A prequel 'Planet of the Apes' wargame - The Initial Confrontation

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Last summer saw the release of some ElastoWitt 54mm Planet of The Apes figures (I think) from the original movies. At the same time, I saw several reviews of these figures on other blogs and Facebook groups. I'm a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes series and I've been planning to do a 'fantasy' and 'sci-fi' gameplay, so a POTA-scenario would be ideal. -But as with all miniatures and soldiers; These Planet of the Apes figures are just impossible to get in Norway, and the shipping costs, rising prices in general and bad exchanges rate can't justify it.

While writing the blogpost on prehistoric warfare, I found information that chimpanzees not only went to "war" and fought other chimpanzees, but they were also found using very simple weapons such as simplified "spears" for hunting. Chimpanzees have also been reported to have attacked both humans and gorillas. Chimpanzees are very territorial, about 4 times as strong as a human of similar size, and they can reach speeds of 40 kph/25 mph.

This got me thinking if Planet of the Apes could not only be a good sci-fi story, but with some liberties and artistic licenses could it really have happened somewhere in 'The Darkest Africa' for example? At least for a fantasy wargame scenario?? Just "What-if"???

Records show that soldiers have been attacked by wild animals during conflicts in the past. One of the most famous attacks was from World War II when reports claim that hundreds of Japanese soldiers were attacked and eaten by crocodiles during the Battle of Ramree Island in 1945. Could such a thing have happened if soldiers encountered a group of enemy chimpanzees armed with spears in "Darkest Africa" ​​defending their territory ? It's probably not very likely, but it makes an interesting scenario for a skirmish wargame; one side with ranged weapons vs. the other side that doesn't, but that is faster and far more superior in close combat.

Creating an Ape Army

Since I wasn't going to buy the POTA figures from ElastoWitt, or from any other manufacturers either, I had to look elsewhere to build my 'budget ape army'. On Thingiverse I found some free Planet of the Apes files (#2 and #3) that I decided to resize, repositioning and print on my new (and upgraded) 3D printer, a FlashForge Adventurer 3. -It's still an FDM printer though (with all it's limitations creating miniatures...). Some step-by-step photos of creating the ape army can be seen in the 'March Workbench updates'.

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The human army is simply made up of regular army men I've painted and used in previous wargames.

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The Rules

For this little skirmish game I wanted to use Thor Sheil's OMOG - One Man, One Gun rules in combination with OMOK - One Man, One Knight rules. They are very 'similar' (just for different periods) so I use OMOG for the 'human army' due to their ranged weapons and OMOK for the ape army because of their pole arms.

To keep it simple, I used the quick reference sheets created by Steve Snark, which can be downloaded from the OMOG Facebook group's files section.

However, some house rules seemed necessary; Since Chimanzees are very fast, I let them move twice as fast as a "human move". They have brutal strength, a strong bite and deadlier teeth, so I think they will be far superior to humans in hand-to-hand combat, so they get an additional +1 in melee for their physical strength.

The Scenario

To keep this related to the Planet of the Apes, I have placed this scenario to the same period as the original POTA book La Plaète des singes was written by Pierre Boulle in 1963. Wild chimpanzees are only found in West and Central Africa. Fortunately, I already have miniatures covering that region and period. During the Congo Crisis, troops from the newly independent Republic of the Congo, the Armèe Nationale Congolaise (ANC), were sent into the South Kasai region to fight the rebels there due to a rebellion and insurgency there in the period of 1960-63.

Some time during this campaign, a lightly armed squad (among several) of 8 soldiers from the ANC was on a search and destroy patrol at outskirts of the jungle in a very remote area of ​​the South Kasai region in 1962 to look for Kasai rebels there. To be able to move quickly, they were lightly armed, only with rifles and a submachine gun. The squad fights as 2 fire teams with 4 members in each.

The ANC squad is totally unaware that they are moving into territory claimed by a group of 15 hostile chimpanzees armed with simple thrusting spears. Unlike the human army, they have no ranged weapons, but are superior in hand-to-hand combat. The 'ape army' is not 'organized' but fights as 3 groups of 5 each.

The Game

The ANC search and destroy patrol...

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...are totally unaware that they are about to enter territory claimed by a pack of hostile Chimpanzees and that they are being watched doing so.

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Suddenly groups of Chimpanzees armed with spears came rushing out of the bush, screaming, towards the ANC squad...

