Another empty chair - Nick Zizo - Rest In Peace My Friend

 

It is with great sadness that I must post about the passing of my friend Nick Zizo! Nick passed away last Friday night while in the hospital battling multiple issues. He'd been in and out of the hospital and rehab for quite sometime. His body finally gave out, may you Rest in Peace my friend.

Nick had a long history in our hobby even before HMGS-South. He was very active in HMGS-East as an attendee, game master, vendor, convention staff, con volunteer, and even a con director. His entry into the hobby pre dates the Skirmishes Conventions that we had at multiple venues around south and central Florida. I had met Nick at a Historicon decades ago! We became fast friends over our common love for the colonial period and especially our favorite rules set, The Sword And The Flame. Like many of us in the hobby Nick loved many periods and loved to paint miniatures and undertake the needed research to build armies and field them.

Nick and I collaborated on multiple games together at the HMGS-South cons and ran games elsewhere as well. 

Here's some pics of Nick and his son Jimmy at a surprise Bday / Retirement celebration games day Jimmy set up for him for which I ran the games. That was an amazing day.

Cheers Nick! 

One of the games Nick and I ran together was based on the last battle scene in the movie, The Wind And The Lion. We ran this game at Colonial Barracks-1 for Larry Brom and his daughters. Here is a pic of Larry Brom at our game.

Nick and Jimmy at Colonial Barracks-1 in Mad Guru's epic Maiwand Day game in New Orleans. Ethan drove his massive game with all the custom terrain tiles and troops all the way from LA. Nick, Jimmy, and I had an awesome time playing this game. Skyler, Ethan's son was my teammate for this one. We were lucky enough to have multiple members of our local Florida group SMG, multiple HMGS-South members, and some of Larry's original game group the Jackson Gamers at this con. Unfortunately, many have passed away in the past few years.

Nick Zizo right, and Rick Welch standing, both gone, pictured here at one of my HMGS-South con games. Rest in peace my friends.

Farwell my friend.....

• Raisuli: I will see you again, Mrs Pedicaris, when we are both like golden clouds on the wind.

45th Anniversary Edition - COMING SOON!

 

For the faithful folks waiting patiently for the 45TH Anniversary Edition of The Sword And The Flame, rest assured it is COMING SOON! Please see the work in progress cover art. The cover is being manipulated with AI and not a drawing program at this point, which is a very fiddly process as you can clearly see. The cover needs a lot of work, but IT IS IN PROGRESS as is the last few aspects of the body of the rules.

There has been a lot of negative talk going on in multiple forums about the health of the rules set and the Broms. The Broms had suffered a series of horrible defeats and tragedies, yet Christie still soldiers on! Huzzah to her fighting spirit to survive, persevere, and to keep her family's legacy alive. Her friends and those faithful to her, Lori, and Larry will do everything in our power to get these rules out to the public ASAP.

Thank you to all those faithful for KEEPING THE FLAME ALIVE!

Cheers,

Sgt Guinness

“Send the Marines!” - TSATF Game

 Scenario Specs: 

Send in the Marines!

Port of Berbera, the coast of Somalia, 1900, an American merchant vessel has been captured by Somali and Arab pirates. Negotiations have broken down, the ship’s crew have become pawns in a nefarious game and the hostages lives are at risk. An informant has leaked intel that the Somali warlord has no intention of letting the crew go and that they will be killed at dawn regardless.

The American consulate general to Somalia has no choices left but...... to “send in the Marines!”

Objectives:

Marines, have (10) turns to rescue the hostages and bring them aboard the gunboat.

Secondary objective, recover the merchant vessel and the valuable cargo or deny its use to the enemy by destroying or setting the vessel on fire.

Ships can be set on fire by naval gun fire or intentionally as per the Gunboat & Dhow! rules, (Last Stand Boatyard)

as well as crew having the ability to extinguish fires.

Sign up for games, check out the website, come have a blast!

HMGS-South Recon-2026

The premier Wargames and Adventure Games club in the SE of the United States: https://hmgs-south.com/

This is an awesome but sad photo as these figures were made by my friend Stan Johansen who past away and painted by my friend and clubmate Devon Start who recently past away!

Farewell Das Kreig Haus -1, Hello DKH-2!!!!

         (Bill Moreno & Bill Pritchard, two of our good friends who have passed)

After well over a decade of amazing gaming and social experiences at our hobby clubhouse which we affectionately named, Das Krieg Haus, we had to pack up and move due to the exponentially rising rental costs. 

We have had countless games here, some run by premier game masters and hobby aficionados from all over the country, several whom are no longer with us, RIP. We’ve had gamers and visitors from other parts of the world as well. Boasting some 96+ members on our email list with a local core of 25+ gamers we are a very active group!

Here are a few of the tens of thousands of photos of  games from our little bit of Shangri-La. 

The SMG - South Florida Miniatures Gamers runs the Annual SMG Regatta in 15mm and 28mm with the Limeys & Slimeys rules. 

The Battle of Maiwand

Onward and upward, literally, we moved to a 2nd story office in a quaint little office building. I had my first Beer in the new digs with Mark Ritchie and Oriskany Jim while helping them and John R move some of the tons O hobby crap we have. 

More photos of the old Das Krieg Haus to come!!!