2025: Year in Review

    One of my most noteworthy projects this year was my 28mm Vietnam one using the 'Black Sun' figs

I think a good term for this past year (2025) is "Changing of the Guard." Some projects or campaigns that had been going strong were wrapped up and new ones marched front and center. Regular readers of Lead Legionaries are probably well aware of the new ones, so let's talk first about which ones were relieved of their post -- at least for the time being!

    The 'End' has finally come for the Buck Nuts and other post-apocalyptic gangs in my campaign

 Changing of the Guard: Retiring from Duty (Zombie RV and Post-apocalyptic Campaign)

You could consider both of these series of games run for our Sunday Evening group post-apocalyptic, of course. They used two different rules sets and characters, though. Well, for the most part! Some of the figures (and even names) from our long-running post-apocalyptic campaign using Wiley Games rules showed up in our Zombie RV games. We ended up running the Wiley Games rules eight times, if I am counting the After-Action Reports correctly. The final game occurred in March with the Get Your Goat scenario I ran. I felt the action was kind of growing stagnant, with the same gangs of survivors facing off with each other and some growing significantly more powerful. It was a fun series of games, though. My favorite moment in there was when my Planet of the Apes figures made a cameo appearance for the campaign, and the way they caused some alarm in the first game they appeared. 

Will I run the Buck Nuts, Night Stalkers, F Troop and company out onto the tabletop again? Not very likely. One of the cool things about playing a campaign is watching your characters grow and progress. Unfortunately, one of the unbalancing things about campaigns is that, in most cases, different player groups grow at different rates. The longer the campaign, the more "the rich the will get richer," and the more weak the weaker will get. I had an idea how to fix that and am trying it in one of the new campaigns, below. 

    Junior's zombie hunting days are over as I wrapped up the Zombie RV campaign prematurely

The other campaign that took a bow and exited the stage in 2025 was Zombie RV. Sadly, this campaign lasted less time -- only about six games, if you count the two-player games Jenny and I tried to test out the rules set. It avoided the trap of the post-apocalytpic campaign in that it was cooperative. All players were on the same side trying to...well, survive the zombie apocalypse! I don't think it stopped because of player disinterest. One of our regulars asked in the Fall what happened to the game, and wasn't it about time for another Zombie RV game?

I hate to say it, but one of my players caused ME to lose interest in running. Not to point fingers, but he couldn't get out of the habit of questioning zombie physiology and arguing every time the zombies decided to move towards his figures instead of someone else's. Constant questions of how do zombies "see"? Arguing whether they could see his figures on the other side of a vehicle -- things like that. Eventually, I grew tired of it and decided to not run it anymore. Being a GM is stressful enough, at times, and having to constantly deal with arguments about interpreting a very clear set of priorities about where each zombie will go became too much for me. So, my response to the "Isn't it about time for another game of Zombie RV?" explained why I wasn't going to run it anymore. The player in question was surprised, but the others agreed with me that he did indeed to those things. Thankfully, this type of thing doesn't happen very often in our games, though.

    Setup for my 'Viking Town Raid' game with its hexagonal board and cooperative play

2025's Convention Game (Viking Town Raid)

My convention game this year, Viking Town Raid, also inspired one of my 2025 projects (see below). Each year, I typically pick a scenario that I will run at various local or regional conventions, such as Cincycon, DayCon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins Game Fair. In this cooperative miniatures scenario, the players were all Viking raiders and the enemy were the townsfolk and defenders. The rules used were Ganesha Games Sellswords & Spellslingers (minus the fantasy aspects, of course). To make it more accessible to folks reading the event description in a convention program, I included the heroes from the History Channel's "Vikings" miniseries. I picked up Ragnar Lothbrok, his brother Rollo, wife Lagertha, and more from Brigade Games. The figs looked spot-on AND they were domestically stocked. This is the Year of the Tariff and its wrecking ball course through the gaming industry, after all!