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...the soldiers are taken by surprise but some of them managed to open fire (before it became too late), and kill some of the raging Chimpanzees...

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-But the Chimpanzees didn't care if they lost some fellow members of their group, and just kept storming into the ANC squad and entered hand-to-hand combat... 

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...and clashed into a brutal fight...

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...even if some of the soldiers managed to kill a couple of Chimpanzees in this nasty close combat...

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...they just didn't have a chance against the Chimpanzees. The rearmost soldiers tried to retreat when the rest of their squad was wiped out...

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...but the raging Chimpanzees were faster and kept following the retreating soldiers...

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...until the last man standing were surrendered and killed.

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Even if they lost about half their members, this was a victory for the apes as they managed to take out all the intruders of their territory. 

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When the remains of 'the lost patrol' was later found by others, it was clear that the casualties had injuries matching both Chimpanzee-attacks and spear injuries. The apes was gone for now, and so was some of the rifles from the eliminated ANC squad..... (did the Apes take them?)

When these observations was later reported perhaps that inspired Pierre Boulle to write 'La Plaète des singes', the book which the later films of 'Plante of the Apes' was based upon...

Conclusion

This scenario took just about 10 turns and 20-30 minutes to play, so I actually had time to play it 3 times. In a fight between someone with firearms and those without but having better close combat weapons, it's clear that those with firearms are only effective if they manage to keep their opponent at a distance for a time. In such a scenario the side with ranged weapons does not have a lot of time to use them and their advantages, before being in close combat, where other weapons are more effective.

Some updates on Thor Sheil's OMOG and OMOK rules

At the time it looks like the late Thor Sheil's  salvaged army men website are 'down' again, and so are the links to his free wargaing rules. I'm not sure if his website will be online again this time, so I'd thought I'd share some links where you can still find several of his free wargaming rules:

• At the Facebook-group 'Wargaming with Toy Soldiers and Army men - Everything Free Wargame-rules' I've uploaded a lot of free online wargame rules in the file section, including some of the rules earlier found on Thor Sheil's website.
• The Facebook-group 'Shambattle and OMOG Toysoldiers Games' are created by Thor Sheil himself and dedicated to his games. In the groups filesection many of his wargame rules are uploaded. This is an open Facebook group with few members, so in courtesy feel free to sign up as a member when using the rules.

If Thor Sheil's website doesn't return, I must consider to update this blog's link sections and replace inactive links to his rules with my own downloads. Updated: Already done thru Waybackmachine with those few URLs which were saved there. Too bad not all of them were.

A leaked battle report of a classified skirmish occurred during "Operation Highjump"

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Earlier this year I bought a lot of minitures, most of them being Airfix copies. As 'knock offs' they are smaller than their originals, but in this lot there was even some smaller figures closer to 40mm or 0-scale in model railway terms. These are notably smaller than the figures I usually use for (war-) gaming, and they were not so numerous in the lot I bought, so I decided to use these smaller figures for 'other small projects' not requiring a whole army.

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It has snowed heavily in Norway this winter and I've been running some military garden railways in the snow, so I'd thought I would try to do some casual wargaming in the garden in the snow too. There has been a lot of snow and very cold this winter so I thought I had plenty of time to arrange this game, but the last couple of weeks have been 'warmer' and rainy so the snow started to melt rapidly. So I had to speed up giving this priority over some other projects, and 3D-print the bits and pieces needed for this game as quick as possible in low resolution and without preferred finishing touches for a smoother surface on them except for some paint. I didn't know at the time that the winter returned with heavy snowfall and cold weather again. 

The 40mm-ish figures from the lot I'll use for this game are German and American infantry, and was given a simple paintjob.

I 3D-printed a couple of vehicles (so my miniatures can travel on snow) and a Bunker entrance to go along with the figures for this wargame.

The USMC reconnaissance team
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The Gebirgsjäger squad and their bunkers
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I've always had a soft spot for 1 BC (One Brain Cell) Toy Soldier Rules by Pete Kautz and it's been a while since I played them, so I decided to use them with the advanced options for a small skirmish only needing a few miniatures for a game that could be located in a cold, icey and snowy terrain. They are obvious popular rules and my blogpost on them are the second most viewed on this blog.

