My Silver Kings friends have started something else. You’ll recall our Wednesday meetings began as a SAGA group, the Dark Ages skirmish game. I love it. I’ve built my four armies with three more ready to be painted. We’re scheduled to play SAGA the first and third Wednesdays of the month.

The alternate Wednesdays are open and we’ve tried a variety of different things. However the one game that has had staying power is The Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game system from Games Workshop. I know what you’re thinking-Games Workshop, yikes. But honestly, Games Workshop, Warlord Games, Gripping Beast/Studio Tomahawk; it’s all kinda corporate and I don’t care for it, but the games are fun and my friends like it, so I’m in.

I’ve played the game system three or four times. It’s a little fiddly and I haven’t quite picked it up perfectly, but I really do like it. There are three reasons I’ll share below.

Let me start with the first and most important. I am a lifelong Tolkien admirer. I read the Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was 13. 56 years later I’ve probably read the LoTR more than 25 times (I’m reading it now.) I’ve read many of the books associated with that story more than once (yes, including the Silmarillion several times.) I love the stories and the craft that went into assembling an alternate world with an alternate history. That I can play a game kinda based on my favorite piece of writing is wonderful.

Note* Yes it does irritate me that this game, and many current aspects of LoTR is based on Peter Jackson’s great movies rather than Tolkien’s even better books. The game is weird because it generally follows Jackson, though some characters not in the movie show up in the game.

Second, it may come as no surprise to you that I’ve squirreled away a bunch of GW Middle Earth figures. These were released with The Two Towers game box in 2004 and I couldn’t help myself. They lived in a couple of tubs under a record case until recently. GW miniatures are hideously expensive due to all that Tolkien Family licensing that must be paid. Due to the wonders of 3D printing, many Tolkienesque figures are available on the market (though not called by Tolkien names) at a somewhat more reasonable price. It may not surprise you that I have purchased far more of these than sense will allow. I’ve painted about half the figures I had stashed, and can hardly contain my enthusiasm for those soon to arrive.

Finally, I’ve always wanted to game the Lord of the Rings. I have three battles I’ve always wanted to game. They are Agincourt 1415, The Battle of Guilford Courthouse 1780, and The Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Return of the King. I’ve followed DBA/DBM Middle Earth games. I’ve written my own set of rules for 15mm (and I have the figures to boot.) Honestly GW has done the best job of putting together a system and scenarios to do what I’d like to do with these rules and my figures. I’ve always identified mostly closely with the horse lords of Rohan who seem a bit like the Ostrogoths of the 5th century. Their super spendy supplement on the Wars of Rohan does a great job of tracing the story of the Rohirrim from the fall of the Westfold to Theoden’s charge at the Pelennor Fields.

The rules themselves are nicely made, full of color pictures and very expensive, like many sets of rules are. I find the rules mechanically not difficult, but with a fair number of steps for each combat. The rules, in the book, really aren’t very helpful. They ramble and are hard to follow in play. I can’t imagine what new gamers think. What they really need is a super QRS which the rules oddly don’t have. Lots of fan work to help support this game that is very welcome, but GW simply must do a better job. Of course, a revised edition is just around the corner, but I gave my 57 bucks at the office.

If I have a beef, it is one that is held by all lovers of Tolkien. The books, the figures, the scenarios are all based on Peter Jackson’s wonderful movies. The good side of that is that the movies were quite good, but they did take liberties with Tolkien’s story. It is not my interest to make a big giant list of those here. Some were understandable, some were really silly, and some made some profound changes to the story. What’s really weird is to see Games Worshop take the Peter Jackson route with most things while including some Peter Jackson omissions. Here are a couple of my favorites.

The Rohan commander Erkenbrand commanded the forces that were broken by Isengard and the Dunland wild men leading up to the battle of Helm’s Deep. He is completely ignored by Jackson, but an Erkenbrand hero is available in the GW story. In the movie it is Eomer who arrives to save the day at Helm’s Deep with lord knows how many mounted Rohirrim. In the Two Towers, Eomer is desperately fighting alongside his uncle at the Hornburg, and Erkenbrand arrives with Gandalf to rescue Theoden with a thousand infantry. GW gives an important Tolkien character an under-the-table acknowledgement, Jackson omitted.

Gamling is another character that appears askew in both the GW game and the Peter Jackson movie. Gamling appears as the doorwarden or captain of the Royal Guard of the King’s palace at Edoras in the movie. In the book this character is named Hama. Hama accompanies Theoden to Helm’s Deep where he is killed at the gate. Alas, no Hama in the movie, but his character is recognized in the rules. In the Two Towers Gamling is recognized as Gamling the Old. He is a venerable captain of the Westfold forces who retreat to the old castle and continues to gather his troops to man the walls as the King and his thousand horsemen ride in.

