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!!

Tiny Troops: Fast and Furious Wargame Rules

I asked the ChatGPT for a suitable name for the game this AI-service suggested in an earlier blogpost. The ChatGPT suggested to call it's own rules for 'Tiny Troops: Fast and Furious Wargame Rules'. I wonder if these rules lives up to it's name?

I posted a link to my last blogpost about letting ChatGPT generate some easy to play wargaming rules on some wargaming related Facebook-groups I'm following, and it created some debate and seemed some what controversial to use AI for this purpose. I was curious about the suggested rules and wanted to try them out to see if they were so playable as they firstly seemed. To have something to compare them with, I decided to play by the same setup and scenario as I played in the previously reviewed One Page Rules Army Men Combat v2.0.

I usually play my games solo, playing both sides my self as good as I can. Since the ChatGPT was so involved already by writing and naming the rules, I wanted to see if it was (artificial-) intelligent enough to play one of the sides if I fed it with these situation, movements, developments, results and so on. Besides, using the ChatGPT this way may be less controversial than letting it generate the rules themselves perhaps? Since I have a soft spot for the UN-troops as almost 1200 Norwegians participated in this mission I let the ChatGPT play the Katangese Gendarmerie in this game. The ChatGPT needs to be persuaded to join a game as it's AI and don't want to play a game as it actually can't. It will however give guidance and advice for movements and actions for units in the game within the rules, so I'll let it 'guide and advice' all movements and actions for the Katangese Gendarmerie.

The scenario

I've placed this skirmish to the United Nations largest mission in both scale and operational scope during the Congo Crisis 1960-65, when UN troops 'peacekeeping' was more offensive 'peace enforcement'.

Situation:

Two UN vehicles from the UN base at Kamina were performing a reconnaissance mission on the roads  between Kamina and the city of Kolwezi. Outside Kambezi they came under heavy mortar shelling from Katangese forces and they were probably both hit as the UN HQ at Kamina cannot reach them by radio anymore. 

The UN HQ sends out search and rescue patrols to find the missing reconnaissance-unit, and it's expected that the roads in the area have taken damage and are impassable for other vehicles, and it's only reachable at foot.

The Katangese forces in the area are aware of the possible UN-wrecks and sends out patrols to find them, and to seize anything of value such as documents like the UN SOPs and codes for radio-communications.

Some houserules to this scenario seems to be required though; It takes 1 man 1 turn to search a vehicle, and it takes 1 man 1 turn to examine  a casualty. To check a casualty's condition, roll a D6, and if the roll is the same value or higher than the turn number for that turn, the casualty is alive and can be medivaced. Casualties can be medivaced at half speed. 

Forces:

• Katangese:
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 5 rifles, 1 sniper rifle and 1 LMG

• UN:
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 5 rifles, 1 bazooka and 1 LMG

Mission:

• Katangese: To find the immobilized UN vehicles and search them for valuable things such as secret UN documents, orders, maps, SOPs and radio-codes 
• UN: To find the missing reconnaissance-patrol and save the members of the unit, and make sure no graded documents in the vehicles fall into the hands of the enemy.

AAR

Time:    3 hours (!)

Turns:   10

Result:  UN victory

It all started very good, and the Katangese forces advanced towards the UN-vehicles slowly from cover to cover... 

The UN forces also advanced very slowly, and due to limited firing-ranges the forces needed to move for several turns before they got within firing-range of each other. One of the UN-squads started to examine the casualties outside the jeep, and started to search the jeep, but was interrupted by the advancing Katangese gendarmerie.

It seems like the Katangese forces focused on trying to defeat the UN forces first, and search the vehicles afterwards. The continuous Katangese fire harassed and interrupted the first aid given to the 2 casualties outside the jeep and the search inside the vehicle it self as the UN had to return fire.

After exchanging fire for a while, the Katangese forces started to take a toll and had several casualties. It seemed like the vehicles was out of reach for them now, and they were fighting for their lives instead. This made it possible for some of the UN-troops to start searching the jeep again, but none of the casualties could be saved by this time/turn.

One UN squad charged into hand-to-hand combat and eliminated one of the Katangese squads.

The few remaining members of the other Katangese squads were soon under so heavy fire, that the remaining 2 Katangese squads were soon eliminated as well. The UN-forces started to search the other vehicle.

While the UN-forces seized all the classified documents from the vehicles the very last Katangese survivor was retreating. -actually more fleeing the scene.

Pros

• Nice mechanics for unsaved hits and outcome of melee. On the other hand these effects probably prolonged the game.

