The Bots are Coming!

Like other wargaming blogs this blog also suddenly experienced a 'tsunami' of 'mysterious visitors' this September. All this sudden hits are presumably not 'real visitors' or human readers, but more likely 'Web Crawlers', 'Search Spiders' or 'AI Chatbots'. What they exactly was, what their mission was, where they actually came from and why, I don't know for sure. Let's assume it was 'AI chatbots' they were probably searching wargaming blogs to pick up more knowledge of the subject and learn more about wargaming? -And to perhaps also to learn to wargame?? 

This made me think if this 'phenomenon' could be transferred to a wargame, or to a scenario for a wargame? -The Bots are Coming! 

Preparing the game

To be able to transfer this to a skirmish wargame I needed to materialize some 'intelligent' bots into some kind of 'battle-machines'. The answer gave it self, and I searched Thingeverse for some free files that could be resized and 3D-printed to 54mm. It's skinny, but due to the period for my scenario it's probably an early model (T600 or pre T600):

Then they were given a very simple and basic paint job, and a couple of coats of 'blackwash':

The Rules

The Terminators cant't time-travle with weapons, so for this game they are unarmed and they'll only fight hand-to-hand. I think the free FUBAR wargame rules can be amended for a battle between a superior force in close combat VS. a larger seasoned force with ranged combat capacities. 

The Scenario

After several unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate Sarah Connor and preventing her to give birth to the future resistance leader John Connor, the AI defense network Skynet simultaneously tries to assassinate Sarah Connor's father before she's even born, and so to prevent the future birth of her and her son.

Before Sarah Connor was born in 1965, her father was a soldier and fought in an unnamed war. Skynet is therefore sending Terminators back in time to search different conflicts and battlefields in the early 60ies where they have recorded plausible 'Connors'.

In Eastern Congo, 1961 Sergeant Connor is leading a reinforced UN squad which has been ordered to hold a key junction near the village of Kalemie to keep Katangese rebels from moving supplies. The peacekeepers expect rebels — but instead, three T-600s step out of the jungle and advance relentlessly toward the crossing. -What are they, where do they come from and why are they here???

Forces:

• Terminators:
• 3 early and unarmed models of T-600 Terminators which activites independently.
• A Terminator automatically incapacitate a single human opponent per action in close combat.
• Terminators are fast, so I'll let them move 12" instead of 6".
• Terminators ignore moral checks and pinning.
• I will let the Terminators fight as 'Elite' and 'Heavy Tank'. They can be harmed by HMGs (.50 cal.) and RPGs. On early Terminators only their front was heavy armored, so these will have to roll for a save (2+) from small arms if hit from behind.
• Hit effects:
• 1-2: -2 to next activation only
• 3-4: Can only move half speed rest of the game
• 5: immobilized for rest of the game
• 6: Terminator destroyed

• UN :

All UN forces will fight as 'Seasoned' in this game. Their M1 rifles are semi automatic so I'll let them have 2FP on ranges less than 12".

• A squad of 8 soldiers armed with 1 SMG, 6 M1 rifles and 1 LMG are manning the UN-Check Point.
• A Bazooka unit with 3 soldiers armed with 1 bazooka (with armor piercing rockets), 1 SMG and  M1 rifle provides back up support.
• A Jeep with a crew of 3 armed with a .50 cal. HMG provides supporting cover for the Check Point. Luckily they trying out the new Multi Purpose ammunition from Norway.

Mission:

• Terminators: To eliminate the UN unit in search for 'Connor'.
• UN: To pacify the Terminators.

The Game

Time:    55 minutes 

Turns:   9

Result:  This point is a 'spoiler alert', isn't it? It's a win for the Sgt. Connor and his men, but I'm not sure it's a victory for humanity having a battlefield with future artificial killer technology scattered around. One of the 'bots' are even still on.

There are not Katangan Rebels who exits the Jungle and approaches the UN-Check Point outside Kalemie...

The Traffic Sentry shouts them to stop as they're approaching the Check Point. He has not seen 'things' like these before:

The Terminators are ignoring him and keep advancing. Following the Rules of Engagement he warns them that he will open fire if they don't stop:

The Terminators keeps advancing, and the Traffic Sentry gives them a final warning and shoots a warning shoot:

The warning shoot did not scare the terminators off or made them come to a halt. The Sentry aims carefully and fires against the closest Terminator. He can see that he hit, but with no effect at all:

The closest Terminator rushes towards the Traffic Sentry and lethally strike him. The 2 other Terminators changes course and advance towards the Cover Sentry and Search Team. Both the Cover Sentry and the Search Team open fires upon the advancing machines, and score several hits on them with no effect. Not even from their high rate fire LMG:

Sgt. Connor orders his men to retreat:

