This evening was the second evening painting. I really enjoyed this as it was quite a while ago. But I have made some progress. Most allied tanks are almost ready to play. I have painted the tracks and added some details. And tried to paint some allied markings by hand as I do not have the correct decals. They turned out fine. There can still a lot of details be added. But they will do their job. Only left is spraying them in mat varnish, and maybe some wash after that. But that will be done as the germans are also this far.
I hope to get the forces ready to play a game of What a Tanker. As I will need more things to make, I try to minimize the time spent on items to get still a good result. In the background also some Normandisch houses. Have put on some base colors on them. Terrain is one of the other things needed. Also the germans use more camouflage, so will probably take some more time. Enjoy!
Today I finally had some time to paint some tanks. I have 3d printed some 10mm scale tanks for What A Tanker. Today I gave the airbrush a go, and put primer and a russian green on the allied tanks. Basic colors done now. Next step will be painted with the brush. Track work and some details. Then some sealing cote and they are ready for a game. German side has to follow suit closely hopefully
Last week I have played some games again finally. My father visited and we played some simple and quick games.
W1815 U&P games
The first 4 games where W1815. The famous battle of waterloo. This is a simple game which if you know the rules can be played in 15 minutes. But as it was the first time we played this game, it took 30 min for the first game. It is a very simple game. No movement, max 1d6 dice roll. And fixed orders.
It played very nicely, although I lost 3 out of the 4 games, I have really enjoyed them. So if you search for a gap-filler kind of wargame, just check it out.
One hour wargame modern (Ww2)
The second game was a one hour modern wargame. Two rusian equiped armies met each other in a standoff battle (scenario 1 from the book) we used the ww2 version of the rules, like some african countries withour air support available.
It worked reasonable well. The scenario is not very good for modern fights as it has no cover available. In the end I lost again. But we had a good game night. Hopefully some more games in the future..
His goal was to recreate some Lord of the Rings style wargaming. I really like his approach. But personally I like to have a little more magic in them. Like in some of the larger battles of the Drow Drizzt series. Therefore I will probably alter them a bit. But first I need to come up with some forces.
I am thinking to do a 2 mm version. Bases around 60 or 100mm wide. And converting all distances to cm or 2x cm, and 3d print all forces. Just toying around in my head, and scribbling some designs on paper. Hopefully some time to create them in the near future. But probably better to finish some other projects first.
Last two of weeks I have made some progress with multiple armies. A week ago I painted the first cohorts of a Roman army. 1 legion consisting of 10 cohorts. 8 with red shields, 1 with blue shield and 1 with green shield. Finished they look very nice. Painting these 2mm blocks was quite easy. First painting the base in earth colors. Then the army blocks based in silver. Afterwards the shield in their color and banners in red. Next step army painter strongtone wash, which really put everything together. Applying grass, and a nice red border on the base, to make it easier to spot the correct owner and they were finished
After the Roman army I came across a youtube video on the one hour wargame book by Neil Thomas. Being inspirered and I already had the book, started to read it again. As I have a Napoleonic army nearly finished, I played a game of Napoleonics, realizing how quick and easy the rules are, and started fantasizing to start new armies. After reading the wo2 rules, I already was thinking to order some unit when I realized I had some after wo2, 1970s units in stock, planned to be used in the Ethiopean and african conflicts. So this resulted in trowing everything together, to have two 10 unit armies. Every army consisting of 2 tank units (t55 en t62, 2 anti tank units (bmp and sagger), 2 artillery units, and 4 infantry units (some stands with transports like bmp etc.) The red border army is in dark green, the blue colored in yellow green.
Yesterday and today I have spent some time painting aircraft. This is a slow progress. Every time referencing some photos and choosing what to paint. But it is progress and enjoyable. It will take still significant time to complete everything.
Yesterday evening. Some grey colors ont the modern jet fighters and the cockpits.This evening the USAF F86 Sabres stationed at Soesterberg AB.
Originally I had planned to play the first two battles of the campaign. But it is nicer to play with an opponent. So Sunday morning after service, we could play a nice game of Infinity. I have not completely finished the painting the miniatures, but colors are blocked in, so it is easily recognized who is who.
I have the operation Icestorm box. In these starter sets is a seperate booklet for the rules. These does not contain all the rules. ( The complete rules can be downloaded on the Corvus Belli Website.) But rather have introductonary missions, which tell the rules bit by bit. Beginning at a very simple level. We played mission one.
The mision introduces to the basic concepts of the infinity system.
Dice rolls (normal, opposed, etc.)
AROs (reactions by non active players)
And the usual stuff, such as movement and fighting
For this they only allow to use a basic character, with the same weapons. Maps are equal for both side, and both start with 3 soldiers. There is a lot of fluff and story on naming the different troops, but for now, they are just basic soldiers. The Red are the Nomads, Blue is Panocean. The PanOceans are sligtly better at shooting, for the rest they are similar.
