One more "No Brain Wargame"

      I am preparing for a week vacation camping, the first week vacation I've had in ten months. I have several books that I hope to start reading. I'm also going to put some thought  into which direction my gaming is going this winter. Of course there's no sense trying to plan too much.

     I did get two more No Brain Wargames in. The first I used my Peter Laing Zulus. The second I used my Airfix indians. However, in this game one tribe was trying to raid the other tribes camp, instead of just a battle for fighting sake.  Also, instead of both tribes having the same number of archers and spearmen, I randomly reached into the piles of figures for each tribe and whatever figure was picked was placed on the board. Both sides had more archers than the last game, although I still haven't counted how many archers each side had. This is how I picked the tribes when I first played this game 20 years ago.

The white feather tribe, on the left, vs the red feather tribe, on the right. The red feathers have decided to raid the white feather camp (represented by the chief and female figures on the back line). In most of these games, the white feathers have been defeated. However, there is more at stake in this battle.

The red feathers push the white feathers back. The white feathers move some more warriors towards the front of the camp.

The white feather camp.

The red feathers lose 6 men in one turn. Still, the red feather's contempt for the white feather tribe leads them to continue their attack.

The red's contempt seems justified as they punch though the white's line.

One band of red feathers, led by their chief, is confident in their victory.

The white feathers now move to surround the war band under the red chief.

At this point I almost made a big mistake. I was going to have the 4 white feather archers at the bottom of the picture fight the four braves in front of them. However, it dawned on me that the goal was to wipe out the chief's band. With the loss of their chief, the red feathers would lose the fight.

It was the right move. The archers threw one 6, and three 5's. The 5's count as retreats, but as their retreat is cut off by the two warriors behind them, they count as kills. The entire chief war band is killed. The red warriors lose their morale, and retreat from the field. Right as I took this picture, the batteries died in the camera.

New Peter Laing Purchase and a "No Brain Wargame"

      Last week on Ebay there were two lots of Peter Laing Colonials that I wanted. One had tribal figures, such as Mahdi infantry and some North-West frontier figures. This lot had several figures that I do not have yet. The other lot was Egyptian infantry and camel Corps figures, including 5 British Camel Corps figures, which I did not have any of. The first lot was won by someone else; however, I really wanted the second lot, which I won (no one bid against me). And so I now have more camel figures to take up more room.

    I also have been working on some simple rules for a simple game. My plan was to add on to my No Brain Wargame. I wrote down the rules, picked two armies, and played a game. The game was OK; however, I just realized that it went from a No Brains game to an Ancients or Medieval game. What I have in mind is two tribes battling it out, not a set piece battle.
      I started going through my Peter Laing figures to come up with two tribes. In the game I want two different figures; one capable of missile fire, the other for close combat. After thinking about it, I went back to my first No Brain Wargame that I originally played close to 20 years ago. I used Airfix Indians, one group painted flesh colored, the others brown. Both sides had the same number of archers and spearmen. They were randomly placed on the back squares of the board, 4 to a square.  Then as before, I rolled two average dice and 2 6D dice to determine who moved first and how many squares of figures could move. I do believe this will stay as my No Brain Game. Nothing original that hasn't been done before.

Some shots of my "improved" No Brain Wargame. It wasn't an improvement.

At the end of a confusing game, both sides ended with equal figures.

How my original No Brain Wargame from 20 years ago looked like. This is before I  started getting a hold of Donald Featherstone and Charles Grant books.

Looking down the line of the "red feather" tribe. So named because their chief has a red feather to mark him.

The "white feather" tribe. The chief can be seen in the from row. I didn't realize that both chiefs were archers. They became chiefs in my earliest games for their bravery.

The tribes close in on each other.

The red feathers fire first, kills one brave and makes another run away.

The white feathers rolls a "3", and closes in for melee.

They kill one brave and drives back two archers.

The red feathers start pushing through the center.

At the top, the red feathers kill one brave and two retreat. Another white feather is killed in the foreground.

One of the white feather chiefs group is killed. The two chiefs are side by side: the red feather chief also has his face painted red, the white feather chief with his white feather. The red feather chief face was painted red, if my memory serves me right, because in one game he went on a killing spree where he killed several enemies single handedly.

