Veteran's Day 2026

 It's Veteran's Day on November 11th in the United States and Remembrance Day in other countries. I'm proud to have served with the men and women of the following combat units of the United States Army:

2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment (Raiders)

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Bad to the Bone)

1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry Regiment (Ready Rifles)

7th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment (Regulars by God!)

4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment (Warriors)

2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment (Regulars by God!)

Task Force Badger, Joint Special Operations Command

Epic Revolution Part 25: Continental Army Update

 

American riflemen from Warlord Games Epic Revolution.

Before I take stock of what I want to do by the end of the year, it's time to see where I am at with my generic Southern Campaign American Army.

Army Command stand painted as MG Nathaniel Greene.

1st Maryland Regiment or any Continental Line from Maryland, Delaware or Virginia.

A South Carolina regiment that can be of the Continental Line, States Troops or Militia.

The 2nd Sparta Regiment or any American unit.

A generic Infantry unit with brown coats and red facings.

American Rifle unit with the Revolution Epic figure for Daniel Morgan.

American Continental Artillery with mounted officer.

Not bad so far:

4 Infantry units.

1 Rifle unit.

1 Artillery gun.

1 Army Commanders.

2 Brigade Commanders.

Epic Revolution Part 24: More Continental Infantry with a Twist

Continental Infantry in brown coats and red facings. The figures are not as shiny as they look in the image!

Okay.

The next time I take an extended break I promise to repost old entries, put out a message . . . please trust me, I'm not dead! With an early retirement and a brood of grandchildren we have been visiting and spoiling. Amaze, amaze, amaze. Okay, back to toy soldiers.

I decided to try something different and added a mounted officer to this unit. Having a space for it was easy since the infantry command sprue has a space to add another standard bearer if you want it to be a British unit. For the second rank I carefully cut out the figure - don't worry if you cut or scrap the chaps next to him, the horse will had the cuts in the second rank.

When adding the mounted office, you will need to remove the base from the horse. I also discovered that the horse is too wide to fit in the space. No worries! Carefully cut down the flanks until you get a fit; the cuts you make will be hidden once you glue the horse into place.

Close up of one of the stands with an NCO on the right. That's about as much detail that I'm doing with this scale and they look great at gaming distance.

The colors carried are a representation (educated guess) of the Fort Stanwix flag. On August 3, 1777 officers of the garrison of Fort Stanwix (successfully defended during the Saratoga Campaign) in what is now Oneida County, NY, made a “Continental Flag.” It may be the first flag based on the Continental Congressional Flag Resolution of June 14th, 1777. The Fort Stanwix flag commonly associated with the August 1777 siege is described as a 13-stripe design in red and white, possibly with a blue field and stars, though its exact appearance remains debated among historians. Other forts and some units carried similar flags throughout the war.

Prelude Part 2: Evil Mechanoids on the Northwest Frontier (A Xenos Rampant Adventure)

A steam powered British Bulldog used on the Northwest Frontier.

So who is going to protect Her Majesty's dominions in the British Raj? All the infantry will be Light Infantry which seemed right to me since the Mechanoids were metal! First up is the Gordon Highlanders.

. . . and of course the brave men of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Ghurka Rifles.

The Indian Artillery is of course present.

Last, but not least, is the heavy punch of the detachment:

So how will our brave lads fare against the Evil Mechanoids?

Next: The Scenario.

Prelude Part 1: Evil Mechanoids on the Northwest Frontier (A Xenos Rampant Adventure)

I am a big fan of Dan Mersey's Rampant series of games and currently own Dragon Rampant (fantasy battles), The Men Who Would be Kings (Colonial Battles), Rebels and Patriots (North America 1740 - 1900) and now Xenos Rampant. All of the previous Rampant books were in the 64 page Osprey soft cover series; with Xenos Rampant you get a hard cover, 192 pages of Sci Fi delight! Don't be put off by the page count! The majority of the book are army lists, ideas, how to tailor to different genres,  campaigns, scenarios, and "stuff" to play just about any Sci Fi battle you want.

Hollywood gaming at its finest. All of the Rampant books use similar mechanisms and rules of play; so, If you own one you can easily pick up the rules for any of them. For Xenos Rampant the biggest changes are that more unit types have at least one "free" activation type (Move or Shoot or Attack, etc.) plus the calculation of "hits" is done differently.

Essentially for "hits", both shooting and attacking (close combat), once you have your hits, add the total number of pips on those dice and then divide by the armor (armour for you Commonwealth types!) and that is the number of damage the enemy takes. I'll give examples in the battle report to follow.

Thanks to my friend Richard B., he told me that they use Xenos Rampant for Victorian Science Fiction battles. Huzzah! So here we go:

The Mechanoids. One of the beauty of Dan's rules is the way you can tailor the force; thus, the Xeno rules. The Xeno rules give you a variety of upgrades to recreate what you want. Well . . . I have a detachment of evil robots so of course they are going to get the Mechanoid upgrade. And it costs 0 points.

The Evil Mechanoids! Okay they are Necrons which is the beauty of a agnostic, large skirmish, miniature wargame.

The Mechanoids rules allow my robotic minions to:

1. Ignore the effects of Stun Weapons.

2. Each unit (because of programming) gets an addition Free Action from the following: Attack, Move or Shoot - but, they suffer a -1 modifier to any ordered activation tests.

3. Never test Courage! However, they become less effective quicker as they accumulate damage. If they are at 1/2 Strength points or below, they lose all Free Actions and count them as ordered activation tests. In addition, if you roll a double on a failed activation test the unit suffers a critical failure and shuts down - it is destroyed. 

Detachment Commander:

The Heavies:

The Metallic Swarm:

To Summarize:

1. Detachment Commander R37: 6 points.

2. Sentinels x 2: 8 points.

3. Hunter Killers x 2: 10 points.

4. Total Points: 24 points.

Next: The Forces of the British Raj!

"I say. Mechanical Men. Quite. Very Good. Prepare to Fire."