We both started without any idea what we where doing. Just playing around and testing what can be done. My father played the PanOceans, I played the Nomads. We started with a small firefight. The first casualty was a PanOcean soldier..
Left flank cleared of the first soldier. You can already see, the flanking maneuver planned out.
At that moment we began to understand the system. My father tried to flank my troops form the other side. This resulted in an attack, were my troops were caught in the open. This resulted in a Nomad casualty. Luckily the source, was quickly dealt with, but another PanOcean rounded the corner.
The right flank, PanOcean soldier tries to flank around, and come in from behind.
At that moment we tried out dodging. resulting in some firefights, with a second Nomad casualty. Making the stand even. I tried to find cover from the roof, and we ended in a firefight. After three turns, I was the lucky one, to land the killing shot.
Final result, three panOceans casualties, two Nomad casualties.
All in all, it was a nice game. I am looking forward to play the next mision, and think it is an enjoyable game. My father did like the game, but doesn’t like the sci-fi setting that much. He would probably prefer a ww2 themed version (which might be doable, if you don’t use all the special abilities, and a little more troops.
I hope to play some more games in the future, and finish the models some time. But don’t expect much progress on the short term. Hope I can play some campaign games this week.
The only army which is in a reasonable state to play some games, is the 2mm Napoleonic armies. I want to play some more games this years, and play also some solo. Therefore I have ventured into the realms om Imagination.
The basic idea is, to have a simple campaign system, without a lot of bookkeeping. Playing multiple battles in an evening or Sunday afternoon. I have created some backstory. Probably not the best. But a reason to move some troops and play games.
The campaign system is created by myself, simple moving some armies from area to area, to secure the capital, and destroy the enemy army. Enemy movement is mostly based on the chainreaction system from two hour wargames.
The battle which will happen when two armies will occupy one area, will be played out with the Simplicity in Hexes rules, which I found on the blog of Jay Ward, with again some enemy behaviour based on the chainreation system of THW. Scenarios will be coming from the One Hour wargames book of Neil Thomas. The terrain will be a hex landscape, slightly larger as in the rules, for visual reasons.
Below I will tell the background story, and show the map. The map has been created with the help of the fantasy map generator on the web. (see link below) the data has been exported to QGis, a map making tool. Playing around, some visual formatting was done. If you like the map, you can download it for your own projects, and also the more detailed rules for the campaign in the links provided at the bottom.
The land of Ukkhinbar. The capital is the largest city in the land (denoted by the square)
Background story
The year is 1785, 7 years after Marcus Fontusius Rethida and his sister Cillia Rethida were forced to leave their beloved country Ukkhinbar. They had grown up as prince and princes at the royal court in the Capital Wawic. But had to flee south during the coup. Their own nephew had murdered their father and crowned himself emperor. Now it was the time to march back to their hometown. Five large armies listened to their command. When they had left, they had been young. Heading south they found rest in Segifell. A rough city, were you’re live was most precious. They had met an old man, which had taken them into house. The 17 year old twins, had been weeping and sleeping for a week, they had lost everything. Only the ring, received from their father was still on their finger. The man tried to comfort them, and learned them a riddle: “Bait with smelt to catch a cod” The first year they worked here and there. Creating more and more connections, and growing a larger network. Both on the legal side as on the dark side of the world. After three years, Marcus and Cillia started to think about revenge on their Nephew. They started to employ people for their cause. Now after the 7 years, they have amassed 5 armies. Built from mercenaries, pirates and adventurers. But very loyal, as long as they paid regularly. They had only a limited amount of money, so they had to do a quick campaign. Moving as swiftly as possible, to liberate the capital. After that they would deal with the rest of the country, but would have access to the treasure of the crown to pay the armies. Spies are reporting multiple armies which are defending the capital and surrounding lands. The only way to their home, is forward.
Deployment
Enemy start with 9 PEF Armies
You start with 5 armies, two under command of Marcus and three under command of Cillia.
Each army is 6 units. Scenario determines how many units are involved in each battle. Following OHW scenarios
Scouts have reported nine possible enemy forces (PEF), you will enter the lands from the south.
You start on southern edge, with 5 armies, deploy as you wish.
Enemy start northern cities with 9 PEFs. 1 PEF start at other side of water to the right.
each campaign turn is 1 day.
Capital must be reached within 30 days, to ensure you can pay the armies to complete the campaign.
Plan
I hope to start the campaign next weekend, most of the things are ready.
rules
armies
dice
terrain pieces
Only the hex grid for the scenarios I have to arrange. I have the possibility to print on white paper. The files are ready, but I am thinking in a little more pleasing solution, with more eye candy. I don’t have a solution yet.
