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!!

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.

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.

Rules of Engagement 19th Century - Another Shootout in a 'Coffeyville-scenario'

Rules of engagement in the West

I've made a home brewed house rules called 'Rules of Engagement for Wargaming' based on my experience by playing a lot of other free downloadable wargame rules for toy soldiers, which my own rules also are heavily influenced by. Now I wanted to tweak my home brewed house rules further to see if they could be adapted for other periods as well. As I'm found of westerns and 'Old West'-gaming, I've tried to make my rules more '19th century friendly'.

So I decided to replay the same scenario as I played with Thor Sheil's OMOG - One Man, One Gun 19c and my own homebrewed 'Once Upon a Dice in the West' in an Old West scenario, based upon Dalton gang's robbery i Coffeyville in 1892; An Outlaw gang had to tie their horses slightly away from the bank, while a couple of the gang-members looks after them when the other members robb the bank. Can they robb the bank, get back to their horses and leave the town without getting caught??

The bank is further down the street from where the outlaws placed their horses

The 'Forces'

Playing the same scenario, I decided to use the same forces; 2 members of the gang are watching their horses while 4 gang members has gone for the bank. These have been recognized on their way to the bank, so the town sheriff and 2 of his deputies are alerted and also on their way to the bank. 4 citizens have armed them self, and are ready to try to stop the robbers from stealing their savings. A small Army-detachment of 2 is also located in the outskirts of the town. My rules are not entirely based upon 'units', but on 'characters' as well, so I treated the Sheriffs deputies and the Army-detachment as 2-men units, and all the others as single characters. The Sheriff and one of the robbers I made 'elite characters' to give them the skills of professional gunfighters.

The Game

The robbers were totally ruthless an very offensive when leaving the bank, shooting in all directions...

...and quickly gained the initiative in the shootout. Managing to wound the Sheriff and one of his deputies, the robbers got an advantage and could start on their 'retreat' towards their horses and to the escape.

When exchanging fire with the ruthless robbers, the townsfolk realized that they lacked the necessary marksmanship, and after a failed morale test the citizen in the house on the other side of the street just had to retreat inside and shut the door. He didn't come out again before the robbers was about to leave the town and it was 'safer'. 

One of the robbers who were guarding their horses, rode quickly down the street towards the gunfight to cover his fellows retreat. - And succeeded. He was taken out when the law regained the initiative, shot in the back when trying to catch up with the other fleeing robbers later on. But then they were by their horses already.

3 of the robbers managed to ride away with the loot while 'Pedro' gave them necessary cover to do so.

Due to the townsfolk's poor marksmanship they didn't manage to hit him behind that wall, but they proved them self better in fistfight instead and was able to knock the last robber out so the deputies could arrest him. The rest of the gang had already left the town with the loot. I suppose the Sheriff will have to arrange a posse when he can find members with better marksman skills.

The Conclusion

This game lasted about the same time as a 'good western movie' and 12 turns. I think using so many individual characters made the game longer, and it would have been more fastplay with smaller 'units' instead.

I think the rules are so general that they will easily fit other conflicts in the 19th century as well, either being Napolonic, American Civil War or Colonial wars. I think they can be used for some 18th century wars as well, just omit the most modern weapons in the charts. -So I've labeled the rules as such;18th and 19th century.

There was one thing I was not quite satisfied with the core rules in the 'Rules of Engagement', which I decided to change. Off course it's more difficult to hit targets on a distance, and even harder on even longer distances. But in the core-rules of ROE it only gave a -1 penalty for targets further away than 'Long Range', meaning that on distances over 'Long Range' all different weapons would have same accuracy and hit probability. That is not so in the real-life so I've updated the the rules so this only applies for distances between Long Range and double Long Range depending on the individual weapons. For distances over twice the Long Range, the hit probability is so low anyway that I've just given a general penalty of -2.

