It has been exactly 3 weeks since my little fur buddy departed this world. I’ve begrudgingly come to grips with it and am starting to interact socially with other people again. Enjoyed lunch with an old friend, saw the latest Indiana Jones movie, and went to a nearby winery with my wife & another couple and listened to music on-the-lawn while drinking wine slushies. All of that was very good stuff and great for my mental health.
This week, I took a couple of days off work to travel down to Lancaster, Pennsylvania with two close friends to play games and shop at the Historicon 2023 miniature wargaming convention. We had a blast. Man, I really needed that.
On Thursday, we played in a grandiose Gnome Wars game (Assault on Fort Lockhart) that was run by Jim Stanton, the game’s designer and Education officer of HMGS East. I was on the side of the Bad Guys (mostly German Gnomes) and was commanding a unit of Russian Gnomes and a small detachment of Gnomo Sapiens (cavemen) accompanied by an angry Stegosaurus. Our side’s goal was to advance longways across the battlefield and take the hilltop fort. Yeah right, like that was ever going to work. Our C-in-C had all of us march out in a slow and careful March Column formation. The lead units got shot up and blown to pieces by enemy mortar fire. After three turns, most of us said “Screw It”, broke formation, and advanced towards our foes. The results weren’t much better. My personal highlight was charging my Stegosaurus through a massed band of Swiss Gnomes, trampling 7 of them in the process. The carnage was glorious!
In the end, it was a Good Day for the Good Gnomes, and a miserable day for the Gnomish Kaiser, the Russians, and everyone else on my side of the table. Still, it was a helluva lot of fun playing with nice people, on a truly beautiful table, with a great GM who keeps things moving and has a terrific sense of humor.
On Friday morning, the three of us played our first ever game of Wars of Ozz, which was run by Chris Palmer of the H.A.W.K.S. This is basically a Napoleonic mass-battle game set in the world of a post-apocalyptic Ozz, featuring Munchkins, Quadlings, Gilikins, Winkies, Whim Whim, and more duking it out against each other using black powder weapons.
It was an interesting game. For my group, who most often play fantasy games with a wider variety of troop types, special powers, and heroic characters, playing a game focused on just infantry/cavalry/artillery mostly differentiated by their core stats was a big change of pace. On the plus side, I enjoyed the Command & Control rules, the simplicity of combat, and the nice variety of reactions that troops had based on their race/morale-profile. I’m less fond of the endless reaction tests, which feel fiddly and often result in utter chaos. While I love fog-of-war in wargames, I prefer games where players make more decisions & decide on counter-actions, rather than having the game dictate them. That said, I did enjoy Wars of Ozz overall and would gladly play it again.
The Wars of Ozz figure range, made by Old Glory, are unique and really cool. Kevin played the Whim Whim and his cavalry, mounted on what looked like a Camel crossed with a Lizard experiment gone awry, were just fantastic. I was also fond of the green-skinned Winkies, but I wasn’t fond of how they whomped my rotund Quadlings and routed two of my units. It was not that surprising since my Quadling Artillery couldn’t hit the broad side of an elephant’s ass from 10 yards. Gah! Not appearing in our battle were any of the Land of Harvest figures; the pumpkin men are terrific.
I made some nice purchases during my 3-day jaunt down to Historicon. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, but I’m always on the lookout for nicely painted, reasonably affordable 28mm minis to use in fantasy, dark ages, medieval, pulp, and sci-fi games. Off the top of my head I snagged:
- 16 painted Vikings
- 14 painted Huns (infantry)
- 13 painted Anubis warriors
- 8 painted Norman infantry
- 3 painted Wizards/Clerics
- 1 painted Dwarf Hero
- 1 painted Earth Elemental
- 1 painted Catapult + crew
- 3 painted Rocky Ground terrain pieces
- 1 painted swampy pool
- 6 Monster Fight Club trees (3 Green, 3 Snowy)
- 1 unpainted unit of Late Roman Archers for SAGA (Gripping Beast, 8 figures)
- 2 unpainted Warlords for SAGA (1 Late Roman, 1 Norman)
- 1 unpainted unit of Sleazoids (Star Schlock, 5 figures)
- 1 unpainted unit of Beefheads (Star Schlock, 5 figures)
I plunked down some dough, but I’m pretty satisfied with all that. And it feels good to get back to gaming again. Until next time, peace out!
Tiny Painted Heroes 