black powder fantasy, HAVOC, Miniatures, Miniatures & Gaming, tabletop wargaming, Wargaming, wargaming conventions, Wars of Ozz

Wars of Ozz games at HAVOC XXXVIII – Games that live up to the convention’s name!

Mark Morin April 11, 2024 Leave a Comment

Havoc is the premier miniatures convention of the Northeast and has run continuously for 37 years, well…except for the two Covid-19 years. Havoc XXXVIII (2024) will be held on April 5th thru April 7th, 2024…
HAVOC website

Last weekend the latest iteration of the Battle Group Boston’s HAVOC convention was held in Marlborough, MA, at the Best Western Hotel. The BGB folks did a nice job setting up and running the convention, though it did seem like turnout was a bit light compared with previous years. Still, there were a great many wonderful games (not just mine you know). I did not get a chance to watch or play in other games of course, but I did see my neighbor’s awesome Stalingrad Fireball Forward table:

Awesome Stalingrad table (15mm I think)

I have also seen one excellent blog post by Peter Anderson at his site Blunders on the Danube (what a GREAT blog moniker btw!) that showed a number of the wonderful games in their full glory. Here is the link to that site – it is really nice, so please check it out.

This convention was held at the same hotel that TotalCon 38 was in February. At that convention, there were 10 slots, so I ran 10 Wars of Ozz tabletop wargames as a GM. When the HAVOC sign up showed up on the web, I saw that there were as usual 5 slots – 1 on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 1 on Sunday. I thought, hell, if I can handle 10 in 4 days, I can handle 5 Ozz games in 3 days. The only difference between the conventions was that I had added the Quadling Brigade and heroes that I discussed in my last post. Besides, if you paint them, they will come!

For this post, I took some photos that more or less capture the essence of each of the games. I’ll try to give you a flavor of the action with all the eye candy I can (there’s a LOT).

Friday Evening – “Learn to Play Wars of Ozz“

For my “Learn to Play” (LTP) games, I give each player brigades of 21 points apiece. That usually works out to a Brigade Commander, 3-4 units, and a couple of individual hero/magic users.

Brad waits for the players to arrive. On the left here (Red team) are a Harvest Brigade, the Quadling Brigade, and two Munchkin Brigades. They faced two Gillikin and two Winkie Brigades (Black Team) on the right here.

A view from the other side of the table as the players start. This game had 7 players.

Black Team’s Dire Tigers from one of the Gillikin Brigades charges the Quadling 1st Regiment’s line with the Dire Wolves on their left.

Meanwhile, the Gillikin Goat Riders made a mad charge against the 4th Quadling Infantry Regiment – only to come up short facing their muskets.

Bob maneuvers his Munchkin Brigade as he faces off with the Winkie Infantry. His witch (Belinda the Nun) recovers on the left from a critical spell failure. The Aerostat jockies for a key hit on the marauding Winkies.

To Bob’s right, Brad’s Munchkin Sharpshooter Regiment faced a massive dual Winkie attack from Leif – who used both Evora’s Body Guard and the Zilk rider cavalry. His Landwehr watched in horror and waited for an activation.

Leif brings up the Winkie Sharpshooters to reinforce his offensive.

The Great Flying Apes prepare to assault Bob’s Munchkin Aerostat by taking cover in the town. The Winkie Infantry behind them have been routed by the Munchkin Sharpshooters and are running away as Leif moves up his Winkie Sharpshooters.

While the Winkies successfully unlimber their artillery on the hill, the Winkie Sharpshooters are then also routed by the Munchkins!

The Munchkin Landwehr and Munchkin Sharpshooters both hold out against Evora’s Body Guard, Zilk cavalry, and the Great Owls.

On the Red team’s right flank, the Harvest Brigade under Scott sends its female pirates against Gillikin infantry. Their witch, Lady Thistlethorne, had cast a “poppies” spell on the hill to keep the Gillikin skeleton regiment away from its Lesser Pumpkinheads, while the Great Pumpkin Heads wheel around the hill to take on the Gillikin Gugu Forester Regiment.

Bob’s Aerostat crew breathes a sigh of relief as the Great Flying Apes attack on them fizzles.

Ken’s witch, Glenda, uses a “transport” spell to successfully send the 1st Quadling Infantry Regiment into the Zilk cavalry’s flank.

