Tiny Troops: Fast and Furious Wargame Rules

I asked the ChatGPT for a suitable name for the game this AI-service suggested in an earlier blogpost. The ChatGPT suggested to call it's own rules for 'Tiny Troops: Fast and Furious Wargame Rules'. I wonder if these rules lives up to it's name?

I posted a link to my last blogpost about letting ChatGPT generate some easy to play wargaming rules on some wargaming related Facebook-groups I'm following, and it created some debate and seemed some what controversial to use AI for this purpose. I was curious about the suggested rules and wanted to try them out to see if they were so playable as they firstly seemed. To have something to compare them with, I decided to play by the same setup and scenario as I played in the previously reviewed One Page Rules Army Men Combat v2.0.

I usually play my games solo, playing both sides my self as good as I can. Since the ChatGPT was so involved already by writing and naming the rules, I wanted to see if it was (artificial-) intelligent enough to play one of the sides if I fed it with these situation, movements, developments, results and so on. Besides, using the ChatGPT this way may be less controversial than letting it generate the rules themselves perhaps? Since I have a soft spot for the UN-troops as almost 1200 Norwegians participated in this mission I let the ChatGPT play the Katangese Gendarmerie in this game. The ChatGPT needs to be persuaded to join a game as it's AI and don't want to play a game as it actually can't. It will however give guidance and advice for movements and actions for units in the game within the rules, so I'll let it 'guide and advice' all movements and actions for the Katangese Gendarmerie.

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'.

Situation:

Two UN vehicles from the UN base at Kamina were performing a reconnaissance mission on the roads  between Kamina and the city of Kolwezi. Outside Kambezi they came under heavy mortar shelling from Katangese forces and they were probably both hit as the UN HQ at Kamina cannot reach them by radio anymore. 

The UN HQ sends out search and rescue patrols to find the missing reconnaissance-unit, and it's expected that the roads in the area have taken damage and are impassable for other vehicles, and it's only reachable at foot.

The Katangese forces in the area are aware of the possible UN-wrecks and sends out patrols to find them, and to seize anything of value such as documents like the UN SOPs and codes for radio-communications.

Some houserules to this scenario seems to be required though; It takes 1 man 1 turn to search a vehicle, and it takes 1 man 1 turn to examine  a casualty. To check a casualty's condition, roll a D6, and if the roll is the same value or higher than the turn number for that turn, the casualty is alive and can be medivaced. Casualties can be medivaced at half speed. 

Forces:

• Katangese:
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 5 rifles, 1 sniper rifle and 1 LMG

• UN:
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 5 rifles, 1 bazooka and 1 LMG

Mission:

• Katangese: To find the immobilized UN vehicles and search them for valuable things such as secret UN documents, orders, maps, SOPs and radio-codes 
• UN: To find the missing reconnaissance-patrol and save the members of the unit, and make sure no graded documents in the vehicles fall into the hands of the enemy.

AAR

Time:    3 hours (!)

Turns:   10

Result:  UN victory

It all started very good, and the Katangese forces advanced towards the UN-vehicles slowly from cover to cover... 

The UN forces also advanced very slowly, and due to limited firing-ranges the forces needed to move for several turns before they got within firing-range of each other. One of the UN-squads started to examine the casualties outside the jeep, and started to search the jeep, but was interrupted by the advancing Katangese gendarmerie.

It seems like the Katangese forces focused on trying to defeat the UN forces first, and search the vehicles afterwards. The continuous Katangese fire harassed and interrupted the first aid given to the 2 casualties outside the jeep and the search inside the vehicle it self as the UN had to return fire.

After exchanging fire for a while, the Katangese forces started to take a toll and had several casualties. It seemed like the vehicles was out of reach for them now, and they were fighting for their lives instead. This made it possible for some of the UN-troops to start searching the jeep again, but none of the casualties could be saved by this time/turn.

One UN squad charged into hand-to-hand combat and eliminated one of the Katangese squads.

