Holiday Wars

Holiday Wars

Many games claims to be 'Beer and Pretzels games', but with this theme I think this is a 'Chrismas brew and cookie game'

After doing the same scenario and setup several times this year to try out different free downloadable, easy wargame rules for regular army men, I felt it was time to do something else. Since the Holidays was coming up, I decided to to a 'Holiday-themed' game this time.

Creating armies for the game

A new theme, scenario and 'period' meant that new armies needed to be created.  I decided I wanted to make them to 'true 54mm scale'. To find suitable miniatures I searched on Thingiverse, where I actually found some free downloadable files that could be 3D-printed. I rescaled them so they cold be printed to exact 54mm-scale:

These figures are 3D-printed to exactly 54mm height

The paintjob didn't require much studies, except for in the Mrs' cookie jar, and the paint-sceme was pretty easy as well.

Classical gingerbread man

It takes at least 2 armies to create a battle, so I needed to find some suitable oposing forces for my new army. That wasn't very difficult either as there is a typical old Norwegian Christmas baking called 'Hvite Kakemenn' and translate into something like 'White Cookie Men'. They are made by wheat flour, butter, milk and sugar and deviate from Gingerbread men by being white or very light in color, usually with red 'trimmings'.

'Hvit kakemann' aka '(white) cookie man

And some 30+ hours later, I had 18 printed troopers, enough for two small armies; The Gingerbred Men Vs. The Cookie Men. Now I needed to paint them and decide a scenario and which rules to use.

The Gingerbread Army

The Cookie men army

The Rules

I've been playing a lot of different free wargame rules this year, and they all have different pros and cons. After playing Thor Sheil's OMOG - One Man, One Gun wargame, I concluded that this was probably a better ruleset for smaller gaming tables and scenarioes, for periods not including automatic weapons (and templates). One of the pros for this game was that Thor Sheil designed it for a lot of different periods, including ancient and medieval. I think OMOK - One Man, One Knight would be suitable for my tabletop Holiday Wars as my cookie-troopers are armed with swords, polearms and bows. Steve Snark has made a quick reference sheet to this game, which could be found in the file-section in the Facebook-group Shambattle and OMOG Toy Soldier Games.

The Battle

The Gingerbread-Army and The Cookie Men-Army both wants to be this year's favourite cookie, and the best way to do that is to take the cookie jar and fill it up with them self. On their way to the cookie jar, they meet the other cookie-army on the table. Only the victorious army will have the cookie jar...

The battlefield, and their aimed goals in the background

The Gingerbread army had arranged their different weapons in own units, while the cookie men had units with all the weapons in it. Which would be best in the first 'clash'?

The Gingerbread army made a successful polearm charge, and almost whiped out a cookie unit.
At the same time the Gingerbread archers almost managed to do the same by accurate fire.

...So in hand to hand combat the cookie man didn't have a chance against the 3 archers even being armed with a +1 pole

Despite having more armour with chainmail and a shield, the cookie man didn't have a chance against 2 from the Gingerbread army. The cookie-unit in the rear tried to come to his relief, but was too late...

...and got caught and surrounded in a melee they were quickly outnumbered in. The Outcome was given... 

After 6 turns and 30 minutes, 5 members from the Gingerbread army could claim the victory...

...and enter the cookie jar without competition of other cookie (-men).

The Conclusion

OMOK - One Man, One Knight by Thor Sheil works really well for such small battles with limited of ranged weapons and more melee. It looks like it is an advantage to arrange units with the same kind of weapons to gain more 'fire power', than to make a unit which contain some of all the weapons but in less numbers.

To all fellow wargamers out there; enjoy the rest of the Holidays and I wish you all a Happy New Year!!

