Back to the beginning

The title has nothing to do with the recent benefit concert and final live performance of both Black Sabbath or the late Ozzy Osbourne. Having recently posted a blogpost on probably the worst toy soldiers, I'll now make a short post of some toy soldiers I'm most found of and where it all began.

This blogpost is actually a short stroll down the 'memory lane' to me. Our oldest son are moving house for the second time, and we're packing down some of his things at home. Among his old military toys, I recognized some even. older toys that I handed over to him as a kid. Of course he got more and newer toys and soldiers and so on when growing up, but these are the actual old ones from my own childhood which I later passed over to him when he was a kid. The 'collection' is not complete anymore, and some few bits and pieces are missing (or hidden among his other toys) after facing combat for 2 generations. It's a little like the "Toy Story" saga; The Army Men are getting ever fewer for every movie when Andy grows older. Unlike 'Andy' my oldest son didn't just have 2 soldiers back. I'm kind of surprised there were so much left of this old stuff. 

These are my original Airfix 1:32 soldiers from I was a kid. The American Infantry was the very first set I got from my parents. The kids in my neighborhood used to bring their soldiers out and we had large battles outside togheter. When playing on my own it was mostly Germans vs. Americans. The Land Rover and boat was Britains and the 'match firing' spring operated Gun was a cheap knock-off of a Britains original. The spring was not very powerful anymore. Does that happen to the originals too? What's left of that wall is from an old Timpo set.

Among his toy cars and vehicles I also found some of my old Corgi and Matchbox models. They were not all there, but almost. Surprisingly the rocket launcher from Matchbox is only missing one rocket. 

There were also a large but very mixed collection of old Airfix, Matchbox, Esci and a lot of knock-offs in 1:72 or 1:76 scale (which I didn't take time to sort and set up for photos).

Blog PostScript(s)

• I eventually located the original American officer and a 'brother in arms' in a box with Cowboys and Indians (which is another collection from my childhood and handed over to my oldest son when he was a kid). They G.I.s are now reunited with whats left of their small unit:

I have no hope of finding his German officer colleague however, as he went missing in action on a battlefield outside Tønsberg in the late 70ies. 

So this is it! This is actually how it all started for me. I think he's been treating my his old toys well, and hope that he eventually will pass them over to his own children one day. These have created good memories! 

• By request, this is how I look like by the way. The photo was taken during the large NATO exercise in Norway last winter "Nordic Response '24":

Click for larger image

• Last minute update; A few days ago my blog reached a 'milestone' and passed 100 000 visitors since I established it in the autumn of 2019. I'm grateful for every one of you visiting it, reading and commenting here.
  -Thank you!
• Anyone who knows what happened to the Sound Officers Call blog??

Basic Battles 2.0

While looking for free easy to play wargame rules, and when I was searching for more information on how to play One-Hour Skirmish Wargames (without the rulebook), I've been (re-) directed to the 'Gray Army Gaming' YouTube-channel several times. The Channel contains a lot of wargaming information, play troughs and battle reports and is run by a Swede named Matthew T. Nowachek. I used the information he provided in one of his videos to play my very first game of OHSW (for free).

One of his playlists on his YouTube-channel is named 'Basic Battles: Tabletop Games for Kids', and it contains videos and information on how to play very basic (war-) games. Even if he made these rules as an introduction for Tabletop gaming for his own kids, I think the rules provided will be fun to play and give a good time for older and more experienced wargamers too. Matthew seems like an experienced wargamer and after watching his videos I certainly got curious about these simple rules, and decided to have a go and try them out for my self. I played the Basic Battles 2.0 as that version of the rules covers ranged battle, and the rules are free (!).

The scenario

Basic Battles are based upon single figurines or 'characters' rather than units. Since I've decided to play more 'Old West' wargames this year I'll go for an Old West scenario for this game.

After killing an Army patrol of 5 in a shootout in 1884, the gang of 'Sinful Six' was wanted by the authorities, alive or dead. So they fled and hide in the small and remote frontier town of Dullstone, where they killed the Sheriff and kept the inhabitants under their 'domination'. 

- Until the day 2 experienced Bounty Hunters who had teamed up for the large reward for the 'Sinfull Six', entered the town.

Forces:

• 2 Bounty Hunters with each a wound number of 6.

• 6 Outlaws in the 'Sinfull Six' with each a wound number of 2.

