Recruiting new super cheap troops to the collection

In most countries, but Norway, the spring time seems to be 'the season' for toy soldier markets, swap meets, toy soldier conversions and so on taken all the different adds popping up on Facebook and reviews posted on blogs and YouTube. As earlier mentioned in this blog, this is not a big business or market in Norway anymore, so 'finds' are rare and often 'over-priced'. So I was really surprised when visiting our local toy shop earlier this week and saw they were offering super cheap bags of army men. They are clearly 'china-copies', but not to that worst sub quality often found. I decided to grab a couple of different bags to have closer look at them.

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Bag 1

For only £5,2/ $6,4 or €6 you get 100 army men in 2 different colors (50 each side) close to 54mm size in 8 different poses. Enough troops to form 4 Platoons or a Company. They are molded in fairly hard plastic, and the details are fairly crisp. The mold lines are not disturbing and there are no flash. They are not as 'flat' as many 'china copies' often are, but the 'sculpts' are typically china-copies though. Anyone recognizing the originals?

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The army men seems to decipts 'modern' US soldiers with 'old' kevlar helmets. They are armed with AR-styled rifles, and one has a SAW machine gun and one seems to have a shotgun (with magazine?). One rifle is undefined, and a couple of the troops looks to have older paratrooper M1 helmets.

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Bag2

For only £2,2/ $2,75 or €2,6 you get 72 army men in 2 different colors (36 each side) in 40-45mm size in 12 different poses. Enough troops to form 3 Platoons. They are molded in the same color and fairy hard plastic as their bigger counterparts, and ok details. These are more what you can expect from cheap Chinese copies and are flater, stranger propositions, have larger mold lines and more flash, and have useless bases. Due to their size and they're are so skinny, they feel small. They have clearly poorer quality than their bigger counterparts.

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They clearly decipts some kind of modern troops of more generic type. They're mostly armed with some AR-looking rifles and there are no heavy weapons in this set either. One is armed with something appears to be a 'butter knife' (!). What's nice about them is that of the 12 different poses 4 are equipped with boonie hats, 4 with caps and 4 with kevlar helmets of the old type. I have not seen these poses before, so I wonder if any recognize these origins as well?

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Conclusion

I'm currently busy with other modelling and gaming projects, and have no plan how to use these figures yet. -But as the availability in Norway are very limited, not buying them for this reasonable price was actually not an option. 
Time will show....

A prequel 'Planet of the Apes' wargame - The Initial Confrontation

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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:

• At the Facebook-group 'Wargaming with Toy Soldiers and Army men - Everything Free Wargame-rules' I've uploaded a lot of free online wargame rules in the file section, including some of the rules earlier found on Thor Sheil's website.
• The Facebook-group 'Shambattle and OMOG Toysoldiers Games' are created by Thor Sheil himself and dedicated to his games. In the groups filesection many of his wargame rules are uploaded. This is an open Facebook group with few members, so in courtesy feel free to sign up as a member when using the 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.

A leaked battle report of a classified skirmish occurred during "Operation Highjump"

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Earlier this year I bought a lot of minitures, most of them being Airfix copies. As 'knock offs' they are smaller than their originals, but in this lot there was even some smaller figures closer to 40mm or 0-scale in model railway terms. These are notably smaller than the figures I usually use for (war-) gaming, and they were not so numerous in the lot I bought, so I decided to use these smaller figures for 'other small projects' not requiring a whole army.

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It has snowed heavily in Norway this winter and I've been running some military garden railways in the snow, so I'd thought I would try to do some casual wargaming in the garden in the snow too. There has been a lot of snow and very cold this winter so I thought I had plenty of time to arrange this game, but the last couple of weeks have been 'warmer' and rainy so the snow started to melt rapidly. So I had to speed up giving this priority over some other projects, and 3D-print the bits and pieces needed for this game as quick as possible in low resolution and without preferred finishing touches for a smoother surface on them except for some paint. I didn't know at the time that the winter returned with heavy snowfall and cold weather again. 

The 40mm-ish figures from the lot I'll use for this game are German and American infantry, and was given a simple paintjob.

I 3D-printed a couple of vehicles (so my miniatures can travel on snow) and a Bunker entrance to go along with the figures for this wargame.

The USMC reconnaissance team
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The Gebirgsjäger squad and their bunkers
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I've always had a soft spot for 1 BC (One Brain Cell) Toy Soldier Rules by Pete Kautz and it's been a while since I played them, so I decided to use them with the advanced options for a small skirmish only needing a few miniatures for a game that could be located in a cold, icey and snowy terrain. They are obvious popular rules and my blogpost on them are the second most viewed on this blog.

These are great rules, but some 'house rules' seemed necessary for this game. I know 1 BC Toy Soldier Rules doesn't include vehicles,  so I just treated mine as a 'unit' according to the rules, but with 3 times the move of a trooper. The vehicles act as a transport, cover and a 'stationary HMG'. These rules have no rules for SMGs so I gave them a firing-range between pistol and rifle, 16'', and letting them roll 2 dice.

The Scenario

I've placed this scenario to 1946 and "Operation Highjump", which was a major American exercise in (Ant-) Arctic warfare and establishment of the Antarctic research base 'Little America'. Conspiracy theories claims that it was an offensive operation to fight secret nazi bases established in the Antarctic at the very end of WW2.

During the operation a maritime reconnaissance plane observed some odd shapes on the ground deep inland Antarctica, but couldn't get a clear view of it. To further examine this strange observation, a Marine reconnaissance-patrol of 8 members are sent in with 2 M29 Weasels (one of them with a HMG) for closer observation and further investigation. They'll fight as 2 fireteams of 4 each (as a Weasel can only carry 4 persons).