Wargame In a Bag 2 - The Second Battle for Lumbaya

 

Wargame In a Bag 2 - The Second Battle for Lumbaya

The rules

It seems that 'Murphy's Law of Combat' also goes for wargames, because right after I played and reviewed  the last game, 'Wargame In a Bag' in the previous post, I found the written 'Wargame In a Bag' rules by Nick Grant. I don't think the document is searchable through Google either, so this might be the only place that its link is published as far as I know. This is the same written rules as in the description-section that earlier followed the demonstration-video on Youtube, and contains the optional rules for 'Wargame In a Bag'.

And as I vaguely remembered, it it had optional advanced rules for covering heavier weapons like HMG, bazooka, mortar and hand grenades. So with the addition and support of these heavier weapons, would the outcome of 'The First Battle of Lumbaya' been different for the UN forces? There was actually just one thing to do, and that was to make another similar setup and have another try in 'The Second Battle of Lumbaya' to find out.

The scenario

The UN have already tried to take the Katangese Stronghold of Lumbaya once during operation 'Grand Slam', but the operation was unsuccessful. Therefore The ONUC HQ orders another UN platoon to have go in 'The Second Battle of Lumbaya'.

Forces:

• After the first battle of Lumbaya, the Katangese forces has been reinforced, and are back to:
• 2 rifle-squads each of 10 soldiers, a LMG and and a bazooka/flame thrower. Each squad can operate as 2 fireteams independently. 
• 1 HMG-detachment of 3 soldiers
• 1 sniper
• HQ-section with platoon-leader and 2 medics
• After turn 12 if rules include vehicles or skilled troops: A QRF consisting of 1 truck with a HMG and a section of 10 'veterans' with a LMG and a bazooka arrives from the next village. Only if Lumbaya is still held by Katangese forces. Since these rules doesn't support vehicles, the QRF enters the village at foot.
• The UN use an identical strengthen platoon of:
• 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each, of 8 soldiers and a LMG. The squads can operate independently.
• 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer
• 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
• HQ-section with platoon-leader
• 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers. Since these rules do not include vehicles, the Jeep stayed stationary with the HMG at the deployment-area acting as 1 unit.

Mission:

• Katangese: To hold the strongpoint of Lumbaya. Can request QRF-support as mentioned in the force-section from turn 12 if still holding whole or part of the strongpoint.
• UN: To take and hold the strongpoint of Lumbya, preferably within 12 turns, and take control on as many Katangese gendarms located there as possible.

AAR

Time:    1 hour and 50 minutes

Turns:   9

Result:  UN victory

With these (written) optional rules, the UN support-weapons made a better effect supporting the advancing squads...

...and kept the Katangese rooftop HMG under constant heavy fire. This made it less effective...

...and the UN squads managed to advance from cover-to-cover closer to Lumbaya, meeting only light fire.

When the UN mortar finally got a direct hit and eliminated the Katangese heavy-weapons, they also managed to poke a hole in the Katangese line of defence.

The way to Lumbaya was now practically open, but the UN-platoon advanced carefully with fire and maneuver, letting the squads cover each other.

The last defenders of Lumbaya tried to slow down the UN attack, but came under heavy fire and started to take a toll.

This made it possible for the UN squads to finally enter the village of Lumbaya.

When the UN entered Lumbaya, the last Katangese defenders tried to retreat to another cover, but was hit and taken out before entering their new possitions.

And in turn 9 UN entered the village with almost an intact platoon.

So at the second attempt the UN managed to clear the Village of Lumbaya in the UN-Operation 'Grand Slam'. The UN mission in Congo was to last for many years, and there would be further clashes for the UN-troops to come in this conflict...

-Some of them might be covered in this blog.

Off course mostly of the Pros and Cons are the same, as the rules are practically the same as previously reviewed for this game. So therefore I'll mention the Pros and Cons only related to the optional rules not covered in my last battle report.

Pros

• Units gets a -1 for each time getting shot at in a turn, when they're shooting back. I think this represents suppressive fire in a good way, as it will make them keeps their heads down and not being able to fire back as efficient.

Cons

• Even being optional rules with heavier weapons, these rules still don't cover other special weapons like flamethrowers, sniper rifles or light machine guns.
• I think the rules are a litte contradictory about how to calculate the mortar fire, but I choosed to play it as mentioned in the example.

