“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!

TSATF - The Sword And The Flame Games at Hurricon-2025!

 

(Click the photo to see it clearly - I don’t know why it’s blurry on the blog page)

Here is the list of games thus far for the upcoming HMGS-South convention Hurricon-2025! There are currently 6 games listed, that’s 3 per day with one more being added for Thursday night. 

Thursday Night’s convention game opener on the club TSATF - The Sword And The Flame table. 

Send in the Marines!

Coast of Mogadishu, 1906, a merchant vessel has been captured by Somali and Arab pirates. Negotiations have broken down, the ship’s crew have become pawns in an evil game. 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.

The American consulate general to Mogadishu has no choices left, “send in the Marines!”

                (Rough game map for Thursday night)

TSATF Colonial Games at HurriCon - Orlando 26-29 September

Tap on the above to see it clearly. 

These are the colonial games, mostly TSATF - The Sword And The Flame for the upcoming HMGS-South HurriCon-24 convention, 26-29 September 2024. There will be a colonial game run each session on the same table from Friday morning through Saturday night. 

Hosted by SMG, the South Florida Miniatures Gamers, whose members hail from South Miami to Central Florida and with members all over the country. 

                      HMGS-South HurriCon-24 link

A 7th game has now been added, a TSATF Sudan game for the Thursday night session. This scenario comes from an official TSATF Scenario Pack.

http://www.sergeants3.com/first.html

Richard "Rick" Welch - Rest In Peace

Rick, at the far right with the big smile, during one of my TSATF / Gunboat & Dhow! games in Orlando / Kissimmee. This is how I will always remember him. 

It is with sadness that once again I must report that we have lost another great guy and HMGS-South gamer! Richard “Rick” Welch lost his battle with cancer this evening (12/14/22). He’s survived by his wife, daughter, and his 2 sons David and Stephan. All 3 of the Welch men were avid gamers and could always be found at the TSATF tables having lots of fun. 

Rick and I were planning convention games in his recent post retirement. He couldn’t wait to retire so he could go full throttle and finally start running games regularly at the cons. He will truly be missed. 

JB / Sgt. Guinness 

I was looking through my draft posts to continue with my longs past due Skobelev AAR and had found that I’d not posted this tribute to my friend. I had to post it even though it’s late. 

  The Last Pack Train - Part of our on going NWF Campaign run at HMGS-South's RECON and being documented on the Lead Adventure Forum.  

Heavy contemplation of his next move as the overall Afghan tribal Amir in a NWF con game of mine. 

   Rick letting me know how he feels about my game master decision. Keiser’s Revenge 1904 convention game. 

Orlando, 2015, another HMGS-South convention game. Rick 2nd from left flanked by his son’s Stephan, far left in pink shirt and David to his right in red T-shirt. We were playing in a WWI game run by my friend Nick Zizo using TSATF with a column of Turks being pursued by marauding Bedouin tribesmen. Big fun indeed.  

                                                  

Orlando / Kissimmee Fl - another great HMGS-South con in 2016. Here my buddy Gunboat Dan ran Sudan riverine games using our Gunboat & Dhow! and TSATF rules. Rick and his sons joined us for this game as well. 

The Sword And The Flame Demo Games at Recon-23

 

SMG - South Florida Miniatures Gamers are hosting a few small come and learn to play TSATF - The Sword And The Flame demo games at the upcoming HMGS-South ReCon-23 convention (https://tabletop.events/conventions/hmgs-south-recon-2023) These will be 1-1.5 hour mini games with 1-2 players per side and only 1-4 units per side with scenarios set in Afghanistan and North Africa. The Afghanistan games and will see the Russians moving south into Chitral Territory and the French vs  Berber natives in North Africa. 

                                                                                                    

                                                                                                   

                                                                        Russians  in Afghanistan.  

                                                                                                

                                  

              Moroccans attacking a French held train station. 

                                                                                                      

                                                                    Pathans advancing. 

                                                                                               

Pathans attacking

Bedouin  riflemen advancing. 

French Foreign Legionnaires  marching towards the sounds of small arms fire.  

French Sailor, with a Baumal’s Flags and Brewery flag.  

SMG Club - South Florida Miniatures Gamers

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_and_The_Flame

HurriCon 2022 - HMGS-South’s Convention (9/22/22 - 9/25/22)

 

The annual awesome HMGS-South convention HurriCon-2022 is fast approaching! The theme is Persia, though there will be every manor of games. As usual our crew will have one table just dedicated to Colonial games played with THE SWORD AND THE FLAME rules with a different game every session of the convention starting Thursday night running through Saturday night for a total of 7 sessions / games. More on that later.

Convention link: https://tabletop.events/conventions/hurricon-2022

Club link: HMGS-South

A message from the con director:

It is a good milestone for Hurricon, on behalf of the BoD, I am happy to say we are approaching 100 games. We are close to meeting our hotel rooms, we keep selling out ahead of schedule and they keep adding rooms to our block. 

Or theme is Persia, but as usually we have something for everyone. Maybe one of the command tents has a Persian rug in it, that works. 

We have Pete Panzeri's large Borodino Game with 30 feet of Napoleons brutal assault on the Russians. The Rob Hall Memorial game event, Two Bolt action tournaments, multiple De Bellis Antiquitatis tournaments, and the Pathfinder RPG special 3-98 Expedition into Pallid Peril (up to 36 players) exploring a old Dwarven sky-citadel.

We have more coming in every day! 

Yes, we are having a flea market, to sell it is $20 a table. 

