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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: 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.
.jpg "a planet of the apes wargame. a game with free OMOG and OMOK wargame rules by Thor Sheil. how to create a budget POTA looking ape army on budget.")