As time ran out, the battle was called. The score was a victory for the Red Team (Munchkins/Harvest/Quadlings) who had destroyed 26 enemy bases versus the Black Team (Winkies/Gillikins) that had 14.

Saturday Morning – “Learn to Play Wars of Ozz“

For my second LTP game, I moved some brigades around and swapped in some new ones. The table set up is flexible so if the number of players vary from the sign up, I can adjust. Again, each player had brigades of 21 points apiece.

The table reset for Saturday morning.

The players are ready – eventually we had 5. because of the shortage – we left off the Harvest and Impkin brigades nearest the camera. This left two Munchkin brigades and a Quadling brigade (Red Team on the left here) versus a Winkie Brigade and two Gillikin brigades (Team Black on the right here).

Our 5th player arrived just as Eric and Brad got simultaneous activations and moved to attack.

As in the previous game, the Winkie Infantry (lower left) took fire and damage from the Munchkins and fled. Eric then got his Winkie Sharpshooters in good positions atop the hill.

Forces converge. Munchkins move up on the left, while Gillikin’s Dire Lions charge out of the forest at the Great Owls.

A view of the Gillikins moving forward on the left side of their side of the table.

The Dire Tigers show their flank to the Quadling 4th Infantry Regiment as they try to hit the 1st Quadling Light Battery on its flank!

The Dire Tigers take out 1 base of the Quadling Artillery, but are pushed back. The Dire Bears try to move up but are hit on both of their flanks by the Quadling 1st Infantry and the artillery.

Once again, the Winkie Sharpshooters are routed, but manage to rally, and move forward in single column to get better shots at the Munchkins with reduced Elan.

At the game’s end, the Dire Tigers, one of the Dire Bears, and the Dire Wolvere were a skeedaddlin’…

Time ran out and the game ended. Despite the routs, the aggressive attacks of the Black Team (Winkies & Gillikins) had cost them 19 casualties, but they had successfully inflicted 25 on the Red Team (Quadlings and Munchkins) for the victory.

Saturday Afternoon – “Heavy Meeting Engagement”

For my “Heavy Meeting Engagement” (HME) games, I give each player larger brigades of 31 points apiece. That usually works out to a Brigade Commander, 4-6 units, and a couple of individual hero/magic users. I ran the first of these HME games on Saturday afternoon with 4 players. On Team Red were a Munchkin Brigade and an Impkin Brigade. On Team Black were a Harvest Brigade and a Winkie Brigade. I did not take as many photos in this game versus my previous games. We had 4 players.

Impkin musketry causes the forward-based lady pirates of Admiral Jinjur to abandon their safe hard cover in the town and charge the Impkins in the open.

The Great Pumpkin Heads and the Impkin Cavalry BOTH could not get up the guts to get into Melee!!!

The Jinjur pirates were forced back into the town and the Impkin infantry advanced. Black Team moved up the Carrot Creatures.

In the middle of the board, the Munchkins repulsed a skeleton attack.

The game ended, with a very close score, 24-21, very narrowly in favor of the Red Team. I then checked out the vendors during a break, and bought a few supplies. Also saw some old Buck Surdu rules!

Two Buck Surdu rulesets.

Then it was on to the second HME game…

Saturday Evening – “Heavy Meeting Engagement”

Every convention seems to have one game that if you saw it you’ll end up talking about it for years to come.

THIS is that game.

I had 4 players, with Team Red with a Quadling and a Munchkin Brigade, and Team Black with 2 Gillikin Brigades.

This is what they each had for forces:

Team Red for Saturday Evening

Team Black for Sturday Evening

As we only had 4 players, we used half of the table. Brad had the Munchkins and Leif had the Quadlings. The initial moves and attacks from the Gillikin left brigade (Gregg) and their right brigade (Bruce) were nothing stellar. In fact, on the first activation, Gregg failed to reach one of the Quadling Batteries with his Dire Bears, and Leif sent them scurrying towards the other side of the board with short-range artillery fire. Bruce’s goat riders took fire and damage and ran to a town for cover.

Unfortunately for Leif and Brad – that would turn out to be the high water mark of the Red Team in this game.

Leif and Brad on left and Gregg and Bruce on right get ready to rumble!

Leif’s initial forces.

