Close Encounter in the 'Dawn of Man'

In 2023 I made a scenario and played a prehistoric 'fantasy' wargame between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals using my own house rules. Is it possible to create a scenario for en even earlier period than this 'prehistoric' game?

In 2024 I made a 54mm 'Ape Army' for Sci-fi and Fantasy wargames. Even If my Apes depicts 'Chimpanzees' I envision that they also could substitute for early Hominids in the 'Dawn of Man', like those in the beginning of '2001 - A Space Odyssey' too. In that movie the evolution accelerates when the Hominids receives a Monolith from space some 4 million years ago, and they learn to develop tools and weapons. -Not only for hunting, but to battle each others as well. What if these early Hominids eventually got armed with simple spears not only received a 'monolith' from space, but actually got into a close and violent encounter with aliens armed with high tech weapons? -That could be an interesting scenario for another prehistoric Sci-fi/Fantasy wargame.

I don't have many 'alien' miniatures either, but I made some 'V'-miniatures last year. Like the early Hominids there aren't detailed records of the "Visitors" history either and all we actually 'know' is that they're from the 4th planet from Sirius in the 'Canis Major' constellation. They're a militaristic race of reptilian aliens, who travel to stars and plunder other worlds. We don't know how old their world is, and for how long they have been space travelling and plundered other planets. So for the scenario for this wargame I presupposes that they had such technology and were performing such activities at the same time as the 'Dawn of Man' on earth.

I had almost everything needed to play this game at hand, but decided go fancy and 3D-print and paint a 'Monolith' to set the scene:

The Rules

For this little skirmish game I wanted to combine FUBAR 4th Edition with FUBAR Dark Fantasy, as they have (almost) similar Core Rules. Close Combat and morale rules are slightly different between them, and are played as FUBAR 4th edition. I'll use FUBAR Dark Fantasy for the Hominids due to their melee weapons, and FUBAR 4th edition for the "Visitors" due to their ranged weapons and body armour. Their laser rifles are treated as 'assault rifles' according to the rules. 

However, some house rules seemed necessary; I guess early Hominids are 'comparable' with modern Chimanzees which are very fast, so I let them move 8" insted of 6". They also have brutal strength, a strong bite and deadly teeth, so I think they will be far superior to the reptiles in hand-to-hand combat, so they get to improve their expertise with +1 in melee for their physical strength and another +1 for their 2 handed spear.

The Scenario

About 4 million years ago an alien space-ship on their way home to their planet after a plundering raid on another planet, experienced technical difficulties when passing our solar system. The technical challenges resulted in that they needed to drop their loot from one of their cargo bays.

The dropped loot was valuable hard drives from another ancient world, and salvage patrols was eventually sent from this reptilian's home planet near Sirius to see if this loot could be found and salvaged. Several patrols searched through our solar system to see if the hard drives could be found by smaller crafts and recovered by larger vessels. 

One of these smaller 'Search and Rescue' patrols were searching planet earth. When passing the area we know as the African continent, they spotted an objective which could be one of the hard drives. They decided to land to have a closer look before contacting their Motherships and report their possible find...

Forces:

• The Shock Troopers:
• 1 squad of 2 fireteams:
• Fireteam 1: 2 troopers with High-Output Energy Rifles (like assault rifles according to the rules) and 1 trooper with a heavy laser blaster (like a LMG in the rules)
• Fireteam 2: 2 troopers with High-output Energy Rifles (like assault rifles according to the rules) and 1 trooper with laser launcher (rocket launcher in the rules).
• The Shock Troopers have body armour which will save on 5+ and are 'Veterans'.

• The Hominids are not 'organized' but fights as 3 groups of 5 each. They have not yet developed the capacity of throwing their spears, so they can only use them for thrusting. They will fight as 'Seasoned and their  experience gains a +2 in melee. They have no armour but will save on a +6 due to a 'stray shot'.

Mission:

• The Shock Troopers: To gain access to the 'monolith' for one turn to decide if it's a rock or if it's one of the lost hard drives.
• Hominids: They see the 'Visitors' as invaders and a threat to their tribe, and will try to eliminate them.

AAR

Time:    30 minutes

Turns:   3 (!)