Okay, enough already. If the movies and the rules share some imperfections, okay, my real concern has always been that the Lord of the Rings will be forgotten as a great work of fiction, but be remembered as three really awesome movies. But, alas and alack, that will always be my concern. However, as a game, though I often look down my nose at Games Workshop, MESBG is pretty darn good and I’m happy to join in the fun.

I think I’ve written this before, but I love connections, the web of relationships between whatever. One of the things I love about rock music is the connections between music-covers of songs, the connections between band personnel, who influenced who. Eric Clapton. I’m not a huge Eric Clapton fan, but he is an amazing guitarist. Eric Clapton played with the Yardbirds. Then John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Then Cream. Then Blind Faith. Then he was a solo, before he traveled with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett’s traveling road show (Delaney, Bonnie and Friends.) He formed Derek and the Dominoes with Duane Allman and others before he again was a solo. Amazing connections. While with Cream, he covered Willie Dixon’s amazing blues hit “Spoonful,” which was also covered by Howlin’ Wolf, who performed “Smokestack Lightnin’,” also covered by the Yardbirds, and one of my top five favorite songs of all time. Damn (which is the title of a Pulitzer-winning album by rapper Kendrick Lamar.)

Okay, that’s silly and ridiculous. But I do the same thing with a lot of my game projects.There are a bucket of related small conflicts that circled around the Spanish American War. I want ’em all dammit. It’s just becoming my thing. They are as follows:

1. The Cuban War (or Cuban Rebellion, or Cuban War of Independence) 1895-98
2. The Philippine or Katipunan Rebellion 1896-98
3. The Spanish American War 1898 (Land)
4. The Spanish-American War 1898 (Naval)
5. The Philippine-American War 1899-1902
6. The Moro War 1902-1913

It all started when 1898 Miniaturas sucked me in with their Spanish American War range. However, I think I had just read Max Boot’s book, Savage War of Peace, which begins with the massacre of an American company in Balanciga in the Philippines, so I invested heavily in the Philippine-American War (the Philippine Insurrection for we boomer barbarians.) Painted em’ all too, including many Philippine soldiers wearing the Spanish pin-striped rayadillo uniforms. Ouch. I play Daniel Mersey’s The Men Who Would Be King, which sort of works. However, with Americans armed with Krag magazine rifles (mostly) and most of the Philippine forces armed with Remingtons or captured Spanish Mausers, the modern weapons really test the limits of the rules. My Philippine-American War project is completed, with both Americans and Philippine figures doing double duty for other conflicts.

These are my Philippine figures for the Philippine American War. Some would be suitable for the earlier Katipunan Rebellion in Luzon against the Spanish. Those would not be the ones wearing the striped rayodillo uniform. All figures are the excellent range from 1898 Miniatures.

These are my Americans. A mix of figures. Some are the 1898 Miniatures regulars and dismounted cavalry. Some are Volunteers and cavalry by Old Glory. The Philippine Scouts are by Tiger miniatures. The regulars and volunteers could also be used for any Spanish American War scenario.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include my wonderful vessels by Last Stand Dan. Hey, if you’re gonna fight on islands you gotta have a way to get around. Gunboat and a pair of steam launches. I’d like to add a second small screw gunboat. Though Dan’s work isn’t free, it is very good.

During the Plague Years, so much happened. I started my 1/1250 ship collection beginning with the Spanish American War. We played our “Splendid Little War” campaign with those ships, and I’ve run a couple of one off games too. The project really launched me into pre-Dreadnought naval gaming, and honestly I’m thrilled. There are lots of the little ships. Some are the super-spendy Hai and Navis metal models that I persist in playing with despite their vulnerability to fat fingers and and the forces of gravity. Others are printed models from War Times Journal and Brown Water Navy. This week I reorganized both the Americans and the Spanish and made sure each had a name painted on their bases. This project is pretty my done. The much larger Americans cover the entire pre-dreadnought era except for the final excellent Connecticut class.

Kevin’s American ships weigh in at 83. From left-The American battleships from the Texas at top left to the Virginia class bottom right. Also includes the really big converted merchant liners to auxiliary cruisers. Middle photo includes the American protected cruisers from Atlanta to the Tennessee class monsters of 1907. Finally, the rightmost photo shows mostly destroyers, torpedo boats, monitors and the truly weird ram Katahdin and the dynamite ship Vesuvius.

The Spanish fleet is considerably smaller with 35 ships. Left includes the battleship Pelayo, Cervera’s armored cruisers and the plethora of really terrible Spanish protected cruisers. Middle shows smaller Spanish ships including torpedo boats and gunboats as well as the excellent War Times Journal fortifications. Finally the right shot is a close up of Cervera’s squadron at Santiago.