Cons

• Several of the cons were already pointed out in the comment-section section in my last blogpost by readers and fellow wargamers. Firstly the rules don't specify the games turn sequence. I just rolled for initiative every time activation was needed, using yellow dice for the Katangeese forces and Greens for the UN. High roller got to activate a unit.
• When morale tests are needed seems unclear in the rules, and I just followed the example of other rules by testing a unit's morale if it was halved.
• The rules states that a LMG can fire twice per turn, but does not says if it fires two times during a turn or if it just fire once with 2 dice. I played by rolling 2 dice for the LMG to indicate a higher rate of fire to a specific target. On the other hand the HMGs cannot 'fire twice' within a turn, but they fire on a longer range and has a higher hit probability with a 3+. These rules makes it impossible for a HMG to inflict multiple damage on a target, as it probably would do in real life.
• I don't know why the rules says that sniper rifles can only fire once per turn, as all weapons except for LMGs can only fire once per turn.
• The movements are very limited, and especially if moving through rough terrain. This makes the advancements very slow. It doesn't help playing with the ChatGPT either as it's very time-consuming to both read and write with the ChatGPT.
• I think the firing range for rifles are too short, as it equals only 3 fully movements. Even the bazooka has a longer firing-range than a rifle which would not be the case in real life.
• The rules have no benefits for being in cover, and does not make it harder to hit targets in cover.
• No rules stating that heavy weapons needs more soldiers to serve them. Here all weapons can be operated by a single soldier.

Conclusion

It is a lot you can use ChatGPT for; making rules and act as an opponent. I asked if it could write this blogpost and a battle report as well, but the suggested text made no sense, so I had to do that my self. 

Despite of the name of the game, it was not so Fast or Furious. -Especially not fast if your opponent is an AI which you need to write and describe every move on the game to, and take time to read how it will react on them when activating. I found this time-consuming, even if some of the comments by the ChatGPT were amusing. 

Would I do it again? I think the cons outnumbers the pros for these rules, so I'll probably not doing another game with these rules. I know AI-apps take everything "from here and a little there" found online and combine it all into an answer, but I don't think this game combination was very successful though even if it looked good at first glance. I think the rules have so many basic shortcomings, that I'm not even going to put them among the other free wargame links and download section of this blog. I guess they can be tweaked further to the better by continuing asking the ChatGPT for further rules and details trying to improve its shortcomings. I did not initially do that as I wanted to try the ChatGPTs capacity to initially suggest a ruleset without having to follow up and give too many corrections and further specifications. Perhaps I should?

Would I play with a ChatGPT as an opponent again? -More likely; Perhaps it works better for even smaller games and even simpler scenarios?

To quote the ChatGPT at the end: "Based on the information provided, it appears that the situation is unfavorable for my squad, and your units have gained the upper hand. I accept the outcome, and it seems that your forces have successfully completed their mission. Well played!" (...) "it was a pleasure playing with you".

Free wargame-rules for army men wargaming by ChatGPT

The free AI-service by ChatGPT have created a lot of headlines in the news recently, as students use it for 'cheating' and a debate if AI it self is 'dangerous' for us and can be trusted. I got a little curious about GhatGPT, but I don't have any homework anymore to ask for helping. -So I asked the ChatGPT the following question to see if this AI-service could make any sensible free wargaming rules for army men:

"Can you write a free fast playing easy wargame rules for army men. with movement in inches and reduction for obstacles. Can you make it with a firing chart for pistol, smg, rifle, siper rifle, lmg, hmg, bazooka, flamethrower and mortar with different ranges and d6 hit probability. It also would need some hitting chart to calculate effects on fire with a d6. Can you also make a d6 based morale chart. I want the rules to contain rules for hand to hand fighting. I also want to have rules for vehicles like soft skins, armored and tanks regarding range and firing and how to calculate hits."

The ChatGPT instantly replied:

"That's it". -If you're not happy with them, you can use the chat-function to ask for further details and give specifications for the rules and get even more details for your rules. -But these rules first suggested by my request seems surprisingly pretty playable to me, so I'm happy with the ChatGPT's inital suggestion. I wonder how well the rules work, so I'll have a testplay of these rules soon. A battle report will therefore shortly be posted on this blog so stay tuned. Please subscribe and follow this blog for updates.

Go to ChatGPT if you would like to have a go for your self. If you manage it to suggest some sensible rules, I also hope you share them somewhere (on your blog, in a Facebook group or in the comment-section here). A 'warning' though; Using ChatGPT can be very addictive. Enjoy!

One Page Game Jam - 51 different free one page gaming rules you can play

A wargaming Discord-group I'm following invited it's members to suggest or share their own One Page games or rules in a Jam. I was working in the finishing stages on the 'Rules of Engagement - Modern Warfare' at the time, and submitted the rules to the Jam. I was very surprised and thrilled when my homebrewed houserules were accepted and included in the Jam. 

There are 50 other free One Page Games in the Jam besides mine, covering a lot of different themes and periods. Have a look at them and see if you find any of them you want to play or collect for future gaming. 

Link: One Page Game Jam

The published version is marked "Vol. 1", so perhaps future volumes will follow?  In that case I hope I can encourage you to participate with you own houserules.