Add realistic Squads and Squad Tactics to your Wargames

Some of the skirmish wargame rules I've been playing, both the free and commercial ones, suggests some kind of 'Army Building' and how to make up units for the game (mostly limited to make balanced forces). Most of the rules and games I play however, does not. This is not a problem if you know what kind of units you want to bring to your tabletop battles, or you're into military history and know how to create those specific units for your game. I've found some websites that can help you create realistic Squad and Platoon level units for 20th and 21st century:

Battle Order

On the Battle Order website there is a lot of information on how to create different modern units on different levels for different countries and periods. Most of my skirmish games are based upon rifle Squads and at the Battle Order website there is a 'Graphic section' I have found most useful as it's describing number of members, what kind of weapons they are armed with for different countries and periods.

This is an example of what you can find at Battle Order, showing a WW2 Homeguard Rifle Squad with number of members, ranks and weapons:

FUBAR

The website for the free wargame rules FUBAR also consists some information on how to create WWII Squads and Platoons from different nations.

Tactical Forge

If you create 'realistic' skirmish units for your game it would be nice to operate them in your game in a realistic manner as well, even if you have no military experience on Squad or Platoon level. On YouTube I recently found a channel named Tactical Forge. It's a very interesting YouTube-channel which instructs real life Squad tactics by using miniatures. The playlist Micro Tactics is most useful regarding wargames.

I recommend you to pay these websites a visit and hope you find them as useful as I did. I'll add links to them in the menu to the right.

Old West Mini-Wargame: Showdown at High Noon - A Wargame in a Matchbox Epilogue

Old West Mini-Wargame: Showdown at High Noon according to my scenario and interpreted by ChatGPT

Last year I attended the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge' with paper miniatures from Junior General and rules made by ChatGPT; Old West Mini-Wargame: Showdown at High Noon.

The rules was really simple, fast playing and easy, and I had to keep everything small to make it fit in a matchbox (which it eventually did). -Since the Challenge I've played the game several times with my oldest son. The game feels perhaps a little too simple, as gamers usually ends up behind cover exchanging fire with the opponents until one of them runs out of health. I wanted to see if it would help to this feeling and make the game more interesting if a little more was added to it than what would fit in a matchbox. So I decided to try out the very same simple rules and scenario with larger terrain and miniatures in 3D as I wanted to use my 54mm -ish Cowboys in a game.  I'm curious to see if a more '3D-game' gives another impression or 'deluxe version' of this simple game.

I had almost everything I needed to convert my 2D-game in the matchbox into a fully 3D one, except for a female hostage to rescue. I found one 28mm scale at Thingeverse and 3D-printed her to match the size of my 54mm -ish cowboys. I guess she can double up and I can use her as a civilian or a missionary in my Congo Crisis games too. 

Scenario: It's loosely based on the scene from 'A Fistfull of Dollars' when 'Joe' frees 'Marisol'; 3 outlaws are holding a woman hostage in the house, and our 'Hero' is there to free her.

Forces: Are dictated by the rules; 3 outlaws with health of 2 and hits on 5+ Vs. 'The Man with No Name' with a health of 4 and hits on a 4+ and activates first each turn.

The Rules:

The Game

The original set up for the game (as in the 'Matchbox Challenge), and my fully 3D set up for this game (which will not fit in any matchbox):

Our 'Hero' approaches the house where the 'Bad Guys' are holding a woman captive: 

The Bad Guys spot him at a distance and it doesn't look like he's gonna take them by surprise:

As soon as a couple of the outlaws leaves the building, they get into our Hero's gun sight:

But at this distance and moving targets the Hero misses, and the Bad Guys manage to get into cover and return fire:

And very soon the firefight develops into a locked position where all combatants are in cover exchanging fire in a very dueling like battle. The Bad Guys are good shooters and our Hero takes a couple of hits. This situation does not look good for him at this stage:

I think our Hero performs best under pressure because when it start to look real bad for him, he gets a couple of critical hits on one of his gunmen:

And one of them are out of the fight:

Then the nameless Hero focus his fire on the other gunman behind cover:

And finally takes him out too:

The Villain did not like this development in the gunfight, as he now has to go out and fight him himself:

Just as the Villain leves the building he doesn't manage to even open fire before the nameless Hero opens fire... 

...and at very long range accurately hits the Villain beside the female hostage, and impacts a critical hit on him with a single shot:

After 15 minutes and 10 turns it look like the nameless Hero saved the day:

Conclusion

So was this game any different than the Matchbox-version of it? - Not really, it's still the very same simple rules that makes battle develop more into static duels where the only modifier is it the fighters are Heroes' and have cover or not. The only difference with this game was that I was able to make even nicer images for the battle report.

And with this game and battle report its perhaps time to finally conclude my entry to the "2024 Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge". It's been an interesting challenge and I would like to credit Alan at The Duchy of Tradgardland for the initiative to the challenge and the entries as follow. Well done everybody!!

