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

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

1930'S VERSION OF THE SERGEANTS 3 - Painted by Stan Johansen

 

A 1930'S VERSION OF THE SERGEANTS 3 - PULP FIGURES - Painted by Stan Johansen, (Link)

I picked up these awesomely painted figs at Stan’s booth at an HMGS-South con several years ago. Stan sells all manor of painted and based game ready figures, guns, and vehicles. Many periods and scales, many genres and manufacturers, including his own line of Boxer Rebellion figures in both 28mm and 20mm. 

I use these painted Pulp Figures minis for my Gunga Din and Tantrapur village games. My preferred set of colonial rules are “The Sword And The Flame” for running games at cons and our local Fort Lauderdale Florida club, the South Florida Miniatures Gamers. (SMG Link)

 

These pics were taken at my Village of Tantrapur game about 5 or more years ago in Orlando Fla at one of the HMGS-South’s excellent cons, Recon or HurriCon. 

I have the earlier period Sergeants 3 pack from pulp figures also but I love to paint and will be painting those myself. However Stan’s painted figs were so good I couldn’t resist. They’ve seen much action in my NWF games over the years! In fact, they will be appearing in my upcoming con game “The Last Pack Train Out Of Ahoogastan” in September at HurriCon 21. (Game post link)

Here are pics from the Pulp Miniatures website selling these unpainted figs. 

1930’s version:

Earlier version:

Here are the links: 

Stan Johansen Miniatures

Pulp Figures - Sergeants 3 early version

Pulp Figures Sergeants 3 - 1930’s version

The Sword And The Flames rules

Historical Miniatures Gaming Society -HMGS-South

HMGS-South - HurriCon 2021

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!

40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame!

This year will be the 40th Anniversary of the iconic colonial skirmish rules set "The Sword And The Flame" written by the venerable late Larry V. Brom, USMC. In my humble opinion these are by far the best colonial wars rules set ever written! The fact that I consider Larry and his daughters Lori & Christy my friends has nothing at all to do with my thoughts about these rules. I'd first found these rules at an old Historicon convention at the Penn Harris Inn about the mid 1980's. Larry was running an Egyptian vs Brits game and I instantly fell in love with the flow, game speed, period specific nuances, exciting melee phase, and the user friendly game mechanics.

I've been playing these rules ever since. I've tried many others, but none came close to the fun, excitement, and adventure of these rules, for me personally at least. The fact that the mechanics are set up for skirmish type actions and not competition has led the faithful followers of these rules to have one very common awesome trait among them, that all games must be FUN! The fun aspect has always kept me locked into these rules and I have made some of my best and life long friends while rolling dice around a rip roaring fun TSATF games table.

Larry's inspiration for writing these rules came from movies like Gunga Din. Here is a photo of a Gunga Din TSATF game run by Devon Start and played at our SMG clubhouse Das Krieg Haus in Fort Lauderdale Fla.

The epitome of colonial gaming, pictured are The Sergeants 3 and Gunga Din by Bob Murch of Pulp Figures (Code: PBT-5) https://pulpfigures.com/products/view/149, and painted by Devon.


Now with the 40th Anniversary Edition of this masterpiece rules set on the horizon I can't wait to see what Larry's daughters have done to celebrate the rules and Larry. Lori had told me that the 40th will contain updates, corrections from the official addendum, scenarios, and some surprises. Count me in!

Check out the official The Sword And The Flame Website: http://www.sergeants3.com/

Setting up my Sudan game table for HMGS-South's Recon-2019 convention in Orlando, Fl.

Devon Start's Gunga Din TSATF game table at HMGS-South's Recon-2019 convention, Orlando, Fl. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/hmgs_south/info

I hope to see you around a TSATF table soon! Carry on, and have fun rolling them bones.....
Cheers,
Sgt. G.

Larry Brom - 1958

Recon-2007, Orlando Fl. Kay Bar & Bayonet play test crew.

From Left to right:

 Mark Stevens, Larry Brom, Jeff Baumal (Sgt G), George Carr Sr., Big Red, Mike Lucas, Marc.

PBT 26 - A  1930's version of The Sgt's 3, by Pulp Figures painted by the very talented Stan Johansen, https://www.stanjohansenminiatures.com/

https://pulpfigures.com/products/view/186