Conclusion

These rules seems to fill in some missing parts I called for in my first review of 'Wargame in a Bag' (based upon the YouTube-clip). Even if it stills lack some other heavier weapons, I think these optional rules makes this game even more playable showing the importance of cover, the effect of suppressive fire and the danger running from one cover to another. Both my reviews have to be read for a complete overview of the Pros and Cons for this game.

If you read this, I hope you do so because you have followed my series of test-playing various easy and free downloadable wargame rules for regular toy-soldier or army men this year. If so I hope you have found it useful and got inspired to try some of them out yourself.

There are a lot of more free, simple, playable and fun wargame rules out there, but I think I have found the rules that pleases me and I hope you found these play-throughs useful. Use the games that suits you and make you happy and have fun!

Wargame In a Bag

 

Wargame In a Bag

The rules

I found the 'Wargame In a Bag' rules by Nick Grant on a demonstration-video on Youtube. Earlier it was followed by a link to the rules, but the link now seems inactive.

The scenario

I've placed this skirmish to the United Nations largest mission in both scale and operational scope during the Congo Crisis 1960-65, when UN troops 'peacekeeping' was more offensive 'peace enforcement' with force.

Situation:

This skirmish is finding place in fictional place of Lumbaya in the early January of 1963, when the UN during operation 'Grand Slam' are turning their attention to the remaining Katangese strongholds in Southern Katanga after after securing the Katangese capitol of Élisabethville.

Place:

Lumbaya is a very small village located 80km south west of Élisabethville, and are made into a stronghold by a small platoon of Katangese Gendarmes. The village is one of several strongholds in the area to trying to hold the UN off while trying to keep the self-proclaimed president Tshombe by power of the self-proclaimed Katanga state.

Forces:

• Katangese:
• 2 rifle-squads each of 10 soldiers, a LMG and and a bazooka/flame thrower. Each squad can operate as 2 fireteams independently. 
• 1 HMG-detachment of 3 soldiers
• 1 sniper
• HQ-section with platoon-leader and 2 medics
• After turn 12 if rules include vehicles or skilled troops: A QRF consisting of 1 truck with a HMG and a section of 10 'veterans' with a LMG and a bazooka arrives from the next village. Only if Lumbaya is still held by Katangese forces. Since these rules doesn't support vehicles, the QRF enters the village at foot.
• UN:
• 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each of 8 soldiers and a LMG. The squads can operate independently.
• 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer
• 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
• HQ-section with platoon-leader
• 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers. Since these rules do not include vehicles, the Jeep stayed stationary with the HMG at the deployment-area acting a 1 unit.

Mission:

• Katangese: To hold the strongpoint of Lumbaya. Can request QRF-support as mentioned in the force-section from turn 12 if still holding whole or part of the strongpoint.
• UN: To take and hold the strongpoint of Lumbya, preferably within 12 turns, and take control on as many Katangese gendarms located there as possible.

AAR

Time:    1 hour and 40 minutes

Turns:   9

Result:  UN defeat

In the initial phase of the UN attack on Lumbaya, their (stationary) armed jeep came under heavy fire. Luckily they didn't loose it at this point though:

The fire ranges seems pretty generous with these rules, so being in some kind of hard cover will benefit your troops, even if they are receiving enemy fire and gets a -1 on their own shots. This gave the defending Katangese forces a benefit being positioned in a rapidly fortified defense line:

The UN-forces advanced by using firing and maneuver and tried to give each other covering fire. This wasn't enough for the UN forces as they met heavy enemy fire both when advancing and when under cover. In the outskirts of the village they had to seek cover and used several turns to just exchange fire with the opposing forces:

After several hits, the UN also lost their armed jeep, and was a unit less. Now the Katangese could focus their fire on the remaining UN forces...