• Man of TIN blog
• Grid based wargaming
• Wargame Hermit: Solo Wargaming
• Deathzap
• Projects and Procrastination

I guess some of us has 'leftover matches' after emptying our boxes to join the 'Matchbox Challenge'. At the Model exhibition in Neumünster earlier this year I found this example what you can use your matches for. -At least if you have 3700 of them and 640 hours to spare...

- Perhaps an idea for a 'Challenge' in 2025??

Snowball Fight Rules

 Snowball Fight Rules according to my scenario and interpreted by ChatGPT 

This is one of the (war-) game I had no idea I was going to play this year. When I ended up playing it so early on this year after all, it was because Alan at Duchy of Tradgardland played this game at New Year and urged others to try it out over the 'New Year'. I thought at least I could take a look at the rules as they're free, but actually nothing more as I didn't have any snowball-fighters for such a game. Alan suggested that I could make some by using ChatGPT to generate some images for some useful paper-miniatures. Another alternative for me could simply be to 3D-print some off course, as I'm already 3D-printing some few new miniatures for some other coming wargaming projects. First of all I went over to Mark at the Man of Tin-blog to have a look at the actual rules for this game. They seems very fast to learn and easy to play and I didn't need more than about 4 miniatures each side, so I decided to see this as another challenge and 'give them a go'.

Preparing the game

I've played with the idea to do a 'non-lethal' wargame with Army Men ever since I discussed 'non lethal wargaming' in the comment-section with Mark. And if I was to try it I considered to arrange this as a classic 'snowball fight'. So firstly I needed to get some snowball-fighters, as I didn't have any.  I see that Mark at Man of Tinblog have used hand-grenade throwers in his 'Snowball Fights'. I think the hand-grenade thrower from my Matchbox knock-offs army men are one of the most useless poses for wargaming purposes as he has no rifle or sidearm (I think North Koreans were the only ones going to battle only armed with hand grenades), and think this pose will be very suitable for a snowball-throwing soldier. When looking through my stocks of available Army Men I didn't find many 'grenade-throwers' left as I've used most of them for creating Fog of war Ghost units or medics.

This photo is not mine, but it shows that's others too consider this pose as usable for a 'army men medic'

I found a free STL-file that could be 3D-printed on Thingiverse of a low resolution/crude 'Grenade Snowball-thrower' of a similar type:

Courtesy of Thingiverse and the creator. This figure is made to 54mm in the file.

To 3D-print and paint 8 54mm scale figures would be time-consuming, so I considered to re-scale the miniatures and print them to a smaller scale. Another thing that would take a lot of time was to make a suitable winter scenery and a suitable 'battleground' for a snowball-fight, It would be nice to play this game outside in the snow too, but the snow are disappearing rapidly now so playing it outside was not an option anymore. I made some suitable winter-spruces earlier this winter (actually designed for wargaming), but these were already glued down on my 'Christmas Layout'. Earlier this winter Michael at Wargaming with 54mm Toy Soldiers blog asked in the comment section in one of my blog-posts if I had sought for a method for combining my wargaming hobby with my model railway hobby, and suggested that the mentioned threes were multi-scaled and perhaps a starter (?).  -Well, What a splendid idea!! I could arrange a snowball fight with the 'Snowball Fight rules on my 'Christmas Layout' in 1:87 scale (H0e - narrow gauge).

I 3D-printed the originally 54mm scale grenade/snowball-thrower to 1:87 (H0) scale (19mm tall) to see if it was possible to reduce the file so much, and if so, see if was possible to print it on my filament-printer and get a decent result as well.

The slightly 'smaller than 54mm' Matchbox knock-off as a comparison next to my 1:87 scale one

His details are a little 'blurry' as the STL-file he's printed from is so too. It's clearly what pose this is and what he's doing. -Besides in this small scale it won't be too notable anyway as soon as it's painted. 

I think the result was good enough, so I decided to 3D-print 8 such army men in H0-scale. To get some slight variation to them I printed 4 regular ones, and 4 mirror-imaged. I guess those are the 'links shooters'. 

I added some new bases to them as well. Snow on the bases and snowballs are made with thick 'snow paint' from the craft shop which are on sale now

I also printed a couple of M29 Weasels which could serve as a 'HQ' for each side according to the rules.

The Christmas, Pizza Layout which I intended to use as a battleground for this wargame, is actually arranged like an Advent Wreath with 4 candles. They would look out of place now, so I made up and 3D-printed some trees that could replace the candles. It also makes the model railway look more like a layout.

Since everything was scaled down, I replaced the 'lollystick' measurer in the rules with a match. -Which I had several leftovers after emptying a matchbox to join the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge', so the ranges would match (no pun intended) the size of battlefield/scenery and scale.

The scenario

This 'Snowball-fight' take places in 1960 during the Norwegian winter exercise "Blefjell-60". A reconnaissance patrol from "Team Red" are about to enter the small junction of "Svingen" from east with their M29 Weasel, at  the very same time as a reconnaissance patrol from "Team Blue" arrives "Svingen" from west (also in a Weasel):

There are no "battle referees" present to "judge" the highly unofficial battle in this small clash, so both patrols sees an opportunity; After a week of exercising their boxes of MREs are out of 'exotic meals' so both patrols decides to raid the "enemy's" Weasel and steal their rations of MREs to see if they have more exciting rations left. Since guns with "blanks" won't do in this battle, perhaps snowballs will.