Another thing I updated in the core-rules is that a unit that fails a morale-test and are moving back two full moves, are considered fleeing and are less likely to fire in this panic.

I provide the Rules of Engagement for Wargaming with miniatures for 18th & 19th century warfare here on my blog, so you can have a try at it as well if you'd like to. If you do, I really hope you had a good time as I did playing these rules. Please feel free to post your conflict, scenario and experiences here if you'd like to as well. 

Link: Rules og Engagement for wargaming with miniatures for 18th & 19th century warfare

Rules of Engagement Part IV - The Counter-attack

In my previous game with the Rules of Engagement rules, the UN platoon managed to take the Katangese Strongpoint of Lumbaya and capture the few remaining Katangese troops there. What the UN platoon didn't know at the time was that a Katangese QRF with 'elite soldiers' already was requested and on it's way to the village to support the defenders there. On the other side the Katangese QRF does not know that the Katangese Strongpoint of Lumbaya has already fallen, and that the UN controls the village. What will happen when the Katangese QRF enters the scene; will they be able to retake the Katangese Strongpoint in a counter-attack??

Katangese:

• A QRF consisting of:
• 1 truck with a HMG
• A section of 10 'veterans' with a LMG and a bazooka. The squad can operate as 2 individual fire-teams.

The UN forces didn't take Lumbaya without some losses and are reduced to:

UN:

• 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each with a LMG. The squads can operate independently. The squads are reduced to:
• Squad 1: 5 soldiers
• Squad 2: 7 soldiers
• Squad 3: 6 soldiers
• 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer.
• 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
• HQ-section with platoon-leader
• 2 medics
• 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers.

Mission:

• Katangese: To retake the strongpoint of Lumbaya, and free the prisoners of war captured by the UN.
• UN: To hold the village of Lumbya.

AAR

Time:    1 hour and 20 minutes

Turns:   9

Result:  UN victory

The UN platoon have taken positions, securing the access roads into the village

As soon as the Katangese QRF appears on the road and have the village  in sight...

...they comes under heavy fire. The UN mortar team are prepared and set the morter impact area on the access road to Lumbaya. As soon as the Katangese QRF are spotted, the UN morter open fire...

...and get a direct hit on the Katangese Gun-truck and knocks it out for the rest of the game. The elite infantry has to run for cover.

At this long range the UN units have problems to get any direct hits on the Katangese soldiers in cover, and only manage to pin them by suppressive fire.

As the Katangese units got pinned and didn't manage to advance further, they returned fire from their protective cover. Being 'elite' their marksmanship and harassing fire are accurate...

...and they gets several hits on the UN squad on roof which secures the road to the village, forcing the UN medic to triage between light wounded and severe casualties. He is helpful but can't help them all...

The UN forces doesn't manage to eliminate the Katangese forces in their protective cover and the harassing fire, so they need to advance closer to try to take them out. A UN squad advances in cover of the armed Jeep.

When they are getting closer they attract the Katangese fire...

...but Katangese units are soon outgunned and starts to take it's toll. The Katangese morale is still high and they keeps on fighting to the last man...

The UN platoon managed to hold Lumbaya and stop the Katangese counter-attack. This was a successful skirmish in the bigger 'Grand Slam' operation.

Conclusion 

Now I've developed and test-played these rules under different conditions and with different strength-ratio in 4 (actually 5) games, and I think these rules are considered 'battle-proven' now. Before they get my final approval, I think there is one more thing that needs adjustment; In this game the ever fewer 'elite' troops rolled for morale and managed to hold. - I consider 'elite' units are more likely to have higher morale than regular units, so the fact being 'elite' should affect their morale rolls; So elite is a +1 in morale in this final version of the rules. And with that I think I conclude this development of rules. This makes my final home-brewed rules to look like this:

Link to the rules: Rules of Engagement 20th Century Warfare

If you have followed my 'series' and the development of these rules in 4 parts, I hope you enjoyed it. It would be nice if someone else tried the rules as well, and if someone does; feel free to share your experiences and views on them. 

