Narrative No Brain Campaign

     After my last No Brain Wargame, I put a little thought into a narrative to the game.  I could see two neighboring tribes raiding each others territory the steal cattle to suppliment their herds.

"Two tribes, the Nsundu (brown shields) and Mhlophe (white shields) main source of food are Nguni, cattle that feed on the grasslands of the tribal lands. They do suppliment their diet with corn, but the soil is ill suited for farming .

 During most of the year there is plenty of grass  for the cows to feed on and water in the ponds for drink. However, as summer comes on, the ponds dry up and the grass starts dying off. Both tribes finds it necessary to bring the cattle to the Umfula River, were there is still plenty of grass and water for the cows. The Umfula forms the border between the two tribes. With both tribes so close, the temptation to raid each other becomes too much." 

Such is the simple narrative for my last game. I played a second game after coming up with this narrative, of which I shall post about shortly.

The Nsundu (left) and the Nhlophe (right) face each other before the Umfula river.

No Brain Wargame to Battle Doldrums

       The last few months I have been looking at different wargame rules and campaigns, each one more involved than the last. Every time I tried to get a game going, the complicated rules and limited time would frustrate me and I would give up on the project, only to start the process all over again. About a month ago I took a break from wargaming, until last week. I decided to play a No Brain wargame using my Zulus. In the end the White Shield tribe beat the Brown Shields.

  After the game I  remembered an article in Lone Warrior about a simple campaign rule idea where each side gets so many coins, and roll to decide how many coins they are playing for. Just for fun I rolled for both tribes. The Brown Shields rolled a 4, the White Shields 1. I imaged the tribes were fighting over cattle (cattle being the source of wealth with the Zulu) and the Brown Shields lost 4 head of cattle. 

   I started thinking more of a simple narrative campaign, going so far as coming up with tribal names and the reason for their battles. I even looked up how much beef 4 cattle would provide: at between 1600 to 2000 pounds of beef, to me it would be worth fighting for.

The two tribes close for battle.

The Brown shields fall back and lose 4 head of  cattle.

A Peter Laing Coronation Parade

 The coronation of King Charles  calls for a parade of Peter Laing Victorian Parade figures as a tribute to this historic  event.

The cavalry decides to make a grand entrance!

I only need about 6,900 more figures to do it right.

The Caissons Go Rolling Along...

The new caisson goes right to work moving guns.

I am not sure about keeping the caisson red, or painting it to match my other caissons. 

 

A Toy Soldier Inspection

The Verdancia Army let's out three cheers as the Emperor's carriage  approaches . 

The Emperor  is pleased at his reception.

The Emperor's carriage is escorted by the Imperial colors and a chosen band of guards.

    The Emperor  of Verdancia has ordered out his army for inspection. With colors unfurled and drums beating, the army raises a cheer for the Emperor!

Semi Flat Additions

     I recently found these on Ebay and ended up buying them. While fairly expensive, I couldn't resist the carriage. The passengers seem to be Russian officers. I am not sure of the manufacturers, although Wollner might be the maker of the carriage.

One can never have enough caissons for your artillery.

The carriage with its passengers and coachman. There were no horses with it.

Another view.

Basic Battles Rules

    One perk to my job is I do a lot of driving. While doing so I listen to YouTube videos.  I mainly listen to history, but for a change of pace, sometimes I will listen to wargaming channels.

   One channel that I recently found  was  Grey Army Gaming. While he mainly does RPG and Star Wars, he also wrote a set of simple rules that he could play with his kids called Basic Battles. After listening to his videos, I realized  that  they were a good set for skirmish games that could easily be added to by house rules. What's more, he made available   PDF file of the rules for free.

    I have played a couple of practice games, and see plenty of potential with it.  

    If you do watch some ofhis videos on Basic Battles, I strongly suggest that you watch his Basic Battles Naval game. It is hilarious how excited and involved he gets into the game, going so far as to make sounds of the battle! 

    

The end of the game; the goblins retreat. In this game, to break off close combat, the enemy gets to strike against the retreating unit. The goblins lose two more figures.

Combat is determined  using d20 dice. If the attacker charges in, they get to roll 2 dice against the defenders one dice. In this turn the defender rolls an 11, the attackers a 6 and 15, causing one defender lost.

In this attack the defender rolls a 17, the attacker a 12 and 14. The defender beats the two attacks.

The start of the game instead of using a figure with a dice as a wound counter, I used units.

New Toy Soldier Mold

        A while back I had the idea of using Britain's West Point figures for making 1800s American militia units. The cost of original  Britain's figures made using them beyond my means.  I did make a mold of the body, with the idea of swopping heads. Most of the heads I got didn't look right on the body. The idea petered out and I moved on to other projects.

   A few weeks ago I was on an auction website looking for a particular toy soldier mold. I came across an old mold from A.C.Gilbert Kasting of a marching West Point cadet. The mold looked to be in good shape, but it was quite pricey. I resisted for a couple of weeks, before breaking down and buying it. 

    I just received  it, along with one casting of it. I also found a couple of bars of casting metal that I didn't  know I had.  Unfortunately  the basement was flooded by a leak and many boxes stacked in front of my casting area, putting a hold on trying out the new mold.

The new Gilbert West Point mold.

The casting that came with it

My earlier attempt at using a Britain's  West Point figure to make an 1800s American militiaman.

Battle of Five Armies Portable Wargame

     I have tried  in the last couple of months to get a project off the ground, without success.  A couple of weeks ago I brought out "The Battle of Five Armies" from Games Workshop from 2005. The game uses Warmaster rules with 10mm figures. I always liked the look of the Warmaster units, but couldn't get into the rules.

   Fast forward 18 years. On my job I do a lot of driving. I will play YouTube videos (no I don't  watch them) while driving. For two weeks I listened to one poster explain the rules, different armies, and battle reports. One thing about the battle reports was the fact that 4 turns could take up to over 2 hours of play. As time is limited, that would not work for me. I then went on my Kindle and brought up my copy of "The Portable  Wargame  Compendium". In it it has rules rules for " Swords, Sorcery and Squares: A fantasy variant of the Portable  Wargame " by Justin Barrett. I thought these rules could work with the BoFA game pieces. For a trial  game I ended up using Bob Cordreys' Portable Wargame Ancients  rules. 

   My wife went out with one of her nieces  for a couple of hours. I decided to use one base of figures for each unit, as the board wasn't large enough  for  multiple bases. The game at first was going well, but then I started fumbling with the dice that marked the unit's SP. Then the wife came in and started to talk about her night, distracting me from the game. The game fizzled  out, but has me thinking of using individual  figures  to represent SPs. 

The armies deployed. The goblins on the left, the humans on the right.

The goblins slowly forced the humans back.

The end. The goblins defeated the humans, destroying most of the human units. In the end I screwed up with the break points and the game should  have ended sooner.

2mm Wargame

In the last month I not had any time to work on the hobby. Last night I made time to get in a quick 2mm game using my cigar box wargame set up. Terrain was set up randomly, and both armies had 4 infantry and 2 cavalry units.

In the end the red army captured the village, but lost 4 out of 6 units: first side to lose 2/3 of their army loses.