...The repeatably and intence Katangese fire started to take a toll on the UN forces, and it soon became clear that they couldn't break through the Katangese defense lines. Even though these rules doesn't have mechanics making units to retreat at some time, it seemed reasonable for the few remaining UN troops to start retreating by turn 8. 

Despite trying to give each other covering fire during their retreat, the Katangese forces just finished off the few remaining retreating UN troops. The Katanges on the other hand had minimal losses.

Pros

• It's simple and can be played with easily available and cheap army men or toy soldiers from a lot of different periods.
• Units getting shot at gets a -1 when shooting back. Naturally they'll keep their heads down and don't expose them self too long by aiming.
• Units not moving,can target enemy units anywhere along the path the enemy squad has moved.
• If more than a "6" is needed to hit, the game mechanics let you roll a "6" followed by a re-roll of either 4, 5 or 6 to get "7", "8" or "9".

Cons

• The (free) written rules don't seems to exist any more; Neither in the Youtube-description or online elsewhere.
• The game actually require unit-tokens which is or was for sale, but I used some 3D-printed flame-tokens instead. Any substitute will do.
• It's just too simple and doesn't have rules for dividing different weapons by their damage-potential. I think the written rules had some advanced options regarding heavier weapons.
• It' doesn't have any rules for vehicles.
• I think the hand-to-hand fighting is way to like the board game Risk, and not one of my favorites to resolve melee.
• A +1 for cover behind barbed wire seems too generous. Barbed wire fences don't provide much cover.

Conclusion

These rules seems to have no limits regarding firing ranges, so a gaming setup should offer a lot of covers, so the units just can't be stationary and exchange fire across the tabletop. I also like the idea that covering fire gives an effect of -1 on shooting for the forces being shot at. Just too bad that the written rules doesn't seems to be available anymore neither in the Youtube-description or online elsewhere. If you decides to try out this game, you can just substitute the tokens with anything else, as they don't seems available anymore either. If you try out a similar scenario as mine, feel free to give a feedback if you were more lucky with fighting dug-in enemy troops with these rules than I was.

Hang on; There are more wargames to be played, and more battle reports to be written.

Close Wars

Close Wars

The rules

I wanted to try some really oldschool wargaming, and I think Donald Featherstone is considered to be one of the inventors of simple rules for wargaming with toy soldiers. On the excellent blog of 'The Man of Tinblog' I found a blogpost with a copy of Donald Featherstone's Close Wars. These rule are very simple and aren't exactly made for this size or modern battles, but I wanted to have a go at a 'classic' and see if it was playable with the scenario I've used in my recent games.

The scenario

I've placed this skirmish to the United Nations largest mission in both scale and operational scope during the Congo Crisis 1960-65, when UN troops 'peacekeeping' was more offensive 'peace enforcement' with force.

Situation:

This skirmish is finding place in fictional place of Lumbaya in the early January of 1963, when the UN during operation 'Grand Slam' are turning their attention to the remaining Katangese strongholds in Southern Katanga after after securing the Katangese capitol of Élisabethville.

Place:

Lumbaya is a very small village located 80km south west of Élisabethville, and are made into a stronghold by a small platoon of Katangese Gendarmes. The village is one of several strongholds in the area to trying to hold the UN off while trying to keep the self-proclaimed president Tshombe by power of the self-proclaimed Katanga state.

Forces:

• Katangese:
• 2 rifle-squads each of 10 soldiers, a LMG and and a bazooka/flame thrower. Each squad can operate as 2 fireteams independently. 
• 1 HMG-detachment of 3 soldiers
• 1 sniper
• HQ-section with platoon-leader and 2 medics
• After turn 12 if rules include vehicles or skilled troops: A QRF consisting of 1 truck with a HMG and a section of 10 'veterans' with a LMG and a bazooka arrives from the next village. Only if Lumbaya is still held by Katangese forces. Since these rules doesn't support vehicles, the QRF enters the village at foot.
• UN:
• 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each of 8 soldiers and a LMG. The squads can operate independently.
• 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer
• 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
• HQ-section with platoon-leader
• 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers. Since these rules do not include vehicles, the Jeep stayed stationary with the HMG at the deployment-area acting a 1 unit, but due to short firing ranges never come close enough to enter combat.
• Since these rules doesn't include any heavy weapons, I just rolled a dice for any weapons and let all of them have the same range.

