Family Game Preparation

As I mentioned the other day, our annual "Family Fall Festival" is coming up rapidly (this approaching Sunday as a matter of fact).

For this year's fare, I am steering clear of a miniatures-based experience, as time has slipped away from me for preparation. Since we primarily play RPGs in our friends and family gaming group, no one will bat an eye if I roll out an RPG scenario.

Although I still have plans to run Fall of Delta Green eventually, the sample adventure is potentially far too involved for a single session.

I have found a standard Call of Cthulhu one-shot adventure to run, but I will be instead running it with The Cthulhu Hack Cthulhu Grey, a rules-light game based on the even lighter Cthulhu Dark. Call of Cthulhu, 7th ed., is pretty easy to understand for the most part but I don't want a D&D 5e situation where everyone is reading their character sheets trying to figure out what they can do (which has, coincidentally, also been my experience playing Call of Cthulhu, albeit 6th ed.). 

Rules-light hopefully means we can get into it much faster without getting bogged down in mechanics and worrying about long lists of specific skills (characters have an occupation, three skills, and two stats).

The hard part, for me, is that I like the Family Fall Festival and Christmas games to stand out from the other gaming we do during the year. It's part of the celebration and I want it to feel that way to the players - not just ordinary ho-hum.

Minis are out, so I'm turning my attention to the ambiance. 

I've purchased a table cloth(we don't use tablecloths ever so while it's not spooky, it's different) and LED candles for lighting. 

Now, as I have trouble reading even in bright light, I know the dim light may be an issue - that's why I picked up 24 votive candles and three tapers. Unfortunately, in last night's testing, I found 3 or 4 votive candles each may not be enough - at least not for me. So, I'll probably order some more to make sure we're covered.

I have a playlist of 1920s music to put on in the background while I set up, and from which I'll segue into creepier ambient music when the game starts.

Sound effects on hand will include waves, wind, rain, lighting, and strange sounds, controlled from a venerable Boss SP-303 "Dr. Sample" rather than software on my phone or laptop (to minimize light from anything but candles).  

Sometimes being a music-gear pack rat pays off.

Now that I think about it, this whole thing has a performance vibe, where the actors don't know their roles until the day of. I digress ...

The adventure, like most Call of Cthulhu adventures, comes with player handouts. I'm getting those printed, since they are in color, and possibly aging some of them with tea or coffee. 

Strange coins play a role in the investigation, so I picked up some creepy made-of-metal prop coins from Etsy. 

Picture by The Unassailable Mage on Etsy

They don't match the ones in the story, but they are odd enough, and I got enough that each player can take one home as a memento. 

I also picked up inexpensive sets of five different d6s for each player. This is entirely self-serving so I can tell at a glance when someone's Harm or Insanity is higher than their other dice. It just happens to have the benefit that they can keep them to add to their collections after the game.

At the very least, if they don't have fun, they will at least come away with some goodies! (Is this bribery? Maybe.)

Finally, I was looking for a centerpiece for the table - there are plenty of cool looking Mythos statues on Etsy, but those typically cost more than I can afford to pay for a one-time use. I recalled I had some air dry clay left over and finding it still good, I decided to try a proof of concept.

Behold, an ancient (and tiny, like 3") evil idol

Cthuloid idol.

 

My crude (aka non-existent) sculpting skills actually work to my advantage here, I think. The downside, as I've encountered before with this stuff, is that it takes forever for the clay to dry completely when it's a thick chunk.

So, for the "final product", I made a mass of aluminum foil roughly in the desired shape and then applied thin strips of air dry clay.  At least that was the plan. I kind of used some thick lumps for the "legs".

Shub-Niggurath

Despite that deviation, in the whole, this process theoretically means it will dry quicker - which is good, since I need this all finished - including painted - by October 6!  My goal is a "crude and disconcerting ancient idol of a previously unknown religion" and  once the paint is applied I think it'll sell that even more.