These are great rules, but some 'house rules' seemed necessary for this game. I know 1 BC Toy Soldier Rules doesn't include vehicles,  so I just treated mine as a 'unit' according to the rules, but with 3 times the move of a trooper. The vehicles act as a transport, cover and a 'stationary HMG'. These rules have no rules for SMGs so I gave them a firing-range between pistol and rifle, 16'', and letting them roll 2 dice.

The Scenario

I've placed this scenario to 1946 and "Operation Highjump", which was a major American exercise in (Ant-) Arctic warfare and establishment of the Antarctic research base 'Little America'. Conspiracy theories claims that it was an offensive operation to fight secret nazi bases established in the Antarctic at the very end of WW2.

During the operation a maritime reconnaissance plane observed some odd shapes on the ground deep inland Antarctica, but couldn't get a clear view of it. To further examine this strange observation, a Marine reconnaissance-patrol of 8 members are sent in with 2 M29 Weasels (one of them with a HMG) for closer observation and further investigation. They'll fight as 2 fireteams of 4 each (as a Weasel can only carry 4 persons).

The aerial photo which demands a cliser look
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When approaching their object, the Marine reconnaissance-patrol are unaware that they also enters the line of sight and fire-range from a hidden and dug-in German Gebirgsjäger squad from the Neuschwabenland Division, guarding the entrance to an underground facility. The German squad fight as 2 fireteams; a Rifleteam of 6 and LMG-team of 3. The German squad was based upon graphics from Battle Order (which is a good website for references when building your army squad by squad).

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The Game

The engine noise of the approaching M29 Weasels with the Marines gives away their position and alerted the German sentry in the else so quiet Antarctica, so the rest of the Gebirgsjäger squad on guard was scrambled into their fortified positions made by ice.

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When approaching the coordinates for their objective, the sergeant leading the reconnaissance patrol gets careful and orders the HMG armed Weasel to drive up and secure an ice pass in front of them...

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...When entering the ice pass the HMG armed Weasel are met by intense fire, and get pinned there as some Marines go down...

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...Luckily their HMG is still operative, so it starts to return fire and secure the second fireteam's advance into the ice pass.

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Even if they are under heavy fire, the Gebirgsjäger rifle team holds their battle stance, and even takes down a couple of more Marines. But they don't manage to take out the American HMG...

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...- Which starts to take a toll on the Gebirgsjägers. Fortifications made by (hard) ice can be effective, but the 12,7mm HMG effectively starts 'chewing up' the ice-cover piece by piece, taking out Gebirgsjägers...

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...- after Gebirgsjägers...

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The Gebirgsjäger rifle team has no support of their LMG team as the Marines are too far away for it to be effective. Soon the German rifle team has lost so many members that their morale finally fails. I know the the rules says that remaining miniatures should be removed from the game, but we're in middle of Antarctica and there are no places to escape. So I just make them retreat to their Bunker entrance, which would be a 'safe zone' for them. The other Marine team exploits the German retreat and pursues the retreating forces. This was not a tactical success for the Marines...

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...The German Feldwebel is the last one of his rifle team, and he just empty his magazine against those following Americans, killing one and dazed another.

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When the American corporal recovers again, he finish off the Feldwebel, But now he comes under fire from the German LMG team. The American HMG returns fire, but doesn't hit very well as the Germans are in a heavily fortified position.

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The USMC reconnaissance patrol are so reduced by this time, and their HMG has problem hitting the LMG team in the fortified position, so they decides to pull out...

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... - and report their observations to HQ, so they can send in 'the cavalry' next time. They had to leave one fully functional M29 Weasel behind to the Germans though.

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Conclusion 

I guess it was a partial victory for the Germans as they managed to defend their bunker entrance, and partially an American victory as they managed to return to their own lines and report about their observarions and small skirmish to their HQ. -Their report was never known to the public tough, and probably classified as a lot of other things about this operation. Probably the Americans returned with a larger force. Operation Highjump lasted for 6 mounths which is pretty long time for an exercise...

This little game was a quickie, just taking 45 minutes to play 10 turns. Keep in mind if you want to game outside in the snow, that it's wet and cold so:

• Seal your miniatures before bringing them out in such conditions.
• Have some sort of dice tray.
• Laminate your rules.
• Let your miniatures dry thoroughly before putting them back in storage.
• Remember warm clothing...
• ...and something hot in your cup (!)

Enjoy!

2023 - A brief sumary - 2024 Quo Vadis?

Well it's soon the end of the year and probably time to look back on the past year, and share some thoughts for following one.

