Back to the beginning

The title has nothing to do with the recent benefit concert and final live performance of both Black Sabbath or the late Ozzy Osbourne. Having recently posted a blogpost on probably the worst toy soldiers, I'll now make a short post of some toy soldiers I'm most found of and where it all began.

This blogpost is actually a short stroll down the 'memory lane' to me. Our oldest son are moving house for the second time, and we're packing down some of his things at home. Among his old military toys, I recognized some even. older toys that I handed over to him as a kid. Of course he got more and newer toys and soldiers and so on when growing up, but these are the actual old ones from my own childhood which I later passed over to him when he was a kid. The 'collection' is not complete anymore, and some few bits and pieces are missing (or hidden among his other toys) after facing combat for 2 generations. It's a little like the "Toy Story" saga; The Army Men are getting ever fewer for every movie when Andy grows older. Unlike 'Andy' my oldest son didn't just have 2 soldiers back. I'm kind of surprised there were so much left of this old stuff. 

These are my original Airfix 1:32 soldiers from I was a kid. The American Infantry was the very first set I got from my parents. The kids in my neighborhood used to bring their soldiers out and we had large battles outside togheter. When playing on my own it was mostly Germans vs. Americans. The Land Rover and boat was Britains and the 'match firing' spring operated Gun was a cheap knock-off of a Britains original. The spring was not very powerful anymore. Does that happen to the originals too? What's left of that wall is from an old Timpo set.

Among his toy cars and vehicles I also found some of my old Corgi and Matchbox models. They were not all there, but almost. Surprisingly the rocket launcher from Matchbox is only missing one rocket. 

There were also a large but very mixed collection of old Airfix, Matchbox, Esci and a lot of knock-offs in 1:72 or 1:76 scale (which I didn't take time to sort and set up for photos).

Blog PostScript(s)

• I eventually located the original American officer and a 'brother in arms' in a box with Cowboys and Indians (which is another collection from my childhood and handed over to my oldest son when he was a kid). They G.I.s are now reunited with whats left of their small unit:

I have no hope of finding his German officer colleague however, as he went missing in action on a battlefield outside Tønsberg in the late 70ies. 

So this is it! This is actually how it all started for me. I think he's been treating my his old toys well, and hope that he eventually will pass them over to his own children one day. These have created good memories! 

• By request, this is how I look like by the way. The photo was taken during the large NATO exercise in Norway last winter "Nordic Response '24":

Click for larger image

• Last minute update; A few days ago my blog reached a 'milestone' and passed 100 000 visitors since I established it in the autumn of 2019. I'm grateful for every one of you visiting it, reading and commenting here.
  -Thank you!
• Anyone who knows what happened to the Sound Officers Call blog??

Military trains fighting hot weather the danger of "Sun Kink"

Heine, whom is a member of our Model Railway Club, does not only have an awesome Garden Railway, but his and his wife's lovely garden is also on the local 'Garden Society's' 'Garden circuit'. Last Sunday Heine & Astrid invited the to an 'Open Garden' arrangement, and our MRC-members were invited to run trains, to fully show off this spectacular garden. It was also an opportunity to promote model railways to garden enthusiast. It's been a heatwave in Norway lately, and perfect weather to do outdoor hobby activities, so I brought a couple of my military trains and attended the 'Open Garden':

A lot of people were visiting the garden this Sunday afternoon:

The trains are getting ready for service in the fiddleyard:

First out was my German Heeresfeldbahn with a short, but well armed, rake:

Then I was getting my British War Department livesteam locomotive from Roundhouse ready to haul a supply train. There is simply no ON or  OFF button on a livesteam locomotive and you have to heat it up to make pressure. It takes a little longer time:

Here is a YouTube video showing both my German  Heeresfeldbahn train and British W^D train in action at Heine's Garden Railway last weekend:

As there were several kids visiting the gardens this day, there was also a service by 'Thomas the Tank Engine'. Being a standard gauge model running on 45mm gauge, he must be about Gauge 1, and that should be about the same size used for the Thomas models used in the TV-series:

This is a rare sight. This model by Piko comes with only one center car, and they don't make a lot of other center cars to get separate. One member in our club finally managed to find one:

He has both the 'Old' and 'New' version of this train set. A very nice model indeed:

Heine was also running a rake of beer and fuel:

A Swiss passenger train by another member:

And some members had also brought their new acquisitions:

Astrid & Heine are very hospitable, and served coffee, pastries and waffles to their guests:

This was a perfect day out to run trains in the garden!