Why Shub-Niggurath? (asked no one)

Because she's my favorite. 

Also because the adventure is tangentially based around one of the water-affiliated entities and I want to draw the players minds away from that at first - especially the ones familiar with the Lovecraft Mythos who will immediately grasp for Cthulhu and Dagon.

There's still a lot for me to do before Sunday not least of which is finishing converting the scenario from the format of the module to my preferred format for running (this process, though tedious, means I really learn the module, so that, ironically, the final document needs only minimal reference during the game).

Tonight I pick up my PA from the rehearsal space so I can start working on setting up the sampler. (See, it really is a performance!)

Finally, on top of everything, I've been re-reading some of my favorite Lovecraft stories -mostly to mine for his vocabulary for describing cosmic horror and the creeping dread that overcomes his protagonists as they realize the full horror of what they are experiencing.

I may post again before the game but if not, I'll see you on the other side!

Zombies! And Blocks!

After my son was born, his mother decided we needed a unique family holiday tradition outside of the usual and so she invented "Fall Festival". We play something as a family, make something,  and watch something - usually "Over the Garden Wall". 

Typically, the "play something" is a video game, but this year, after spying some zombie Lego-knock-off brick figures and sets in the Dollar Tree, I decided to put together a game that would use them. To be honest, my original plan wasn't for Fall Festival (which is always the first Saturday in October) but I was asked if I could have it ready and, upon rediscovering the zombies supplement for GASLIGHT on WargameVault, I figured it was feasible.

Almost everything for the game, including the wooden cubes for markers, was from Dollar Tree except for the flora, the lamp posts, and gate with fence. That was provided by Amazon - they are knock-off Legos as well, and inexpensive.

Dice and playing cards were things I had on hand but even then, some of them were from the Dollar Tree.

Overview. of the table. Players had to make their way from the park to the cemetery to destroy the bubbling glop that produced zombies.

The aforementioned glop. As luck would have it, DollarTree sells a zombie figure in black slime. It's like they knew I'd need this!

My zombie horde. Well, as much as 16 zombies is a horde.

In order to make the game more like a video game to appeal to my son, I added ammo tracking (via (wooden cubes) and loot crates (more wooden cubes) with med kits (still more wooden cubes), additional ammo and weapons, and possible "specials".

There were four players each controlling a single figure and an NPC dog that was controlled by the team (but it would run away if it failed a save and potentially leave the table). 

Their objective was to find and destroy the zombie spawn point in the cemetery.

Early turns, the player character figures are entering from the lower left behind the pine trees.

Bob (you know, The Builder) and Brewster (the dog) clearing out zombies in the road. On their right, Potter has fired his AR-15 (The plain cube is a noise marker). Officer Krupke and Hermione in the middle, back (also with a noise marker).

Same turn different angle.

Krupke found this book of esoteric lore in one of the crates.

It contained the secret to defeating the zombies. (And removed the "you must score less than half - quarter at long range - of your shoot score to kill a  zombie" restriction)

The heroes fought across the road into the cemetery. Just before they entered, Potter found a radio in another crate. He managed to reach the outside world. What would it mean?

A helicopter en route!

The chopper lands and a crew of an anti-zombie paramilitary deploy. Will they be able to help our heroes?

Like true heroes, they don't wait to find out.

Bob, Brewster, and Krupke made it to the goop! After fighting off the spawning undead, Krupke planted the bomb. Although caught in the explosion, they made their saves!

The game turned out to be more of a success than I could have hoped for. Everyone seemed to have a great time and my son, who doesn't like to play much of anything table top related save PanzerKids loved it

I have plenty of critiques of course. 

For one, I don't feel it was as intense a game as it could have been - their survival was rarely in question. To do that, I would lower the shoot, scuffle, and save numbers for the player characters if I were to run it again (I let them players assign the values as they chose from 17,15 and 9 depending on how they imagined the character. I would probably go with 15, 12, 9 next time). 