Here come the Dire Bears – and you know what happened – but Gregg’s “kitties” are behind…

Gregg’s Dire Lions subsequently hit the 2nd Quadling Infantry Reiment – unfortunately led by a leader with “The Poltroon” ability – that knocked down their Resolve from a 5 to a 4 – and they routed in the face of the Dire Lions. Leif’s Quadling front was then broken and the Lions were in the gap, with Dire Tigers close behind them. Gregg’s Gillikin Infantry then hit the 2nd Quadling Battery on the flank and the Quadlings abandoned their gun in a rout. Gregg then threatened the Quadling left flank (4th Regiment) with his Gillikin Infantry. The 4th turned to face the Gillikins where the routed gun crew left their gun.

Brigade Commander Zeb the Scribe of Ozz can only stare in disbelief as the Quadlings lose a battery and an infantry regiment in short order.

View from the Red Team’s right flank as the Dire Lions breach their defenses.

Zeb and Glenda are no help.

The Dire Tigers rout the other Quadling Infantry Regiment (1st) adn hit the remaining Quadling battery in its flank. It did not last long. Both guns would be lost and spiked.

Leif can only look on in amazement at the HAVOC raised by Gregg on his forces…see what I did there?

Eventually, all Leif had left was his brigade commander and his witch – with no brigade. He was a good sport as you see here – and Brad is looking on knowing he is in dire straits too.

On the other side, Bruce’s Goat Riders maneuvered expertly and took Colonel Tik-Tok’s regiment in the flank (who were dealing with Bruce’s skeletons in their front), nearly wiping it out. Bruce’s Dire Bears were moving up for the kill. Brad was all alone now.

The Gillikin Goat Riders then hit the Munchkin Aerostat, which routed off the table. All that Brad had left was 2 stands from Tik Tok’s infantry, a medium battery, his brigade commander, and a witch.

The end of the game – Tik Tok was routing and clearly even the medium battery would not have survived an attack on three sides.

I have never before seen an Ozz game become a battle of annihilation – but this game was.

No shade on the defenders, they had some bad luck combined with the attackers good luck and good plan. All had fun though! The final score was 45-13 in favor of Team Black.

Sunday Morning – “The Battle for Toto”

I have ran this game several times and discussed it previously in this blog. Basically, Toto is in the Munchkin-defended town. Converging on that town are two non- allied enemies who both want to seize Toto. The little dog is in a secret place (one of 5 buildings). The attackers want to get Toto – and hate each other. It’s up to them if they fight each other on the way to the Munchkin town, or if they collaborate and fight afterwards. I had 5 players, with Team Red with 2 Munchkin Brigades, facing a force of 2 Impkin Brigades and a force of two Harvest Brigades. As we had too few players, we used just half of the table, and left off the Gillikins and Winkies on the far side.

The game starts.

Admiral Jinjur’s Female Pirates (fighting for the Harvest Brigade) and the Great Pumpkin Heads attack Zoraster’s Guard Infantry who are defending a wall outside the town.

With an unlucky Morale Roll, Zoraster’s gets antsy and charges OVER the wall – and leaves its protection.

The Impkins try to fire on the Munchkin Sharpshooters with the Swamp Guardian Fairies’ bows, while the rooster riding Impkin cavalry tries to go around and get to the town.

An overview – at this point Glenn’s Lesser Pumpkinheads attacked the Impkins so the free-for-all was on.

Steven had secretly deployed the Savage Apple Trees near the Munchkin walls. Their attack allowed the Eagles to get into the town and search two buildings – without finding Toto.

At this point, A HOTEL FIRE ALARM WENT OFF! We had to leave the building for at least 40 minutes. There of course was no fire, just a malfunctioning alarm.

When we returned, I scored up the game as people (understandably) were ready to go home. The final score was a Munchkin victory at 33 points (10 points for Toto), Harvest 12.5, and Impkins 2.5.

I really want to thank BGB for running the convention. I also want to thank my players, both newbies and veterans all were great.

I ESPECIALLY want to thank Leif and Brad who signed up for EVERY game and helped me throughout the convention. Gregg was a big help as well.

My next convention is MAYHEM in New Hampshire in April and then I have HUZZAH GOES TO HOLLYWOOD in Maine in May. This summer I also plan on Historicon in July.

I hpope this was enjoyable – and if you’ll be at one of these conventions, come and join the Ozz goodness!

Thanks fo looking!

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

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

As you may want to check out the Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them and the rules (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and the figures are available from the following two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Author: Mark Morin

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