HMGS-South as a club is dependent on others to spread the word. We keep the show cheaper than most, we keep vendor rates low, and hope to deliver a maximum value for your money. It been tough on shows and on clubs. Talking to other HMGS Chapters gives me a good perspective. Please tell your friends and opponents about us, and if you have questions or concerns, you can email any BoD member.  

More to come . . . .  

Update: Here’s our groups games for HurriCon-22 thus far. 

HurriCon 2022 - TSATF Table

Thursday at 20:00 - 105 - The lost mine - TSIA

Friday at 09:00 - 106 - Timing is everything - TSIA

Friday at 14:00 - 119 - The Belgians are at it again! - TSATF

Friday at 20:00 - 120 - The Belgians are at it again! - TMWWBK

Saturday at 09:00 Marc C?

Saturday at 14:00 -116 - Afghanistan, 5 February 1891, Chitral Territory - TSATF

Saturday at 20:00 -118 - Flame over Morocco 1907 - TSATF

Sunday at 09:00 (nothing scheduled)

TSATF Games at HurriCon 2021

                               Hurricon 2021 Con Link

   HMGS-South is back to running cons! 23-26 September, 2021 in Orlando Florida. Above is the list of the games at the dedicated The Sword And The Flame Table. There are lots of other great games in all sorts of periods, scales, and rules sets. Sign up soon as spots are filling up fast.      

Check out the HMGS- South link for the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society - Southern region.  

                              

Bud’s Blast Markers!

                                                  Bud’s Blast Markers! 

 World War II - exploding Panther tank and burning building in the background.

These things rock! You’ve got to see these blast markers on the table. I know we’ve all used cotton balls painted in various styles and shapes over the years, mounted on washers or unmounted, etc. Some of these are really awesome and many of you hobbyists are extremely talented. I love making terrain, building, kits, and painting figs, however, I just don’t have the time that I used to and some of my skills are lacking! When I see a cool product for a good price it’s hard to pass that up. 

                            Colonial period: Sudan 1880s - burning gunboat.

I’ve seen markers like these before, but these are the best markers that I have found for representing artillery rounds impacting or explosions. They are also great for representing a burning structure, vehicle, or vessel, and they really look cool on the table top. 

                              Colonial period - destroyed native gun and crew.

They can be used for ancients games all the way to ultra modern, and beyond. Bud makes 3 different sizes, single, double, and triple.  

Here's a picture from the HMGS-South's face book page. Burning Chinese houses during a 15mm TSATF Boxer Rebellion game, "55 Days at Peking" run by Ray Phillips, boy we had big fun. Ray did a great job, ran an awesome game, made amazing scratch built terrain, and great painted minis! The burning bldg markers are Bud's single size small Blast Marker. The report states:

American cow kicks over a lantern or that's the story they are telling. Americans burn their legation not to be out done by the French or the Germans, alcohol is to blame....

 He also has some with fiber optics and in different colors. I’m a standard meat and potatoes historical gamer but if I were a scifi or fantasy gamer I can see how these would be way cool for fantasy and scifi games for blast markers, chemical fires, spells, acid clouds, etc.

                                                      Scifi Air strike!

I recently met Bud and his son at one of our HMGS-South conventions in Orlando Florida. They are great guys and we had a blast gaming. Needless to say we all got and used Bud’s markers in our games. Look him up on FB or email him what you are looking for.

The Hun The Frog & The Lion - 3

                          The Hun The Frog & The Lion - 3: The Boats

The Series continues about this scenario I ran at Recon and will be running again at Hurricon with the naval portion of this battle. The scenario specs called for a civilian transport with a low draft to be converted into an armed steamer to bring the western troops to Mogadir. The French chose the civilian ship the Cite De La Meers. For this boat I used an awesome model made by my friend Last Stand Dan. He calls this boat the "R" Class Steamer and fits the bill perfectly. Dan hides magnets under the decks and glues matching magnets to the underside of the desired armament to keep them in place during games.


                                 French Gunboat: Cite De La Meers

The crew is French but the gunners are all German, as negotiated by their respective nations prior to the raid.

Native Dhows

The scenario calls for the possible arrival of (2) armed dhows fully crewed by veteran sailors and troops returning to Mogadir from pillaging the coast and any targets of opportunity.

Once again I turned to my buddy "Last Stand Dan" for a boat. The one pictured above with grey trim is a two masted dhow that he had made for me. It's another excellent model. All of Dan's boats are exceptional. He builds and sells many varieties of boats to choose from. He makes boats in 25mm as well as 15mm scales.

The Xebec with the green trim was made by the well known ship builder Richard Huston. I bought this boat well over ten year ago from my friend Patrick Wilson of TVAG. He sells Richard's boats as well as all sorts of other cool wargaming stuff.

Landing Craft

The troops need a conveyance to get them to their destination. I've used landing boats purchased at flea markets, ebay, and most recently from a new company based in Miami, Fl. Firelock Games who produce a pirate game supported by figs, ships, rules, etc. Their "row" boat is the perfect size and scale for my colonial games and works perfectly fitting 10-12, 25mm figs on small 3/4 x3/4 magnetized bases. I get all my magnetized bases from my buddy ACW Bill of Good Ground Miniatures, maker of the best 10mm ACW figs around. He sells all sizes of magnetized bases.

The rowboat to the left is the one from Firelock Games.

Next up: Post -4: Meet The Hun The Frog & The Lion.

Here's a list of the boat vendors of toys used in this post.

Last Stand Dan: http://laststanddan.blogspot.com/

TVAG - The Virtual Armchair General: http://thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/

Firelock Games: http://www.firelockgames.com/

Figure bases, Good Ground Miniatures: http://crackerlineminis.com/

http://www.hmgs-south.com/