Result:  Hominids victory

A 'Search and Rescue' Skyfighter flies by an object and decides to take a closer look at it from the ground:

When the Skyfighter lands the crew disembarks, and then they sees that the objekt is surrounded by some sorts of primates:

The Shock Troopers does not know if the inhabitants of this planet are friendly or not. It doesn't look like they have any advanced technology or weapons.The Shock Troopers goes on guard to see how the primates acts:

One group of Hominids rush against the strangers, and it becomes clear to the Shock Troopers that they are not friendly and they opens fire:

And makes one hit, which is 'pinned':

Then a second group of Hominids hastes against the other group of strangers. It's very clear that they have no friendly intentions with this behavior and the Shock Troopers opens fire:

This group of Shock Troopers also have a heavy blaster:

The Shock Troopers tries to hold the Hominids on a distance by heavy fire, but the Groups of Hominids just don't seems to care and and now a third group of Hominids joins the battle. How long can the Shock Troopers hold them back:

Not very long. Despite some hits, none of them were critical and the Hominids didn't seems to care and they rushed into an assault on a group of Shock Troopers:

It's a fierce melee and casualties on both sides, but it still looks like the Hominids have the upper hand:

The second group of Hominids also rush into an assault on the Shock Troopers:

And it's a brutal melee with casualties on both sides:

Finally the first group of charging Hominids have killed all the Shock Troopers in close combat with no further casualties:

That alien gunner is a though one, and really  hold his ground in the close combat for another turn:

-Until the third group of Hominids also made an assault and joined the close combat agains the last alien. Even if he was a brave alien, he was chanceless against this horde:

This was an victory for the Hominids. They tried to enter the space craft, but didn't manage to open it.

While on their way back to their 'base' they heard a nose from above. On the sky they could see another similar ship as the one they just abounded, but it didn't land as the first one. It just opened fire and destroyed the first ship, so the 'enemy' wouldn't take advantage of their advanced technology. They did not have intention to land in a such hostile environment...

... at least, not yet. Perhaps they would come back to this planet in the future better prepared for battle:

Making more rollingstock for my Heeresfeldbahn and WDLR Garden Trains

Too long ago I bought these two very colorful LGB starter set wagons second hand cheaply at a model railway exhibition in Germany:

They were so dirty at the time that I had to give them a quick wash at the hotel before I could bring them home:

They have been laying around in my hobby-room too long so I decided to finally just paint them up to fit my large scale Heeresfeldbahn and War Department Light Railway (WDLR) trains.
I noticed that one of the wagons had to large and unsightly holes in the floor

The holes was simply filled with Miliput:

It was also missing a buffer...

...which I 3D-printed and replaced both sides (so they'll look the same):

Since this is a very common LGB wagon and I have so many other identical wagons of the same type already, I painted them slightly differently than the others. This one was simply spray painted grey and drybrushed:

With the second wagon  I decided to make even greater variations by removing the axles and replace them with bogies in stead, suggesting a wagon for heavier loads. I got a couple of leftover bogies from my previous project:

On Cults3d I found a free stl-file for a truck mount I 3D-printed to fit my chassis. Then the Accucraft trucks were fitted to the new truck mounts:

I guess this is a wagon that can handle heavier loads than the first one. -Like vehicles for instance:

Painting these wagons has been like:

I think these 2 wagons are about ready for deployment now, and that they won't look out of place running in either a German or a British rake.

Toy Soldier Day - March 4

I did not realise that our 'small fighters' actually had their own day until March 5th last year. 

Anyhow, this is a day to appreciate the miniature warriors who have stood proudly on our tabletops, bookshelves, and battlefields for generations. Whether you’re a collector, a wargamer, or simply someone who grew up with these little figures, today is the perfect time to honor them.

Here are a few ideas for how to celebrate them:

• Set up a battle – Only for the set up it self or to play a wargame.
• Show off your collection – Share pictures of your favorite soldiers online or with friends.
• Restore and repaint – Give some love to your worn-out miniatures with fresh paint and repairs.
• Teach someone new – Introduce a friend or family member to the hobby.

No matter how you celebrate, take a moment to appreciate these tiny troops who have brought strategy, creativity, and fun to so many. 

How are you honoring your toy soldiers today? Let me know in the comments!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Last December I posted a blogpost about of an article about a friend and fellow MRC member Heine's Garden Railway which was published in Allt om Hobby, the biggest hobby magazine in the Nordic countries. It also covered some photos and information about my military garden trains. Allt om Hobby is a Swedish magazine and published in Swedish which is not a problem to read within the Nordic countries. But I didn't expect the majority of the readers to this blog to run to their local newsagents to buy a copy though.

