Well it's soon the end of another year and probably time to take a look back on the past one, and to share some thoughts for the coming one.
2024 - Status
Yet another year, this is still a 'small blog' regarding number of blog posts and followers, but it's still the most active year so far with:
Blog posts:53 Views:31700 Comments:125
So where does the viewers come from?
Hong Kong (8750 views)
Singapore (6540 views)
USA (6302 views)
United Kingdom (2023 views)
Norway (1855 views and I suspect some of them are mine from different devices)
Germany (810 views)
Indonesia (709 views)
Canada (383 views)
China (192 views)
Netherlands (187 views)
Spain (135 views)
Australia (130 views)
Iran (121 views)
Austria (100 views)
Ireland (94 views)
Sweden (85 views)
South Korea (80 views)
Italy (67 views)
New Zealand (45 views)
'Others' (2990 views)
I'm not sure if so many actual viewers are from Southeast Asia, but I suspect most views from these countries actually are web crawlers or search spiders??
- And from which other web pages does the viewers enters from?
Facebook (1878 entries)
Re-directs from this blog (links etc.) (239 entries)
I'm pleased that the blog has several redirections from other blogs, and I am very grateful and appreciate all of you who are linking to it through your own blogs. - You all deserve a big 'Thank you'!!
I do not have many redirections from Google, or any other search engines like Bing og DuckDuckGo, even if I have made it 'searchable' in the settings, made search-descriptions in text and photos etc. When performing searches my self I usually find it with Bing or DuckduckGo but not with Google. Do any of you have an idea of the reason to this, or have similar issues??
As you can see; Wargaming posts beats any Model Railway-, Workbench-, or tour-posts. The following photo shows which new wargames I played in 2025. The only reason that FUBAR 4th Edition is there this year again is because I made an SOLO player chart to use with these rules:
Here are some impressions from wargames I played in 2024:
Last year I also made a list of planned activites on this blog for this year. I didn't manage them all, and when I was invited to join the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' I decided to postpond some of them to 2025. One of my planned activities for 2024 was to prepare some figures and play one of the most recent conflicts in history. After some closer considerations I've concluded that the conflict I had in mind was 'too recent' as it is ongoing. I have no
qualms wargaming modern 20th or 21st Century scenarios, but I wanted to find
out how the 'wargaming society' regarded wargaming ongoing conflicts and it
seems to be ‘divided' with valid 'pros and cons' for both sides. This meant
that I needed to do some closer considerations regarding this, and even if some
seems to be fine about it I’ve come to that conclusion to postpond my planned miniatures and
modern wargame for now, pending until time seems more appropriate for it. As a reader of this blog I'm curious to know how
do you feel about wargaming historical or modern scenarios or ongoing
conflicts? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment-section
below.
Another thing about that list; Even if I 'completed' a Heeresfeldbahn rake and could 'check it off the list', I'm still got a couple of coming projects to my German G-scale military train. -You can't have too many wagons, can you!?
By looking at which blog posts which attracted most (and less) viewers last year, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the monthly 'Workbench updates' nor continually reports from running sessions with garden railways on a regular basis in 2025. I'm not going to totally quit them, but I will probably collect up contents from more and post them in fewer blog posts instead.
Even if it was helpful to have a list, which obligated me to finish off old projects with slow progression, I'm not going to be that specific for 2025. But I do have some thoughts of what I will do more of this year; Except for wargaming the 'too recent conflict', I plan to finally finish up the list from 2024.
As many of you probably already know I'm a fan of the 'Old West', and I would like to use the Cowboys I painted up in 2024 in more games in 2025. Perhaps while trying out (and reviewing) new and free rules as that's in the scope of my 'budget wargaming'.
I am very thankful to all of you that during the last year have been following my blog, reading it, and contributes with your comments. It all means a lot to me and you all makes it worth creating this blog I hope you all will continue follow, reading, comment and share your thoughts in 2025 as well.
I wish you all the best for 2025, and I'm looking forward to keep following your blogs!
By this time of year it's time to play the annual 'Seasonal Wargame' again. Last year I played it using the FUBAR Medieval 2nd edition rules, and I addressed some 'shortcomings' regarding ranges and suppression. Later I found out that FUBAR Dark Fantasy took care of these concerns and at the same time looked like FUBAR Medieval rules regarding weapons and armour (because the rules are not only for fantasy use, but for ancient use too). Close combat is resolved slightly different in Dark Fantasy though, needing to do morale checks if charged or counter charged (risking that one side might flee the battle). Besides it looks like these rules also modify a unit's expertise in close combat regarding what kind of close combat weapons it's armed with, which is an idea I like so much that I decided to do another FUBAR wargame this year despite my plan to actually use different free wargame rules for these annual 'Christmas Wars' each year. After all it's a 'Fantasy game', which should go well with these rules.
