ETMW Games Day, October 2025

Aerodrome WW2

I ran the sixth East TN Miniature Wargaming Games Day last Saturday. The full schedule can be found here. Tracking attendance is a bit rough, since there is no registration and it takes place in a store, but I counted 40 people who at least showed up just to interact with the event. There were eleven games played, including an ad hoc Necropolis 28 game late in the day. That definitely makes it our largest event so far, and people travelled from Morristown, Chattanooga, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Incredibly, after two years of this, I'm still meeting pockets of uncontacted miniature gamers. I feel like an anthropologist!

Fistful of Lead

Fistful of Lead core rule book
from Wiley Games

Fistful of Lead (FFoL) has been on my radar for a while now. I'm not sure exactly when it started, but my first game of it seems to have been a Revolt in Austria run by Jon Lundberg at Historicon 2023. Number One Son and I played in that game and had a lot of fun, although I don't think I was quite convinced about it at the time.

Since then, I've run several public games for unexpectedly large numbers of players. This got me thinking more about which rules were suitable for large numbers of players in games like this, as well as convention games. I ran I Ain't Been Shot Mum for six players, which felt like I was stretching it, and I ran Blood Red Skies for nine players, which it handled well. Thinking back to FFoL, I decided I wanted to try it again, with the idea of me running it in mind.

Thus it was Number One Son and I returned to FFoL at Historicon 2025, playing in Never Easy for Easy Company by Ed Watts.

Wargaming Podcasts

There are more miniature wargaming podcasts than I have time to listen to! Here's a list of ones I'm currently subscribed to. There's a wide variety here and I'm sure you can find something interesting in them.

Any podcast that hasn't published in the last year, I've left off this list. Otherwise, if I've missed any interesting ones, let me know!

The links I've used are a bit all over the place, but you should be able to find these in any podcast app.

Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht

Plenty to do, no space to do it in...

"Man plans, and God laughs"

I see that I kept a public queue of my 2013 projects! I thought it might be fun to go through those and see what has happened to them over the last twelve years...

Operation Vengeance: the Assassination of Admiral Yamamoto

Yamamoto escapes at Nashcon

This is my Blood Red Skies (BRS) scenario I ran several times this year (Siege of Augusta, Rocky Top Gaming Convention, and Nashcon, as well as a couple of times locally), based on Operation Vengeance, the assassination of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.

I have had many players new to BRS play in this scenario, and they have a good time, so it seems like a good way to learn the game. And BRS is a blast to play and very suitable for convention play. I have run games with as many as nine players, mostly new to the game, just fine.

Return to Blogging

Yours truly running a game at Nashcon 2025

What have been doing the past 12 years? Why return to blogging now?

I mostly stopped blogging because of the friction of posting, compared to the ease of posting on Instagram. However, I've stopped posting there, too. And I keep finding myself going back to my blog, to reference past projects, remind myself of what I've done, etc... So, I'm taking a stab at blogging again. No guarantees I'll keep at it.

The History of England Podcast

King John

I have been fairly busy the last month-- more so than even usual with three kids all in extracurricular activities-- and one of the more interesting things to occupy my spare time has been the  History of  England Podcast. And I thought the History of Rome Podcast was long! The History of England has run over a hundred episodes so far, and has just reached the beginning of the Hundred Years' War! It has obviously entertained me, and I dare say educated me, or I would not have listened so long. It occasionally gives episodic updates on what else is going on in Europe, and obviously a lot of English history post-1066 is intertwined with France's history, so you're getting a somewhat wider view than you might think. Combined with Norman Centuries and 12 Byzantine Rulers and you're getting a much wider view of the Dark and Middle Ages, especially. Can't wait to fill it out with the History of France in English, maybe the Medieval Archives and the British History Podcast, and even the History of English Podcast...and I can't wait for somebody to start a Holy Roman Empire podcast! Real opportunity there, people!!

FoB2: The Battle of Morunnin

Battle of Morunnin, a photo by The Gonk.

We played our randomly generated Field of Battle scenario described here Friday night. It went well for the French, with Marshal Dalé's plan working perfectly-- the Russian hordes did, indeed, crash and break against the French rock.

We were a bit short on command stands, which played a bit to the French's setup advantages. Essentially, the Russians were forced to set up first, and the French responded by setting up entirely on the right half of the table. They placed the imaginary town of Morunnin on their left flank, and the entire left half of their line was able to anchor on a forest edge. On their right, they placed a grand battery-esque concentration of four artillery batteries.

Synchronicity

Vikings, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Right now, I have just finished the first two books of Bernard Cornwell's the Saxon Stories/Tales/Chronicles, whatever it is. They are awesome! The primary protagonists of the series so fare are Halfdan, Ivar the Boneless, and Ubba-- the historical leaders of the Great Heathen Army of Danes which conquered almost all of England, leaving only a toehold of swamp for Alfred the Great to stage his great come back from. All three of them were the sons of Ragnar Lothbrook, the star of the History Channel's Vikings. I can't believe the "Ancient Nazi Aliens" of the History Channel put out something this good and something this historical-- or, if not historical, at least consistent with the legends. It's not perfect-- of course, the hero Ragnar is at both the Lindisfarne and Portland Bay raids, which were six years apart but are represented closely together, in the wrong place, and in the wrong order in the show. But it is still awesome!! I can't wait to watch some more...and get some more Anglo-Saxons painted and run some Dux Britanniarum games!!

Field of Battle 2 Random Scenario

FOB 2cover, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

The year is 1807. The Prussians have been humiliated, and the late arriving Russian Army, now under Bennigsen, is trying to surprise the French in a sweeping movement through Prussia.

In the van is Major General Barclay de Tommey (Tom G.), leading his corps on the Prussian town of Morunnin, where Marshal Francois Dalé's (K. Dale) French corps is assembling to halt the Russian advance.

Joey...you like blog posts about Gladiators?

2013-08-11 18.44.55, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

So I picked up a bunch of Crusader Gladiators at Historicon 2012-- woof, no, make that 2011!! Wow, how time flies, I swear I thought these hadn't been sitting around that long. Anyway, over the years, I also grabbed a few different rules to try out with Number One Son, who-- at twelve-- knows more Roman history than I do. I finally got around to painting up enough gladiators to play some games, as well as a few animals. And Number One Son and I sat down and finally played our first game!

Historicon 2013: Saturday

2013-07-20 08.53.19, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Stayed up late again, got up early again. Still, no real plan. I wandered around looking at the games, and fortunately was able to hop into one of the best looking games at Historicon-- a speculative game of the Battle of Fort DeRussy, an ACW Brother Against Brother game.