I'd also buy way more zombie figures! There were times when I couldn't spawn any in because there were not enough figures. Actually, I'll probably buy more whether I run this particular game again or not. Zombie games are fun solo too because the zombies don't require any tactical planning.

Finally, a good option would be a second spawn point coming in behind the players so they'd have to watch their backs. As it was, per my original conception, each board section was like a video game level and once complete you don't need to go back. It worked well that way, but I think a second spawn point would be even better.

There was talk about starting a spring celebration tradition as well - mostly because of the game. I don't think another brick game is necessarily in order, but perhaps? The WWII themed brick stuff is very tempting.

As in most zombie movies, the authorities arrived too late to do anything except congratulate the heroes for a job well done.

Escape the Monster Apocalypse

Sunday was our annual Family Fall Festival - a holiday my son's mom invented when he was born. I don't recall the rationale, but here we are 12 years later and we still celebrate it with friends and family.

Three years ago, I suggested I could run a Halloween themed game for the party. And then again last year. Which meant I had inadvertently started a tradition. To the point that, a few weeks ago I was asked if I was going to run a game for the Festival. 

And so, somewhat last minute, I dug through my supplies and decided that, since the previous Festival games had featured Legos, so would this one. However, unlike previous years, I made use primarily of my existing collection and supplemented by raiding my son's massive tub of Legos to make the buildings for this game (and to provide player characters).

Rather than stop the zombie plague, the players would have to gather parts to repair an escape vehicle (represented by four Jack O' Lanterns around the board), while fending off zombies, skeletons, and boss monsters, and to do it all before the government nuked the town to end the monster apocalypse.

Fun, as they say, was had by all. Although my son was quite sleepy by the end.

For rules, I used One Page Rules Age of Fantasy: Skirmish, with army lists from both Fantasy and Grimdark (the players - because firearms are part of Grimdark). The players were all Hero types, which is unusual for OPR, and of course were essentially seven armies of 1, while the monsters were a much larger, but single, army. 

In play tests, the game lasted near two hours. In the event it was closer to four and as we had gotten a late start due to a delayed dinner, it was near 8pm when we started(so, a midnight finish!).

I had failed to account for the amount of discussion that would take place between the players around tactical choices - choices that I had purposely selected to add interest to the game!

Each player character had a trait that benefited them only, and another trait that benefited the party as a whole - under certain conditions (within 12", only if charging, in cover, that sort of thing). It was coordinating those for max effect that I believe had the greatest impact on total run time.

Next time, I aim for a one hour game.

And next time, will be the annual Christmas game (apparently another tradition I inadvertently started).

October Review

 

Role Playing 

For our Family Fall Festival this year, I did end up running a game after all - the player who had wanted to run a game just didn't have time to flesh out their idea. With two days to prepare, I went into research overdrive like I was writing a final paper, and like those days of yore, got it done at the last minute. 

For a visual element, with no time to make any bespoke terrain, I settled on atmosphere and re-used the LED candles and table cloth/runner, and autumnal wreath from last year, but replaced my DIY Shub-niggurath statue with a skull that was part of my son's Halloween costume last year. 

The setup: Every 66 years on the night of the Harvest Moon, a dark, crooked house appears on a hillside overlooking the small village of Hallowfeld. It disappears at sunrise. Of course, it is rumored that those who enter are never seen again.

The hook: This year is, according to a drunk merchant, the 66th year since the last appearance, and so the party decides to journey to Hallowfeld just to see it and partake in the Harvest Festival there. At the village tavern, while sitting around the fire and enjoying ghost stories, and old man comes in and tells them that he went in the house as a boy and managed to escape, but he left something behind - he doesn't know what, just that he needs it back, and he begs them for help.

It went pretty well ending with the party finding the lost thing (part of the man's soul), defeating the boss monster (a shadow, which should have been tough for a level 1 and 2 party, but between magic missile spells and the paladin's ability to have any one weapon be treated as magic once a day, it lasted one round), stealing the house's "battery", leaping from the porch as the house collapsed while throwing the unstable battery into the distance - where i took out a chunk of countryside.