The UN Jeep covering the Check Point opens fire with it's 0.50 cal HMG, and hits the Terminator which killed the Traffic Sentry:

The UN HMG hits the Terminator with so many successfully shots, that the Terminator stumble backwards, looses balance and fall upon the Czech Hedgehog behind him. The Czech Hedgehog impales the Terminator, and the Terminator becomes immobilized for the rest of the game:

Sgt. Connor's squad are retreating, but the LMG Team falls behind. The UN-Jeep rushes forward and opens fire on the pursuing Terminators: 

Even if the Terminators are hit by several shots of the HMG it doesn't stop them, only slowing them down:

Soon the 2 Terminators catch up with the slow LMG team of Sgt. Connor's squad, and immediately takes out 2 of them:

Even if the UN HMG scores several hits on the Terminators, it doesn't stop them from taking out the last member of the LMG team:

While the Terminators starts advancing towards the Jeep and the threat it's HMG represents, they don't notice the Bazooka team sneaking up from behind:

When ready the Bazooka team aims carefully and fires an armor piercing rocket and hit one of the Terminators from behind, where it's weakest point is:

It was a lethal hit:

The last Terminator turned around and took aim to ram the Bazooka team...

...which made a daring move; They knew that they didn't have time to reload so they started to run towards the Terminator at the same time the Terminator approached them and beat the Bazooka gunner to death. The team leader and loader made to run past him. They immediately turned around and shot the Terminator in the back:

Another success by the 2 remaining members of the Bazooka team! The Terminator was finally Terminated:

Sgt. Connor didn't know he was the target for this mechanical 'kill team', and the androids did not know if they've targeted the right 'Connor'. 

Sgt. Connor gathered his men around the last Terminator impaled at the Czech Hedgehog struggling to get free, but...

... no official reports were given what happened next...

Conclusion

Ironically I used the AI bot ChatGPT to partially create this scenario and figure out a rifle-squad chance vs. a T-600 Terminator. 

I have a soft spot for the free FUBAR wargaming rules, and used the expertise in the FUBAR FB-group to check my suggested stats for the Terminators.

I really do recommend the FUBAR wargaming rules, and signing up to their FB-group. If you haven't tried these rules out, yet, I really recommend you to do.

Blog PostScript

My youngest son is autistic and is not interested in tabletop wargaming. He's very interesting in gaming characters though. While preparing for this game he came with some of his lates acquisitions and played following his own rules. -which I off course let him. In his game the robot (Metal Sonic) was the winner and the Terminators seemed chanceless.

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.

One Page Rules - Army Men Combat v2.0

One of the nice things with sharing blogsposts from this blog with relevant groups on Facebook, is that it reaches people who either doesn't follow this blog or else doesn't read it/find it. On one such grop someone pointed out that one of my reviewed games had similarities to the 'Army Men Combat' rules by Gaetano Ferrara at 'OnePageRules'. I'm a great fan of rules that can be fittet into only one page, and I've seen several references to these rules several times in the past, but I've never seen the rules them selves before. The link to them seem to be inactivated from the OnePageRules page as well. The nice thing is that these rules got uploaded to the Facebook-group's file-section and they are free. Since you probably need to be a member of the Facebook-group in speak to download them from the file-section, I'll also share The One Page Rules' Army Men Combat v2.0 in this blog-post so you can have a crack on them yourself if you'd like to.

These rules are referred to as a throwback to the 1st edition of one page 40k and its mechanics. I've never played any 40k games earlier and have no experience with them. Despite of the name One Page Rules, these rules aren't actually only one page. They fits on a single piece of paper printed on both sides though. It's free, can be played with any miniatures including regular army men and it's within my scope of 'budget wargaming'. Therefore I wanted to test-play and review them, and it would be fair to use the same 'Battle of Lumbaya'-setup and scenario I've used for all my other previous game-reviews.

The Army Men Combat rules states that the game ends after only 4 turns and have only up to 3 units each side. Considering that all the previous 'Battle of Lumbaya'-games have more units and lasted for several turns more than that, it was clear that this scenario couldn't be played in only 4 turns, as just trying to get the attacking forces in positions almost took that many turns. -So to be true to this game limitations of number of units and 4 turns, I think it was time to develop a new scenario which could be played in such a time, and I needed a break from playing the same scenario all over again anyway. Besides, these rules presupposes that the forces involved are balanced in strength regardless of 'dug in' defenders in fortified positions, so I think a new scenario for more balanced forces and terrain for this game was needed anyway. I found inspiration for a new scenario at the excellent blog of John Yorio and a game he recently posted a battlereport of; 54mm or Fight.