Another shot of the two chiefs.

The white feathers starts working around the forward bands of red feathers.

They manage to make several retreat, but only one is killed.

The white feathers continue their attack.

Once again, they drive some red feathers back, but only kills two.

The red feather charge forward...

..and kills five white feathers; another runs from the battlefield!

The red feathers continue their attack.

On their left flank, they surround one band of white feathers.

In the center 2 more white feathers are killed.

The surrounded band of white feathers are wiped out.

The white feather tribe lost 16 warriors, the red feathers only 4. The white feather tribe always had bad luck in these games, almost always losing. Perhaps they need a new chief!

Some of my new Peter Laing Egyptians. I am thinking of using these figures as King's African Rifles for a German East Africa WW1 game.

More Egyptian camel corps figures.

My new British Camel Corps figures.

Ritualized warfare in New Guinea, 1963

With the help from Man of Tin blog, I finally figured out how to download the video of tribal warfare in New Guinea that I found on Youtube.

Tribal Warfare

       When I play No Brain Wargames, I have in mind some kind of tribal warfare, where warriors fight as individuals. After my last post, I started searching for books on tribal warfare. While I haven't had success yet finding books, I did find an interesting clip on Youtube of "Ritualized Warfare in New Guinea, 1963". Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to link it. However, it is an interesting video that shows what I visualize  my battles look like.

Refining "No Brain Wargame"

     I wanted to try to get some gaming in. The first game was based on the Azanian Empire that I found a description of in the book "The Dictionary of Imaginary Places". The Azanian Army marched into the Wanda tribal territory. The game ended quickly with the Wanda tribesmen falling on the Azanian Army and almost wiping it out.

    The second game I decided to play a "No Brain Wargame". Except that there were extra rules added. First, using Neil Thomas' idea of rolling for armies as used in "One Hour Wargames", except that I made my own chart of armies, made up of infantry, archers, and cavalry. When I set up the board, the units were placed as infantry, archers and cavalry, instead of mixed up with different playing pieces in each hex, as in other NBW. Once again I rolled a 6D and average dice for both sides. The 6D was for who got initiative, the average dice for how many squares of figures could move. Any figure that could engage in combat could battle, even if they weren't activated. After the game, I decided to put these rules into writing, as I am getting close to a useful game.

The Azanian Army is being flanked by the Wanda tribesmen. I started taking pictures half way through the game.

The Wandas closed quickly, negating the Azanians firepower superiority.

The Azanians lose heavily.

TheAzan center drives off the Wandas.

The Wanda horsemen wipe out one Azanian unit, and the Azanian general finds himself facing the Wandas by himself. The Azanian army breaks and runs.

The No Brain Wargame. The Sudanese on the left has 3 infantry, 2 archer, and 1 cavalry units. The Arabs on the right have  4 infantry, 1 archer, and 1 cavalry units. In other NBW, the figures would be mixed up randomly. However, at the beginning of the game I was using the army chart I had come up with for ancients and deployed the units as picked.

Sudanese archers kill one Arab spearman.

The Sudanese archers kill another spearman, and another spearman retreats.

Between the Arab archers and spearman, they drive off two Sudanese archers.

The Arabs are losing heavily. On the right of the picture can be seen 3 Arabs who have been forced to retreat  joining together to form a unit made up of an archer and two spearmen.

The Arabs at the top of the photo are losing heavily. Meanwhile the newly formed Arab unit attacks an archer unit.

The Arab center collapses.

The Arabs concede the field to the Sudanese.

After this game, I started writing down the rules as used in this game. I feel that I'm close to having a quick, fun game that provides enough variables that the game will be unpredictable. Of course, now the game is moving out of the No Brain category.

Airfix- Comic Book Roman Comparison

     There seemed to be some interest in the comic book Romans. I think anyone who had interest in the comic book toy soldiers at one time owned some Airfix figures. I figured what better way to compare the two different figures than to show them side by side.

Side by side comparison of Airfix and comic book Romans.

I tried to get a good photo of one of the comic book Romans next to a ruler for a more accurate  guess at the scale. The infantry figures are approximately 1 1/2 inches, or 35mm tall.