The few remaining members of the other Katangese squads were soon under so heavy fire, that the remaining 2 Katangese squads were soon eliminated as well. The UN-forces started to search the other vehicle.

While the UN-forces seized all the classified documents from the vehicles the very last Katangese survivor was retreating. -actually more fleeing the scene.

Pros

• Nice mechanics for unsaved hits and outcome of melee. On the other hand these effects probably prolonged the game.

Cons

• Several of the cons were already pointed out in the comment-section section in my last blogpost by readers and fellow wargamers. Firstly the rules don't specify the games turn sequence. I just rolled for initiative every time activation was needed, using yellow dice for the Katangeese forces and Greens for the UN. High roller got to activate a unit.
• When morale tests are needed seems unclear in the rules, and I just followed the example of other rules by testing a unit's morale if it was halved.
• The rules states that a LMG can fire twice per turn, but does not says if it fires two times during a turn or if it just fire once with 2 dice. I played by rolling 2 dice for the LMG to indicate a higher rate of fire to a specific target. On the other hand the HMGs cannot 'fire twice' within a turn, but they fire on a longer range and has a higher hit probability with a 3+. These rules makes it impossible for a HMG to inflict multiple damage on a target, as it probably would do in real life.
• I don't know why the rules says that sniper rifles can only fire once per turn, as all weapons except for LMGs can only fire once per turn.
• The movements are very limited, and especially if moving through rough terrain. This makes the advancements very slow. It doesn't help playing with the ChatGPT either as it's very time-consuming to both read and write with the ChatGPT.
• I think the firing range for rifles are too short, as it equals only 3 fully movements. Even the bazooka has a longer firing-range than a rifle which would not be the case in real life.
• The rules have no benefits for being in cover, and does not make it harder to hit targets in cover.
• No rules stating that heavy weapons needs more soldiers to serve them. Here all weapons can be operated by a single soldier.

Conclusion

It is a lot you can use ChatGPT for; making rules and act as an opponent. I asked if it could write this blogpost and a battle report as well, but the suggested text made no sense, so I had to do that my self. 

Despite of the name of the game, it was not so Fast or Furious. -Especially not fast if your opponent is an AI which you need to write and describe every move on the game to, and take time to read how it will react on them when activating. I found this time-consuming, even if some of the comments by the ChatGPT were amusing. 

Would I do it again? I think the cons outnumbers the pros for these rules, so I'll probably not doing another game with these rules. I know AI-apps take everything "from here and a little there" found online and combine it all into an answer, but I don't think this game combination was very successful though even if it looked good at first glance. I think the rules have so many basic shortcomings, that I'm not even going to put them among the other free wargame links and download section of this blog. I guess they can be tweaked further to the better by continuing asking the ChatGPT for further rules and details trying to improve its shortcomings. I did not initially do that as I wanted to try the ChatGPTs capacity to initially suggest a ruleset without having to follow up and give too many corrections and further specifications. Perhaps I should?

Would I play with a ChatGPT as an opponent again? -More likely; Perhaps it works better for even smaller games and even simpler scenarios?

To quote the ChatGPT at the end: "Based on the information provided, it appears that the situation is unfavorable for my squad, and your units have gained the upper hand. I accept the outcome, and it seems that your forces have successfully completed their mission. Well played!" (...) "it was a pleasure playing with you".

Free wargame-rules for army men wargaming by ChatGPT

The free AI-service by ChatGPT have created a lot of headlines in the news recently, as students use it for 'cheating' and a debate if AI it self is 'dangerous' for us and can be trusted. I got a little curious about GhatGPT, but I don't have any homework anymore to ask for helping. -So I asked the ChatGPT the following question to see if this AI-service could make any sensible free wargaming rules for army men:

"Can you write a free fast playing easy wargame rules for army men. with movement in inches and reduction for obstacles. Can you make it with a firing chart for pistol, smg, rifle, siper rifle, lmg, hmg, bazooka, flamethrower and mortar with different ranges and d6 hit probability. It also would need some hitting chart to calculate effects on fire with a d6. Can you also make a d6 based morale chart. I want the rules to contain rules for hand to hand fighting. I also want to have rules for vehicles like soft skins, armored and tanks regarding range and firing and how to calculate hits."