We didn't have time to do administrative tasks after, but at least one PC leveled up (they had been trailing the others, having missed a few sessions). 

There are two sessions scheduled for November!

Wargaming

For reasons, I decided to break out my Southern Front WWI collection.

The scenario is, hopefully, recognizable - although I suspect the bridge would have an Italian name in this case - let us call it Esplodere Bridge.

Rules were G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (modified for 8-figure infantry/4-figure cavalry units. MGs counted as having 5 crew members) with some Contemptible Little Armies and In Good Company thrown in.

The game area is 36" x 24". Movement and shooting ranges were cut in half. Movement was variable as per CLA. Victory would go to the side that controlled the bridge after 10 turns (which would mean having units on the other side of the bridge for my purposes and enough of a force to be able to hold the bridge)

The Italians have one infantry unit, one MG, and one cavalry unit. The Austrians have two infantry units (1 figure with an LMG) and an MG. 

Italian infantry storm the bridge while an Austrian unit struggles to ford the river.

Perhaps a turn later, the Italians are nearly across (at the expense of shooting, since in GASLIGHT, it's move or shoot). Meanwhile the Austrians continue to struggle crossing the river, but their other unit and MG prepare to slaughter the Italians on the bridge.

 < REEL MISSING > 

(I was all wrapped up in playing)

The Italian force is in ruins at the end of turn 10. Really at the end of turn 9, but i thought, what the heck, let's keep playing. The Italians are on the bridge but even with their MG intact, they have little to no chance in my opinion.Victory to Austria-Hungary

Miniatures

No paint was applied to anything this month - although I did re-base my WWI Southern Front collection to individual bases (cut from mat board) again - because rebasing is my hobby and toy soldiers are just an excuse to do it! 

 

Those new bases still need paint, as visible above.

I did however, pack away about half of my figure collection to see if I even want to keep them or if they can be sent to good homes. I tend to make no decision when presented with many options - hello Kanopy watch list, I'm looking at you - and so I usually end up not playing anything, even when I have time.

I am a huge fan of books and podcasts about decluttering (i like to *think* about doing it at least), but I really glomed on to "the container concept" from "A Slob Comes Clean". Essentially, she stresses that the purpose of a container is to limit things, not to store them, but to provide boundaries to how much you keep. 

"You can keep anything you want, but you can't keep everything" (more or less a direct quote)

This idea sings to me. As well as the one about designating a day of the week as laundry day instead of waiting until you're out of socks or whatever. I digress.

Anyway, I designated a single 6-bin (they are like 14" x 14" x 3" - for scrapbookers but handy for 54mm and 28mm/32mm figures /- especially those with banners and such - too) organizer for my wargaming figures and that's it. (I have 12 bins worth, hence half my collection will be kept out).

That means, I can have 6 collections at 1 bin each, or 1 that fills all 6 or any combination that adds to 6 bins. That's it. (OK OK, i did cheat by putting a bunch on display a bit ago - playing games isn't the only way to appreciate toy soldiers after all)  

What remains? 

1. 54mm WWI Southern Front - it came down to WWI vs Colonial England/French Foreign Legion and both collections give a similar kind of game - lancers, infantry, machine guns. Only the costumes change and that's not enough reason)
2. 1/35 WWI Horror - I mean, it's 8 figures, plus monsters, most of which serve for RPGs as well.
3. 54mm-ish North Pole '42 - Weird World War II. Germans and  robotic tin soldiers commanded by a greedy industrialist are the bad guys.
4. 32mm Grim Dark Sci Fi - it's a collection that my son expresses even a little interest in,so it of course stays. Plus, I love the figures. It also scratches the same itch as 1:1 WWII skirmish games, with the advantage that I can play with others locally when the mood strikes.
5. 28/32mm Fantasy - I'm choosing to focus on two factions (inspired by Norm over at Battlefields and Warriors): lizard folk and orcs. Any other factions - and even some of the orcs - are borrowed from my RPG figure collection. I can also include Blitz Bowl here, but that's really a board game.