But the most important thing; Use the scenarios, games and rules that makes you happy, and have a good time!

Happy Wargaming!

Rules of Engagement Part III - The Last Platoon returning to Lumbaya

The last time the UN forces tried to take and hold the Katangese Strongpoint of Lumbaya as a part of the larger 'Grand Slam' operation, they were eventually outnumbered and had to retreat. The UN Company Commander desperately orders his 3rd and last platoon to perform a new attack on the Katangese Gendarmerie in Lumbaya immediately, before the Katangese forces have time to get reinforcements. After the last clash with the UN forces, the Katangese Gendarmerie are reduced and regrouped to:

Katangese:

• 1 rifle-squad of 10 soldiers, with a LMG and a bazooka. The squad can operate as 2 fireteams independently.
• 1 fireteam of 5 soldiers with a flamethrower.
• HQ-section with platoon-leader and 2 medics
• After turn 12: A QRF consisting of 1 truck with a HMG and a section of 10 'veterans' with a LMG and a bazooka arrives from the next village. Only if Lumbaya is still held by Katangese force

The UN still have their support weapons intact and sends in another rifle platoon supported by a couple of medics due to the heavy losses in their last offensive:

UN:

• 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each of 8 soldiers and a LMG. The squads can operate independently.
• 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer.
• 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
• HQ-section with platoon-leader
• 2 medics
• 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers.

The ratio is still not quite 3:1 in the attackers favor yet, merely 2:1, but the attacking side has more heavy firepower than the defending side.

Mission:

• Katangese: To hold the strongpoint of Lumbaya. Can request QRF-support as mentioned in the force-section from turn 12 if still holding whole or part of the strongpoint.
• UN: To take and hold the strongpoint of Lumbya, preferably within 12 turns, and take control on as many Katangese gendarms located there as possible.

AAR

Time:    2 hours and 10 minutes

Turns:   11

Result:  UN victory 

In this offensive against Lumbaya the UN forces are the only side left with heavy support weapons, and they are not afraid of using using them...

...to cover the UN advance. Sneaking thorough dense vegetation will give the UN squads a +1 ambush bonus when emerging from from their cover.

The Katangese Gendarmerie tries to slow and stop the UN offensive, but they don't hit accurate enough to have any crucial effect. 

The UN squads cover for each other and advance by 'fire and maneuver'. The squads giving covering fire also receives fire, but they manage to hold.

The fire and maneuver and covering fire from the support weapons is a successful combo and the first squads soon reaches the outskirts of the village.

The Katangese Gendarmerie desperately tries to slow them down, but don't get any efficient hits.

The UN forces effectively manage to thin the Katangese defense lines and soon all the Katangese units are halved, but these brave defenders still rolls for such a good morale that they all hold their positions...

...until their defense totally collapse in the next turn (turn 8)...

...and the UN units starts entering the Village of Lumbaya. 

Soon the few remaining Katangese troops in Lumbaya are surrounded and have to capitulate.

The third offensive against the Katangese Strongpoint in Lumbaya was a success for the UN forces as they had minimal losses.

Conclusion 

I've already written what I consider as pros and cons with these rules in earlier reviews. I think the necessary tweaking made them really playable and to me they almost appears as a 'skirmish battle simulation' as I tried to take considerations to when it's easier or harder to hit different targets under different conditions, and benefits of different covers. I'm defiantly going to play games with these rules again as they contains the elements I like in such a small wargame (which can be played with readily available toy soldiers and army men). - And I hope you will try them out too. And if you do, feel free to share your experiences and point of views. If you wanna have a go, you can find the rules on this link.

I have lived with this setup and scenario for such a long time time, that I felt it was about to become a permanent setup. It's time to move on to other scenarios, games and aspects of military modelling, but before I clear this scenario away from the gaming table, I will try them for one final game...