The ChatGPT instantly replied:

"That's it". -If you're not happy with them, you can use the chat-function to ask for further details and give specifications for the rules and get even more details for your rules. -But these rules first suggested by my request seems surprisingly pretty playable to me, so I'm happy with the ChatGPT's inital suggestion. I wonder how well the rules work, so I'll have a testplay of these rules soon. A battle report will therefore shortly be posted on this blog so stay tuned. Please subscribe and follow this blog for updates.

Go to ChatGPT if you would like to have a go for your self. If you manage it to suggest some sensible rules, I also hope you share them somewhere (on your blog, in a Facebook group or in the comment-section here). A 'warning' though; Using ChatGPT can be very addictive. Enjoy!

Disney - An Army Men supplier?

After Pixar became a subsidiary company of Disney, Disney released several Pixar items thru their shops. - Even the green Army Men from Toy Story. I guess they were made to look like classic Tim-Mee's. And even Tim-Mee made a bucket of soldiers looking confusingly like the Disney/Pixar one.

During a family vacation to Disneyland Paris this summer we visited some of the numerous shops there, and all of them were offering the same more or less. But I did not find the same 'Bucket of Soldiers' a licensed Disney/Pixar product earlier reviewed on this blog.

I did find one of the poses from the 'bucket', but he was super expensive, covered in crystals from Swarovski:

I also found some tubes, no buckets, of soldiers in the shops. They did not look like anything from the Toy Story movies, as they looked more knock offs of old Airfix 54mm British Paras, copied to the unrecognisable, priced at €15 (!)

I don't know why they sell these clones and copies instead of 'the real deal', but unless the Toy Story classics in the bucket are back, I don't think Disney will be amongst my future suppliers of Army Men. 

One Page Game Jam - 51 different free one page gaming rules you can play

A wargaming Discord-group I'm following invited it's members to suggest or share their own One Page games or rules in a Jam. I was working in the finishing stages on the 'Rules of Engagement - Modern Warfare' at the time, and submitted the rules to the Jam. I was very surprised and thrilled when my homebrewed houserules were accepted and included in the Jam. 

There are 50 other free One Page Games in the Jam besides mine, covering a lot of different themes and periods. Have a look at them and see if you find any of them you want to play or collect for future gaming. 

Link: One Page Game Jam

The published version is marked "Vol. 1", so perhaps future volumes will follow?  In that case I hope I can encourage you to participate with you own houserules.

One Page Rules - Army Men Combat v2.0

One of the nice things with sharing blogsposts from this blog with relevant groups on Facebook, is that it reaches people who either doesn't follow this blog or else doesn't read it/find it. On one such grop someone pointed out that one of my reviewed games had similarities to the 'Army Men Combat' rules by Gaetano Ferrara at 'OnePageRules'. I'm a great fan of rules that can be fittet into only one page, and I've seen several references to these rules several times in the past, but I've never seen the rules them selves before. The link to them seem to be inactivated from the OnePageRules page as well. The nice thing is that these rules got uploaded to the Facebook-group's file-section and they are free. Since you probably need to be a member of the Facebook-group in speak to download them from the file-section, I'll also share The One Page Rules' Army Men Combat v2.0 in this blog-post so you can have a crack on them yourself if you'd like to.

These rules are referred to as a throwback to the 1st edition of one page 40k and its mechanics. I've never played any 40k games earlier and have no experience with them. Despite of the name One Page Rules, these rules aren't actually only one page. They fits on a single piece of paper printed on both sides though. It's free, can be played with any miniatures including regular army men and it's within my scope of 'budget wargaming'. Therefore I wanted to test-play and review them, and it would be fair to use the same 'Battle of Lumbaya'-setup and scenario I've used for all my other previous game-reviews.

