HMGS-PSW Mini-Wars 2025 - Saturday October 11th & Sunday October 12th

 

Greetings Fellow Gamers in FL & Elsewhere!

(A message from my brother E form the west coast, AKA, Mad Guru on all the game forums)

DISCLAIMER: This message is not about an upcoming game at your AMAZING DAS KIREG HAUS CLUBHOUSE, which I drool over and beat my breast in despair for being unable to convince my wife we NEED TO MOVE to South Florida every time I get one of your emails -- it is an attempt to recruit a few more GMs and players to attend our modest Southern California tabletop wargaming convention, MINI-WARS, being held this year the weekend of Saturday October 11th & Sunday October 12th on the beautiful campus of California State University, Fullerton in Orange County, California -- within easy reach of Disney Land and a bunch of awesome Pacific coast beaches.

Attached please find a flyer for the event, complete with a QR code that will take you to the same link I am putting here, which will bring you to our convention's page on the Table Top Events website:

https://tabletop.events/conventions/hmgs-psw-mini-wars-2025

I realize with barely one month's notice it's unlikely many of you Floridians will travel across country to join us -- sadly! -- BUT I'm hoping at least some of you must have hobby friends who live somewhere in the South-Western U.S.A, not too far from Fullerton (out here "too far" generally means under a thousand miles!) so I am humbly asking your help to spread word of our little-engine-that-could convention a bit farther and wider.

This year we are making a concerted effort to try and raise the quality of our show and grow its attendance, so even one more cool game or one more happy (until he rolls his dice!) gamer showing up will be greatly appreciated.

On the plus side, all our shows feature at least a few truly outstanding epic games, such as last year's 32 ft x 7 ft layout commemorating the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, refought from start to finish in gorgeous 28mm over the weekend...

Any help you can provide in spreading word of our upcoming MINI-WARS 2025 will be greatly appreciated, and when I finally show up to visit my brother from another mother Sgt. Guinness AKA: Jeff Baumal on a day when DKH is open, I will come by and thank you in person by buying a beer or soft drink of your choice.  Until then, thanks again for reading this and for any efforts you expend helping out your little cousins across the continent!

Gratefully Yours,

Ethan Reiff (AKA: Mad Guru)

PS. If any of you find yourselves out here in Lala Land & looking for a wargame to play, feel free to email me.  Between my place in L.A. and the group I game with down in Orange County that runs this convention, we should be able to find a command slot for you to fill.

Umra Khan & Giorgio - LAF - NWF Campaign

Umra Khan & Mulehead the Mighty are engaging in a heated campaign set on the Grim, the NWF during the 2nd Afghan War. These two gentlemen have taken trash talking to new and utterly hysterical heights. To see their exchanges and how my alter ego Sgt Guinness and my buddy Mad Guru have been dragged into their fun, click here:

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=131610.30

The banter is great, the story line a pleasure to read, and the pictures of their kit pure enjoyment!

Now how do we all get together to roll some dice together…?

I want to preface that as it is well known that my favorite set of rules are “The Sword And The Flame” available at http://www.sergeants3.com/first.html I do play and enjoy other sets of rules! That being said it is impossible for me NOT to join in the banter of this LAF thread.  Below is my first salvo into the fun. My buddy Mad Guru of the Maiwand Day Blog fame has already entered the fray.

 An evil wind blows through this putrid valley. False words drop like the bodies of our enemies. Sgt Guinness is a faithful servant of the one and only true text, the holy TSATF! Heretical lies abound about formation changes and documents being altered. The formations and OOB’s are as it ever was, and will continue to be so. 

As we speak Sgt Guinness has sent his messenger / runner, Corporal Mado to reach his superior with the discouraging words of the falsehoods leveled upon him and the one true text. Whisper not my name lest it be an invite for dark stout or strong drink!

                   Sgt Guinness confers with Mad Guru

Sgt Guinness himself has traveled to the territory of Mad Guru, defender of the one true text, mullah and Khan of the Afridi , seeking his alliance and willingness to join as comrades in arms to fight for the one true text. May the late honorable Sgt Brom creator of the one true text smile down upon us from Valhalla! 