Mission:

• Bounty Hunters: To kill or capture all 6 outlaws.
• Outlaws: To kill the both Bounty Hunters.

AAR

Time:    45 minutes

Turns:   12

Result:  The Outlaws won the shoot-out.

Since the Outlaws don't know that the Bounty Hunters are coming, I let the Bounty Hunters automatically activate first. The 2 Bounty Hunters approaches 'Dullstone':

The Bounty Hunters actually activates until they make some sort of contact with the Outlaws, which again will alert all the Outlaws and activation according  to the rules thereafter.

I've placed the Outlaws 2 by 2 in different buildings in the frontier town:

The Saloon would be a good place to check for these Outlaws:

The 2 Bounty Hunters enter the Saloon and immediately spots 2 of the Outlaws. The Outlaws draw their guns and the shoot-out is a fact:

The Shooting coming from the saloon alerts the other Outlaws of the gang:

And they start to move over to the saloon to have a look. Some of them are a little more hesitant than the others:

But soon it gets very crowded by the saloon entrance:

Even if the Bounty Hunters eventually take the Outlaws inside the saloon one by one, they understand that if the rest of the gang are allowed to enter, they will be trapped. To try to split the Outlaws one of the Bounty Hunters squeezes through the crowd at the door and make a run:

And he tries to get a distance to his pursuers: 

Back at the Saloon the the first 2 Outlaws who were there in the first place are taken out, when 2 new ones enters:

So the saloon gunfights goes on:

Outside the other Bounty Hunter are trying to get out of sigtht, so he can get a distance to his followers and try to outflank them and to take them by surprise:

Which he manages, but unfortunately his fire is not very accurate and doesn't hit very well in his surprise attack: 

While at the saloon the Outlaws keeps getting fewer:

The Bounty Hunter outside are not so successful as his companion inside the saloon and just keeps missing (a lot of bad die rolling):

At the saloon the Bounty Hunter finally finish off the last Outlaw there:

And he hurries outside to help his companion. It really looks like he's needing it:

But it was just too late. The 2 Outlaws manage to take out the Bounty Hunter they have been chasing outside. The other Bounty Hunter makes one hit...

...and now the 2 Outlaws are aware of his presence. One of them get a 'Critical Hit' on the Bounty Hunter with a shoot...

...and the other Outlaw finish him of with another hit.

Even if this was a 'win' for the Outlaws, there are only 2 of them left now and that's not enough to keep terrorizing the citizen of Dullstone. So, they'll need to leave town and escape to somewhere safer.

Pros

• The rules are free and easy available.
• The rules are very easy to learn and play. They're even supported with an own YouTube-channel.
• You can use any figures, miniatures or virtually any toys, toy cars or tokens at hand to play it.

Cons

• You'll need some 'special' dice; a couple of D12 and 3 D20 dice.
• The rules don't differs between different weapons regarding effective range and damage potential. 
• No negative modifiers to hit targets in cover except for in the 'super small skirmishes' appendix. To keeps things interesting add a lot of items to block LoS instead.
• No form of suppression when a figurine receives heavy fire/ several successfully hits. It only loses wound numbers but can still act as 'normal'.

Conclusion

This game is really easy to learn and play, and it's simplicity implies that's it's missing some mechanics often found in ranged battle. Don't be put off just because this game seems easy and to be aimed at 'kids' due to it's name. I'm very glad I didn't, because it was a fast to learn and easy to play game and I had a good time at my tabletop.

The only thing I actually really miss in this game is a modifier for ranged battle where the target is partly behind some cover (which it can fires from). Perhaps deduct 2 from the attack (D20) dice if the target is behind a cover, and -4 if the cover is really hard? Or let the defender in cover roll another D20 no matter firing range?? The 'super small skirmishes' appendix let's figurines in cover roll another D20 dice, but just for short/normal ranges. I think this could be transferred to the Basic Battles rules too and let them stack on other D20 bonuses like long range, as there should be very difficult to hit someone in cover on long range. 

I guess you can convert this game from single figurines into units by replacing the number of wounds into numbers of members in a unit, and simply removing one for each hit.