The Army Men Combat rules states that the game ends after only 4 turns and have only up to 3 units each side. Considering that all the previous 'Battle of Lumbaya'-games have more units and lasted for several turns more than that, it was clear that this scenario couldn't be played in only 4 turns, as just trying to get the attacking forces in positions almost took that many turns. -So to be true to this game limitations of number of units and 4 turns, I think it was time to develop a new scenario which could be played in such a time, and I needed a break from playing the same scenario all over again anyway. Besides, these rules presupposes that the forces involved are balanced in strength regardless of 'dug in' defenders in fortified positions, so I think a new scenario for more balanced forces and terrain for this game was needed anyway. I found inspiration for a new scenario at the excellent blog of John Yorio and a game he recently posted a battlereport of; 54mm or Fight.

The scenario

The rules' cover-art suggests some kind of 'Green vs. Tan'-battle, and since my 'Tan' Katangese and 'Green' UN miniatures are still ready available and the Congo conflicts and this UN-mission really interests me, I've placed this skirmish as well 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'.

Situation:

Two UN vehicles from the UN base at Kamina were performing a reconnaissance mission on the roads  between Kamina and the city of Kolwezi. Outside Kambezi they came under heavy mortar shelling from Katangese forces and they were probably both hit as the UN HQ at Kamina cannot reach them by radio anymore. 

The UN HQ sends out search and rescue patrols to find the missing reconnaissance-unit, and it's expected that the roads in the area have taken damage and are impassable for other vehicles, and it's only reachable at foot.

The Katangese forces in the area are aware of the possible UN-wrecks and sends out patrols to find them, and to seize anything of value such as documents like the UN SOPs and codes for radio-communications.

Some houserules to this scenario seems to be required though; It takes 1 man 1 turn to search a vehicle, and it takes 1 man 1 turn to examine  a casualty. To check a casualty's condition, roll a D6, and if the roll is the same value or higher than the turn number for that turn, the casualty is alive and can be medivaced. Casualties can be medivaced at half speed. 

Forces:

• Katangese:
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 5 rifles, 1 sniper rifle and 1 LMG

• UN:
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 6 rifles and 1 LMG
• 1 rifle-squad with 8 members, armed with 1 smg, 5 rifles, 1 bazooka and 1 LMG

Mission:

• Katangese: To find the immobilized UN vehicles and search them for valuable things such as secret UN documents, orders, maps, SOPs and radio-codes 
• UN: To find the missing reconnaissance-patrol and save the members of the unit, and make sure no graded documents in the vehicles fall into the hands of the enemy.

AAR

Time:    40 minutes

Turns:   4

Result:  UN victory by only 5 pts.

When UN and Katangese  forces spots the UN wrecks on the road, both sides advance rapidly and make a run for it. 

And it looks like the UN will reach the site first in the cover of the wrecks...

...which they do. They immediately begins to examine the 2 casualties, gives them first aid and starts searching through the jeep for any compromising material.

The Katangese have reached the other vehicle, and take the UN search and rescue team under fire. They start looking through the UN vehicle close to them.

A fast and brutal battle breaks out, but they're starting to run out of time to secure their missions, and the UN forces tries to 'secure' the possible secret documents in the UN vehicle under Katangese control by blowing it up by a bazooka rocket. The grenade hits but doesn't make much damage, and the Katangese soldiers leaves the truck as they didn't find any thing interesting in it.

The UN have searched the jeep and secured the only secret documents the reconnaissance unit brought with them on this mission; a map and a radio code-list. They've also managed to save one of the crew-members and are now starting to Medivac him...

...as the one of the few remaining squad-members gives covering fire.

And this was the situation after turn 4. Both sides managed to search a vehicle each, and the UN forces also managed to Medivac one casualty and seize the graded documents in the jeep.

There were almost the same numbers of soldiers left on both sides at this time (the UN won only because one of their targets was a sniper and gave another 5pts to their winning score) and it would actually been interesting to see how this battle would have evolved futher if it hadn't been for the limit of 4 turns only.

