April Recap

Not much to share pictures of this month.

I briefly picked up a paint brush and applied the base uniform color for eight WWII French. I could have sworn I had primed nine, but it seems he's AWOL.

That was the extent of my painting.

I did order ten used(and painted) old GW metal Black Orks. I can't wait until they get here - they'll go against my lizards, when I make time to game that is.

Gaming-wise, I didn't get a game in until this most recent Monday night when my Sisters of Battle and Tyranids met in a first pass at Space Weirdos in a small 75-point game.

At that level, that's just three Sisters and five Nids - a tiny number of figures, but well suited for a small space gamer.

I played without the command points or the optional rules, just to get a feel for the basics. One game is not enough to go by, but I enjoyed it far more than Grimdark Future: Firefight for a similarly sized game. I found the rules easy to pick up and I appreciate that they have a solo supplement included with the rules (though I haven't tested). It's dice-based, which is not my favorite, as I prefer cards, but it uses more than just the d6, so I actually enjoyed rolling. 

RPG dice need more love!

Oh and I took no pictures.

That said, this evening (Wednesday), I setup a similar set table but played with One Hour Skirmish Wargames. I don't know why I bother to play anything else honestly. Such a great game. Immersive. Cinematic. Strong narrative. Etc.

I need to buy more decks of cards though - I keep losing one or two cards from each deck. Maybe the missing French infantryman took them.

Oh and no pictures again - trying to get even further away from photographing games and just enjoying the playing.

Most of my gaming efforts in April were focused on prepping for an Episodic Old School D&D campaign  - we meet this weekend for our character creation session. 

I'll be running Basic Fantasy RPG (BFRPG) which is essentially a retro-clone of one of my favorite iterations of D&D (and the first one I played lo those many years ago), Moldvay\Cook Basic\Expert Dungeons & Dragons. Character creation should take at most 10-15 minutes for B/X but everyone will be creating three PCs (given the lethality of old school games). 

Not only that but BFRPG implements a 1e-style separate race and class system and they have a plethora of community tested and approved additional races and classes beyond the four core classes (Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, Thief) and four core races (human, halfling, elf, dwarf). So, selection will probably take quite a while as most of our group won't read anything until we're at the table.

If you're unsure of what I mean by an episodic campaign, think A-team or Law & Order as examples. Basically, they will have adventures with no overarching plots tying them together, other than player character emergent plots. There isn't even a necessarily consistent world (how many times does the same actor appear on Law & Order as different people on different episodes?).

Adventurers, however, are not police nor are they a team of commandos who were imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit. Especially at 1st level, they aren't even top of the list when someone is in trouble. So, rather than waiting for adventures to come to them, I want them to find them, yet not a sandbox and not a hex crawl, because those are a hard sell for at least one of my players. 

To that end, and mostly because I love making maps, I created a map of sorts (there's no scale, it's not even relative distances, so is it really a map?) with some initial adventures indicated on it. My intent is that it provides them agency in what adventures they go on. 

It's not really for navigation within the game world, but for navigation within the list of curated adventures from my library that I could run for them in the first two gaming sessions we have scheduled - it's more of a graphical database interface perhaps?

March Recap

This will be a photo heavy post as there was some painting in March - not so much gaming though.

What gaming there was featured five Sisters of Battle trying to escape a hoard of 21 Tyranids by reaching an extract point. I played two games of the same scenario - once with Grimdark Future:Firefight - which I'm not fond of as a solo game anymore - and once with some improvised rules that were equally unsatisfactory. I think One Hour Skirmish Wargames is going to be the way to go, or something very much RPG-lite.

 Painting-wise, I made some progress on my Alps 1940 forces:

French MG base, two infantry bases, and a leader.

The Italians received reinforcements making one full platoon and one 3/4 (using Crossfire organization):

I'm trying to code the units by basing material. Not an original idea by any means, but very useful.

