Some of the skirmish wargame rules I've been playing, both the free and commercial ones, suggests some kind of 'Army Building' and how to make up units for the game (mostly limited to make balanced forces). Most of the rules and games I play however, does not. This is not a problem if you know what kind of units you want to bring to your tabletop battles, or you're into military history and know how to create those specific units for your game. I've found some websites that can help you create realistic Squad and Platoon level units for 20th and 21st century:
Battle Order
On the Battle Order website there is a lot of information on how to create different modern units on different levels for different countries and periods. Most of my skirmish games are based upon rifle Squads and at the Battle Order website there is a 'Graphic section' I have found most useful as it's describing number of members, what kind of weapons they are armed with for different countries and periods.
This is an example of what you can find at Battle Order, showing a WW2 Homeguard Rifle Squad with number of members, ranks and weapons:
If you create 'realistic' skirmish units for your game it would be nice to operate them in your game in a realistic manner as well, even if you have no military experience on Squad or Platoon level. On YouTube I recently found a channel named Tactical Forge. It's a very interesting YouTube-channel which instructs real life Squad tactics by using miniatures. The playlist Micro Tactics is most useful regarding wargames.
I recommend you to pay these websites a visit and hope you find them as useful as I did. I'll add links to them in the menu to the right.
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...
This year it's exactly 40 years since the 'V' tv-series was aired and I saw it on Swedish television for the first time. -It never found its way to Norwegian television, so luckily we could receive tv-signals from Sweden where I lived (with an own areal). I think this was one of the most expensive productions of its time. I was a great fan of it, and still is, so I think this 40 year anniversary is a good reason to to play a small skirmish wargame based upon it as a homage.
Creating a Visitor-army
Not many manufacturers makes 'Visitor'-miniatures, and those which exist are either to wrong scale for me, or too expensive if you want to build an army. As the TV series was never aired in Norway, none of the merch never hit the shelves in Norwegian toystores either.
This is a budget wargaming blog after all, so I needed to find a cheaper substitute for the V-miniatures. Some few years ago I bought a bucket of futuristic soldiers looking like Space Marines from 'Starship Troopers' in the local toy shop, and that was what I planned to use them for. On a toysoldier group on Facebook I once saw that one have painted figures like this in all kind of different colors; blue, green, red... -When I saw the red ones they reminded me of the 'V - Shock Troopers', and I decided I wanted to try making a similar conversion. If you want to read more about that prosess please visit the blogger-post "Making V-miniatures on a budget"
The landing ship is a 3D-printed 'V - Skyfighter' - Free STL-file from Thingiverse, just resized, assembled and painted. The Skyfighters are capable of both atmospheric and space travel with an unlimited range, with speeds up to mach 3 in the atmosphere and 20-30% of the speed of light in the space.
The Rules
To take advantage of the 'Visitors' body armor, considerations to small firearms vs. laser-rifles, heavy weapons and different troop quality levels, I think the rules dictated them self as FUBAR, which is the only free wargame rules I know which includes all of them.
Playing FUBAR Solo?
What the FUBAR-rules does not include is any SOLO-mechanics, so when I play FUBAR alone I usually just play both sides (as best as I can). I like wargame rules that has it's own SOLO-mechanics as it is more unpredictable and add to the 'chaos' during battle. Therefore I've created a simple chart or table for my FUBAR 'AI-opponent' in this game. I'm looking forward to try it out to see if it works:
The Scenario
100 years before the (1984) tv-series and the militaristic race of reptilian aliens from a star near Sirius arrived earth with 50 'Motherships' to start their invasion and plundering in 1984, they sent out several reconnaissance patrols across the solar system to search for suitable plantes to invade and plunder. - Space-travelling back and forth + planning such a massive operation takes time (!).
In 1884 one such reconnaissance-ship arrived earth and landed close to the frontier town of Singate, New Mexico. A reconnaissance-patrol of 6 Visitor Shock Troopers (as a 'V' Skyfighter only holds a crew of 3 + 3 Troopers) was set out to search the surroundings to their landing zone.
The outlaw gang 'The Sinful Eight' (with, guess what, 8 members) was located in the same area, and approached the landing ship while the reconnaissance patrol were away and tried to open the landing ship to search it for values. They still had their hands on the landing-ship trying to open it when the alien reconnaissance-patrol returned to it.