This is not a big blog with a lot of blogposts or having a very large number of followers, but 2023 has been the most active year on this blog so far. Most of the readers are located in United States of America, followed by Singapore (!), followed by United kingdom. I'm not sure if there are so many actual readers from Singapore, or if it's some sort of web crawlers or search spiders located there??
Anyway, I appreciate all of you who are following it, reading it, and contributes with your comments. Especially thanks to all of you that have been promoting this blog and linking to it through your own blogs, Facebook pages or other websites. Even if my settings are set to be searchable by Google and search description added, I actually got few hits from Google (only 115 through whole 2023), and when I do it's usually just right after posting a new post. So, you're all responsible for this years growth of members and blogposts, which motivates me to follow up with more. - Thank you!!

2023 - Status

In 2023 I continued to review free downloadable wargame rules that can be played with ordinary Army Men, which I started to in 2022. It seems like 'Old school gaming' from for instance Donald Featherstone are more popular than other free rules reviewed in 2023. I've been playing a lot of the free rules I found and was personally keen to try out, and there are still some few free wargame rules I want to try out though.

During the year I developed my own 'home brewed wargame rules', Rules of Engagement, based on experience from these other free rules I've played so far. Even if I think they turned out to be playable and pretty good as I achieved a lot of my goals for it, I still thinks they need some further development. I also used a periodic version of these home brewed rules in combination with free paper miniatures for a prehistoric game.

This year I also reviewed a commercial wargame rule, Bolt Action, as I found a way to play it for free. I recognize a lot of game mechanics that can already be found in many of those free wargame rules already mentioned, but I liked the way Warlord Games have combined them in Bolt Action.

2023 was also the year I tried out to use AI for wargaming either to develop rules or using it as an AI-opponent. During the process I experienced that the use of AI in general is controversial, and there was obvious no exception among wargamers.

Some of the Free Wargame Rules I played in 2023

Summers in Norway are usually short with mostly nice weather, so during that time of year it's more tempting doing 'hobby stuff'outside. Since I'm into model railways as well, I finally got around to convert a LGB-starter set I've had for some while into a Narrow Gauge Military German Railway. Since it was a starter set there wasn't so many wagons to form a larger train, so I started up converting even more LGB-wagons I got cheap. Converting them and making credible loads for them took longer time that I've expected, and it kept me busy through the autumn and winter, and it looks like it will still keep me busy for a while. 

During a running-session in a friend's garden early this winter I had a derailment which sent my German military LGB-locomotive into the ground, smashing the front of it. Luckily I wasn't running my Live Steam Locomotive at the time. Anyhow, this made me use more of my precious modelling- and gaming time to re-construct and getting it back in running condition again. Now I probably got a feeling what it's like to be into RC planes...

I added some more details like building plates, a hatch and grille to it while it was in the workshop. 

This left me in a situation where I had less time for wargaming and writing battle reports of my games than I expected, and therefore less activity on my blog from late autumn. Until now recently when I've been doing some quick projects on winter and Christmas related modelling.

2024 - What to expect?

Because my military garden modelling and locomotive mishap seized most of my modelling time at the end of the year, it meant that there were a lot of my planned activity I didn't have time to do during 2023. So this gives a good starting point for 2024 though. I hope I'll manage to cover them all this time:

• I plan to play and review at least one more new free wargame rules which you can find online and play with ordinary Army Men. If you have any suggestions, please post them in the comment section below.
• Finish a G-scale rake of cars for my LGB Heeresfeldbahn.
• Last year I played one of the first conflicts in history, so in 2024  I plan to prepare some figures and play one of the most recents conflicts in history. 
• I plan to prepare some miniatures and play at least one game of 'Fantasy Scenario' or probably also a 'Wild West Scenario' or both.
• I plan to do another 'Print and Play for Free', but with another period and scenario this time.
• If I can find a budget way to do it, I'll play another commercial wargame.
• As summers are short and intense in Norway, I'll do some outdoor military modelling in 2024 as well. Perhaps make an UK-military rake for my Live Steam locomotive, or make my RC-boat look more 'Norwegian'.
• Complete another indoor model railway layout.

-Time will show! 

I hope all of you will keep following for updates through 2024 as well, and comment and share the blog's contents. I'm certainly looking forward to follow your activities in the coming year!

I wish you all the very best for 2024!!