Even now Captain Lucas is mustering the troops for battle. The 1st & 2nd Gurkhas, the 77th Lancers, the 40th Pathans, and the Dunn Murray Highlanders, are already being provisioned for a deployment to valley of Umra Khan. 

The false profit, the Fakir of Wazir, the not so mighty Mulehead,  El Growley, and the despicable Waziri’s must be taught the truth, by tongue or by might! 

      March my brothers, March!!!!

Having constructed an alliance verses the evil Fakir of the Wazri, the sultan of the false text, Mad Guru and Sgt Guinness ride off to muster their forces to defend the one true text and all that is holy. HUZZAH!

2nd Battalion 60th Rifles (Kings Royal Rifle Corps) Battle of Kandahar / Baba Wali - 1 September 1880

I have been working on my NWF collection for decades. I started my collection in 15mm and later changed to 28mm in the early to mid 90's. With multiple other gaming interests, two young sons, dedicated family time, playing and coaching ice hockey, I can rarely stay in one genre for long, hence the long term unfinished project. With my good friend the Mad Guru working on another epic NWF game, the Battle of Kandahar / Battle of Baba Wali 1880, I was motivated to paint up some units for use in his game. You can see pics and read about the preparations and progress on his awesome blog.  http://maiwandday.blogspot.com. He has been working on this game for about a year. I have been planning to fly across the county to join the game as one of the players and have committed to paint up and supply a couple of units. This post is about one of those units. Anyone even remotely interested in colonial gaming or the 2nd Afghan War in particular needs to check out both of Mad Guru's sites as they are a treasure trove of information, a visual treat, a source of inspiration, and one of the best blogs and websites on the web. www.maiwandday.com

For this project I decided to start with a unit of 28mm British colonial infantry, one of the plastic Perry Miniatures kits that I had gotten from a friend. These were already built and painted but needed touch ups, re-basing, and changes to make them the 2nd Battalion 60th Rifles - Kings Royal Rifle Corps 1880.

Here is the painting reference from the back of the Perry Miniatures figures box.

I painted all the waist belts, haversacks, 1871 Valise Equipment, bayonet scabbards, and rifle slings black. I painted the cap dark green as well as the puttees on one of the officers and the pants of another officer. The remainder of the work was touch ups, corrections, and basing.

Here's a bit of historical data for the 60th KRRC 2nd Battalion for this battle:

The Third Infantry Brigade
Commanded by General Charles Metcalfe MacGregor

2nd Battalion 60th Rifles (King's Royal Rifle Corps)
Commanded by Lt. Colonel Joseph James Collins. The 60th Rifles joined the South Afghanistan Field Force, Reserve Division, at Multan in October 1878. November saw some companies of the regiment on escort duty to General Stewart and various Royal Artillery divisions, before they arrivied via the Bolan Pass at Quetta towards the end of December. On 8th January 1879 the 60th Rifles marched through Kandahar, which had surrendered on the previous day. They had an expedition to Kelat-i-Ghilzai before returning and camping at the old 1839 British barracks at Kandahar (where Collins joined and took command of his regiment), until the end of March 1880 when they marched with Stewart to Ghazni, taking part in the action at Ahmed Khel. After some time in the Logar valley, the regiment eventually moved to Kabul at the end of July. After the march to Kandahar in August the Rifles were engaged with the enemy during the reconnaisance of Baba-Wali, and during the following day in the Battle of Kandahar that defeated Ayub Khan. They reached Quetta again on 19th September, and then onto Sibi, where Lt. Colonel Collins died of dysentery. With Macgregor they went out against the Marri tribes and then finally returned to Mirat on 24th November 1880.

       2nd Battalion 60th Rifles Kings Royal Rifle Corps advance on the village Paimal, Battle of Kandahar 1880

Here's some of the research I used: 

The following are WIP, work in progress pics trying to get these figs as close as possible to the references I'd found and was provided by other gamers, most notably friends Ethan "Mad Guru" Reiff and Nick "I can draw anything" Stern.

Before...