After last years Battle Report, James from the Quantrill Toy Soldiers Blog gave me a tip in the comment-section to add a Cookie Monster to the Mayhem. I think that sounded like an interesting idea, and completely within the 'Fantasy Genre', so I've decided to add a Cookie-monter to this year's game. I think the Cookie-Monster will be a 'giant' or a 'troll', eating all it's enemies coming in it's way regardless of side in the conflict. Therefore, It will act as Elite or 'Heroic' Character, Heavy Armour (no speed penalty) and have 3 Hero Points according to the FUBAR rules. Some 'House-rules' seemed to be necessary like; it can take 4 wounds (as casualties. no suppression), and fight with 2 D6 in Close Combat to do multiple damage and have a move action of 10" instead of the ordinary 6". It can engage in Close Combat at a distance of 2" and does not need to do a morale checks. The Cookie-Monster it self was found for free at Thingiverse, resized, 3D-printed and painted.
After 2 years of fighting both the Gingerbread Army and the Cookie men Army have gained so much combat experience, so I'll let them both fight as 'Veterans' according to the FUBAR rules the this year.
Scenario
This year I asked ChatGPT to create a scenario for this 'season war'. It suggested:
"Battle for the Yule Village"
"The peaceful Yule Village, a festive hub of holiday cheer, has become the site of a deliciously intense conflict. The Gingerbread Army, defenders of the village, are determined to protect the precious cookie decorations and sugar reserves stored in the town square. Meanwhile, the Cookie men Army, led by their sinister commander, aims to seize control of the village and claim the sugary spoils for themselves. Amidst the chaos, the mighty Cookie Monster roams the battlefield as an unpredictable wildcard.
Objective
Gingerbread Army: Protect the Yule Village’s sugar reserve (located in the town square) and prevent the Cookie men Army from looting it.
Cookie men Army: Seize control of the sugar reserve by holding the town square for 3 consecutive turns.
Cookie Monster: Satisfy its hunger by devouring units or sugar reserves. The Cookie Monster wins if it eats 6 models (from either side) or the sugar reserve."
Let the fight begin
There is not movement on the battlefield the first 2 turns as the Cookie men army fails some activations, and they are very slowly advancing towards Yule Village. It looks like the 'Cookie Monster' in the forrest in the background are faster though...
Even if the Cookie men army advanced very slowly, a Gingerbread unit from the village felt that they were 'danger close', and charged the further most Cookie men unit of knights in the open...
Despite the Cookie men knights had better armour, those Gingerbread two-handed spears were real fatal, and both units had severe losses.
The Cookie men spear unit in the background was so shocked by the scenario in front of them, that they weren't able to move:
In turn 4 there arose a duel between the 2 armies archer-units, and the Gingerbread unit was 'victorious' in this 'duel' and hit with all their arrows (!). This was Coup 'd état and the Cookie men'n bows was out of the game:
But it was not all all success for the Gingerbread army; when the last Gingerbread spear-warrior was charged by the last Cookie men knights, he got scared, left battle and fled into the village before he stopped to catch his breath behind the sugar reserves:
At this point the Cookie men's last knight saw a Giant Cookie Monster exit the forrest, and looking right at him...
...The Cookie Monster moved really fast, and caught up with the last knight standing and 'ate this knight-looking cookie'... The Cookie men spear unit in the background were still not able to come to his rescue as they were still hesetating to enter battle:
The Gingerbread archers opened fire against the newly arrived Monster, but didn't hit it.
In turn 6 the Cookie Monster was so annoyed by the Gingerbread arrows, so it immediately charged the archers (as they were the closest unit):
The archers got scared and run away to get some distance to the monster, before (after a successful activation) stopping, turning around and sending a storm of arrows against the Monster:
They hit with one arrow, and the Gingerbread spear-warrior who had run away earlier decided to charge the Monster as it looked weaker...
The last Cookie men (spear) unit saw that the Gingerbread army was heavy engaged with the attacking Cookie Monster now, and decided to let the Monster 'do the job for them' and approach the Village from another direction and choose a safer path. -And hopefully just take care of those Gingerbread warriors the Monsters hadn't got...