It even looked like my German troopers in one of the cars enjoyed their day out too!

Thank you for inviting us and for your warm hospitality Astrid & Heine!

Basic Battles 2.0

While looking for free easy to play wargame rules, and when I was searching for more information on how to play One-Hour Skirmish Wargames (without the rulebook), I've been (re-) directed to the 'Gray Army Gaming' YouTube-channel several times. The Channel contains a lot of wargaming information, play troughs and battle reports and is run by a Swede named Matthew T. Nowachek. I used the information he provided in one of his videos to play my very first game of OHSW (for free).

One of his playlists on his YouTube-channel is named 'Basic Battles: Tabletop Games for Kids', and it contains videos and information on how to play very basic (war-) games. Even if he made these rules as an introduction for Tabletop gaming for his own kids, I think the rules provided will be fun to play and give a good time for older and more experienced wargamers too. Matthew seems like an experienced wargamer and after watching his videos I certainly got curious about these simple rules, and decided to have a go and try them out for my self. I played the Basic Battles 2.0 as that version of the rules covers ranged battle, and the rules are free (!).

The scenario

Basic Battles are based upon single figurines or 'characters' rather than units. Since I've decided to play more 'Old West' wargames this year I'll go for an Old West scenario for this game.

After killing an Army patrol of 5 in a shootout in 1884, the gang of 'Sinful Six' was wanted by the authorities, alive or dead. So they fled and hide in the small and remote frontier town of Dullstone, where they killed the Sheriff and kept the inhabitants under their 'domination'. 

- Until the day 2 experienced Bounty Hunters who had teamed up for the large reward for the 'Sinfull Six', entered the town.

Forces:

• 2 Bounty Hunters with each a wound number of 6.

• 6 Outlaws in the 'Sinfull Six' with each a wound number of 2.

Mission:

• Bounty Hunters: To kill or capture all 6 outlaws.
• Outlaws: To kill the both Bounty Hunters.

AAR

Time:    45 minutes

Turns:   12

Result:  The Outlaws won the shoot-out.

Since the Outlaws don't know that the Bounty Hunters are coming, I let the Bounty Hunters automatically activate first. The 2 Bounty Hunters approaches 'Dullstone':

The Bounty Hunters actually activates until they make some sort of contact with the Outlaws, which again will alert all the Outlaws and activation according  to the rules thereafter.

I've placed the Outlaws 2 by 2 in different buildings in the frontier town:

The Saloon would be a good place to check for these Outlaws:

The 2 Bounty Hunters enter the Saloon and immediately spots 2 of the Outlaws. The Outlaws draw their guns and the shoot-out is a fact:

The Shooting coming from the saloon alerts the other Outlaws of the gang:

And they start to move over to the saloon to have a look. Some of them are a little more hesitant than the others:

But soon it gets very crowded by the saloon entrance:

Even if the Bounty Hunters eventually take the Outlaws inside the saloon one by one, they understand that if the rest of the gang are allowed to enter, they will be trapped. To try to split the Outlaws one of the Bounty Hunters squeezes through the crowd at the door and make a run:

And he tries to get a distance to his pursuers: 

Back at the Saloon the the first 2 Outlaws who were there in the first place are taken out, when 2 new ones enters:

So the saloon gunfights goes on:

Outside the other Bounty Hunter are trying to get out of sigtht, so he can get a distance to his followers and try to outflank them and to take them by surprise:

Which he manages, but unfortunately his fire is not very accurate and doesn't hit very well in his surprise attack: 

While at the saloon the Outlaws keeps getting fewer:

The Bounty Hunter outside are not so successful as his companion inside the saloon and just keeps missing (a lot of bad die rolling):

At the saloon the Bounty Hunter finally finish off the last Outlaw there:

And he hurries outside to help his companion. It really looks like he's needing it:

But it was just too late. The 2 Outlaws manage to take out the Bounty Hunter they have been chasing outside. The other Bounty Hunter makes one hit...