Work began on the fourth army for my fantasy ... campaign? ... I don't know, I have ideas.

The microphone in the back tells you about what I've been spending most of my time on.

They are WiP. I have a lot of gear remaining to paint - I am hopeful the headgear will really make the figures pop as I don't want to shade them (going for toy soldier look). As they are, the white just washes out the details.

 In my last post, I mentioned painting some lizards (but no picture) and then I painted a few more. Here are the ones done last month:

The archer is intended to function as a Chameleon Hero in Age of Fantasy, while the spears will make up a unit of Saurian Guards (when combined with some command figures)

 Next up, some heavies - a unit of gator warriors:

I don't know who made them - they kind of remind me of Age of Aegyptus figures but not anything currently available.

My favorite of the bunch:

He is an old Grenadier model from the early 80s I believe. His color scheme is based on the yellow-headed gecko (they tend towards orange in spite of the name). He will be a Gecko Hero for Age of Fantasy.

And, just for giggles, the current painted 28mm lizard folk army:

Obviously that excludes the dinosaurs I have, as well as the yet to be painted frog mage and gator hero. Plus I have a fair number of Wargames Atlantic figures to assemble and paint to add to my red-tailed skinks.

I just get a kick out of looking at them. 

Will they ever be used as a full force for Age of Fantasy? I have no idea. I'd have to be able to find people that play it locally (I know they exist but I am no longer on FB which is where they are). I do have an idea for games of small skirmishes between the various tribes that will get them on the table regardless.

I am fairly certain that if I had to abandon all of my stuff to relocate, I'd find a way to pack my lizard folk figures in  28mm and 54mm! 

Until next month!

January/February Recap

 Lots of irons in lots of fires, and blogging regularly has received the axe, but I am still out here doing my thing, and I got in a bit of painting and gaming in January and February.

Finally got my Pozzuolo del Friuli scenario on the table using modified One Hour Wargames "Machine Age" rules

Morschauser Shock modified for Fantasy, One Hour Wargames scenario on 2/3 scale table, i.e. 24" square.

Morschauser Shock and Horse & Musket modified for VSF. One Hour Wargames scenario. Full scale, i.e. 6" bases and 36" square.

For reasons, I started painting the Battle of the Alps (Italy and France) in 1/72, with multi-figure basing. this is the first platoon of alpini.

I also painted five additional 28mm lizard warriors - one Reaper Bones and four Dark Heaven - and have gotten the first platoon of 1/72 French started.

Oh, and I played the classic GDW game, Battle for Moscow, several times in a single day, and also a game of Burning Mountains 1916, from Compass Games - with turns spread over three days.

Cheers!

Morschauser Shock Modifications for Fantasy Document

I played another game of modified Morschauser's Shock Period Rules last night - testing a few tweaks made since the last game. 

Human Heavy Infantry clashes with Marine Iguanas (Move 9", Front Melee 4, Rear Melee 2, SP 6, unarmored)

They worked well and gave an exciting game with unexpected highs and lows for both sides, and a lot of narrative flavor.

Here is a link to the document for those interested: Modifications for Morschasuer’s Shock Period Rules for Fantasy    

The modifications are intended to result in satisfying games of an hour or less, with 6 units per side, clearly in the One Hour Wargames way, and I have not tried them with more or fewer units.

Pteranodons were statted with the monster table - a mix of picking and rolling: Move 12", Melee Front 4, Rear 2, SP 8, 2d6 when attacking, and tagged with armored and flyer.

They require a copy of Morschauser's How to Play War Games in Miniature, original or the John Curry reprint as I have, to fill in the blanks.

It's inexpensive to get the e-book version and it is by far my favorite of the wargaming classics, only just behind Little Wars, and I highly recommend it.

Human hero captures the hill but the lizards would reclaim it. It would change hands several times.

I feel that 10 turns has worked well in my games with these rules using One Hour Wargames scenarios, however, if you want to play 15 turns per OHW, by all means.

