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!

Last Bullet Standing - A Long Range Duel in the Desert

Earlier this year I played a simplified verison of Donald Featherstone's/ Gerard Du Gre's 'Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust dueling game. The game it self is very fast to learn and easy to play, and was further simplified by Kaptain Kobold by using D6s instead of cards. This game is originally designed as a skirmish hand to hand combat and (sword) dueling game, but I wanted to see if it could be adopted to ranged battle as well? 

The Rules

The way Kaptain Kobold simplified the original rules by resolving the battle with a single d6  instead of cards, it looks direct transferable to ranged battle.  -At least for a simple, pretty static, gunfight between a couple of combatants. I feels it automatically gives it itself as a 'hit' is a 'hit'.

Number of Combat Points (CP) can be modified by giving extra CPs for body armour, long range, being in cover, (and perhaps even extra CP for a hard cover), and extra CP can be added as 'Hero Points'. 

The Scenario 

I needed to create a plausible scenario for this game which included the elements of 2 combatants with firearms fighting each other with multiple shots in a pretty static 'duel'. A classic Old West shoot out came to my mind. Since the firefight was to be very static and last for several shots I envisioned a kind of 'Ambush' situation. Perhaps like the classic 'Western scene' where one Cowboy gets into a 'fortified' position in a rocky high ground fighting off any followers coming from the terrain below him. After giving this loosely 'scenario' a closer thought, I think most such scenes I've seen in western movies includes a number of gunfighters on both sides, not only one vs. one. -Well, except for one, but there 'the follower' in the lowlands are hit and killed immediately. -But what if the shooter hit the horse instead of the rider? Even if the shooter is very accurate, it's a long range shot...

Maybe some of you already have recognised and figured out what scene I had in mind? I've played 'scenes' from this movie before. In the intro to 'For a Few Dollars More' the opening scene shows a long, quiet shot of a vast, empty desert, punctuated only by the sound of wind. Suddenly, a distant figure appears on horseback, seemingly wandering alone. Without warning, a gunshot rings out, and the rider falls dead:

There has been many speculations and theories about who the shooter or rider is, and who does the humming. A lot could be written about this opening sequence, but Sergio Leone deliberately keeps the identities of both the shooter and the rider a mystery. Rather than identifying the individuals, Leone is making a broader statement: in this world, nameless men die without warning, and killers remain unseen. It’s not about who they are—it’s about what they represent. It immediately tells the audience that this is not a standard Hollywood Western (like they were at the time) - it's a gritty, violent, ruthless and unpredictable world where death is a constant companion.

But just what if; the shooter initially hit the horse instead of the rider? The resulting engagement would likely turn into a long-range, relatively static potshot exchange or duel:

Forces:

• The Shooter (Attacker): In the movie you can clearly hear the shooter loads a repeater rifle, so he'll be armed with a Winchester. He's in hard cover so he'll get a CP of 6.

• The Rider (Defender): We don't know much about him, but if the rider should have any chance to return fire on such a long range he'll need to use a rifle as well. He's in the open, but seeks cover behind his dead horse and will have a CP of 5.

Mission:

• For both; Take out the opponent. 

Preparing the game

You don't need much to play this game. I already had a couple of 'Cowboys', which are 54mm-ish painted Airfix knock-offs, but to play the suggested scenario I needed a dead horse to set the scene and act as a 'cover' for the 'Rider'. As I didn't have any dead horse in model, I 3D-printed one:

The Game

Time:    10 minutes with taking photos etc. An average game takes about 3 minutes.

Turns:    8. Average about 11 turns. 

Win:      Like the movie I based this scenario upon; the attacker hiding among the cliffs.

Without warning, a gunshot rings out and the horse falls dead. The rider immediately seeks cover behind it and grabs his rifle from the saddle so he can return fire and defend himself:

The rider spots his attacker in high ground in cover behind some rocks:

Just killing the horse with his first shot, the attacker fires again:

...-and misses. The rider return fire...

...-And hits.

The gunmen exchanges fire for several minutes, slowly reducing each other's health:

The firefight goes on until the rider is critically low on health...

...and the attacker finally gives the rider 'The Coup De Grace':

To keep it in the spirit of Sergio Leone it's still mysterious who actually won the duel...

- was it a 'Good Guy' or was it a 'Bad Guy'? 

Conclusion

I had a great time playing this very simple set up. To get the most out of it I put on the 'For a Few Dollars More' main title to create some background ambiance, and used a gun-sound app on my mobile when doing the shooting each turn. Prone or kneeling  miniatures would have looked better in this static game, and I'd use it if had had some.

I think this adaption of the D6-version of 'Lunge Cut and Stop Thrust' Dueling game for ranged battle will work just great for a small shootouts if you're just looking for something quick to set up and play  SOLO on the go.

If you want to add just a little more to the duel than these rules, I think my entry to the 2024 Wargame in a Matchbox Challenge might be an option, as they're still just a simple duel, but allows for some movement, covers and 'Hero points'.

Blog PostScript 

This is what ChatGPT suggested when asked to make a playset based upon these rules. I'm not sure how much saleable such a set would be as popularity and political correctness has dropped on Cowboys & Indians Native Americans, and the market is nothing like it used to be back in the 70ies. Nice playset though.