I began thinking about Cuba and Puerto Rico. It’s a difficult land war to do because actions are few and thus it means a lot of hypothetical battles. The Spanish were quite unpopular with the Puerto Ricans and reluctant to challenge the American invasion troops. The American campaign in Cuba had more to do with staying healthy than taking on the Spanish, with only a couple of major actions at Guasimas and the El fortifications. But it coulda been more. If you’re considering working this period-SPAW, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, it’s really hard to find quality information. But if you’re wondering how to play the period, you might visit the 1898 Miniaturas wargame page. They pick apart the campaign in Puerto Rico, the Cuban Rebellion, and 1896 Katipunan rebellion in the Philippines and give great suggestions for rating troops for TMWWBK and Black Powder. They are a Spanish company and it helps them dive into Spanish sources. Really great stuff. Is this done? Well, not quite. This is one of those double-duty opportunities for both the Americans and Spanish. Definitely more Spanish to paint, both regulars and uniformed militia. I’ll need to double check my American contingent.

But wait, there’s an appendage to the Spanish American War I haven’t mentioned and that is the Cuban War of Independence 1895-98. It’s the conflict that drew the USS Maine to Havana harbor and the explosion that destroyed it. Likely a coal dust explosion that ignited the magazine, but lets not let the facts get in the way of “Remember the Maine.”

I’ve bought and painted a fair number of Cuban rebels, but I need more. I have six units and I like to have enough figures for a six player game, so that’s 9-12 units. This is also a conflict I’d like to do with One Hour Skirmish War Games. I expect this will be my biggest bunch of work I’ll complete between now (July 4th) and the end of the year. After spending some time looking at potential scenarios for Puerto Rico, I see myself adding to my Spanish/Irregular/militia pile to allow enough variety. I recently joined the Old Glory Army just to grab some of their interesting and varied pile of figures for the period. The first order, all rebels, are on the way.

It seems unfair to leave out the Philippine war between Spain and the Katipunan Republic, the rebellion that mostly failed prior to the Spanish-American War 1896-98. It’s a vastly different insurgency than that waged against the Americans a few years later. The Philippine forces are not dressed in rayodillo or armed with Spanish rifles. It’s more a desperate struggle with some castoff muskets and lots of bolo wielding rebels fighting a true anti-imperial guerrilla insurgency. This is another double duty project where the Spanish could definitely be used from Cuba and Puerto Rico. I’d need to add more Philippine figures with hand weapons, but probably not a lot.

Finally, there is the matter of the Moro War that grew out of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War. It’s a fascinating conflict, within a fascinating conflict within a fascinating conflict. There are some significant campaigns one could do with TMWWBK, but I went small for OHSW. I know this will sound snobby, but there just weren’t enough great figures to suck me in for something bigger. Tonight I will have painted the last American figures, a mountain howitzer and crew, and the project will be complete.

Lots to do and lots to think about. The hardest part is making the time to actually game with a batch of strange, carefully curated collections. But sometimes the joy is just in the painting and collecting, and learning.

Don’t have a lot of ground-breaking news to report on. Still some post-Enfilade breath catching. I can report with certainty Enfilade will return to the Tacoma LaQuinta for 2025-26. I’m happy about it.

It’s summer and folks get busy during the summer so getting together is harder, even for we retirees. Our Silver Kings group meets each Wednesday and generally reserve two of those weeks for SAGA and the other weeks for not-SAGA. Today was one of those non-SAGA days, but knowing folks weren’t going to be available I decided to pack a game to play with whomever.

I sat down this morning and put together a quick two player scenario using The Men Who Would Be Kings. I have Cuban rebels and Spanish from the 1895-98 rebellion. I’ve always been intrigued by the Escario re-supply of Santiago after the American blockade and thought I could build something around a barely historical idea. I put a Spanish Civil Guard unit in a building with four rebel units at long rifle range, with understanding Spanish units would arrive shortly.

Keith French was the only other attendee at Silver Kings today, so I set the game up and gave him his choice of sides. He chose the Cubans. The Cubans are irregular infantry. Three of the units had obsolete rifles, range 18″. One had modern rifles and a +1 morale bonus, plus commander. The Civil Guards also had a +1 and a commander. All the Spanish regulars had modern rifles. I limited them to 0 morale, and the sailors I actually made a -1. The Spanish had more points, though just in general I hate using points in Daniel Mersey games. I gave each side varying victory conditions. The rebels had to drive off the Civil Guard. The Spanish had to drive off the rebels.

Keith set up his Cubans in the wood that faced the Civil Guards on two sides. He opened fire at long range with two units. It’s hard to hit a unit at long range in hard cover, but he did. Both sides exchanged shots and casualties in the first turn. Both passed morale. Turn two, the rebels fired again, inflicting another casualty but the Guardia rolled snake eyes and were pinned. No return fire. Things went rapidly downhill for the Spanish. The next several turns saw the Guardia take additional casualties and additional pin markers. Keith launched one of his rebel units in a storming attack. The Guardia should have won, but it was just not a good die rolling day for Spanish. The Guardia were ejected from their safe space, and the following rally roll saw another snake eyes. Civil Guards gone. The rebels achieved their victory conditions.