                       After the 1879 valise equipment and gear was all painted black

The 1st Colonial Barracks - 2011 (A Blast from the Past)

 

 Prepping for: Colonial Barracks V - Nov 6th - 8th

With the immanent approach of Colonial Barracks V at the Sheraton in Metarie New Orleans some of us have been getting forces ready for the con. I have been getting a Highlander unit ready for the "Mad Guru's" Charasiab Epic NWF game and my buddy "Last Stand Dan" has been producing awesome Dhows for his Sudan Game. While checking them out on Dan’s blog I had found this little gem from the first Colonial Barracks back in 2011. The following is pulled directly from his blog.

Click here to check out both of their great blogs:

http://laststanddan.blogspot.com

http://maiwandday.blogspot.com

Click here for the Colonial Barracks and the official “The Sword And The Flame” web site:

http://www.sergeants3.com/

Cheers,

JB

 

Colonial Barracks Convention - New Orleans Nov 4 - 6, 2011 

When I heard that Larry and Lori Brom putting the first The Sword and Flame at Colonial Barracks I decided right away I was going.  If it wasn't for Larry Brom's Rules and the movie "Khartoum" I never would have been a war gamer.  So it was a pleasure seeing Lori and Larry after seeing them at Historicon in 2004.  This is the 32nd year that TSATF has been around and has stood the test of time.  

"The Train" Battle by Dr, Mark Stevens.

The convention was at the Sheraton Metarie which is only about 25 minutes or so from the French Quarter.   I took Julie and her son Aaron and we had a blast.  For this first visit I took most of my time with sightseeing and playing in the evening.  I am ready to go again next year.  This is a perfect trip to bring your family and everyone will be happy.  I took the opportunity to vista the French Quarter, eat some great food, visit the WWII National Museum, road the Street Car, etc.  Great fun.  Of course I kept sending pictures and text message to Tony Fryer, just to rub it in.  

WWII National Museum

French Quarter

The convention was also a fundraiser for the Creutzfieldt-Jakob Diseasse which took Sara, Wife and Mother in 1999.  It is a worthy cause.  

I met new friends there and ran into a fellow Californio, Ethan Reiff.  Well he lives in California but is from the east coast.  I will be definitely visiting him in California to play in some games or conventions on the West Coast.   Now Ethan drove all the way from California and put on the nice looking terrain of the battle of Maiwand.  I added Ethan's Blog in my Favorite Blog sections, check it out.  Here are some pics from his Maiwand Battle.

Maiwand Troops

More Maiwand Troops

Battery on the move.

Maiwand

Maiwand

Ethan's beautiful Maiwand Table!

Besides seeing Lori and Larry I got to see Jeff Baumal whom I have not seen for many years at a past Historicon.  He put on some great battles and I was fortunate to play in his "The Wind and the Lion" battle.

But if anyone has played the Sword and the Flame before you know the mechanics.  It is a blast, especially in the Wind and the Lion battle where the Raisuli got away but Pedecarus was wounded and taken down.  It almost went according to our Berber plan.  The terrain as I have mentioned is fantastic and I hope to play in another of Jeff's battles at Recon in Coco Beach in the Spring.

Here are some pictures of The Wind and the Lion Battle.  "Mrs. Pedecarus alive or Railsuli dead!" (The Wind and the Lion 1975.)

Jeff's Beautiful Wind Lion Market!

Wind Lion Defenders

 Jeff Far Right next to Ethan

Market Place

Berber Cavalry

Pedecarus goes down!

Raisuli Breakout

Marines!

Germans.

Berbers ready to start the Charge!

Berbers on the move!

Germans, French and Moroccans defenders

Building where the Raisuli is being held!

Germans just made it to the walls!

The Honorable Larry Brom. 

The Wind and the Lion Battlefield

French Cavalry ready to charge the gates

Larry overlooking the battle

Berber Cavalry swarming everywhere through the defences.

Berber Surprise attack on the left flank gate.

French Cavalry defend the gate by charging into my Berber mob.

Berbers taking rifle fire from the walls before contact is made

Oh is that Frenchie on the ground...haha!

If you saw the movie, the Marines start the Fire Works!

Larry Brom 1958