...and now the 2 Outlaws are aware of his presence. One of them get a 'Critical Hit' on the Bounty Hunter with a shoot...

...and the other Outlaw finish him of with another hit.

Even if this was a 'win' for the Outlaws, there are only 2 of them left now and that's not enough to keep terrorizing the citizen of Dullstone. So, they'll need to leave town and escape to somewhere safer.

Pros

• The rules are free and easy available.
• The rules are very easy to learn and play. They're even supported with an own YouTube-channel.
• You can use any figures, miniatures or virtually any toys, toy cars or tokens at hand to play it.

Cons

• You'll need some 'special' dice; a couple of D12 and 3 D20 dice.
• The rules don't differs between different weapons regarding effective range and damage potential. 
• No negative modifiers to hit targets in cover except for in the 'super small skirmishes' appendix. To keeps things interesting add a lot of items to block LoS instead.
• No form of suppression when a figurine receives heavy fire/ several successfully hits. It only loses wound numbers but can still act as 'normal'.

Conclusion

This game is really easy to learn and play, and it's simplicity implies that's it's missing some mechanics often found in ranged battle. Don't be put off just because this game seems easy and to be aimed at 'kids' due to it's name. I'm very glad I didn't, because it was a fast to learn and easy to play game and I had a good time at my tabletop.

The only thing I actually really miss in this game is a modifier for ranged battle where the target is partly behind some cover (which it can fires from). Perhaps deduct 2 from the attack (D20) dice if the target is behind a cover, and -4 if the cover is really hard? Or let the defender in cover roll another D20 no matter firing range?? The 'super small skirmishes' appendix let's figurines in cover roll another D20 dice, but just for short/normal ranges. I think this could be transferred to the Basic Battles rules too and let them stack on other D20 bonuses like long range, as there should be very difficult to hit someone in cover on long range. 

I guess you can convert this game from single figurines into units by replacing the number of wounds into numbers of members in a unit, and simply removing one for each hit.

I must admit I was rooting for the 'Bounty Hunters' in this game,  but the fact that they didn't win shows the randomness in these rules. Even if the wound-numbers were balanced, the outlaw-force was 'overwhelming' in numbers against the 2 Bounty Hunters. The game designer actually recommends balanced forces in numbers or in wound-numbers if it's not the same number of figurines each side, so one side isn't getting overwhelmed. Another thing I could considered before playing this game would be to give the 'Heroes' additional wound numbers as 'Hero Points'. Anyway, this game resulted in that the 2 remaining outlaws are still wanted and the reward on them probably got a little higher now. That will probably motivate more Bounty Hunters chasing them and to try to capture them in the future (and in another game).

Blog PostScript

I decided to give the Bounty Hunters another chance and another 'Wound Number' each as a 'Hero Point' and let them fight on where the game initially ended to see if this would be enough to change the tide of the battle:

The Outlaws activated first, and gained the initiative and opened fire again:

One of the Outlaws hit, but the other missed:

The last Bounty Hunter realized that he was running low on health, and desperately assaulted one of the Outlaws in close combat:

...- and won. But immediately got hit by the last Outlaw:

So, again this was another victory for the Outlaws. Just one more 'Wound number' as 'Hero Points' was not enough:

So would adding another 'Wound' as 'Hero Points' be enough to change the tide of battle? I decided to give the Bounty Hunters another try. They were low on health now and to regain initiative they were engaging the last Outlaw in a close combat, as it would improve their chances to take him out:

They were fighting for 2 turns...

...until the last Outlaw managed to knock one of the Bounty Hunters out:

The Second Bounty Hunter immediately moved in and engaged the last Outlaw in a fist fight...

...and knocked him out.

With 2 more 'Wound Numbers' each more than would equal with the opponent's total this was finally a win for the Bounty Hunters. I think if I'd play this game with some 'Heroes' on one side again, I would give each of them 2 more 'Wounds' as 'Hero Points' that would excess the equal and balanced 'Wound numbers' of each side. In this particular game the 'Heroes' were finally given a third more Wound Numbers than their opponents in total. 

I really recommend you to have a go and try this game yourself, and if you have kids or grandchildren you wants to introduce to (war-) gaming, this is a very good start!