I have always wanted to be part of a putting together rules for a tabletop wargame. Now, I can officially say that I can check off that box on my life’s “To-Do” list – at least in a smallish way.

Feudal Patrol – Buck Surdu’s rules for “Skirmish Miniature Gaming in the Ancient, Medieval, and Fantasy Periods” is now available commercially. In the US, it can be bought from On Military Matters website here.  It is also being sold in the US by Noble Knight Games website here. In the UK, it is being sold by Sally 4th on their website here.

It is a fantastic skirmish system, similar to his Combat Patrol -WWII and Albedo Combat Patrol systems. Unlike many other games, the Combat Patrol family has eliminated the clutter of multiple charts and markers with the use of specialized playing card decks. The decks in each game enable players to resolve movement, melee, missile fire, morale, cover protection, and more all from a single 50 card deck. Feudal Patrol is appropriate for periods when melee dominated warfare instead of firepower – so the 16th Century and earlier, as well as being adaptable for fantasy gaming. To be clear, I am not totally unbiased. I have been friends with Buck for nearly 40 years since our cadet days at West Point, and I did participate in several playtests of these rules and helped as I could.

As for a good review of Feudal Patrol by a more neutral party, there is a fine one on the BoardGameGeek website by Scouter (Brian Ivers) that you can see here. You can see that this is a game worth checking out. Here’s a snippet from the review:

Overall an Excellent effort by Buck and his band of Tabletop warriors. The cards and rules were purchased by me under a pre order program through On Military Matters. The rules were produced by Sally4th, a wonderful company out of the UK. Noble Knight games are also a US conduit. The amount of support available for this product is excellent, this can be found on both Buck Surdus web site as well as Sally4th. And Google Groups IO page. Buck has produced an excellent You Tube video introduction to Feudal Patrol. https://youtu.be/SlpLbMdgVv8

I highly recommend this rule set.
Brian Ivers.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/318641/feudal-patrol/ratings

Buck asked me if I was interested in writing a supplement for the rules. I was very interested and thought it would be a fine opportunity to check the box I wrote of above. I also wanted to develop a skirmish game for the Spanish Conquest as the period and the garb of the period was fascinating to me. So I agreed, and did a lot of research on the period, and developed my supplement to Feudal Patrol that I called “Civilizations Collide”. That supplement is a FREE download – and I hope all who read this will download it and please take a look (after all it’s free! – did I mention that?). Plus it has a lot of pics of the miniatures that I have painted up (and more will come in this blog of course!

Where can you get it?

Civilizations Collide is available for download on Sally 4th’s website here or the Feudal Patrol website here.

As readers of this blog know, I have been also actively painting figures for the period from many companies. You may want to get started – so as a help, here is my list of what I have found available:

1. Wargames Foundry (I get them in the US here from Badger Games but Foundry’s own UK website is here) – 28mm
2. Outpost Wargames Services (I get them in the US here from Badger Games but OWS’s UK website is here – 28mm
3. Eureka Miniatures (US site is here, Eureka Australian website is here) – 28mm
4. Tin Soldiers UK (I get them in the US from Silver Eagle Wargames here, UK website is here) – 25mm
5. Naismith and Roundway sells some (I have not bought any yet) here – 25mm
6. Even the old Ral Partha (which I have), now sold by Iron Winds Metals, has some here – 25mm

All of these are still commercially available. I do prefer the 28mm over the 25mm, but I do use both

Thanks for checking this out and a real big thank you if you downloaded the supplement! More to come!

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

Posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol – “Civilizations Collide”

1. Civilizations Collide – The Wars of the Aztecs, the Inca, the Maya, and the Conquistadores is now available as a FREE Download for Feudal Patrol – plus a Feudal Patrol review! (this post)
2. 18 Aztec Novice Warriors for Feudal Patrol Walk into a Bar – 18 Novice Warriors
3. Aztec Warrior Priests (painted as Tlaxcalans), Ral Partha 42-302, circa 1988 (this post) – 6 figures – 6 Tlaxcalan Warrior Priests
4. Tlaxcalan Novices, Elite Warriors, and Command Group – 18 figures – 8 Novice Tlaxcalan Warriors, 8 Elite Tlaxcalan Warriors, 1 Tlaxcalan Captain, 1 Tlaxcalan Conch Blower
5. Tlaxcalan Archers – 8 Veteran Tlaxcalan Archers
6. Aztec Game for Feudal Patrol across thousands of miles – via Zoom!
7. Aztec Snake Woman and Drummer – 1 Aztec General, 1 Aztec Drummer
8. A June and July Jaguar Warrior Frenzy (plus some Aztec Veterans and a Warrior Priest to Boot) – 3 Aztec Veteran Warriors, 17 Jaguar Warriors, 1 Aztec Warrior Priest
9. Doubling Down – Aztec Veteran Warriors – 24 Aztec Veteran Warriors
10. Aztec Arrow Knights, Ral Partha circa 1988 – 6 Aztec Arrow Knights
11. Aztec Eagle Warriors from Tin Soldier UK – 6 Aztec Eagle Knights
12. Aztec Novice Warriors and a few Frinx – 12 Novice Warriors