This plucky unit of Geckos (bog standard Skirmishers in my modifications) held off the enemy General's unit repeatedly.

Going forward, I think, if the result is not obvious after turn 10, I may roll 1d6 and subtract 1 from the score. The result will be how many turns remain (so, on a 1, the game is over).

In the end, the humans claimed the hill, but the lizards were in clear control of the cross-roads. A tie!

The game pictured above was surprisingly well-balanced, probably by accident. 

What I find most surprising about Morschauser's approach, is that even without +/- to die rolls, only different unit stats, the different unit types feel different, and benefit from being used in ways that, to my mind, make sense. 

Now, admittedly, skirmishers holding the hill was not the best choice, but deployment was determined by die roll. 

That they held their own was a delightful surprise, and exactly what I want from the rules.

2025 Plans and Such

It's my favorite time of the year in the wargaming blog scene, where bloggers post their reflections on the past year and their goals and plans for the year.  I'm a little behind with my own post, but I was caught up in my renewed enthusiasm for Morschauser.

In 2024, I kept my plans to a minimum, with the big goal being to paint the 48 Games Workshop figures I gifted myself for Christmas 2023, which I did. Go me!

Plague Marines, painted in January 2024, are my 2nd favorite 40K unit, after my Sisters of Battle

I painted other stuff too (an additional 45 figures if my accounting is correct), but they weren't part of that goal.

For 2025, I put some extensive thought into some sort of overarching hobby goals (I enjoy the process of coming up with goals and action steps and all that jazz. Plus, I had some downtime while visiting my family). Tl;dr: 

• Arrange more social gaming
• Focus on making terrain and scenery
• Limit spending on figures to gift money only

Social Gaming

Although I am a solo wargamer to the core, I would like to try to make some local friends who share my interest in painting toy figures and rolling dice. To that end, I will attempt to get in some games with the Georgia One Page Rules group - primarily with my lizard army. 

And of course, I'm hoping to run some "family and friends" games. 

I enjoyed our Family Fall Festival Cthulhu Grey game so much (as did the players) that I want to run more Cthulhu Dark/Grey/Dark Green or maybe CoC (Call of Cthulhu, not Chain of Command) 7th Ed. I have a *significant* collection of 7th ed material (from Humble Bundle), that I can use with any of those rules. I will probably run a Fall of Delta Green scenario using Dark Green as it is much easier to teach for a one-shot.

Terrain and Scenery

I would like to play more 1/72 PTO this year than I have in a very long tie and for that I need palm trees and jungle. The trees will probably be paper, wire, and masking tape as it works very well. My grim dark sci-fi terrain is significantly lacking, so some low budget DIY barriers, ruins, etc. are called for.

Limit Figure Purchases

While I am limiting my figure purchases to gift money, I already have some planned. 

The first is a bag of Armies in Plastic Egyptian Lancers (for conversions to WWI Italian lancieri). 

Two of these were finished in 2024. The other two were done in 2022. 

Less certain, but certainly appealing, is a bag of LOD British regulars or light infantry for some skirmishes with my colonial militia.  It's a period that means a lot me personally, not because my family fought in it (they weren't even on this continent yet) but because I lived in Philly for thirteen years from my mid 20s to my late 30s (one year for each of the original colonies?) and the history surrounded me every day. 

So, I'd really like to do * something * figure-gaming related with it.  

I tried to go down this road once before - albeit for bigger battles - but, this time, the project is much smaller and far less overwhelming. A dozen figures on both sides and a gun or two for an objectiveis more than enough for what I have in mind (for now!).

The Other Stuff

Of course, there will be painting - but it's not a goal in itself this year. While I have no doubt that I'll paint the figures I got for Christmas (the lizards at least), it's not something I feel an urge to make a goal. It'll happen organically.

I have a lot of ideas about what I'd like to play this year, but the list below constitutes a wish list more than a to-do list.

