The Painted Thumb

Earlier this month, my brother and I attended the Texas Broadsides! mini-convention. What makes this event unique? Unlike other events that take place in a hotel or meeting space, this convention happens on board the battleship U.S.S. Texas! A little primer about the U.S.S. Texas (BB-35). It's a US Navy battleship that has seen service in the "Tampico Incident" and both World Wars. It is one of the oldest battleships remaining in the world. It was first launched on 18 May 1912. It was first installed with coal-fired boilers and was converted to oil-fired boilers sometime between the World Wars. It was also the first US battleship to have anti-aircraft guns installed. Rather than retell the ship's remarkably long service record, I'll just direct you to the Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35) for more details. Currently, the ship is moored at the San Jacinto State Historical site and is open to the public as a museum. Most of th...

Played a quick game of Test of Honour by Warlord Games hosted by my friend Blake. Blake was running a demo at our new local store, Knight Watch Games. A great store! Be sure to visit if you are every in South Texas. Me and friends at Knight's Watch Test of Honour is a skirmish game set in feudal Japan. Each player takes a small force of 5-10 miniatures. Each force has a Samurai hero, some archers, and some Ashigaru (conscripts with spears) on a large, 3-man base. I will assume that most people reading this post are already familiar with the game and I'll won't go too deep in the game details. While there are several scenarios of different types, the basic concept of each is to kill the enemy's Samurai. Initiative and activations are done in the same way as most games by Warlord. You roll a 6-sided die to determine initiative. One token for representing each unit is placed in a bag. Then you draw from the bag and activate one unit. There are three fate tokens p...

Life has caught up to me again and not much gaming has been done for a long stretch. Back in September, I was working furiously on my Glider Rifle company in a desperate attempt finish in time for the Late-War FOWSA tournament. Sadly, my wife got a call that a close family member was very ill. This prompted us to jump in the car on the day of the tournament and rush to be with family. I wonder if I'm ever going to attend this tournament. Here is short recap of the games I was able to participate in. MillenniumCon 19 was successful for another year. I'm part of the convention staff but could only make it to the con for one afternoon. While, I was there, I took part in the HUGE Ogre game put on by Desert Scarab. I was given the GEV-Ogre to command. Not one but TWO nuclear-tipped cruise missiles were launched and and the beautiful city of Monopolis was left burning. For details on the game, check out Scarab's blog here . There is a full photo gallery of the enti...

The Mid-War FoWSA (Flames of War-San Antonio) tournament was held on July 9th. I was very happy to participate with a complete army list! I lost every game but still had a blast! The Competitors The list I used was a US Rifle Company from the North Africa book. FoWSA requires a list of 1700pts for rounds 3-4, and a half-size 850pt list for rounds 1-2. Rounds 1-2 are played on a half table 3'x4' My 850 point list: HQ Command Carbine team w/ 2 bazookas Rifle Platoon w/ 6 teams, 1 bazooka Weapons Platoon w/ 4 M1919 LMGs, 3 60mm mortar teams Anti-Tank Platoon w/ 3 57mm AT guns Armored Platoon w/ 4 M4A1 Shermans My 1700 point list: HQ Command Carbine team w/ 2 bazookas Rifle Platoon w/ 9 teams, 1 bazooka Rifle Platoon w/ 9 teams, 1 bazooka Weapons Platoon w/ 4 M1919 LMGs, 3 60mm mortar teams Mortar Platoon w/ 4 mortar teams, 2 bazookas Anti-Tank Platoon w/ 3 57mm AT guns Armored Platoon w/ 4 M4A1 Shermans Parachute Rifle platoon w/ 8 teams, 1 bazooka, ...

Blake runs a monthly Saga Night at our FLGS. This month, the attendance was light. I showed up and so did Martin. He brought along his own collection of armies. I have not painted my Anglo-Saxon force as of yet. Instead, I used a group of Lord of the Rings figures as a stand-in for a Welsh army. Initial Setup Initial forces Anglo-Danes Standard Warlord Monk advisor 8x Hearthguards w/ axes 8x Warriors 8x Warriors 12x Levies =======7 Saga Dice Welsh Standard Warlord 6x Hearthguard 5x Hearthguard Banner Bearer 8x Warriors 8x Warriors 12x Levies =======6 Saga Dice (I now realize that I should have been rolling 7 Saga dice) We chose to play the Clash of Warlords scenario. Martin setup his warriors and levies in a tight group in the right side. His warlord and monk advisor started right behind them, with the group of 8 Hearthguard bringing up the rear. On my side of the map, I spread out my units. I was hoping to push my troops to around the flank so I could draw ...

Lone Star Historical Miniatures held another Muster Game Day this past weekend. This was called the April Muster and it is the third such event we have held. Basically, we occupy one of the game rooms at the FLGS and run about 4-6 games from different time periods. These are single-day events  but they have a convention atmosphere. They are free to attend and anyone can drop by and join a game. The events have been great opportunities to get the word out on Historical Miniatures and lure in new players. The games played were: Johnny Reb (ACW) Wings of Glory 5150: Fringe Space - Ed Texiera of Two Hour Wargames came by to run this game. WWII Continuation - a homebrew game created by a club member, based on the Finn-Soviet front during 1941-1944 I played in the Wings of Glory game.  Ian Straus had put out three beautiful battle mats that made a large area for us to play on.  I chose to play the iconic German Fokker Dr1 triplane. Carl was my ally on the German sid...