Pros

• It's easy to learn.
• Fast playing.
• The activation-mechanics ensures pretty fair activation among the players.

Cons

• To make balanced forces some calculation is needed.
• The rules includes only MGs and doesn't differ between LMG and HMG, even if it includes rules for vehicles which is often armed with HMGs.
• There are no rules for SMGs or pistols, even if your Army Men are armed with such weapons.
• There are no rules making heavier weapons needed to be served by 2 or more crew-members.
• I think it's unlikely that a bazooka have longer effective firing range than a rifle.
• No aim-bonus for 'Hold action'. It's probably easier to aim at a target when you're not moving.

Conclusion

I don't know if the game is very 4k-ish, as I have no experience with Warhammer, but I felt that these rules missed some essential elements in modern combat. The rules only mission seemed to be like "kill as many enemies as possible within 4 turns to gain as many points as possible" making no room or time for a secure advance for your own troops. This makes this game a good game if you just want a fast and brutal battle. 

Print and Play for Free: The very first war (-games) in history

Where did it all start? There would be no wargaming without wars, but when did the world's very first war take place?? One thing is certain, and that is they took place for so long time ago that there are no actual historical records documenting them (except for some 10 000 year old cave-paintings). Therefore there are only hypothesis claiming that the first battles were no actual wars but more spontaneous violent conflicts between hunting parties claiming the resources. Hunting parties were armed with spears, clubs, stones, fire and later also with bows and slings.There are also hypothesis claiming that Homo Sapiens violently replaced the Neanderthals and that the extinction of the Neanderthals was a result of a over 100 000 year long 'skirmish' with Homo Sapiens claiming their resources and conflicts over hunting ground. 

Again, there are no historical records, but there does exist some few evidences with 'battle-damaged' skeletons and some cave-paintings showing battle between humans.

Cave painting of a battle between archers, Morella La Vella, Spain

To support these hypothesis we know that our closest relatives, the chimpanzees (and males to be more specific), regularly teams up and attack and kill other male chimpanzees from rival bands. This implies that cooperative aggression evolved in our same ancestors. 

Neanderthals were cooperative big-game hunters using weapons like thrusting spears and clubs. The Neanderthals were more massive muscular builds and had tougher physics than modern humans, and were stronger. Some claims that they couldn't trow objects like spears very well due to their physics. But they must have been superior fighters in close combat.

Homo Sapiens were more numerous, had larger population growth and needed more territory to hunt to feed their growing population. On the other hand, this must have given them numerical superiority in battle after a while. Homo Sapiens hunted with the same weapons as the Neanderthals, but they were more light built and were more dependent on the invention of ranged weapons like throwing-spears, bows and slings making them able to fight from a distance.

There were no regular war declared or big battles, but there seems to been more like small scale raids and ambushes between hunting parties.

If you want to read more on the Subject:

• BBC: Did Neanderthals go to war with our ancestors?

• History of Yesterday: The 100 000 year war between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens

Evidences or not, I became curious how a battle between modern humans with ranged weapons and physical more superior Neanderthals (but without ranged weapons) might have looked like.

The Rules

I didn't find many free wargame rules covering prehistoric periods, and those I found included hunting, wild animals and dinosaurs in som degree. I wanted rules from the period focusing on man vs. man. I guess parts of  different rules covering ancient and medieval periods can work, as such rules are more available. -Just skip some weapons and armour. I was even thinking of 'backdating' Pete Kautz' 1 BC Toy Soldier rules to prehistoric by rewriting them. I ended up backdating my homebrewed Rules of Engagement to cover Prehistoric Warfare, and even before any 'Rules of Engagement' even was invented in real life yet regular combat or battles. 