• WWII PTO - 1/72 Guadalcanal or Tarawa (I have scenario books for both) or maybe a fictional island landing using my own grid-based rules that are a mix of Crossfire, The Portable Wargame, and Advanced Squad Leader: Starter Kit #1. 
• WWI Caporetto - I'm going to rebase the figures again (yes again) to single figure bases and then use sabots with One Hour Wargames 'Machine Age' rules with my modifications. Because I change my mind about basing way too often.
  
• Grim SciFi - I'm less enthused about Grim Dark Future Firefight lately, so, probably with One Hour Skirmish Wargames, Skirmish Kids, Space Weirdos, or maybe Fistful of Lead Core Rules. I want more immersion and narrative, almost RPG, than I get from GD:FF.
  
• Perilous Tales in the American Colonies, 1750s-1780s - just what it says on the tin. Colonist fashion didn't change much if at all during this period.
• AWI Very Small Skirmishes - Skirmish Kids, OHSW or Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket, 2nd edition. Might as well make use of my colonial militia figures!
• Italy's Lame Attempt to Invade France in 1940 - Brick figures! Probably Bolt Action 2nd Edition or 1BC Toy Soldiers. Or maybe Crossfire if I feel cheeky. 
• Weird World War I - using a modified Perilous Tales most likely. 1/35 (yes, back to 1/35)
• Venus! - My beloved lizards and the AVEF will return. Possibly for "big battles" using One Hour Wargames, or one of the Colonial Portable Wargame variants, possibly small skirmishes using One Hour Skirmish Wargames or Skirmish Kids, or something else.
  
• Lemuria - 54mm fantasy ancients/medieval using my modified Morschauser Shock rules, or possibly my One Hour Wargames "Ancients/Dark Ages/Medieval' combo rules. I really want to do a 6-sided campaign (it's a point-to-point campaign structure from an issue of Lone Warrior) but I may just play games and have a loose narrative to tie them together, as I kind of prefer that generally.
• Age of Fantasy - This is what I will probably play with the Georgia OPR group.
• WWII Small Skirmish - 54mm British vs Germans, Europe. Germans vs Soviets, Eastern Front. OHSW or 1BC Toy Soldiers or 5 Men in Normandy.

Looking at that list makes my head hurt and think I should let go of more collections!

Finally, I picked up this for inspiration to read this year:

Battle of the Alps: 1940: Italian Invasion of France

This book has been on my wish list a long time and I finally found a low-priced used option. 

I'm only a chapter or so in and my initial impression is that it's not the best edited book ever - it could use some tightening up, and some punctuation edits, but that's a nitpick. 

The fact that the citations so far have all been secondary (or even tertiary?) sources is a bit disappointing, but there aren't many other books in English dedicated to the subject (any in fact that I could find in the past. Only as I was writing this did I learn there is a new title, The Italian Army in the Battle of the Alps 1940, coming out in February, 2025),

Morschauser Fantasy Shock

Much of my holiday down time was spent planning/goal setting for the new year - most of it not hobby related. However, on the hobby front I become consumed with the thought of how to make my 54mm fantasy type armies work for me *without* having to buy anything and keeping any painting to an absolute minimum.

What I wanted was something that isn't 1:1 skirmish. I really like my combination of One Hour Wargames periods to make a fantasy set, but of course, I can't just let sleeping dogs lie. 

Many hours of playing around in Google Draw with various basing and organization ideas led to using 6" x 3" sabots, which is suitable for One Hour Wargames. But instead, for reasons that escape me now, I decided to modify Morschauser's Shock era rules to suit my needs.

Something always draws me back to Morschauser. 

The first game went pretty well, but I took no pictures and tweaks were required. For one, I didn't use sabots, but just kind of eyeballed unit frontage.

For the second game, which I played last night, I roughly cut out some 6" x 3" cardboard sabots to get a better idea of unit frontage and added necessary rule tweaks. This time I took pictures!