So, what in fact got moved to "storage":

• 54mm Colonial
• 54mm Fantasy,
• Brick WWII
• 1/72 WWII.
• 54mm AWI (well, a handful of militia from last Christmas's game) 

In some cases, storage means unceremoniously tossed into a big jumble, while in some cases, it means the current bin is just earmarked to go into a closet (which has to be cleared first).

I feel greatly relieved by this situation already and I've already played a few wargames in November!

Of course, once all this was decided upon, I realized my orcs needed cavalry - and after watching eBay for a bit, I scored a great deal on 7 painted boar boyz and they are on their way. So an October figure purchase, with a November arrival.

If I don't post again before then, see you in a month! 

Man the Walls!

Although I had planned to write up the Family Fall Festival Cthulhu Dark game, I was overcome by the desire to play a miniatures game set on Venus and gave into temptation as it were.

I was thinking about One Hour Wargames and how I like my VSF mish-mash version, but I really don't like little dice on the table trailing the units around (as of the other day - sometimes I don't care).

Hordes of the Things doesn't have this issue and while I have never played it or even read the whole book, I do have it and have seen plenty of game reports. 

So, I cherry picked a bit from it and had myself a game of what I am calling "HoTT and Lazy" (lazy because I am not using more than few of the combat rules). This is actually the second game played with the rules - the first one was spent tweaking things every turn. A re-match was in order (outcomes were the same).

***

The Allied Venusian Expeditionary Force (AVEF) after two recent disasters, became aware of movements towards a lonely outpost - one of the outer ring of small fortifications that provide a first line of defense for the AVEF zone (they think it's a zone; the local residents feel otherwise). 

A relief column was sent out almost immediately.

The fort's garrison held off frontal assaults by bands of determined lizard warriors, but on both the left and right, lizard forces were bearing down hard surround the defenders.

The AVEF's lancers (The Duke's Own), leading the relief force, were the first to arrive to aid the beleaguered fort.

The AVEF infantry were thrown into battle immediately as the lizards begun turning the flanks - presenting opportunity for the AVEF. Teeth and claws, stone, steel, and lead cut down swaths of fighters on both sides

The gallant Lt. Taylor commands the relief force.

Disaster struck! In a swirling melee, Lt. Taylor met his end at the hands of the lizard hero.

Moments later the fort was overrun, and with their forces crumbling, the remaining AVEF troops were forced to fall back.

Fortunately for the AVEF generals, word of failures, such as these, takes a ridiculously long time to reach the politicians back on Earth.

***

From  a HoTT perspective these are 24 point forces:

• AVEF: 1 Hero (General), 1 Artillery (in the fort), 6 Shooters (1 in the fort, 5 in the relief force), 2 Riders.
• Lizards: 1 Hero (General), 1 Behemoth, 2 Shooters, 2 Spears, 4 Warband

Playing area was 36" wide by 24" deep. Lizard foot troops move 6", AVEF moves 4". 

I was undecided on how to handle the fort in this game.

In my first game, the night before, I played it as a stronghold in HoTT. In this game - I started treating it as two units in cover, but didn't like the idea of troops recoiling out of the fort. So, I let them ignore recoil. But after a number of them, I realized they might never be eliminted. 

So, eventually I decided they would count as two units for shooting (Gatling with a 12" range, rifles with an 8" range) but they would fight as a stronghold (+6) for close combat and if a garrison unit was forced to recoil it was destroyed.

I'm not sure what I'll do in the future - that's the fun of playing solo though. I can change my mind and my opponent goes along with it!

September Review

Well September seems to have flown by and now we're in one of my favorite months of the year (because Halloween!). So, what did I do, gaming-wise, in September?

Not much. 