Link to the rules: Rules of Engagement - Prehistoric Warfare Rules of Engagement - Prehistoric Warfare 

The Armies

Like the rules I didn't find many miniatures to cover this period. -Except for some few and very expensive miniatures. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this experiment, so luckily I found some free prehistoric paper miniatures I could download and print at Junior General. The website covers miniatures thru the whole history, even some prehistoric. I settled for 'Prehistoric Hunters' for my Neanderthal army, and 'Upper Paleolithic hunters and gatherers' for the Homo Sapiens. I printed enough miniatures to make 3-4 hunting parties of 5-6 members for each side. The benefits of printing miniatures and armies from Junior General is that they are free and they come ready 'painted'. All you need to do is cut them out and base them. I think this is a very underrated source for wargaming miniatures. 

There are free bases to go with the miniatures at the Junior General site, and you can make some of cardboard to make them even sturdier. I chose to be fancy about the basing and 3D-printed some found for free at Thingiverse. I think it's still within the scope of 'print' and 'free' as mentioned in the heading.

It didn't take more than 3 evenings after work to print, cut and base these 2 armies

The Game

Scenario:

A hunting party of 3 teams, each with 6 members, of Cro-Magnons coincidentally run into a hunting party of 3 teams, each unit with 5 members, of Neanderthals in an area both claim to have exclusive rights to hunt. The units have a mix of different weapons, but only the Homo Sapiens have ranged weapons like bows, javelins and slings. The mission for each side is to eliminate the other side to claim the territory.

The gaming table. It's a good spot to hunt, as the big game and prey comes to drink water

The Neanderthal hunting party of 3 teams, and mixed weapons

The Homo Sapiens hunting party of 3 teams and mixed weapons.

AAR: 

Time:    1 hour

Turns:   9

Result:  Neanderthal victory

The hunting parties were sneaking around the lake to look for prey, and they couldn't actually see each other before they were pretty close. The Neanderthals in the bush decided to wait to see what the humans did as they could strike from a distance with their ranged weapons.

 

Contact! The hunting teams on the other side of the lake could see each other, and the Homo Sapiens shot at the advancing Neanderthal teams. These ranged weapons weren't so precise, so they hit only a few of them. The Neanderthals knew they didn't have a chance on a distance in the open aganst these weapons, and hurried to engage in a melee. 

One of the hunting teams of Homo Sapiens decided to run around the lake to fall the advancing Neanderthals in the back and relief their tribe members. But as they were running past some vegetation a small team of Neanderthals showed up from the vegatation and engeged them in hand to hand combat.

There was no time or distance, so the Homo Sapiens couldn't use the advantage of their ranged weapons...

...and had no chance against the raging Neanderthals.

On the other side of the lake, the Homo Sapiens managed to slow down the Neanderthal advance with their ranged weapons...

...So the Neanderthal unit that recently eliminated a whole team of Homo Sapiens, started to run around the lake to fall the Homo Sapiens in the back and come to their tribemembers relief.

But the Neanderthal units managed to close the distance and engage the homo sapiens into hand-to-hand combat, and the Homo Sapiens lost their advantage.

The last 2 Homo Sapiens remaining decided to flee the battle, and was almost caught by another Neanderthal team in the flight, and they barely managed to escape. We know that the Homo Sapiens eventually will gain surperiority by being more numerous so they'll probably be back some day to claim the scarce resources again. 

The Conclusion

I've been considering to try out 1:72 scale for future wargaming projects for a while, as smaller armies and terrain pieces are easier to store in this space. If I am to 3D-print more terrain and vehicles on my 3D-printer, it will be a lot quicker in 1:72 due to reduced size and the printers size limitations. I've been a little put off by paintings miniatures this size though. The miniatures from Junior General are about 20mm and gives a good feeling about how it feels to game in this scale. As I've already mentioned, I think the resources on Junior General are highly underrated, and I consider downloading more miniatures from there for future gaming projects.

Historically correct or not, no one knows for sure. -But this is a really budget-wargame you can easily print and play for free. -And it is fast as well. If you have any other suitable rules you prefer, use them instead! Feel free to share your experiences if you play this scenario or rules.