Mission:

• Katangese: To hold the strongpoint of Lumbaya. Can request QRF-support as mentioned in the force-section from turn 12 if still holding whole or part of the strongpoint.
• UN: To take and hold the strongpoint of Lumbya, preferably within 12 turns, and take control on as many Katangese gendarms located there as possible.

AAR

Time:    1 hour and 40 minutes

Turns:   18 (!)

Result:  UN defeat

Due to the short weapon ranges and not including any heavy weapons for support, this was a rush for the UN forces to get to a cover close enough for the their short weapon range:

The UN forces made initially some successful hits in the Katangese line of defence, and used the opportunity to try to brake into their defensive positions...

...and managed. But from this point on the Katangese Gendarmerie fought real well, and the UN didn't make any further advancement into the village.

This was the situation for so long time and so many turns, that the Katangese QRF arrived in turn 12:

This was finally what made the UN advancement come to an definite halt, and those few UN soldiers left who managed to enter the village was either killed or taken as prisoner of war after heroic street fighting. But they didn't give up very easy.

Impetus Bonus!!

Pros

• Impetus Bonus gives a +1 for surprising when emerging from cover and achieved an ambush
• It's simple and can be played with easily available and cheap army men or toy soldiers from a lot of different periods.
• Retreating forces (due to a moral check) have to dice to see if the're routing or can go back to battle.
• Really fast playing

Cons

• It's just too simple and doesn't divide weapons into groups by their damage potential.
• It doesn't include any vehicles.
• The turn sequence seems unclear. I played it I Go, You Go.
• What really happens to  wounded; hits that makes a save also seems unclear. I let them just fight on.

Conclusion

Due to lack of rules for different weapons with longer range and higher damage-potential, this was a very uncomplicated, interesting, intense and very fast playing game. With the limited weapon-ranges this is truly 'Close Wars'. As mentioned, I don't think these rules are made for modern battles or this scale, but I'm surprised how extremely well they worked for such after all. I would consider to play this in a smaller scale than I did (with my 54mm soldiers). Perhaps 20mm would be more suitable? And perhaps a period and units without a lot of hevy weapons. If you have only time for a quickie, consider this game.

Please follow this blog for some few more AAR on free wargame-rules to come...

FUBAR

 

FUBAR

The rules

The one page FUBAR rules by Craig Cartmell, and others, did I find on their website. In the 'Download section' there are a lot of different versions and supplements for these rules covering almost every era and Sci-Fi. I used the FUBAR Core Rules 4th Edition for this game

The scenario

I've placed this skirmish to the United Nations largest mission in both scale and operational scope during the Congo Crisis 1960-65, when UN troops 'peacekeeping' was more offensive 'peace enforcement' with force.

Situation:

This skirmish is finding place in fictional place of Lumbaya in the early January of 1963, when the UN during operation 'Grand Slam' are turning their attention to the remaining Katangese strongholds in Southern Katanga after after securing the Katangese capitol of Élisabethville.

Place:

Lumbaya is a very small village located 80km south west of Élisabethville, and are made into a stronghold by a small platoon of Katangese Gendarmes. The village is one of several strongholds in the area to trying to hold the UN off while trying to keep the self-proclaimed president Tshombe by power of the self-proclaimed Katanga state.