Miniatures / Wargaming 

Not a whole lot of anything happened with regards to miniature gaming - I did no painting of any real consequence, and the only game I played was One Hour Skirmish Wargames modified for the grim, dark, future.

Role-Playing Games 

I did run a session of Basic Fantasy RPG - and with just three players available, they decided to send their secondary characters out on an adventure. 

The adventure itself was based on The Delian Tomb adventure, which apparently is a well-known (online at least) introductory adventure, but I've been out of the online RPG space for a few years now, so it was new to me. It's essentially a 5-Room Dungeon model, although I don't believe that was the intent. 

Because the party has a goblin-focused mission coming up, I swapped out the goblins and bugbear in the original design for what I think are the BFRPG equivalent to duergar in D&D. I also reduced their numbers, since they are somewhat hardier than goblins.

It wasn't enough I guess? The evil dwarves handily defeated the party and it ended in a TPK.

Undaunted, the players sent in the third-stringers (new names written on the second-string character sheets in two cases at least), who managed to defeat the dwarves. They also found the hidden treasure and wiped out the resistance there too, before looting the tomb as all good adventurers do regardless of alignment.

My plan from the beginning was to allow and encourage the players to swap their characters in and out as they please, depending on the adventure and what the other players are sending out (you don't need three necromancers in the same party EVERY adventure, for example). Now that some of the backups have had some play time and one even has a magic item, I think the players may be more apt to mix and match.

Upcoming 

I don't have any plans to run BFRPG in October, but one of the players has floated the idea of running a session for the Family Fall Festival, and would like me to facilitate the rules and stats and such. I'm happy to do it, so I guess if anything I'll be assistant GM-ing at the very least (and I'll be able to roll up a character which is always fun).

If there is interest from the players, of course, I will run a game for them. 

As for miniatures, that I have plans to paint is certainly true, but whether I will or not - who knows? 

The same can be said for getting a game on the table, but it is fall, and it is football season, and it seems *very* likely that I will play some Blitz Bowl at the very least. 

Parting Shot

As blogging is a visual medium, I should include some kind of picture. So here is a photo from the end of September - there's a walk/run/bike path near my apartment and there are sculptures along it. 

Maybe it's just me, but the other day I was struck by how much this one brings to mind a Quar Napoleon. 

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),

AVEF Punitive Expedition

My attention has turned to prepping for our Family Fall Festival game (I'll be running a Call of Cthulhu RPG adventure using The Cthulhu Hack rules) but I still managed to setup and play a game this weekend:

After the devastating ambush of an Allied Venusian Expedition Force (AVEF) patrol, the allies decided to strike a retaliatory blow upon the lizard folk of Venus. A show of force would be made at a lizard gathering spot - an abandoned ancient temple complex known to be used by the lizard warriors as a gathering ground for exchanging intelligence about the Earthlings' movements. An engineer section would, if possible, blow the temple sky high.

Unfortunately, the lizard folk were well aware of the column fast approaching the ruin and sent a considerable force to oppose it.

Armies consisted of 6 units each which, 1/3 would arrive on turn 1, 1/3 on turn 2, and 1/3 on turn 3. The composition of each wave was determined randomly, with the exception of the AVEF cavalry, who would arrive from one of three potential flank points on a die roll on turn three or after, depending on the result. 

There are 5 objective points 1) the center thick jungle terrain on the AVEF edge , 2) the hill on the lizard edge, 3) the ford, 4) the thick jungle to the right of the AVEF (center top in the picture below), and of course 5) the temple complex. The temple complex is worth 2 points, everything else is worth 1 point. A tie is quite possible.

The forces arrive on the battlefield.

The French advance on the AVEF left, but it's slow going.

Lizard folk archers arrive on the hilltop, accompanied by a triceratops battle wagon to their left.

The stalwart Highlanders arrive in the AVEF center.

The lizards, unimpeded by their native jungle, reach the temple complex first.

The AVEF gatling makes its way into position - a clear lane of fire to the complex - while the Highlanders become entangled in the jungle growth.