Meanwhile, Spanish regulars began arriving and shooting at the rebels at long range. Though they inflicted a few casualties, they suffered even more. First unit–suffered four casualties, a pin marker and then a snake eyes for the rally phase. Second unit–suffered four casualties, a pin marker, hung around, but much reduced. Third unit arrived, and continued to gnaw a bit on the rebels, but there was no way unit and half were going to take down four rebels without an act of God, so we called it a day.

It was fun!!!! I got to use my troops. I got to play a fun set of rules. Got to play with Keith. A great day, all in all.

I had a realization last night that I wasn’t ever going to do anything with my huge pile of 28mm ACW figures. They’d sat in a drawer for nearly three decades. Most were unpainted, a few weren’t. I didn’t have a plan for them. They didn’t even fit in my mind’s painting queue (which is different than something I sit down and commit to paper.) For example: here is my plan for this summer

1. Finish Moro War One Hour Skirmish War Games project in June/July
   • Work on 1/300 planes for Pearl Harbor scenario
   • Finish last two 1/1200 WW II ships
2. Finish Paymaster PNW natives for Tribal
   • Wrap up Ogopogo monster.
3. Work on Viking SAGA army for SAGA and Tribal. Try to finish by end of August
4. Begin final work on Spanish-American War/Cuban Rebellion for The Men Who Would Be King in September with no later than December completion.

That’s what’s in my head. It still allows me to muck about with other plane and ship projects, some skirmish projects for OHSWG I’m thinking about. After that I plan to commit fully to my AWI project and get it done in 2025. Those are the really big projects on my plate. And I know what I want to do with them.

250-300 ACW figures I’ve had for 30 years, without a plan. I think about ’em. They take up space. But what do I do with them? I’m giving them to George Kettler. He has a plan. He knows what he wants to do. He needs the guys. And I gotta say this isn’t just Kevin playing Santa Claus. I have benefited greatly from the kindness of others who have passed things along to me. Whether it was David giving me his Paymaster Indians, or Mark 3D printing stuff for me, or John passing ships to me, or in my alter ego Kevin the Record guy, folks passing along some great vinyl, I have benefited from others’ generosity. I can do this.

This will be my third big giveaway of 2024. In February I parted with my superfluous lot of 1/300 scale planes. Passed ’em on to Michael and Scott. There were probably 300 or so. It allowed me to narrow my list of unfinished plane projects to WWII in the Pacific and Vietnam. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more purchases; it just means I know what I’ll need and I can get ’em when I need ’em.

In April I passed along all my DBA armies to new friend Mark Wesnahan. When DBA was hot 10-12 years ago, I really enjoyed it. Paul Hannah and Andy Hooper have kept it a going concern. But honestly it’s chiefly played in Seattle. It hasn’t made it’s way out of a closet in more than five years. Mark is new to the hobby, but loves the game and plays with Paul and Andy, and he’s a terrific person. Supporting him seemed a smart thing to do for everyone.

Giving figures, indeed entire projects, to those who will make use of them does one important thing for me–but the one thing has an A and B phase.

A. It makes a little more room in my ever crowded space for my completed projects.

B. More importantly, it lessens the chatter in my head that demands “What the hell are you going to do with this stuff?” Whatever money I’ve lost in this deal, it’s paid off with better mental health.

That others can make use of it is just a blessing.

Enfilade ’24 is in the books. I pronounce it a success in a year when we had to up and move against a deadline of maybe nine weeks and we pulled it off. 360ish attendees, 115ish games including some really excellent ones. Lots of old friends and some new ones. It was a good convention.

It wasn’t perfect. The space is small and quite crowded. L-O-U-D. Food, as predicted, was a problem. The bar had no beer on tap. Really? There is no foreseeable additional space. Even so, I believe the venue is manageable and I expect we’ll return at least for the next couple of years.

Loved the staff. The rooms were nice. There is some fiddliness to the way we used the space, and we can do better. We aren’t locked into some negative doom loop. I’ll try to work closely with the hotel to resolve some of the food issues.

But that’s next year. For now I’m trying to catch up on the sleep I’ve missed since December and spend some extra time with my closest friends, Ringo and Owen.

Hey and I did run a couple of games. I filled in one of David Sullivan’s missing game slots with a Thunderboats race. It was fun. One of the fastest Thunderboats games I’ve ever seen. When I wrapped up and said I couldn’t run a second (though there was plenty of time,) Bill Vanderpool offered to take over so I could deal with some convention stuff. It was much appreciated and Bill did a super job.

But the big game, the one I prepared for the last nine months or so was Camerone: The Wooden Hand of Captain Danjou.

We play-tested the scenario twice during the winter and I’ve pretty much left it alone since then except for a couple of suggestions from David and Mark Waddington. The big change was to allow a Mexican infantry unit to set up in the hacienda. Thought it would prevent the French from utterly fortifying the hacienda and give the Mexicans a fighting chance. We’ll see.

I submitted the game almost immediately after submissions were opened. The game was almost immediately full.

