WWII Liquorice Milk Mild help :)

This recipe has haunted me since I saw it and I figure it would be a perfect beer to have on cask at a Halloween party:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2016/08/lets-brew-wednesday-1939-william.html

1939 William Younger XXX
pale malt 5.25 lb 64.42%
crystal malt 60L 0.50 lb 6.13%
mild malt 0.40 lb 4.91%
grits 1.25 lb 15.34%
invert sugar 0.25 lb 3.07%
lactose 0.50 lb 6.13%
liquorice 0.25 oz
Fuggles 90 min 0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min 0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1037
FG 1014
ABV 3.04

I'm going to sub in flaked maize for the grits, vienna for the mild malt, turbinado for the invert but I was unable to get any liquorice. I have star anise but I have no idea what an appropriate amount would be in such a small beer. Would 1 star at last 5 minutes of boil completely overwhelm it?

Thanks!

cascade candi syrup makes a black licorice candy syrup that works really well. This was my recipe that turned out really nice....the belgian syrup you see listed is the licorice candy syrup

http://www.cascadebeercandi.com/ecProduct_91_27

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/353537/iron-brewer-2nd-round-pre-porter

Thanks, that stuff sounds pretty good but I'm brewing on the weekend so it will be ready for Halloween and won't get to a homebrew store or have time to order anything. I have all the other ingredients on hand and will go with the basic recipe using star anise but I have never brewed with it before and was hoping for an opinion on how much to use. I look online and there are dozens of threads with people complaining about using too much and ruining their big stouts and porters. As this is a 3% mild, I'm worried that it would get easily overpowered.

You can always throw a few stars into a mason jar with vodka, make a tincture, and add it post-fermentation to taste. For such a relatively delicate beer, that's probably the route I would take lacking the time to experiment. Otherwise, you could brew a 5gal batch, split into 1gal fermenters, and let ferment with various quantities of anise to see what w/v gets you where you want to be.