First contact! Lizard skirmishers (of the Gecko tribe) tear through the jungle and crash into the advancing French. 

The Gatling opens fire on the complex. Unfortunately, they are hindered by the cover provided by the ancient stones, as well as by the fact that they are poor shots.

The French fall to the lizard skirmishers. They continue their relentless advance along the river.

The Gatling crew has no idea what is coming towards them. Meanwhile, more lizard forces arrive by land and, concerningly, by air.

Lady Luck finally shows favor to the AVEF; the lancers appear behind the lizard heavy troops (of the Marine Iguana tribe) and crash into the triceratops battle wagon.

Although greatly reduced by a hail of arrows, the Highlanders manage to reach the complex and engage the lizard archers in violent hand to hand combat in and around ancient walls and pillars.

Surrounded and vastly outnumbered, the lancers fight valiantly for Queen & Country & Planet.

When the Gatling crew fell, the AVEF flank was completely exposed - leaving the engineers and the commander in charge of the force to hold off the approaching Geckos and Pteranodons.

The battle wagon is knocked out of the fight, but the Marine Iguanas closed in. The lancers' luck has run out.

The AVEF is decimated. The few survivors are forced flee back towards their base, with a flight of Pteranodons no doubt pursuing overhead.

This was another crushing victory for the lizards. Now, it is true that I was playing them as "my" force, and even I look with suspicion upon the result. Still, I don't control die rolls or card draws. 

When I was setting up the sides, I had thought the superior fire power of the AVEF would help overcome any hidden bias. What I had failed to account for was 1) the limit to LOS presented by the crowded terrain which would greatly reduce the range their rifles could be effectively deployed from and 2) how my rules changes would impact things.

Once again, I used In Good Company. 

However, I added and changed a few rules:

The first modification changed what a unit could do on its activation. As played above, units can only take 1 action on their activation Move OR Shoot OR Melee (which might involve a charge into melee, but you get the idea) or for leaders, they could instead choose a leader action.

Movement was adopted from Contemptible Little Armies. The value to the left of the slash is for open ground, to the right is for rough ground. Lizards, being native, are not subject delay through the Venusian jungle, the way non-native troops are. The dice are rolled once per unit and apply to all figures in the unit.

• AVEF Foot units 2d3/1d3
• Gatling units 1d3/1d3-2
• Lizard Foot units 3d3/3d3
• Lancers 4d3/1d3
• Pteranodons 4d3/4d3

To try to preserve the rule about machine guns moving and shooting, I modified that bit to read:

• Machine guns and cannon may NOT move and fire in the same turn

That's actually quite a bit stricter, but it makes more sense given my restricting units to move OR shoot when activated.

Leader actions are:

• Order friendly unit within 6” to fire
• Order friendly unit within 6” to move 1d3”
• Attempt to recover any in hospital figures for a unit within 6”

Both sides made good use of these.

Finally, I added a morale rule:

If a unit ends a turn with only KIA and in-hospital figures, then it has routed/been destroyed and does not return.

Nothing earth shattering, but it would add just a little more to an enjoyable slim set of rules.

The rule change that had the most impact, I believe, was the rolling for movement. The AVEF just rolled horribly all around, but the Highlanders spent several turns traipsing through the jungle. They should have gone around - had they done that they could have brough the center into contention.

Whether that would have changed anything is up for debate - the AVEF, with the exception of the lancers, rolled poorly in close combat and especially so when checking to see if the figure was out of the fight, in the hospital another round, or back to its unit.

The morale rule, while I like it in theory, did mean that there was no chance for the French to come back from a rather devastating melee that ended with the remaining seven figures in-hospital. My new rule meant they would never get a chance to even check their status.

Perhaps a better rule is if a unit STARTS a turn with all of its figures killed or in-hospital, then they are routed/destroyed. That allows for every in-hospital figure to at least test once (on the STOP card that ended the previous turn) before a unit is written off.