Sunday was the anointed game period and the players rapidly divided themselves into French and Mexicans. The French were able to scavenge enough material to create obstructions for the two gates. They also occupied “Danjou’s Office” in the hacienda.

The trick for the Mexicans is to try to inflict some casualties with their troops in the hacienda. There was a unit in the third room of the building and six snipers in the upper floors. However with a massive expenditure of ammunition and some really good die rolling, four of the snipers were killed and the unit was driven out of the lower floor before they could even shoot.

However the Mexican players did a good job of applying persistent pressure. Mike Gonos used their mounted cavalry units mostly against the gates and threatening to attack. Though they were regularly repulsed by liberal expenditures of French ammo, they could easily recycle because they could move twice as far as infantry. The infantry moved up behind the horse and could provide limited fire, inflicting a few casualties along the way. But the French were firing off their limited ammo (20 rounds) like cheap firecrackers.

Mike Gonos uses his cavalry to absorb damage while his infantry creeps forward to engage the French at the gates.

At the end of the 4th turn, the Mexican mounted cavalry withdrew, leaving four units of dismounted irregular horse. But they were joined by six units of regular infantry and fighting became more intense. Bruce Harborne’s dismounted irregulars made persistent dashes and fired on the outside of the hacienda, and some of his fire was beginning to take a toll on Dale’s French command. Dean’s Mexican regulars began to scale the south wall as Christine’ and Nick’s French made their withdrawal toward the safety of the hacienda. William and Harmon’s French likewise made their way toward the cover of the hacienda. It was about to get very crowded.

The French casualties begin to accumulate

With the French trapped like rats in the hacienda, the Mexicans resort to basics and set fire to Danjou’s Office. While the fire flares up and later spreads, the hacienda is quickly surrounded. The French, having fired so promiscuously, and effectively, in the early turns, by turn eight have fired off their last cartridges. The fire is spreading. The casualties are mounting. The end is written in the smoke.

Trapped like rats!! Efforts to batter their way out of the hacienda and out the back window into the shed fail. The French prepare a final bayonet charge. Just as things begin to look terribly bleak, I get a phone call from my sister. Mom is in the hospital and we agree to wrap things up sparing the French the final indignity. Victory to the Mexicans.

Mom is okay.

I would be remiss to overlook the gift I received from Michael. He made the wooden box that houses a “Hand of Captain Danjou.” It is a treasure and I truly appreciate the gesture.

Hey, I missed my Tuesday blog post. But it’s Enfilade week so I beg forgiveness. It’s been an interesting week as things seem to jell for the convention. I am really looking forward to it after being just kind of afraid of the whole thing for a few months.

There should be some interesting games. Our theme is The New World, and there are some good looking entries in the Best of Theme category including a game from the Northwest War between fur trading companies, and an Aztec vs. Spanish Battle on the Causeway. I’m only officially running one game and that is my Wooden Hand of Captain Danjou Camerone game.

I’ll make sure to post photos when the weekend is over.

To settle my stress, I’ve been painting a bit. As usual, it’s kind of unfocused. I’ve made progress on my Moros, completing 17 leaders and warriors by Tiger Miniatures. I’ve also wrapped up my Cactus Air Force by finishing 10 TBF Avengers. All but one of these is by Raiden miniatures. I like ’em. I added wire for the single gun in the dorsal turret. Didn’t do the ventral gun. The weird leftover is an old C in C TBF. I like it but the fuselage is way too thick as it nears the tail; the rest of the plane is good.

I’m not going to be painting for most of a week. On my table I have some Old Glory Moros in armor, and the Superior 1/1200 models of USS Washington and USS South Dakota so I can tackle more Guadalcanal actions. I have two more ships in the scale to do, a Northampton class CA and a Japanese Jintsu class CL. I’d like to get an Atlanta class CL and then I think I’m pretty well done with this project. I still have my bunch of 3D printed Fletchers, but truly I think the buying is over. The next ship project will be to build and paint my stash of 1/700 scale ships which are mostly targets for planes in Airwar 1940. There are about 20 models to work on, chiefly Japanese but a few Americans too.

The Moros and their rival Americans will continue my 28mm adventures for June, but I’ll be starting a new aircraft project for a what if Dec. 7th, 1941 scenario. These will be using the 3D printed planes from Flight Deck Decals.

One of my favorite old projects was my Lewis and Clark project from about 20 years ago. I mean, who does a Lewis and Clark thing? Well I did, and eventually that morphed into a Rebels and Patriots project (after Rebels and Patriots was published) that included the period from 1791-1810. I called it my America Rampant project that included Battle of the Wabash/Fallen Timbers/hypothetical war with Spain in the Southwest. I painted some Spanish figures for that conflict including some old London War Room Cuera cavalry figures that fought the Apaches and the Comanches. They were okay, representative figures, but nothing to write home about.

Well, now there are Cuera to write home about. Gringo 40’s has launched a range of figures including early Apaches, Cuera, and eventually Comanches (and who knows what else) that are just stupendously wornderful. These are large, well sculpted figures with lots of useful detail.