Forces:

• Katangese:
• 2 rifle-squads each of 10 soldiers, a LMG and and a bazooka/flame thrower. Each squad can operate as 2 fireteams independently. 
• 1 HMG-detachment of 3 soldiers
• 1 sniper
• HQ-section with platoon-leader and 2 medics
• After turn 12 if rules include vehicles or skilled troops: A QRF consisting of 1 truck with a HMG and a section of 10 'veterans' with a LMG and a bazooka arrives from the next village. Only if Lumbaya is still held by Katangese forces.
• I've made all the Katangese units 'seasoned' with 'veteran' leaders, except for the QRF which is all 'Elite'.
• Since all their rifles are semi automatic, I'll let them have 2 FP for distances under 12".
• UN:
• 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each of 8 soldiers and a LMG. The squads can operate independently.
• 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer
• 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
• HQ-section with platoon-leader
• 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers. If rules do not include vehicles, the Jeep must stay stationary with the HMG at the deployment-area
• I've made all the UN-units 'seasoned' with a 'veteran' leaders.
• Since all their rifles are semi automatic, I'll let them have 2 FP for distances under 12".

Mission:

• Katangese: To hold the strongpoint of Lumbaya. Can request QRF-support as mentioned in the force-section from turn 12 if still holding whole or part of the strongpoint.
• UN: To take and hold the strongpoint of Lumbya, preferably within 12 turns, and take control on as many Katangese gendarms located there as possible.

AAR

Time:    2 hours and 50 minutes

Turns:   10

Result:  UN withdrawal

The UN forces got their heavy weapons in position to start supporting their attack on the Katangese stronghold in Lumbaya.

After a turn I let the support weapons get aiming-bonus as they all ready had fired at their targets and now knew the position and distance

The support fire let the rifle-sections get into position for their assault on the Katangese forces...

...but the UN mortar and HMG didn't make a breakthrough in the Katangese line of defense the UN rifle-sections could exploit. So all UN units were in position just waiting:

The breakthrough made by heavy weapons never came, so the UN rifle-sections made a go for it by trying to cover each other:

But the defending Katangese units was well prepared for the attack and well in cover. Since they didn't have to move they also got their +1 aiming bonus. This started to take a toll on the UN-forces and their advance came to a halt in the outskirts of the village.

The Katangese forces had good support in the rooftop HMG and sniper...

...so when the UN relocated their jeep to try to give the rifle-sections closer support and some forwarded cover, it was taken out immediately by the Katangese HMG:

The remaining UN rifle-sections tried a final push without the support of the jeep-mounted HMG and a mortar that just wasn't hitting it's targets:

Without propper support it did just not work for the remaining UN-troops. They had several casualties by now, and had to withdraw in turn 10 by the FUBAR rules and by reason:

A Bazooka-team gives their retreating comrades covering fire

Pros

• It's a very simple and easy game on only 1 page (!), yet it is complex enough to bring interests and challenge to the game. Being only 1 page reference checking is really fast.
• It's simple and can be played with easily available and cheap army men or toy soldiers from a lot of different periods and scales.
• It differs units between their quality and skills.
• I like the activation system that you are in the initiative as long as you are 'good enough' instead of the traditional "I go, you go".
• Giving aiming-bonus for units not moving.
• Rules for On Guard/Overwatch.
• Have own rules for covering several different periods and sci-fi-themes.

Cons

• No cover modifier can make a Unit’s expertise worse than 6+, meaning that a 'green' unit have the same 16,7% chance to take out an unit in heavy cover as an Elite unit. They would just probably miss or have even less chance to to so. On the other hand you're encouraged to ignore or modify rules that make no sense. And there are other FUBAR rules editions and updates that adresses this.
• Best played with own tokens that describes each units actions. At the time of writing these are not available at the FUBAR site, and I found mine at the FUBAR-page at Facebook called 'The Forge of War'.

FUBAR order-counters

These are not made by me, but again these counters are not as easy to find as the FUBAR rules online, so I share my find here:

FUBAR order-counters 4th edition

FUBAR order-counters 5th edition

Conclusion

This was a very easy, fun, narrative and playable game, and it kept the excitement until the very end. Looking up references in the rules was easy and quick. I actually thought that these rules was made for smaller scales in mind like 28mm or 20mm, but these actually worked just fine with my 54mm Army Men. 

Please follow this blog for even more AARs on free wargame-rules to come...