    Ragnar Lothbrok (center) and his friends and family were the player's leaders in the Viking game

I like to make my games good for up to six players, which I was worried would be a bit of a challenge for the rules system. I pared down the number of characters each player controlled to three, and created a hexagon shaped game mat that was roughly 4 feet across in all directions. That gave everyone equal access to the Anglo-Saxon church in the center of the table where the highest value loot would be. Although the game was cooperative, players were competing to amass the most victory points from loot, captives, and livestock.

The game worked out great, and players loved it all 16 times (!) that I ran it over the course of 2025. I figured out a way to keep the game moving quickly so there wouldn't be long waits for players for their turn. Players had a blast, they said, and the scenario really played to the strengths of SS&SS's game mechanics. The dice rolls of the players, or more accurately their failures at dice rolling, activate the enemies. Since dice are random, that meant each game was a bit different. Outcomes ranged from many of the monks inside my scratch-built Anglo-Saxon church being taken captive to no raiders making it that far into the town. It was definitely a success, and actually led to next year's convention game!

    My Orc warlord and his bodyguard - part of my '2026' project of an orc & goblin army

 Changing of the Guard - New Projects (Vietnam War and Dragon Rampant Orc & Goblin army)

At some point while I was running my Viking Town Raid game, a thought entered my head that the mechanics would actually make a great system for gaming the Vietnam War. Not knowing where foes will pop up next in a game of SS&SS, the randomness of things going along fine and then suddenly going to Hell in a hand basket because of a streak of bad player rolls, all screamed Vietnam to me. I reached out to Andrea Sfiligoi of Ganesha Games and pitched my idea to him. He cautioned me that SS&SS is mostly a melee game while Vietnam is pretty much all shooting. He said if I could overcome that to my satisfaction that he would love to publish a Sellswords variant set in Vietnam. And so, 16 Viking Town Raids lead to writing the rules for Surviving 'Nam: An Infantryman's Year "In Country." 

I hit up my friend Jim W for miniature recommendations because he was currently running 28mm Vietnam skirmish for his gaming group in Michigan. I ended up deciding on Crucible Crush's Black Sun range (essentially, Pulp Figures). I ordered the figs which got to me from Canada before our nation's lovely, disruptive tariffs were in place. I began painting them up and fell in love with their personality, animation, and ease of painting. This last fact meant I finished with painting up the project much quicker than I had expected. This accelerated my play testing schedule, which began with solo games. Since it is cooperative, the players take on the role of U.S. or allied soldiers while their Viet Cong foes appear on the table and move and fire based on the event cards and failed dice rolls of the players.

    In my Surviving 'Nam rules, the Viet Cong (above) are controlled by the event cards & players' rolls

My posts about the play test games on here, the Lead Adventure Forum, and Facebook prompted a number of folks to reach out to me interested in helping with the play test. At this point, I have about 10 different groups in the U.S., U.K., and Italy running games of Surviving 'Nam and getting back to me with the results. The most enthusiastic group has been Bob F and Pete S from the U.K. (and Lead Adventure Forum). They have replied after every game and we have had an incredibly productive and helpful back and forth on their comments. I also ran four games of Surviving 'Nam at a couple regional conventions, World at War at Fort Meigs and Hold the Line in Port Clinton, OH. Following those November games, Bob, Pete, and I pronounced ourselves satisfied with the mechanics (there will be tweaks, of course, leading up to publication). Now, it is on to the writing the campaign and background portion of the rules, and playtesting the scenarios which will be included.

The other "New Guard" this year were orcs and goblins for Daniel Mersey's 2nd Edition of Dragon Rampant. These came out in the Fall and are part of a stable of games using the same basic mechanics. We have used them for a number of periods ourselves, including Ancients/Medieval (Lion Rampant), English Civil War (The Pikeman's Lament), American Revolution (Rebels and Patriots), Colonial (The Men Who Would be Kings) and Sci-Fi games (Xenos Rampant). If it is good for all these periods, why not another one (Fantasy)? Although this was intended to be a 2026 project, my friend Jeff G reached out to me earlier in the year with an offer I couldn't refuse. He wanted to sell of his collection of 28mm Gripping Beast orcs and goblins from the Ragnarok range. The price was unbeatable, but it was way more figures than I needed. I reached out to my friends and Rusty P said he'd be willing to go in on the collection with me. In fact, he bought Jeff's Dwaves, too.