The Cuera were frontier cavalry that wore leather tabards (cuera meant leather soldiers) to fend off arrows. There are two mounted figures and two dismounted figures. They could fight mounted with lance or sword and shield, or dismounted with flintlock musket and pistol. Because the Spanish frontier was sparsely settled, using the mobility of a mounted force was important to keep the peace.

The Apaches in the range are also quite nice with a variety of club, bow, musket, sling and lance-armed figures. The one mounted figure is especially spiff. Unfortunately, I’m unable to download the photo as anything but a web page.

Mostly I anticipate playing One Hour Skirmish Wargames with these guys. They are just a bit too spendy to do more. This is strictly one of those periods in which the miniatures has sucked me down the rabbit hole. Probably won’t order until August, but it will be interesting to see what figures are added to the range between now and then.

In the meantime, the show must go on. The past week was mostly devoted to painting some airplanes and 28mm Moros. The big accomplishment was completing a dozen of the very nice Raiden SBD Dauntless dive bombers. Love the SBD’s and I think their pilots did too. It was reliable and could perform a variety of roles including in an armed long-range reconnaissance role, as combat air patrol, but especially as a dive bomber, where it excelled. I painted my planes up in their 1942-43 blue gray over gray appearance. Paint by AK. I hand-painted the numbers, with decals by Flight Deck Decals. The Raiden models are quite nice, though the casting line down the fuselage is annoying and hard to get off.

Next week is pre-Enfilade doin’s and I hope to finish my batch of Raiden TBF’s. They’ll be in the same paint scheme. It fills in for naval battles like Midway, as well as all the air actions in the Solomons.

Most Tuesdays it’s pretty easy to rip off 800 words without a lot of hemming and hawing around. I mean this is a gamer’s blog and I have virtually become a gamer retiree. I have puppies to take care of (almost adults now,) I have a yard to manage. I am my wife’s household servant. I work four hours a week at the antique store. But really, I do a lot of game stuff. Every day. Surely I have something worthwhile to say.

Right. Well, this is what I’ve got this week. Last week I wrote about the Moros and in fact I have been working on that project. I completed two batches of guys. One group is of Moro riflemen. These are all the Moro riflemen I’ll ever paint. Though there seem to have been a fair number of rifle armed Moro warriors, battle accounts I’ve read simply don’t share much about their prowess. It’s the blade-armed guys who tended to do the damage. The other batch of guys I painted are the Moro Scouts/Constabulary that were in American service. During the Moro War and he earlier Philippine-American War, U.S. forces recruited locals who opposed the rebels and used their knowledge of the land, local culture and abilities in the terrain to assist American forces. I would suggest these are not simply auxiliaries and they should play an important role in games of the period.

These are Tiger Miniatures. They’re okay. They are largeish and well-fed. Some of the casting is sketchy, but they aren’t expensive, come in groups of five, and paint up well. Tiger also simply fills holes that other makers overlook. Philippine and Moro scouts, American mountain guns, Colt machine guns set up or being carried. Mule trains. Just don’t look too closely. I sent off an order for even more Tiger Miniatures this week. A few more Moros, but mostly I ordered some Cuban Rebels for the 1895-98 war, also for One Hour Skirmish Wargaming.

A couple of words about painting. The Moros often war brightly colored clothing. Some also wore armor. The only color pictures of Moros are 20th century art that often depict them in armor and bright clothes. I question how much of either they wore. Lots of contemporary black and whites of Moros show them in fairly dark austere clothes and no armor. I’m not quite sure what the correct answer is, but I think there needs to be a balance between colorful and not, and armored and not. That said, I didn’t do a very good job of striking a balance with the shooters. The Moro scouts wore khaki and are in Vallejo Tan Earth, lightened and dry brushed and then washed in Army Painter Soft Tone. They ended up a little darker than I’d like.

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The last twelve months or so I’ve read a lot about the WWII in the Pacific. That’s because between a plane project and a ship project I’m doing a lot of WWII in the Pacific and I always want to know more. It’s not that I don’t know anything–I think I read Samuel Eliot Morrison’s “The Two Ocean War” at age 13, the first time–I just think projects should always be learning opportunities. Two trilogies have really grabbed me.

The first is Ian Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy. The volumes are titled as follows: Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific 1941-42; The Conquering Tide-War in the Pacific Islands 1942-44; and Twilight of the Gods 1944-45. It’s a towering narrative that begins with the disaster at Pearl Harbor, and ends with Japan’s surrender. What makes Toll’s work so special is the author’s ability to combine elements of biography, with details of military technology and battle narrative while constantly advancing the chronological story.