The aerial photo which demands a cliser look
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When approaching their object, the Marine reconnaissance-patrol are unaware that they also enters the line of sight and fire-range from a hidden and dug-in German Gebirgsjäger squad from the Neuschwabenland Division, guarding the entrance to an underground facility. The German squad fight as 2 fireteams; a Rifleteam of 6 and LMG-team of 3. The German squad was based upon graphics from Battle Order (which is a good website for references when building your army squad by squad).

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The Game

The engine noise of the approaching M29 Weasels with the Marines gives away their position and alerted the German sentry in the else so quiet Antarctica, so the rest of the Gebirgsjäger squad on guard was scrambled into their fortified positions made by ice.

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When approaching the coordinates for their objective, the sergeant leading the reconnaissance patrol gets careful and orders the HMG armed Weasel to drive up and secure an ice pass in front of them...

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...When entering the ice pass the HMG armed Weasel are met by intense fire, and get pinned there as some Marines go down...

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...Luckily their HMG is still operative, so it starts to return fire and secure the second fireteam's advance into the ice pass.

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Even if they are under heavy fire, the Gebirgsjäger rifle team holds their battle stance, and even takes down a couple of more Marines. But they don't manage to take out the American HMG...

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...- Which starts to take a toll on the Gebirgsjägers. Fortifications made by (hard) ice can be effective, but the 12,7mm HMG effectively starts 'chewing up' the ice-cover piece by piece, taking out Gebirgsjägers...

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...- after Gebirgsjägers...

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The Gebirgsjäger rifle team has no support of their LMG team as the Marines are too far away for it to be effective. Soon the German rifle team has lost so many members that their morale finally fails. I know the the rules says that remaining miniatures should be removed from the game, but we're in middle of Antarctica and there are no places to escape. So I just make them retreat to their Bunker entrance, which would be a 'safe zone' for them. The other Marine team exploits the German retreat and pursues the retreating forces. This was not a tactical success for the Marines...

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...The German Feldwebel is the last one of his rifle team, and he just empty his magazine against those following Americans, killing one and dazed another.

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When the American corporal recovers again, he finish off the Feldwebel, But now he comes under fire from the German LMG team. The American HMG returns fire, but doesn't hit very well as the Germans are in a heavily fortified position.

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The USMC reconnaissance patrol are so reduced by this time, and their HMG has problem hitting the LMG team in the fortified position, so they decides to pull out...

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... - and report their observations to HQ, so they can send in 'the cavalry' next time. They had to leave one fully functional M29 Weasel behind to the Germans though.

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Conclusion 

I guess it was a partial victory for the Germans as they managed to defend their bunker entrance, and partially an American victory as they managed to return to their own lines and report about their observarions and small skirmish to their HQ. -Their report was never known to the public tough, and probably classified as a lot of other things about this operation. Probably the Americans returned with a larger force. Operation Highjump lasted for 6 mounths which is pretty long time for an exercise...

This little game was a quickie, just taking 45 minutes to play 10 turns. Keep in mind if you want to game outside in the snow, that it's wet and cold so:

• Seal your miniatures before bringing them out in such conditions.
• Have some sort of dice tray.
• Laminate your rules.
• Let your miniatures dry thoroughly before putting them back in storage.
• Remember warm clothing...
• ...and something hot in your cup (!)

Enjoy!

New Toy Soldiers added to the collection

None of my planned wargaming projects for 2024 actually required any new purchases this year, but on a Norwegian online marketplace I recently found an interesting lot of a collection of cheap looking toy soldiers/ army men. Since I could get the whole lot for $48,78/£38,40/€44,55 including shipping, not buying them was actually not an option. The market for new or used toy soldiers and army men is very limited in Norway, and lots like this are rare for a reasonable price.

So What did I get for $48,78/£38,40/€44,55???

First impressions was that there were various figures from various manufacturers in various scales.
Most of them seems to be Hong Kong copies of Airfix' US infantry, German infantry and 8th Army. But there was some 'originals there as well.

There were 16 original 1:32 scale Matchbox German Infantry. Only one rifle and1 handgrenade was broken:

There were 44 Hong Kong copies of Airfix' German Infantry, 50mm-ish:

There were 48 Hong Kong copies of 40mm German infantry with helmets based on Airfix German infantry and Africa Corps:

The Africa Corps soldiers with helmets to the left, and their German infantry counterparts to the right. Very nice that the guy with the submachine gun finally had a weapon based upon a real one.

There were 37 Hong Kong copies of Airfix 8th Army, slightly smaller than their originals:

There were 20 Hong Kong Copies of Airfix US infantry, again slightly smaller than their originals...

...-But to same size as 13 similar figures:

In this lot there were also some few copies of Airfix American infantry in different small scales, closer to 40mm height:

There were also some very few single figures copied from the Airfix range:

And there were 3 casualtiesto similar scale as the 8th Army. I'm not sure who made the originals, as I've never seen these before. Anyone who knows?

At the bottom of the box there was also some 'casualties of play' I guess a couple of them can be rebased or used for  conversions- or paint-tests.

There were also some vehicles, tanks and planes included in the lot. The gun, fortification and amphibious jeep are closer to the larger figures in this lot.

I think this was a good deal, and good value for money for almost 200 figures. As I initially said, I didn't actually need these new figures for any of my planned wargaming projects this year. -But, now as I got these extras, I've got a resource if I want to try out some figure conversions and some new wargaming scenarios, themes or periods. Too bad, it seems like Thor Sheil's salvaged website is 'down' again, so I can't access his section for 'troop substitusions' to see his suggestions for 'the 8th Army figures'. Anyone who remember or saved a screenshot of it??
Time will show.

So, do you think this was value for money?