The scenario

The rules' cover-art suggests some kind of 'Green vs. Tan'-battle, and since my 'Tan' Katangese and 'Green' UN miniatures are still ready available and the Congo conflicts and this UN-mission really interests me, I've placed this skirmish as well 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:    40 minutes

Turns:   4

Result:  UN victory by only 5 pts.

When UN and Katangese  forces spots the UN wrecks on the road, both sides advance rapidly and make a run for it. 

And it looks like the UN will reach the site first in the cover of the wrecks...

...which they do. They immediately begins to examine the 2 casualties, gives them first aid and starts searching through the jeep for any compromising material.

The Katangese have reached the other vehicle, and take the UN search and rescue team under fire. They start looking through the UN vehicle close to them.

A fast and brutal battle breaks out, but they're starting to run out of time to secure their missions, and the UN forces tries to 'secure' the possible secret documents in the UN vehicle under Katangese control by blowing it up by a bazooka rocket. The grenade hits but doesn't make much damage, and the Katangese soldiers leaves the truck as they didn't find any thing interesting in it.

The UN have searched the jeep and secured the only secret documents the reconnaissance unit brought with them on this mission; a map and a radio code-list. They've also managed to save one of the crew-members and are now starting to Medivac him...

...as the one of the few remaining squad-members gives covering fire.

And this was the situation after turn 4. Both sides managed to search a vehicle each, and the UN forces also managed to Medivac one casualty and seize the graded documents in the jeep.

There were almost the same numbers of soldiers left on both sides at this time (the UN won only because one of their targets was a sniper and gave another 5pts to their winning score) and it would actually been interesting to see how this battle would have evolved futher if it hadn't been for the limit of 4 turns only.

Pros

• It's easy to learn.
• Fast playing.
• The activation-mechanics ensures pretty fair activation among the players.

Cons

• To make balanced forces some calculation is needed.
• The rules includes only MGs and doesn't differ between LMG and HMG, even if it includes rules for vehicles which is often armed with HMGs.
• There are no rules for SMGs or pistols, even if your Army Men are armed with such weapons.
• There are no rules making heavier weapons needed to be served by 2 or more crew-members.
• I think it's unlikely that a bazooka have longer effective firing range than a rifle.
• No aim-bonus for 'Hold action'. It's probably easier to aim at a target when you're not moving.

Conclusion

I don't know if the game is very 4k-ish, as I have no experience with Warhammer, but I felt that these rules missed some essential elements in modern combat. The rules only mission seemed to be like "kill as many enemies as possible within 4 turns to gain as many points as possible" making no room or time for a secure advance for your own troops. This makes this game a good game if you just want a fast and brutal battle. 

Print and Play for Free: The very first war (-games) in history

Where did it all start? There would be no wargaming without wars, but when did the world's very first war take place?? One thing is certain, and that is they took place for so long time ago that there are no actual historical records documenting them (except for some 10 000 year old cave-paintings). Therefore there are only hypothesis claiming that the first battles were no actual wars but more spontaneous violent conflicts between hunting parties claiming the resources. Hunting parties were armed with spears, clubs, stones, fire and later also with bows and slings.There are also hypothesis claiming that Homo Sapiens violently replaced the Neanderthals and that the extinction of the Neanderthals was a result of a over 100 000 year long 'skirmish' with Homo Sapiens claiming their resources and conflicts over hunting ground. 

Again, there are no historical records, but there does exist some few evidences with 'battle-damaged' skeletons and some cave-paintings showing battle between humans.

Cave painting of a battle between archers, Morella La Vella, Spain

To support these hypothesis we know that our closest relatives, the chimpanzees (and males to be more specific), regularly teams up and attack and kill other male chimpanzees from rival bands. This implies that cooperative aggression evolved in our same ancestors. 

Neanderthals were cooperative big-game hunters using weapons like thrusting spears and clubs. The Neanderthals were more massive muscular builds and had tougher physics than modern humans, and were stronger. Some claims that they couldn't trow objects like spears very well due to their physics. But they must have been superior fighters in close combat.

Homo Sapiens were more numerous, had larger population growth and needed more territory to hunt to feed their growing population. On the other hand, this must have given them numerical superiority in battle after a while. Homo Sapiens hunted with the same weapons as the Neanderthals, but they were more light built and were more dependent on the invention of ranged weapons like throwing-spears, bows and slings making them able to fight from a distance.

There were no regular war declared or big battles, but there seems to been more like small scale raids and ambushes between hunting parties.

If you want to read more on the Subject:

• BBC: Did Neanderthals go to war with our ancestors?

• History of Yesterday: The 100 000 year war between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens

Evidences or not, I became curious how a battle between modern humans with ranged weapons and physical more superior Neanderthals (but without ranged weapons) might have looked like.