These are really mammoth volumes, but I truly could not put them down once I started reading, and I am itching to read them again. A few high points–the description of Pearl Harbor after the attack, the work of the code breakers, the careful depiction of the division of the Pacific battlefield (so to speak) between McArthur and Nimitz/Halsey and the inevitability of their conflict being more than just McArthur’s prima donna persona. These are of course available as hard copies, but I got mine as E-books and I am very happy with that decision due to cost and storage issues.

The other trilogy that I’ve really enjoyed is Bruce Gamble’s Rabaul Trilogy. Invasion Rabaul begins with the rapid, but weak, Australian response to Japan’s opening of war, and the tragic surrender of the small forces they placed on Rabaul. Fortress Rabaul tells the story of Japan’s fortification of the port city and the early efforts of the United States and Australia to use air power against the Japanese in New Guinea and on New Britain. Target Rabaul is about the air campaign win the campaign in New Guinea and the Solomons and neutralize Rabaul at the center of both. I have a real interest in doing elements of this campaign in miniature with planes.

Great story. Okay, I confess, I haven’t read the first volume, but the other two are very good. Lots of things I’ve learned. In many respects Gamble does the same things well that Toll does. However, he does occasionally bog the story down in a little too much detail. But never for too long. Fortress Rabaul was the more fascinating volume for me, but Target Rabaul is also very good. It’s the story of an ever-changing air campaign. It is not a history of the land campaigns in New Guinea, it is not a story of the naval actions and landings in the Solomons. However, the book is very good at showing how Rabaul’s position as the premiere Japanese naval base and aircraft hub in the region affected both campaigns and why its reduction was critical to the Allied war effort. My guess is the story of Lark Force in Invasion Rabaul might be the most compellingly interesting story; sadly it’s outside the scope of my gaming interest but I may yet grab that bad boy.

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Finally, but far from least, is the reminder that Enfilade, the NHMGS flagship convention, is a mere two or so weeks away. The 2024 version of Enfilade is unlike any other because we were forced to move on fairly short notice after the Olympia Hotel at Capitol Lake was sold to developers in December. Lots of detail I could share, but I’m not sure there’s a point to it. Besides, I’d really rather focus on the Kevin part of this.

I’ve been a leader in most of the 32 or so Enfilades. This seems by far the most demanding. There was six weeks searching for a suitable site. There’s the hoping the LaQuinta actually fulfills that role. There’s the fear that it doesn’t. There’s all the concern about the details that were routinely taken care of in Olympia, which in a new place we’re still learning.

I may be the director of the convention, but really I’m just one of the guys. I want the same things everyone else does. I want to see my friends and hang out with them. Run some games. Maybe buy some cool stuff that doesn’t lead me down a rabbit hole. I pay my registration like everyone else, but I’ve volunteered my time, literally hundreds of hours and my time at the convention will largely be spent plugging holes and making sure things work. I’m exhausted and I nightly hope it will all work out. ‘Cause I cannot begin to tell you, dear reader, how much I do not wish to move this convention for 2025.

Hopes and dreams.

One of the things I love most about history, music and yes miniature wargaming is connection. So, I think it’s really cool that young Don Gallucci of Portland played on “Louie Louie” with the Kingsmen, appeared with Don and the Goodtimes on Where the Action Is in 1966, and arguably played on the first American progressive rock album in the band Touch in 1968, and produced Fun House by the Stooges. Unfortunately, Gallucci largely disappeared from Rock n Roll at the age of 21 and went into California real estate.

I have developed a real interest in a series of conflicts which ultimately sucks the U.S. into war in 1898. It starts with the Cuban War of Independence 1895-98, the Spanish American War, The Philippine American War 1899-1902, and finally The Moro Wars 1902-1913. It’s the big overseas American colonial war, setting aside the 120 years of American Indian wars which occur at home.

And I’ve bit big time on period. I started by falling in love with the 1898 Miniatures for the Philippine War. During Covid I jumped fully clothed into the Spanish American War at sea, but I also have a fair number of painted Spanish and Cubans to cover the earlier rebellion as well as the American conflict around Santiago and in Puerto Rico. Still some to paint, but it’s very much on my to do list for 2024. Jon Freitag who sometimes reads this blog, sent me his one bag of Old Glory Moros where they’ve lived, mostly buried under my piles of unpainted figures. But I stumbled over them after Drumbeat in February when my friends were talking up the wonderfulness of One Hour Skirmish Wargames. It took little to persuade myself these rules would be ideal for the Moro Wars.

Well of course I did. I knew nothing about the Moro Wars except that they took place after the Philippine conflict was resolved and that it was fought against Muslim warriors in Mindinao. Or at least that’s what I thought and then I bought books. I don’t know about you, but new projects must be accompanied by new books. I began with James Arnold’s 2011 book on the Moro War which was quite good and am presently immersed in Robert A. Fulton’s 1920 narrative, revised in 2007, Moroland which offers even more background to the conflict. So far, so good.