I must admit I was rooting for the 'Bounty Hunters' in this game,  but the fact that they didn't win shows the randomness in these rules. Even if the wound-numbers were balanced, the outlaw-force was 'overwhelming' in numbers against the 2 Bounty Hunters. The game designer actually recommends balanced forces in numbers or in wound-numbers if it's not the same number of figurines each side, so one side isn't getting overwhelmed. Another thing I could considered before playing this game would be to give the 'Heroes' additional wound numbers as 'Hero Points'. Anyway, this game resulted in that the 2 remaining outlaws are still wanted and the reward on them probably got a little higher now. That will probably motivate more Bounty Hunters chasing them and to try to capture them in the future (and in another game).

Blog PostScript

I decided to give the Bounty Hunters another chance and another 'Wound Number' each as a 'Hero Point' and let them fight on where the game initially ended to see if this would be enough to change the tide of the battle:

The Outlaws activated first, and gained the initiative and opened fire again:

One of the Outlaws hit, but the other missed:

The last Bounty Hunter realized that he was running low on health, and desperately assaulted one of the Outlaws in close combat:

...- and won. But immediately got hit by the last Outlaw:

So, again this was another victory for the Outlaws. Just one more 'Wound number' as 'Hero Points' was not enough:

So would adding another 'Wound' as 'Hero Points' be enough to change the tide of battle? I decided to give the Bounty Hunters another try. They were low on health now and to regain initiative they were engaging the last Outlaw in a close combat, as it would improve their chances to take him out:

They were fighting for 2 turns...

...until the last Outlaw managed to knock one of the Bounty Hunters out:

The Second Bounty Hunter immediately moved in and engaged the last Outlaw in a fist fight...

...and knocked him out.

With 2 more 'Wound Numbers' each more than would equal with the opponent's total this was finally a win for the Bounty Hunters. I think if I'd play this game with some 'Heroes' on one side again, I would give each of them 2 more 'Wounds' as 'Hero Points' that would excess the equal and balanced 'Wound numbers' of each side. In this particular game the 'Heroes' were finally given a third more Wound Numbers than their opponents in total. 

I really recommend you to have a go and try this game yourself, and if you have kids or grandchildren you wants to introduce to (war-) gaming, this is a very good start!

Are these the worst toy soldiers ever made?

Mark at the Man of Tin made a blogpost on his blog 'Pound Store Plastic Warriors' about cheap and dreadful Matchbox copies fond in a local toy shop earlier this week. They were really cheap, and as you usually gets what you pay for, I didn't think they looked too awful. Not exactly great knock-offs, but not completely dreadful either. There must be something looking worse than those?

I vaguely remembered seeing some toy soldiers in a local toy store a couple of years back, looking so bad that I didn't even considered to buy them even if toy soldiers are rare to find in Norwegian stores these days. So I decided to pop by and have a look the next time I was at that department store. I did and they still had them for sale (!). I guess they just looked so awful that no one else wanted to buy them either. They weren't especially cheap either as they charged Nok 49,90,- or £ 3,63 or $ 4,99 or € 4,24.

So, slightly embarrassed by paying this price for a bag of so obviously shitty soldiers, I bought a bag to have look of what was inside.

For this, I must say, high price you get a bag of 'Super Combat Mission Armament' soldiers made in China:

The bag contains (only) 38 really sub level quality soldiers.

The size of the soldiers seems to be about 40mm:

They are flat and do not have good body proposition. The weapon sculpting is awful! These must be 'copies of the copies of the copies of the.......'

 - copies of Matchbox American Infantry way back. Only the poses gives some resemblance:

While the rest seems just like copies of cheap army men copies:

These must undoubtedly be the worst ever toy soldiers made? -Especially to that price!!

It's a complete rip-off, and I'm convinced that these won't contribute to making the next generation wanna play with toy soldiers (again) nor experimenting with using them for wargaming.

Sharpen your self up Ringo; your concurrent, Extra Leker, still offers better and cheaper toy soldiers.

I'm not sure what to use these soldiers for? It just feels too bad to throw them in the bin. Or like Mark says in his blog; My 'inner seven' like these too much even if they're bad. They're too small for using them as zombies with my other 54mm figures. Perhaps using them for plinking with my old pellets rifle like we did when we were kids (too bad many Airfix originals was wasted this way back then when the originals was easier to get than these cheapos). But this is how my 'inner seven' wargamed in the garden:

Or perhaps I could use some of them for another Snowball-fight wargame again?

Only time will show if these figures will reappear in any future games or projects. Follow my blog to find out. If you have suggestions how to use them or have any worse soldiers than these please tell me in the comment-section.