    Some of the Gripping Beast orcs & goblins I painted up this year from the 'Ragnorak' line

When the horde of unpainted orcs and goblins arrived, and I divided them evenly between Rusty and myself, I honestly despaired of having my Miniatures Painted ever attain my Miniatures Acquired numbers. However, the speed with which I finished the Vietnam project allowed me to get a head start on them. As it stands, my "2026 Project" is pretty far along as 2025 draws to a close. My Sunday Evening group is pretty enthusiastic about playing some games of Dragon Rampant, with Mike S, Keith F, and Andy S all having armies lined up for it. I foresee us getting a game in no later than this January, I imagine. I made it a point to paint up my orcs and goblins as "Tolkien like" as possible. No Games Workshop greenies here...ha, ha! Response to how they're turning out on this blog and the Lead Adventure Forum has been very encouraging. I'm happy with them, too!

The final project -- ALSO more of a "2026" one -- was for a series of horror games set in frontier America. Specifically, I wanted to set them in Franklinton, OH, which is now pretty much part of Columbus, where I live. I went back and forth about whether to use Devilry Afoot (created by a Lead Adventure Forum member), Silver Bayonet, or Dracula's America. I envisioned the games to be cooperative, with each player controlling a couple of characters. They'd be battling monsters and enemies summoned by a native American tribal resistance to American settling of Ohio. I ended up selecting Devilry Afoot because it is the only one of the three that is truly cooperative. The other two are meant to be competitive (and one vs. one), with the monsters as non-player dangers in the scenarios. After the post-apocalyptic campaign experience with some player forces outstripping the others in effectiveness, I decided to go with Devilry Afoot. Plus, I am really excited and into cooperative games, nowadays.

    My first batch of 28mm figures for games of 'Devilry Afoot' set on the American frontier

I picked up a bunch of figures at Historicon 2025 (further torpedoing my chance of evening up Painted vs. Acquired, I thought). When the guys asked if I was going to run another Halloween themed game this October, I decided to kick things for Devilry Afoot into high gear so I could do so. This was only possible because, once again, I had finished the painting for the Vietnam project so quickly. I was successful in getting enough figures and monsters ready for the tabletop. So, in honor of Halloween, I ran The Coming Storm -- the debut for my series of games in this fully armed and operational 2026 project...ha, ha!

As two campaigns ended this year, another one took off fairly successfully. I began running a Star Wars skirmish campaign using Space Weirdos rules. Most of the figures were painted in 2024, and I had been planning to start up the campaign at the end of last year. I decided to have each player select a faction on a continuum from Empire to Rebel. Since we normally have six players show up, they included (Empire (Mike S) - Corporate Security (Joel S) - Mercenaries (Keith F) - Criminal Syndicate (Allen S) - Local Rebels (Tom G) - Rebel Alliance (Mike W). On the couple of times that Andy S could show up, I had him take on the role of the Tatooine locals in Mos Eisley. I would design the scenario and tailor each faction's Victory Points to their level of "All In" for their side of the continuum. Or I would give them side missions that intersected with the main opposed mission between the Empire and the Rebels. 

    One of my Star Wars skirmish games using Space Weirdos rules set in Mos Eisley on Tatooine 

Space Weirdos is a great set of rules, and everyone seems to be enjoying them. Each player controls a handful of characters who activate in a spiraling initiative system. When it is a player's turn, he chooses one of his unactivated figures and executes their three actions. Then it is on to the next player in Initiative Order, until everyone has activated all figures. This keeps folks involved, especially since Space Weirdos uses opposed die rolls to resolve shooting, melee, etc. I have another Star Wars game scheduled for January, and hope it continues to be enjoyable for my players throughout 2026. 