The Rules

I didn't find many free wargame rules covering prehistoric periods, and those I found included hunting, wild animals and dinosaurs in som degree. I wanted rules from the period focusing on man vs. man. I guess parts of  different rules covering ancient and medieval periods can work, as such rules are more available. -Just skip some weapons and armour. I was even thinking of 'backdating' Pete Kautz' 1 BC Toy Soldier rules to prehistoric by rewriting them. I ended up backdating my homebrewed Rules of Engagement to cover Prehistoric Warfare, and even before any 'Rules of Engagement' even was invented in real life yet regular combat or battles. 

Link to the rules: Rules of Engagement - Prehistoric Warfare Rules of Engagement - Prehistoric Warfare 

The Armies

Like the rules I didn't find many miniatures to cover this period. -Except for some few and very expensive miniatures. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this experiment, so luckily I found some free prehistoric paper miniatures I could download and print at Junior General. The website covers miniatures thru the whole history, even some prehistoric. I settled for 'Prehistoric Hunters' for my Neanderthal army, and 'Upper Paleolithic hunters and gatherers' for the Homo Sapiens. I printed enough miniatures to make 3-4 hunting parties of 5-6 members for each side. The benefits of printing miniatures and armies from Junior General is that they are free and they come ready 'painted'. All you need to do is cut them out and base them. I think this is a very underrated source for wargaming miniatures. 

There are free bases to go with the miniatures at the Junior General site, and you can make some of cardboard to make them even sturdier. I chose to be fancy about the basing and 3D-printed some found for free at Thingiverse. I think it's still within the scope of 'print' and 'free' as mentioned in the heading.

It didn't take more than 3 evenings after work to print, cut and base these 2 armies

The Game

Scenario:

A hunting party of 3 teams, each with 6 members, of Cro-Magnons coincidentally run into a hunting party of 3 teams, each unit with 5 members, of Neanderthals in an area both claim to have exclusive rights to hunt. The units have a mix of different weapons, but only the Homo Sapiens have ranged weapons like bows, javelins and slings. The mission for each side is to eliminate the other side to claim the territory.

The gaming table. It's a good spot to hunt, as the big game and prey comes to drink water

The Neanderthal hunting party of 3 teams, and mixed weapons

The Homo Sapiens hunting party of 3 teams and mixed weapons.

AAR: 

Time:    1 hour

Turns:   9

Result:  Neanderthal victory

The hunting parties were sneaking around the lake to look for prey, and they couldn't actually see each other before they were pretty close. The Neanderthals in the bush decided to wait to see what the humans did as they could strike from a distance with their ranged weapons.

 

Contact! The hunting teams on the other side of the lake could see each other, and the Homo Sapiens shot at the advancing Neanderthal teams. These ranged weapons weren't so precise, so they hit only a few of them. The Neanderthals knew they didn't have a chance on a distance in the open aganst these weapons, and hurried to engage in a melee. 

One of the hunting teams of Homo Sapiens decided to run around the lake to fall the advancing Neanderthals in the back and relief their tribe members. But as they were running past some vegetation a small team of Neanderthals showed up from the vegatation and engeged them in hand to hand combat.

There was no time or distance, so the Homo Sapiens couldn't use the advantage of their ranged weapons...

...and had no chance against the raging Neanderthals.

On the other side of the lake, the Homo Sapiens managed to slow down the Neanderthal advance with their ranged weapons...

...So the Neanderthal unit that recently eliminated a whole team of Homo Sapiens, started to run around the lake to fall the Homo Sapiens in the back and come to their tribemembers relief.

But the Neanderthal units managed to close the distance and engage the homo sapiens into hand-to-hand combat, and the Homo Sapiens lost their advantage.

The last 2 Homo Sapiens remaining decided to flee the battle, and was almost caught by another Neanderthal team in the flight, and they barely managed to escape. We know that the Homo Sapiens eventually will gain surperiority by being more numerous so they'll probably be back some day to claim the scarce resources again. 

The Conclusion

I've been considering to try out 1:72 scale for future wargaming projects for a while, as smaller armies and terrain pieces are easier to store in this space. If I am to 3D-print more terrain and vehicles on my 3D-printer, it will be a lot quicker in 1:72 due to reduced size and the printers size limitations. I've been a little put off by paintings miniatures this size though. The miniatures from Junior General are about 20mm and gives a good feeling about how it feels to game in this scale. As I've already mentioned, I think the resources on Junior General are highly underrated, and I consider downloading more miniatures from there for future gaming projects.

Historically correct or not, no one knows for sure. -But this is a really budget-wargame you can easily print and play for free. -And it is fast as well. If you have any other suitable rules you prefer, use them instead! Feel free to share your experiences if you play this scenario or rules.