This is just my first try, to play a campaign, have a backstory. I don’t know how it will turn out. And probably adapt the rules on the fly. Hope it will make some fun.
First to start with a disclaimer. I am quite new to wargaming, and have not played a lot of games. So probably I will overlook a lot of rules and concepts. But I will try to write some summary I could find right now.
Girl herding geese, Slag om Grolle 2012
In general wargames don’t bother to much with civilians. I have read a couple of recent wargames battle reports and most did not feature any civilians. When they do participate I could identify a couple of reasons:
Objective
Think about farmers defending their crops against raiding and stealing cattle. Most of the time not part of any team, but acting like some kind of military units with low capabilities. The actual live and living of these civilians is most of the time not considerd, and wont have impact on the story or campaign. This is mostly used in medieval or more ancient battles and sometimes in fantasy or sci-fi adventures.
Civilians with tools(or weapons) Pendraken 10mm
( Negative or Positive) modifier
It is not good to have civilian casualties, but they are only some negative modifier to the end score. Often seen in ww2 air war games, were you try to recreate bombing of a city, were missed bombs (which have civilian causalities) generate negative points. But is might also be used in modern urban warfare. But it might also be used impacting morale, as the civilians are liking your side more or less.
(Moving) Obstacle
Those refugee streams can clog up roads, or make moving around more difficult. It just act the same way as terrain feature, impacting your military forces. They might be moving around as a walking forest is which you only see in fantasy setting, so refugees make up a more believable story, in historical setting.
Unexpected military unit
This is mostly used in modern irregular wars, were mobs of civilians are either blocking your road, or suddenly turning back on you and showing itself as military unit.
Conclusion
Starting the research I had expected that there would be not much ways to involve civilians in wargames, but multiple different ways have been discovered. The only one missing, which would make sense from human rights perspective, is a direct head on head wargame, civilians against a militairy power, where the civilians do not use weapons, but score by avoiding casualties. I haven’t found a system what uses these kind of mechanics yet. Maybe I have to create my own.
Now looking back at the original question:
Can wargame rules include human rights violations, and still teach us a lesson, while telling the (his)story?
I don’t think the mechanisms above tells something about human rights violations. They do take civilians in account, and can create good (his)stories. But don’t teach us about human rights violations.
For this I have to search futher or create my own. From computer games I want to highlight two examples, which takes some civilian live into account. The first is “This war of mine”, which is a game where you play as civilian in a warzone, and try to survive in your house. You are searching for supplies and encounter thereby other people, were you can steal their supplies or fight them. The emotional aspect has some place here, as it feels not good to steal from an elderly couple. But if you don’t get the supply, one of your characters die. The second game is “Conflict Zone” were two parties battle, but the resources are civilians. For the “good” side, you try to save as many refugees as possible, for the “bad” side, you don’t care, but need to indoctrinate as many civilians as possible.
For aerial wargaming I have been using 1/600 scale models. For putting them on the table, I had used some homemade stands. Consisting of a hexagon shape base plate, with small vertical rod. On top of the rod was a colored bead, with a magnet glued on. On the base was a rectangle for a 7mm D6 dice. (see image below) I have used these for several games, and they work fine. But have the downside, that everything needed to be noted with dice. The speed, height and often an ID marker, to check which unit it was. (with flights of multiple identical planes). So a better way to do this had to be found.
The old stand on the right and middle, the new stand on the left
After ordering the new planes, it was time to order some new magnets to base the planes. When looking on the magnet seller site, I noted some long thin magnets. And a new idea sprang into my head. I have seen people using Lego bricks to denote the different height levels. But it might be also possible to do this with magnets. And you can see the results below.
The bare bases, 25mm hexagon (I think from pendraken/minibits)I spray painted them in three different colors, from a rattle can. Blue, Red and grey. Two opposing side, and a neutral color for civilian or ordnance etc. Or when needed extension on one of the two sides. I have 10 of each, so 30 in total.
Because the color bases would be much to visible, I opted to use some aerial photography to cover the face. In google earth I searched from some nice pieces of lands. Most have been of dutch Landscapes. Some fields, polders, coast line, city and rivers. All the bases were glued to the back.After drying the bases were carefully cut out.All 30 bases cut out, with one blank on on top.Then it was time to add a small magnet to the middle. This could have also been a small metal bead or ring. And I am thinking to do drill next time a hole, and glue it in the MDF. Then covering it with the printed textures, so they are not visible anymore.The Fokker G-1s show the concept and the final product. Height can now be noted with the amount of cubes. So you can directly see which plane is higher. Also you can see some different textures.
I am very happy with how the finished result looks like. I am still thinking to add a dice frame, for the speed. But will probably play a game first. I hope this helps others too. Now I can proceed on basing the planes, and painting more.