But now recently Allt om Hobby published the whole article for free on their website. This gives you all an opportunity whereever you live and whatever language you speak to visit and read the article if you'd like to. Depending on your browser, the website for the article can easily be translated from Swedish into whatever language you prefer. I've translated it into English in my 'Google browser', which worked great! So here is the link to the:

Link: Free article in Allt om Hobby about Heine's Garden Railway

Photo by Joakim Sannagård/ Allt om Hobby

Enjoy!

1 BC (One Brain-Cell) Snowball Fight Rules for Miniatures

Last year I was inspired by some blog posts by Alan at Duchy of Tradagardland and Mark at Man of Tin's blogs to make a 'non-lethal wargame'; a snowball fight  using the Snowball Fight Rules by Mark the Man of Tin. It was a different, but also a fun way to wargame, without taking into account the horrors of war. In fact, it was so successful that I decided to make another 'snowball fight' this year as well. I could have used the same miniatures that I made for the snowball fight last year of course, but last year I bought a bag of really ugly and bad looking soldiers. - Probably the worst ever made, so there weren't many things I could use them for. - Well, maybe except for using the hand grenade guys as snowball fighters, since they were the least ugly of them. Since I used the same pose to make soldiers last year, I decided to see if I could use them to make civilian snowball fighters this year . I painted all the hand grenade throwers in the bag, which with a simple Miliput and paint conversion gave me two snowball fighter armies of four each; one Red Army and one Blue Army:

Team Red

Team Blue

This is how ChatGPT envisioned how my armies would look boxed if ever made from Airfix:

The rules

The Snowball War rules by Mark the Man of Thin worked just fine. To reduce the number of turns and quicker game, I wanted to see if any of the other free wargame rules I use could be amended for a little snowball fight. One of my absolute favorites is the 1 BC (One Brain-Cell) Toy Soldier Rules by Pete Kautz. These rules are actually turning 25 years this year. They are free, very easy to learn, and quick and easy to play, and I have used them for many wargames . I based my “snowball war rules” on these rules with a few changes:

• The Snowball Fighters will fight as individual characters and not units.
• There will be no morale test since there are no units. Also, it's a snowball fight just for fun and it won't breake morale.

The game

Although it is designed for tabletop game, I decided to take this miniature snowball fight out into the real snow to set the scene.

The scenario is as simple as most snowball fights in the world; knock out the other team, and the last team standing wins. Blue (to the left) vs. Red (to the right):

Turn 1

In the first turn Red Team made a run for the trees to seek cover behind them. So did the Blue team, except for a couple of them who advanced slower and made a long shot and stunned one of the Red fighters:

Turn 2

In the next turn that Red fighter wasn't stunned anymore and both of the Red players made a really hard 'ice ball' each...

...and managed to hit one of the Blue players so hard that he was out of the game.
Further into the wood a couple of Red players tried to encircle 2 Blue fighters behind a tree, and actually manage to daze one of them. The other Blue snowball fighter made an 'ice ball', and knocked one of those Red attackers out of the game:

Turn 3

In the start of turn 3 an 'ice ball duel' takes place...

...and further into the forrest a single Red player tries to outflank 2 Blue players:

The 'ice ball duelists' actually manage to hit one another and both a Red and Blue player are out of the game. Further into the forrest that sneaky Red player successfully outflank the 2 Blue players and dazed one of them:

Turn 4

In turn 4 the last Red player standing from the 'duel' makes a run for it and help his Red friend encircle the only Blue player standing:

The other Red player throws a really hard 'ice ball' on that Blue player and knocks him out of the game:

Turn 5

In the last turn the last Blue fighter wasn't stunned anymore and got up on his feet again:

He didn't actually manage to do anything before he was knocked out by an 'ice ball' from one of the Red players. This shoot made the Red team winners of this snowball fight:

I really liked the rules and they were really quick to play with only 5 turns in 20 minutes. Which was 'long enough' considering the outside temperature this day. Hot coffee in the mug was a 'must':

Blog PostScript 

It seems like another phenomenon are trending on Facebook these days. -At least in those groups my wife follows. The 'new thing' is to have ChatGPT (or similar) make a caricature of you based on a photo and information found about you online. I provided a photo and the url to my blog: