieval buildings and another larger one from RRB Minis & More. I also snagged a ziploc full of MDF bases of various sizes and another very cool looking 3-D printed medieval building from Phalanx Games & Sundry. My last purchase was a can of Howard Hues paint from Dayton Painting Consortium -- one of my favorite colors that I had run out of, recently. After dinner with Rich & Gwen, we closed out the evening like we had the other three -- sitting around swapping stories and laughing with our Michiana friends. It had definitely been a good weekend.

    My prizes (and the figs that won them for me) from two of the fun games at Little Wars 2026

Will I come back? Well...actually, I'm not 100% sure. The Little wars registration fee was a bit of sticker shock. Sixty dollars is a lot for a convention -- at least compared to the ones I attend. I know $60 is not Gencon pricing, but it is more than the much larger Historicon was in 2025 ($50), and four times what we charge for a weekend member badge at Advance the Colors. Also, I'm not exactly crazy about the way HMGS Midwest bundles a year's membership in their chapter into the convention price. Long ago, all HMGS chapters across the country agreed to give members of other chapters the discounted admission rate that their own members received. What's the point of that if members of other chapters HAVE to buy your membership? Yes, I understand Chicago may be an expensive city, so the venue could be pricey. Still, the Sheraton, where the convention was held, was a suburban hotel -- not downtown in the high rent zone. And honestly, it is getting a little worn on the edges and needing renovation. For example, when we arrived, only one of its three elevators was working. So, Little Wars' convention price could certainly factor into my future decisions on whether to attend or not. Seeing all of my buddies is priceless, of course, but these two things probably take it out of the "must go" for me.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

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

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 23

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 56