Moro figures are a bit more of a challenge. The Muslim Moro people are quite different than the majority Catholic Philippine insurgents that struggled against American rule in the early 20th century. So swapping out the awesome 1898 Miniatures Philippine insurgents for the Moros won’t work. Moros couldn’t wear brimmed hats and wore turbans instead. They also wore brightly colored clothes. Finally, the Moros fought mostly with a variety of very nasty edged weapons rather than Spanish Remington and Mauser rifles (though they would learn to grab those where they could too.) So it’s best to get purpose-made Moros.

At the present time the only makers of 28mm figures are Old Glory and Tiger Miniatures. Old Glory offers two bags of Moros. One bag is armored with a variety of swordsmen and spearmen. The other bag is unarmored and include Moros with guns. I’ve read a lot about Moro efforts to get guns–Spanish guns, modern rifles and ammunition, thrown into Lake Lanoe or Jolo harbor–but less about the Moro’s particular prowess as marksmen. You probably need fewer shooters and more stabbers. The Old Glory figures are okay. Detail isn’t super crisp, but they come with a couple of different spear designs. I have the pack of armored guys and will probably add a pack of the unarmored figures at some point.

The Tiger Miniatures figures are bigger than Old Glory. The castings are less crisp. However there is a larger variety of figures and they are offered in packs of five instead of 30–always a virtue. They also have leader figures, which is nice. Add that to the interesting American sets that are also small–telegraph, sailors, marines and that’s a bonus for small quantities in a skirmish game. Don’t forget SAW-75 (Tiger catalog number) which is listed as Filipino Scouts, but are really the fez-topped Moro scouts and constabulary who play an important role in the conflict.

The Moro War is essentially a forgotten conflict, though it lasted more than ten years. It still has some resonance as historians begin to compare it to the conflict in Afghanistan and the difficulty in sustaining the occupation of a Muslim country thousands of miles from the U.S. It’s a super subject for small level games. I’ll mount these singly and hope to have enough figures for both One Hour Skirmish Wargaming and perhaps a small game of The Men Who Would Be Kings

Just as an addendum: The Moro War is also very much a naval conflict. Lots of pirates operated in the Sulu Sea and the American Navy had a small fleet of gunboats, some purchased from Spain after the war that sought to interdict them. So what you, say? Just want to plug The Virtual Armchair General and their 15mm range of The Kris and the Flame which covers the conflict in the South China Sea and East Indies, but would include the Moro buccaneers operating out of the Sulu islands. Some very nice 3D printed ships at a reasonable price with inexpensive 15mm crews. However, my 28mm attuned tastes say no.

I’m a historical miniature wargamer. That means I have lots of figures. Many are painted. Many are not. I have little actual talent in the hobby. I’m not a great gamer. I’m a mediocre painter. But I do have perseverance and I can get things done. Sort of. Kind of.

Last week I finished the last of my Maximilian in Mexico figures. I began focusing on completing what I had left in November, and look they’re done. There’s a story about these guys. I began painting figures for Maximilian and specifically Camerone in the 1990’s, like 1996. They were the original Foundry figures. I used them for other stuff too, and then I just kind of tucked them away and they lived quietly in my garage. They were singly mounted and after falling in love with Rebels and Patriots I decided I could remount them 3-2-1 for those rules. So I did. It is my first major re-mounting project and there are more planned.

I wouldn’t say this is my most-played with project, but I’ve run several games the last three years or so. I’ve also added a bunch of figures, mostly from Foundry and Gringo 40’s, but a few from TVAG. I added lots for Camerone, but I had a pile of minis divided up into units and stuffed in sandwich bags waiting for paint. Now they are all done, painted and mounted and ready to go. How many are there? Well, there are far more than I ever thought, and I did the unthinkable and counted. I have 795 French, Imperial and Mexican figures in 84 units plus leaders. Damn.

Another box I can check this month is rebasing the last of my Aztec units for Quetzacoatl Rampant. This is a project David Sullivan and I began together six or eight years ago. We played it a few times and moved on to other things as we often do. The rules were something that grew out of Lion Rampant. It was fun, but moving all those singly mounted figures around took a long time and was hard on the figs. It might have been fine if they were stuck on larger (25mm) round bases, but I didn’t and so now they’ve been 3-2-1ed as I now mount all my Daniel Mersey projects. Actually that’s a lie. My Xenos Rampant figures are singles.

I wish it had been quick and dirty, but I think I started the re-mount in September. It went in fits and starts, but it’s done. 415 Aztec, Spanish and Tlaxcallan figures in 40 units plus command figures. Though I’m not likely to leap right into the projects, there are two even larger remounts waiting-my 100 Years War Lion Rampant figures and my Space 1889 figures which I’ll configure (and perhaps need to paint more figures) for The Men Who Would Be Kings. Really looking forward to it. Kinda. Sorta.

Just to wrap up, April has been a kind of thin gaming month. Just the way it goes. I’ll make my first Wednesday gaming appearance this week. The really great news, is that with these projects done, I can just dork around the rest of April and paint whatever I want. I have some Alternative Armies Orcs that are calling my name.