A Tanitian hero (and her entourage) battles Qamar heavy infantry.

 

Qamar heavy cavalry ride down a unit of Tanitian skirmishers.

The hill would change possession four times. The Tanitian heavy infantry and hero held out for a good while though.

Turn 10. I originally set out 10 turns as the limit - since these aren't OHW rules and I didn't know how long it would go. When turn 10 ended, it didn't seem fair to call it a Tanitian victory given they were being enveloped.

I decided to play on. This is around turn 13 I think? You can imagine how it ends. It did go to turn 15 before Tanitia was driven entirely from the field. Along with another Qamar unit.

I used Morschaser's roster system (instead of tracking with little dice trailing my units like I usually do I made a unit roster sheet. I don't know why it only occurred to me to try this last night and not in the dozens of OHW games I've played), but increased strength points to 6 for basic units.

Rather than rolling 1 die per strength point, I went The Portable Wargame way and rolled 1d6 for the unit regardless (I've done this before when I've modified Morschauser's Modern rules).

I added unit types: mixed skirmishers, heroes, generals,and monsters. 

I added spellcasting as a "tag" to apply to any particular unit that has the ability (my mods push the rules to be very much narrative oriented without concern for any sort of balance - after all, I'm the only one playing, so I am not too upset when I lose, because I also win as long as I have fun and the story is good).

I also modified the melee rules so they are not "to the death" but involve push back results - inspired again by The Portable Wargame and Hordes of the Things (which I have kind of sort of skimmed).

It all worked well and I enjoyed the game quite a bit - like OHW I can play without constant reference to the rules and focus on decision making, but I found there was a good deal more excitement in combat. Not only how much damage will be done but if any at all.

Tweaks were still required though, and I've already updated my modifications with some notes about changes I decided to add during play. I'm looking forward to playing again soon.

Hopefully, these rules will be the basis for a six-sided campaign later in the year (once I knock out three more armies - two of them will be very easy to do though, more on that when I finally get around to posting my plans for the year).

Last Post of 2024!

A bit late, but here is a single picture from the Christmas Day game.

The above was taken near the end of the game. The tension had been ratcheting up gradually until finally it all hit the fan - the bogeyman, wraiths, wolves, AND wendigo all out on the table. 

The wraiths were super annoying (in my play tests and in the real thing). I just borrowed an existing monster from the rulebook - a spirit, I think. When killed they respawn 8" away. There is no way to actually kill them.

The party lucked out during the final rounds - I rolled poorly when checking against the threat level and the villains only recovered hit points once. By concentrating their attacks, the party was able to kill the wendigo. With the evil destroyed, the wolves were released from their trance, the wraiths were dispelled, and the bogeyman, who had profited from his lurking around the wendigo lair, took off deeper into the woods.

Huzzah!

While the players enjoyed the setup, figures, and terrain, (and 2/3 liked the game system) to my surprise, what really tickled them was the cotton "smoke" for the fired muskets. As a staple of Horse & Musket wargame pictures I have seen over my nearly 20 years of miniature gaming, I thought nothing of it, but for them it was revolutionary (no pun intended, given the game's period). 

I was reminded that it's easy to take for granted those things that we do or see every day and how much impact the littlest thing can have on someone who hasn't encountered it before. It also reminded me of something I read in a book long ago, about how, when you invite people to dinner at your house, you should make them what you would normally make, don't aim for fancy or different or to impress, because what is a typical meal for you will still be a treat for your guests.

In any case, I am quite satisfied with how it looked and played, and I look forward to playing it as a solo venture since Perilous Tales supports solo play out of the box and utilizing the "campaign" rules which allow for character advancement. But that's for 2025 - the Christmas game was the last game of 2024. 

Of course, I'm knee deep in my reviewing 2024 and goal setting for 2025 (for everything, not just hobby), so more on that will probably be my next post.

Until then, Happy New Year!