The landing ship's initial approach to the wasteland outside the town of Singate was observed by one of the inhabitants, who reported it to a nearby Army Post, which sent out an patrol of 5 members to check it out. Due to the distance they won't arrive at the scene before turn 6.
Forces:
The Shock Troopers:
1 squad of 2 fireteams:
Fireteam 1: 2 troopers with High-Output Energy Rifles (like assault rifles according to the rules) and 1 trooper with a heavy laser blaster (like a LMG in the rules)
Fireteam 2: 2 troopers with High-output Energy Rifles (like assault rifles according to the rules) and 1 trooper with laser launcher (rocket launcher in the rules).
The Shock Troopers have body armour which will save on 5+ and are 'Veterans'.
The Sinful Eight:
A outlaw gang of 8 members acting like 2 fireteams of 4 each, armed with pistols and rifles.
These outlaws are ruthless and experienced gunfighters and are 'Elite'.
The US Army patrol:
A unit of 5 soldiers armed with rifles and pistols.
Their commander is 'Veteran' and the soldiers are 'Seasoned'.
Mission:
The Shock Troopers:
To fight The Sinful Eight and regain control and access to their landing ship so they can eventually fly away from Earth and report their observations.
If possible in the process; bring back one human sample for further investigation and testing.
The Sinful Eight:
To fight the Shock Troopers so they can seize their innovative weapons and armour to get an upper hand in their future raids.
The US Army patrol:
To fight any invaders and gain control of the landing craft.
I'll play the human units in this game, and the V-Shock-troopers are commanded by the AI-chart.
The Game
Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes
Turns: 12
Result: The professional gunfighters won the shootout against the Lizards and gunned down the Army patrol as well.
When the alien reconnaissance teams are returning to their craft after checking out the surroundings, they see that there are already other armed men at their ship. When the Sinful Eight sees one of the Alien fireteams too, they don't hesitate and are immediately are fronting this new threat. Besides it seems like there are only 3 of them (as they could spot only one fireteam).
The Outlaws ran for the nearest cover and took their battle stance behind some rocks. One of the Fireteams of the Shock troopers started to advance against the outlaws behind the cover, and placing them under heavy fire...
...But despite heavy fire, the Outlaws was far more better shooters and managed to suppress a couple of the aliens in this fireteam. They also benefited from being cover as well, which the aliens were not.
After exchanging fire for a while, the Outlaws manage to kill the Alien with the heavy blaster...
At the same time the 2 other members of this lizard fireteam got back on their feet and started to return fire, but another group of Outlaws was about to flank them.
While the first Visitor-fireteam was in heavy fighting the second team was very careful and were hiding in cover for 5 turns (due to insuffisient activation):
In turn 6 An Army Patrol arrived the scene, and saw the gunfight going on. They decided to open fire at those strangers looking like soldiers with high tech weapons...
The first V-fireteam was almost surrounded now, being shot at from 3 sides by 3 different units.
...This alien fireteam was soon supressed and the Outlaws decided to run and take them out in a hand-to-hand fight.
Now the second alien fireteam (which had been hiding in the bushes for 5 turns) decided to relief their alien friends from the first fireteam, and come to the rescue...
...but it was just too late by this time, and they were running into a nasty and fierce melee. While the Outlaws was busy killing the lizard aliens, the Army patrol went for that strange craft...
...but they were ambushed by the first team of Outlaws who were now leaving their cover...
The 2 sides were exchanging fire for a couple of turns...
...until the the Army patrol was finally wiped out.
The Outlaws lost a couple of members in the firefights, and have now become the "Sinful Six". Now it was time to focus on their loot, but they were hearing a dreadful noise from above. When looking up they saw another Skyfighter started to shoot at the landed and abandoned one. It was clearly that the aliens didn't want to simply hand over this technology to humans. Perhaps they are planning to come back at some time?
The FUBAR rules works well for SOLO-playing when playing both sides with it's activation mechanichs, and as unactivated units automatically goes on guard, which gives them the ability to perform actions; shoot at opposing units moving towards them or fires at them. Units in melee also activates automatically into the following assault action. I think my table/chart for the other side just merely filled in some holes for AI-opponents in these already superb wargaming rules. I think I'll use them again, and if you do so too, please feel free to give me a feedback on how they worked for you or didn't...
