What's nice with the Holidays this year is that I finally had some time off for several days in a row. I find visiting museums both interesting and relaxing, so this was a good time to finally visit the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo and have a look at their new temporary 'Models and Miniatures' exhibition. I've kind of missed such an exhibition in Norway after Mark wrote about his participation in the exhibition 'Come as you really are'.
The dollhouse in the background is a full size model of the dollhouse in the front. It was large enough to allow kids to play in it
The original model of the Norwegian Royal Palace as it was planned. Due to economic challenges in Norway at the time only the centerpiece (with a wing each side) was built.
Norwegian toys from the 50ies and as they were made long into the 70ies. The Bobsleigh is still in production in it's original form. I got found memory of these.
Now we're moving away from the toy-like part of the exhibition to the more model like. Here is a couple of old Airfix kits
The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology has a large collection of models. The airship is a model of the one used by Roald Amundsen (the first guy on South Pole in 1911) to fly over the North Pole in 1926. The Gloster Gladiator is the fighterplane in service when Norway entered WW2 the 9th of April 1940.
Kids (and grown ups as well I suppose) could race on a pretty large Slot-car race track.
Old Scalextric cars, scenery and catalogues was displayed next to the race track
There was also a display with old and new (er) model railways rolling stock in different scales collected from the different layouts the museum has had through it's history. Too bad many of these layouts doesn't exist anymore
The Nohab H0-model in the foreground is a model from one of the museums 'old' layouts, but is not a really old model. The model of the O gauge steam locomotive in the background on the other hand is a really old one, as it was scratch built for a O gauge model railway at the museum in the mid 50ies. Too bad the layout was scrapped when the museum moved in the mid 80ies, and these items are some few of it remains.
This was an interesting corner of the exhibition as it was dedicated to wargaming in different periodes and genres like historical and fantasy
How wargame miniatures are mainly made with tin moulding at top, plastic injection in the middle, and 3D-printed at the bottom
From the historical display...
...the miniatures looked like to be Prince August in about 40mm
They also had a small display of more modern miniatures in 15mm and 28mm. I actually thought '28mm' was closer to 1:56 scale than to 1:64 scale as the sign states
Ancient miniatures. They looked really good. It was difficult to get good photos of the fantasy miniatures due to bright light and reflections.
When I finally got to visit the Science and Technology museum, it's well worth to look at their other more permanent exhibitions as well:
In 1954 there was made a (not to scale) model of a typical Norwegian industrial society. The model was trafficked with old H0-trains from Märklin. The tracks have been changed, but this layout has actually been in service more or less ever since it was built:
The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology has also bought a 'new' large H0-scaled layout (from a closed automobile museum):
The layout has several different cameos:
I'm not sure which movie this actually is...
Seems that someone's been a good boy or girl this year.
I'm not sure how this exhibition is compared to 'Come as you really are', but perhaps Mark can give a clue?
The 'Models and Miniatures' exhibition is just a temporary one, but the museum actually plaans to have it open through 2025. -Perhaps even longer....
So if you're in Oslo this year and have som leisure time, I really recommend you to pay the 'Norsk Teknisk Museum' a visit.
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...