The Gingerbread spear warrior managed to inflict some more damage to the Cookie Monster, but was finally taken out in this uneven close combat...
The Cookie Monster looked ever weaker now and the Gingerbread knights made a run for it and charged the Monster with every thing they had, to finish him off:
-And they successfully managed to take out the Cookie Monster at the cost of only one knight. Being busy with fighting the Monster the Gingerbread army had not noticed the Cookie men unit sneaking up behind it and was now close and just about to attack them:
The Cookie men made a run for it, but wasn't close enough after all, so the remaining 2 Gingerbread knights made a counter charge:
The melee was fierceful and the 2 last Gingerbread knights fell, so did 2 og the Cookie men spear warriors:
The last Cookie man ran and took cover behind the heap of sugar reserves. Had he finally made it??
The Gingerbread archers opened fire against the last last Cookie man, and he was not so safe behind cover as he thought...
After about 1 hour and 12 turns this was finally a victory to the Gingerbread Army, but it had suffered severe losses as there was only one unit of archers left.
Conclusion:
Even if these FUBAR rules are named Dark Fantasy they will work great for any other more classic battles and Ancient or Medieval wargames too. Just skip the part with magic and spells. I think these rules flows a little better than the Medieval 2nd Edition I used last year. Some parts of these rules seems to be 'copy pasted' form other FUBAR rules, but they're built on the same core rules so it doesn't actually matter. I wish the rules would be a little clearer on what to do on failed morale tests in different situations.
I hope you enjoyed this years Season Wars Battle report. I wish all my readers and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
My youngest son is still a fan of 'Elf on the shelf', but by now it's time to capture him and keep him 'POW' the next 11 months...
Last year I wanted to see if it was possible to play the commercial wargame 'Bolt Action' by Warlords on a budget. Even if I managed to play a very basic game of 'Bolt Action' for free, I concluded the Battle Report with that I was really going to consider to use $$ to buy the rulebook.
After Bolt Action 3rd edition was published this autumn, I've been looking around for 2nd edition rulebooks 'on sale' to keep it within my 'budget approach' on wargaming. Here the other day I coincidentally visited the website to Moss TabletopBattle, which is located close to where I live, which had 'Bolt Action 2nd edition' on a 90% discount, and on sale for only £ 3,50/ $4,4/ € 4,25 (!) I don't think I will find a brand new copy for anything less than that, so this was a no brainer.
So after work I went to the store to pick up my copy. It's actually located less than a kilometer from where I live.
The Store-owner was very friendly and told me that he wanted to give me a little surprise as well, and gave me a 28mm scale miniature of an Italian WW2 Officer. He invited me into their gaming rooms and studios where they make their YouTube videos. I was very surprised to this kind gestures and we had a really good and long conversation, resulting in that I was invited to join them in a Bolt Action 'demo game' some time later this winter.
So, this is my very first 28mm scale miniature I got in my collection, but he might not be the last perhaps...
After I accepted the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' and a WIP update, it's almost mid December already and about time to finally conclude my contribution to the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' initiated by Alan at The Duchy of Tradgardland and Mark at Man of Tin blog. I'm curious how my proposal to this challenge will be regarded by the 'Umpires'.
In my previous blogpost on this matchbox challenge I decided to use paper miniatures from the Junior General Website as they are both free and ready painted and I could easily fit some of them in a Matchbox, and still have room for a 'Battle mat' and some terrain. Since my Little Wars inspired 'Napoleonic Cannon Game' didn't fit the Matchbox, I decided to follow my interests for Western movies, Old West gaming and my initial test with the Airfix 1:72 scale Cowboys and to go for an 'Old West' approach for this wargame (but with paper miniatures instead). Besides, I've been thinking for a while to make a very portable 'Old West' wargame which would be easy to bring along when visiting my oldest son where he studies (as he likes Westerns too). Coincidentally at this point I read that Mark at Man of Tin blog was working on some similar theme and solution (which also included using ChatGPT and suggesting miniatures from the Junior General as well). It looks like we had about the same take to this challenge now.
One of the challenges was to have space for several dice in the Matchbox alongside with everything else needed for this game. I found som smaller dice, actually beads, in a craft store and despite being light they rolled OK.
Keeping it to an 'Old West' theme though, I decided to go fancy with the dice. Inspired by Mark's thoughts on the Howzat Dice (which was new to me) I decided to 3D-print a .45 Cal bullet dice. I'll use the mini dice for healht-stats instead.
