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...
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!!
Many games claims to be 'Beer and Pretzels games', but with this theme I think this is a 'Chrismas brew and cookie game'
After doing the same scenario and setup several times this year to try out different free downloadable, easy wargame rules for regular army men, I felt it was time to do something else. Since the Holidays was coming up, I decided to to a 'Holiday-themed' game this time.
Creating armies for the game
A new theme, scenario and 'period' meant that new armies needed to be created. I decided I wanted to make them to 'true 54mm scale'. To find suitable miniatures I searched on Thingiverse, where I actually found some free downloadable filesthat could be 3D-printed. I rescaled them so they cold be printed to exact 54mm-scale:
These figures are 3D-printed to exactly 54mm height
The paintjob didn't require much studies, except for in the Mrs' cookie jar, and the paint-sceme was pretty easy as well.
Classical gingerbread man
It takes at least 2 armies to create a battle, so I needed to find some suitable oposing forces for my new army. That wasn't very difficult either as there is a typical old Norwegian Christmas baking called 'Hvite Kakemenn' and translate into something like 'White Cookie Men'. They are made by wheat flour, butter, milk and sugar and deviate from Gingerbread men by being white or very light in color, usually with red 'trimmings'.
'Hvit kakemann' aka '(white) cookie man
And some 30+ hours later, I had 18 printed troopers, enough for two small armies; The Gingerbred Men Vs. The Cookie Men. Now I needed to paint them and decide a scenario and which rules to use.
The Gingerbread Army
The Cookie men army
The Rules
I've been playing a lot of different free wargame rules this year, and they all have different pros and cons. After playing Thor Sheil's OMOG - One Man, One Gun wargame, I concluded that this was probably a better ruleset for smaller gaming tables and scenarioes, for periods not including automatic weapons (and templates). One of the pros for this game was that Thor Sheil designed it for a lot of different periods, including ancient and medieval. I think OMOK - One Man, One Knight would be suitable for my tabletop Holiday Wars as my cookie-troopers are armed with swords, polearms and bows. Steve Snark has made a quick reference sheet to this game, which could be found in the file-section in the Facebook-group Shambattle and OMOG Toy Soldier Games.
The Battle
The Gingerbread-Army and The Cookie Men-Army both wants to be this year's favourite cookie, and the best way to do that is to take the cookie jar and fill it up with them self. On their way to the cookie jar, they meet the other cookie-army on the table. Only the victorious army will have the cookie jar...
The battlefield, and their aimed goals in the background
The Gingerbread army had arranged their different weapons in own units, while the cookie men had units with all the weapons in it. Which would be best in the first 'clash'?
The Gingerbread army made a successful polearm charge, and almost whiped out a cookie unit. At the same time the Gingerbread archers almost managed to do the same by accurate fire.
...So in hand to hand combat the cookie man didn't have a chance against the 3 archers even being armed with a +1 pole
Despite having more armour with chainmail and a shield, the cookie man didn't have a chance against 2 from the Gingerbread army. The cookie-unit in the rear tried to come to his relief, but was too late...
...and got caught and surrounded in a melee they were quickly outnumbered in. The Outcome was given...
After 6 turns and 30 minutes, 5 members from the Gingerbread army could claim the victory...
...and enter the cookie jar without competition of other cookie (-men).
The Conclusion
OMOK - One Man, One Knight by Thor Sheil works really well for such small battles with limited of ranged weapons and more melee. It looks like it is an advantage to arrange units with the same kind of weapons to gain more 'fire power', than to make a unit which contain some of all the weapons but in less numbers.
To all fellow wargamers out there; enjoy the rest of the Holidays and I wish you all a Happy New Year!!