Season Wars 2023 - Once Upon a time under the Christmastree in the north

It's less than a week until Christmas, so it's about time to fight the annual 'season war'. Last year the 'Season Wars' was played with Thor Sheil's OMOK - One Man, One Knight free wargame rules, and 'The Ginger Bread Army' won the battle. 

The 'Ginger Bread Army' has hold the ground since then, but this year the 'Cookie Men Army' (called Gøttekællær in Norwegian) returns, trying to reclaim territory. The 'Ginger Bread Army' occupies 'Yule Village' beneath the Christmas tree, which they defend trying to avoid the new Circular Railroad Company to enter and cross through their precious little town. 

The white 'Cookie Men Army' decides to help the Railroad Company by fight the tan 'Ginger Bread Army' trying to force them to retreat so the Railroad Company can complete their Railroad and  at the same time let the 'Cookie Men' hold the ground this year.

For the battle this year I've decided to use another free wargame rules which you can download and readily play with your own miniatures. This years Season Wars will be played by the FUBAR free wargame rules. As my holidays armies are armed with swords, spears and bows I'll use FUBAR Medieval 2nd Edition. For FUBAR order-counters please see my review of FUBAR 4th edition. 

Since both the armies probably were 'Green' last year and gained some experience since then, I'll let both armies fight as 'Seasoned' according to the rules this year. Another lesson the white army learned last year, was to create warbands with similar weapons in each and not spred them out on all units.

The Battle

The white cookie men army rapidly gained the initiative and rushed to the battle with 2 of it's warbands. I'm not sure if the 3rd white warband actually was 'seasoned' as they hesitated to leave the safe train for 2 turns:

It seems like the Gingerbread army was taken by total surprise and was stunned by the white cookie men's advancement, and they didn't manage to take any initiative for several turns:

This gave the white cookie army the upper hand and they kept pushing. Finally their last warband found it safe to leave the train and join their fellows:

Not only did the white cookie men army have the leading initiative and drive in the battle, but their archers also seemed more skilled than their Gingerbread counterpart, almost annihilating a Gingerbread warband:

This left the Gingerbread army under pressure and it seems like they had no any other options than to counterstrike into a melee:

The white cookie archers were very effective and managed to make the rest of a Gingerbread warband retreat while they took out another enemy archer at the same time. This made a clear way for the white cookie men spear warband  to enter the battle...

...and engage outnumbered Gingerbread warbands. 

This started to take a toll at the Gingerbread army, which were starting to get outnumbered on the battlefield. The Gingerbread warband in the melee managed quite well though. -As did the white cookie men:

Now the distance was so close that the Gingerbread archers finally started to hit something:

-But too late. Soon they were assaulted and in a melee they could not win:

The only Gingerbread warband making to hold ground at this stage, was the swordfighters in the melee. As the other white cookie warbands defeated one Gingerbread warband after the other, they also entered the melee to fight the last Gingerbread unit:

The last Gingerbread knights were very brave and managed to hold the superior forces off for 2 more turns:

Slowly the last Gingerbread warband was halved in size, and was totally surrounded having no chance to win:

This made the White Cookie Men army win the Seasonal War this year after 12 turns and about 2 hours. Now they could finally enter the Yule Village and the Circular Railroad Company could lay the last track through the village and complete their railroad around the Christmastree. -Which is good as I wonder what rest of the family would have said if we didn't have a complete circuit under the tree ths year. Luckily the train was loaded with a tanker of Christmas Ale, so some celebration seemed to be in place:

Conclusion:

I've been doing a lot of model railway and garden railway stuff this autumn and winter, and not so much wargaming. Even if this wargame and scenario wasn't too serious I think it felt good finally doing some wargaming again. -Which again reminds me about not waiting too long to do another game. 

This post is not an ordinary game review as I usually does on other wargame rules, but I've noticed something about FUBAR Medieval 2nd Edition worth mentioning:

• In the rules firing ranges are given in inches an centimeters, whatever you prefer. But for all ranges from 8" and below, there are not exact compassion in centimeters, giving the cm much shorter range than inches.
• In this version of FUBAR unsaved hits are not taken as suppression. I don't know why not, but I think suppression is a nice game mechanic slowing down or pinning units or punishing units leaving members behind. Perhaps its omitted due to medieval tactics and warfare? Were they more likely to leave wounded behind? If you have any thoughts of this please comment in the comment section below.

With this I wish all fellow wargamers and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!