I was looking around for some short, easy to play and free wargame rules for a few miniatures that could fit on or in a Wee Matchbox, but didn't actually find any short or easy enough. So I asked the ChatGPT to suggests some kind of Old West 'Mini Wargame' - rules for a 'balanced' game with uneven numbers on each side, for instance 1 vs 3. The rules needed to be short enough to easily fit inside or around a matchbox, and therefore pretty uncomplicated. The ChatGPT suggested these rules:
I'm not sure what the ChatGPT meant by the optional rules as they seems to lack context. Except for that, they looks very simple and playable but I needed to test-play them for some few games to see if they were playable, as that's not always the case when using AI-generated rules. ChatGPT claims that the game was balanced, but after about 14 games or so I think the Bounty Hunter will need another 'Hero point', so I increased his health to 4. I also skipped the incomplete optional rules and added another thing to the winning conditions, to better place a scenario for the game and the shootout (loosely based on a scene from the 'Fistfull of Dollars' though). So, this is my final version of the rules:
I printed them on self-adhesive paper, and wrapped and sticked them around the Matchbox:
So now I'd got paper miniatures, a battle mat, some terrain, a building (the matchbox drawer), dice for both shooting and health stats, a 6"ruler and finally the rules... -Will it all fit my Wee Matchbox?
Luckily and coincidentally the .45 cal bullet dice, printed to the size of a real one, just fit in the widh of the matchbox. It was a thigh fit, but I managed to squeeze all the other objects in to the matchbox as well...
...And just barley I was able to close the matchbox.
Looks like it is possible to fit a Wargame in a Wee Matchbox after all:
My Wargame in a Wee Matchbox in Action (an AAR)
Even if I managed to squeeze all the elements of a wargame in to this matchbox, that's not the same as there is an actual playable wargame. So I'll add a short battle report to give you an idea. I put on some Dollar Triologi Themes for background ambiance.
Scenario: It's loosely based on the scene from 'A Fistfull of Dollars' when 'Joe' frees 'Marisol'; 3 outlaws are holding a woman hostage in the house, and our 'Hero' is there to free her.
Forces: Are dictated by the rules; 3 outlaws with health of 2 and hits on 5+ vs The Man with No Name with a health of 4 and hits on a 4+.
The Game:
The Bounty Hunter approaches the house where he knows the outlaws and their hostage is:
His presence is noticed by the outlaws, and they decide that 2 of them are going outside to gun him down:
The Bounty Hunter notices activity by the house and runs for cover behind a cactus:
The 2 outlaws coming outside to fight the Bounty Hunter runs for cover; One of them behind some cattle they have stolen, and the other behind some barrels:
The Bounty Hunter opens fire on the outlaws, and the outlaws are returning the fire:
They are exchanging fire for some turns, and even got some hits on each other...
...until the Bounty Hunter manage to hit and kill the gunfighter seeking cover behind the cattle.
Now the last one of them keeps shooting at the Bounty Hunter...
...Who return fire and manage to hit and kill the shooter behind the barrels. Now the way is open to the house, the hostage and the last outlaw.
The last outlaw now his on his own...
...and orders his hostage outside. His plan is to take the hostage and flee with their horses.
When coming out of the house and into the sight, the Bounty Hunters opens fire before the last outlaw manage to get to their horse...
...and get a precise and fatal hit on the last gunfighter (!). The showdown was a success for our hero as he managed to free the woman. Then they most likely rode into the sunset.
Time: 10 minutes
Turns: 12
Result: This was a victory for 'The Man with No Name'.
Table of Contents
If anyone considers to have a go and make one on their own, you can save some time finding the bits and pieces on the links below:
The working cannon I 3D-printed, and did not use in the challenge due to it's size, has oddly enough the same caliber as my 'bullet dice'. -So I'll guess for other games than this challenge, I can use the cannon to fire roll the 'dice'.
This has been a fun and really interesting challenge, and I've had a good time while working on it alongside my other projects (some of them was postponed to 2025). Thank you for the initiative to this challenge Alan and Mark!
I think it was really interesting to see that several other wargamers accepted and joined this challenge as well, and I'm looking forward to see their contributions.
It looks like I finally got around to make that 'Old West Mini Game' I've been thinking to make for a while, to bring along next time I visit my oldest son in Ålesund.
I guess these rules can be used for other very basic and easy to play wargames with only ranged combat as well. If you like them, feel free to use them for your own games or tweak them to suit your game.