    Among the many games at Advance the Colors 2025 were Steve Verdoliva's Napoleonic ones

 

Conventions I attended in 2025

 So, I probably made it to more shows than I ever have before this year. Retirement will give you that opportunity, I guess! In January, I attended Siege of Augusta while visiting my friend Jason M in Columbia, SC. I think this was my third or fourth time at the convention, which Jason uses as a carrot to get me to visit him down south. Next up were three usual Spring-time ones: Cincycon (guess where?), DayCon (ditto), and Drums at the Rapids at Fort Meigs. I added in a new one when I helped organize a series of historical miniatures games at Buckeye Game Fest in late May. A friend had volunteered to do it, but had something else come up. So, I stepped in at the last minute and we did a decent job of collecting GMs to run miniatures games at this mostly board game convention.

Once again, I helped with the HMGS Great Lakes effort at Origins Game Fair in Columbus. This used to be a mainstay of our chapter, and a lucrative one for recruiting new members. However, Origins pivoted in directions it was going a decade or more ago, and we no longer felt welcome. That management has thankfully moved on and the all-genre convention actively sought us out to return and run games. Each year, we've gotten a little larger, I think -- especially in numbers of players signed up. My six runnings of Viking Town Raid were all full, if I remember correctly. If you want to get in on the fun, we need to have your event in PRONTO, ASAP, QUICKLY. Contact me in the comments or if you have my email, reach out, please. We'd love to have your game in our dedicated HMGS Great Lakes area inside the main miniatures hall! 

    A Bolt Action tournament was one of the many historical miniatures games at Origins Game Fair

After Origins, it was our historical miniatures hobby's biggest show in the U.S., Historicon 2025. We had a big group drive over from Columbus, where we met my friend Jason M and his son. I didn't run any games and instead declared it would be a weekend of playing miniatures games. Imagine that! There was a bit of a layoff until our Great Lakes chapter's flagship convention, Advance the Colors in Springfield, OH. We continue to grow every year and just missed my goal of attaining the 250 attendee mark, this year. Next year, for sure! I do administrative duties for this convention, so no running games or playing for me there. I wrapped up the year with the aforementioned November conventions, World at War and Hold the Line. My Surviving 'Nam was full all four times and I received great encouragement and some feedback in those games. I count that as 10 conventions (my friend Mike S would comment that is because that's how many fingers and thumbs I have!), which is almost one a month. Will I attend that many (or add more?) in 2026? We shall see!

    The finale of my 'Five Parsecs from Home' solo campaign features my crew completing their quest

Solo Games

 This was a completely new aspect of gaming for me in 2025. With the good fortune of having a regular weekly gaming group as well as an active local convention scene, I've never felt the need to do solo games. However, I began using solo games to test out a couple cooperative rules sets to see if I felt the mechanics would work with six players and a GM. The first one of these was Five Parsecs from Home. Prior to beginning the Space Weirdos campaign, I was still actively looking for a Sci-Fi rules set. I didn't want to use Wiley Games rules because of their strangely short weapon ranges and the fact it would seem like duplication of the post-apocalyptic campaign. I had read a lot of threads and game report on Lead Adventure Forum about Five Parsecs, so I decided to give it a try.

I created my own crew and began running a series of games using the rules. The campaign mechanics are simply top notch in Five Parsecs (and its fantasy precursor, Five Leagues from the Borderlands). The various charts and die rolls do honestly create a storyline and narrative for your characters. Of course, some of it the player creates in response to the roll, finding a way to rationalize that outcome. I had fun creating the background and story of the crew of the Inconceivable (of course, a nod to The Princess Bride). When my story arc ended, aka we completed our quest, I judged that the rules mechanics really weren't what I wanted for a six-player Sci-Fi game. Still, I had fun with it and encourage anyone interested in solo gaming or cooperative with a much smaller group to look into them.

    The Splintered Band escorts a wagon full of supplies in my first 'Sellswords' solo adventure

My other solo venture was using Sellswords & Spellslingers. I was thinking of running a semi-historical (or semi-fantasy?) campaign for the Sunday Evening gamers set in Dark Age Britain during the time of the Viking invasions. The players would be the heroes of Britain -- Saxons, Picts, Scots, Britons, etc. -- fighting off the Viking incursions. Think of it as a reverse of the Viking Town Raid game that I ran in 2025. Once again, I wasn't 100% sure of the mechanics fitting such a big group. So, I decided to run my own solo series of fantasy games using the rules to test them out.

