Benchy Battle

This summer I visited the Norwegian Naval Museum in Horten, and got inspired to do more maritime modelling or wargaming. As with most wargames I play I wanted the rules to be free and easy however. I am a member in a Fb-group called 'Super Cheap Wargaming', which is right up my alley regarding my interest for wargaming on a budget. Earlier this year another member uploaded his home brewed naval rules called 'Benchy Battle'. I've never tried naval wargames before, but this seemed so easy that I decided to give them a go. Besides the rules was based on 'Benchies', which you're going possess some of if you're into 3D-printing (which I am).

What is a Benchy?

A 'Benchy' is a 'tugboat' and is likely to be the most 3D-printed object in the world as it is a model to test accuracy, calibration and print-quality of 3D-printers. 'Benchy' is described as "the jolly 3D-printing torture-test" by it's creator (Creative Tools). The 'Benchy' is actually 10 years old these days.

Preparing the game

I needed a ocean battlefield. -On a budget off course. I could have used ordinary blue cloth or fabric for this, but I found a dead cheap plastic tablecloth with printed ocean pattern and wanted to try that for this wargame:

It looks like the 'Battle mat' is approved by Linus

Even if I do have some Benchies after calibrating my own 3d-printer, I decided to go fancy here and 3D-print some naval-versions of them as this is originally a naval wargame. These are certainly not 'scale models' and I wanted to print them quickly, so these are 3D-printed with a lower resolution (0.18mm layer height) than I usually use for my print-settings (<0.10mm). I think they turned out just fine:

With these results of a 'Benchy calibration test' I'll guess some of my readers will tell me that the settings on my 3D-printer are all wrong... 

I think there is a new company owning the licence to the original Benchy now, and a lot of Benchy re-mixes, like those I printed, are removed from some sites for free 3D models and files. So get them while you can.

I wanted to add some 'islands' that one of the sides has to defend and the other navy tries to take control over. Here I just used some rocks I 3D-printed back in 2021, but I wanted to add a little 'scenery' and visual interests to them so I 3D-printed a couple of buildings to place on one of them. Printed in white PLA  and simply just 'blackwashed':

Now I was ready  for my very first naval wargame.

The Rules

The rules seems to be 'home brewed' and a 'father/son collaborative' by John Christopher Sr. and Jr:

The Scenario

The rules suggest that each player can activate up to 3 Benchies each turn, so to keep it simple I decided to do it easy and play this wargame with 3 Benchies each side. Navy B are protecting the water of the coast of 'Benchy Islands', while Navy A will try to defeat them and gain control of 'Benchy Islands'.

Forces:

• Navy A

From left to right; Gunboat, Corvette and Battleship 

• Navy B

From left to right; Battleship Corvette and Gunboat 

Mission:

For both navies; To eliminate the opponent to gain control of the coast of 'Benchy Islands'. Navy B in top of the photo and Navy A below:

The Game

Time:    36 minutes

Turns:   7

Result:  Navy A by achieving both it's mission and by points (7 pts. vs. 0 pts.)

As Navy A was keeping a steady course towards 'Benchy Islands'...

...Navy B was hesitating and slowly maneuvering into defensive positions to meet the potential threat:

When coming into firing range, Navy A immediately opened fire... 

...and scored a (unsaved) hit:

Excited by the success, Navy A became more offensive:

Navy B was still hesitatingly moving into engaging positions:

- When Navy A suddenly opened fire again...

...and scored another (unsaved) hit:

The entire Navy A flotilla was now changing course for the last remaining Navy B ship:

Aroused by earlier success both ships from Navy A opened fire at the same time against the last Navy B ship. One shot missed and the other was 'saved':

When trying to move into a even more favorable position, a ship from Navy A accidentally rammed the last Navy B ship bow to bow...

...Successfully (!)

This was a superior victory for Navy A which without any losses now controlled the waters of Benchy Islands:

Pros

• The rules are free.
• The rules are very fast to learn and easy to play.
• Despite the name of the game, you don't actually need Benchies to play it as you can substitute with other ship models.
• Fewer miniatures and terrain items takes less time to set up.

Cons

• Limited maneuverability. Activated Benchies can only move in a straight line, and must move the full number of inches you rolled on your D6. Therefore it can not stop before an obstacle ahead as an island, reef, mine-field, a sinking ship or the edge of the tabletop, but will run straight right into or over it. I belive a ship commander would adjust speed and course to get into a favorable position for his mission,  and at the same time try to avoid other problems instead of steering straight into them. For instance getting close to an obstacle (because it can provide some cover), stop, and maneuver around it the next turn.
• No different stats for different ships  regarding weaponry, firepower or armor (health)

The Race

These wargame rules also opens to play this game as a 'Race' between ships, so I'd thought I should try those parts of the rules as well in this review. Here it is an advantage to move the 'Fully D6" move' since all vessels are going in the same direction as fast as possible. I'll let my 2 navies race each other, and at the same time be able to ram and shoot at each other during the race:

Time:    19 minutes

Turns:   7

Result:  Navy A by achieving both it's mission and by points (7 pts. vs. 0 pts.)

Ready, Set, Go!!

Navy B gets the initiative by sailing it's Battleship at full speed and letting the 2 other ships protecting it's stern. Navy A accidentally and successfully rams into Navy B's rear guard and sinking one of the ships:

While the second rearguard ship from Navy B is hit by fire from Navy A:

Now there was only one way to win this, or break even by points, for Navy B; And that was to go full ahead:

But Navy A was closing in, and soon the last ship of Navy B was in shooting range. Navy A opened fire...

... and scored another unsaved hit:

The Race was now become an internal race within Navy A to see which ship would be first. So no more shooting at each other as they were all on the same side:

The Battleship already had the most favorable position: 

But after a short while the smaller Corvette was closing in:

Really close on the end...

...But the Battship finally won at last!

Conclusion

Making larger 'Battleship Benchies' for the initial wargame was a tactical blunder as all ranges are short and probably fits the original small Benchy better. The larger ships simply became bigger targets and easier to ram. 

The limitation in the maneuverability which can force you to run into objects you normally would have avoided is such a big 'Con' for me, that I'm less likely to play these rules again. But even if I made Naval Benchies for this wargame I might use them again for trying out other easy to play (and not too serious) naval wargame rules. Time will show, so please follow this blog to find out.

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!