Snowball-fighters hit twice must return to their vehicles where they have their medical kit to patch up for 2 turns. The optional rule for frozen fingers are not an issue, as these soldiers are equipped for Arctic warfare.

Forces:

• Team Blue (are usually just "unmarked"):

The 4 team members of Team Blue, their M29 Weasel "HQ", the cardboard box with MREs and the big snowballs are only activation tokens

• Team Red:

The 4 members of Team Red, their M29 Weasel "HQ", the cardboard box with MREs and 4 giant snowballs as activation tokens

Mission:

• Both teams will try to get by another and get to the 'enemy's' M29 Weasel and steal their box of MREs and bring it back to their own.
• Team Red will let 2 members advance along 2 flanks each.
• Team Blue will let one member defend their M29 Weasel, and let 3 members advance along 2 flanks; 2 in front of the station and 1 behind.

The Game

Time:    2 hours and 15 minutes

Turns:   33 (!)

Result:  We might call this a Draw

The mini-dice I used for 'hit stats' wasn't very 'mini' anymore compared to my H0 miniatures (the track gauge is 9mm). The Blue got the initiative first, and started to advance towards 'Reds':

The Read team couldn't see any from the Blue team yet, and started their advance along 2 flanks:

When reaching the station building at "Svingen" the Blue team could see that the 'Reds' were approaching, and took cover behind the corners and some nearby vegetation:

The Blues tried to surprise the advancing Reds with an ambush. The range was a little too long to give the really moment of surprise as the Blue team missed:

The Reds returned 'fire', and soon there was a heavy snowball fight going on:

And it looks like the Reds were a little bit better "throwers" than Blue:

Throwing more accurate and longer gave the Reds the initiative in the snowball fight:

Which let the Reds keep pushing the Blues back:

Hit! The Blue team-member must return to his Weasel to get the first aid kit:

The Reds team keeps pushing the Blues back...

...But Blue team does not easily gives up their base and cardbox of MREs:

And a fierce snowball fight take place just outside the 'Blue base':

Having a team-member to defend their base was clever. He managed to avoid letting members from the Red team enter their base:

And soon both the Red team members are driven on retreat:

The Blue team decides to use the Red retreat to regain the initiative in the battle and make an assault on the 'Red base':

The Blues meets a single Red in the woods...

...but the Red is chanceless and soon he's retreating as well:

Now the battle had developed to "a Race" to reach the Red base first:

And it looks like members from the Blue team is about to win this "Race":

The single Red soldier at the Red base has just patched up, and are taken by surprise by 2 Blue team-members, and their snowball assault is massive:

This enables one of the Blue team-members to make a run for it and enter the 'Red base' and grab that cardboard box of MREs:

By this time I had to fight his way out of the base too:

But he succeeds and keep on running with the box:

Can this become a 'Home Run' for the Blues? The Reds hurries up to patch up and go into battle again:

And they shoots the Blue team-member with the box in the back and he drops it:

Now the Reds are in the initiative again:

And they tries to use the Blues failed assault to race back to the Blue base:

But the Blue Team are putting up a defense line...

...and are ready to fight for their box of cardboard:

A heavy snowball fight evolves...

...and soon it's an inferno of hailing snowballs:

The Blue team manage to stop the Red offensive...

...and make the Read team retreat a second time:

This snowball fight just seems to wage back and forth, so while driven the 'Reds' off and holding their ground, The Blue team decides to embark their vehicle and leave:

Pros

• The rules are free.
• The rules are very fast to learn and easy to play.
• It's a non-lethal wargame.

Cons

• This cons is not really a cons on the rules them selves. I just didn't find any information about the turn sequence in link to the rules initially provided by Alan. I found it when I searched in older blogger-posts by Mark on Man of Tin blog, and through the development of these rules though: Turn sequence is to roll for initiative, side A moves, side B moves, side A throws snowballs and then side B throws.

Conclusion

While I've been working on this project with making miniatures, terrain, painting them, and struggling to get ChatGPT to make the images I'm asking for, Mark at Tinblog have also been working on a soldier themed snowball fight. It's been very interesting and motivating to follow his work with his WW1 snowball fight with classic toy soldiers. Any similarities are not intentional from my side (as I've been working on this project for about a month now).

To have them readily available and make it easier to play, I copied the rules from Mark's blog, pasted them into a 'Word document' and printed them. Here is a link to the rules I printed.

This 'challenge' led me into combining 2 of my hobbies; model railways and wargaming. It also led me into wargaming in H0 scale (1:87), and I think this must be a seldom combination, if ever done before (?). So small miniatures in small fragile fixed terrain was an fiddly experience. I won't exclude the idea that I'll do it again, and will add another label for this.

Thanks to Mark for the idea of 'non lethal' wargaming and the rules, and to Alan for suggesting to play them this year. It kinda felt more relaxing to do a 'non lethal' wargame for a change. So I'll second Alan on this: "Go on give them a go".