I love my Splintered Light Miniatures anthropomorphic animals, so used that as an excuse to bring them onto the tabletop again. They had not seen light of day since our short delve into Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago seven (!) years ago. Thus began the Tales of the Splintered Band (see what I did there?).  I managed only two or three games, but I would like to go back this coming year and continue the adventures of Badger mage Jemmy Tar and his animal kingdom friends fighting against the incursion of the rat hordes. 

    Two Acheson Creations Vietnam buildings from Miniature Building Authority that I painted up

 My Painting Goals

In 2024, I tracked Painted "Stuff" vs. Acquired "Stuff", lumping in both terrain and scatter. That made for a weird mix, so I decided this year to split that into Miniatures, Terrain, and Scatter. I decided that the difference between "terrain" and "scatter" is mainly size and made an arbitrary call for each piece completed. A resin or 3-D printed building is definitely terrain. A 3-D printed basket of fish is scatter. Scratch building a rice paddy is terrain. Creating flocked markers to track which figures have moved in Space Weirdos is scatter. Yes, it is still a judgement call. However, I am very happy with how this division worked out in 2025. Here are my results, reproduced here:

• Miniatures: 306 Acquired, 307 Painted
• Terrain: 62 Acquired, 80 Painted
• Scatter: 144 Acquired, 213 Painted 

    Three new Mos Eisley buildings from Diabolical Terrain for my Star Wars skirmish games

I consider these numbers a whopping success! Remember my despair a couple times this year that I would ever get my Miniatures Painted above the lofty number my "Ooh, shiny!" tendency had set for me. So, what were some highlights of the terrain and scatter that I painted up this year? I would have to say finishing so much Vietnam terrain was very heartening. My favorites were the formerly Acheson Creations resin buildings that I picked up from Miniature Building Authority. What's more, I still have more to do in 2026. I have the Diabolical Terrain 3-D printed huts on stilts to do for buildings. I also want to do something for elephant grass, which I read about regularly in the historical accounts of the conflict that I've been devouring in 2025.

I also churned out more trailer park buildings and scatter for my post-apocalyptic and zombie games. Many of these were from one of my new favorites in 3-D printed terrain -- Bad Goblin Games. Sadly, with me pulling the plug on both post-apoc campaigns, all of that is sitting unused on the display shelves of my downstairs closet right now. However, I'm sure I'll find a use for them in 2026, as well. There's that idea I have for a modern-day trailer park battle sparked by a federal raid on an illegal moonshine still. There's simply too much good stuff from Bad Goblin and MBA completed and on the shelves to sit unused!

    I painted up 213 pieces of scatter terrain in 2025, including these clothes lines from MBA

There was also a nice output of buildings and things for my Star Wars campaigns in 2015. I painted up a number of 3-D printed "Tatooie" buildings from Diabolical Terrain for my take on Mos Eisley. I also scratch-built a squadron of TIE fighters that appeared in two scenarios. There was another influx of adobe buildings that I could use in my Star Wars games bought off my friend Jeff G at Hold the Line. So, I think I finally have enough buildings for my city games set on Tatooine in the Star Wars universe!

All in all, I would say that I had a VERY successful year of gaming in 2025. One indicator is this blog itself. This should be post #130. That is a more than 50% increase over last year's 86 -- previously the most ever in the 13 years I've been recording my gaming on Lead Legionaries. Doing the math, that means I am uploading a new post on an average of once every three days (actually more -- 2.8!). I thank all of my regular and occasional readers -- Bill, Donnie, Jason, Simon, Graham, Shaun, Neil, Ray, Richard, Johan, and anyone else I forgot to mention. And of course, Sunday Evening Gamer "Anonymous" (who will hopefully figure out how to create a Google ID in 2026...ha, ha!). Thank you all -- and see you in 2026!!

Hold the Line 2025 Purchases & Pics of Games

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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