Christmas Wars 2024 - An annual Wargame. "Battle for the Yule Village"

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...