Tricks with Vics: Toy cars for Modern Wargames

Well, it has been a difficult effort - much more than anticipated.  Without further ado, here's my thoughts on diecast vics in wargaming...

First it is unusual to find a line of cars that are actually all the same scale.  What the manufacturer does is say "1:43" and many of the cars are.  But all the cars are the same SIZE, which is to say about the same dimensions.  So a Mini or Fiat 500 will be about the same size as a full-size truck, which means it is NOT the same scale as it should be much smaller if it was actually 1:43.  This is a common problem with nearly all the popular lines, and has to do with the manufacturing process no doubt.

So, right off the bat you have a problem - the scales of cars in the same line by same company do not actually match up, only the sizes do. This means you have to shop around and even carry your 28 or 25mm figs with you. Interestingly, a big vic in real life - say a large SUV - in a smaller scale may actually match up in size with the sub-compact made in a larger scale. So a 1/64 SUV may match up with a 1/55 compact.

The toy industry has its own priorities, and if you go for 20mm or 1/72 or 1/76, you are probably going to find plenty to use one way or another.  20mm figures are out there, and there are plenty of nice ones, so I recommend that if you want to fit into a tight battle space.  15mm is also no big deal, you can probably start using Matchbox cars at a $1 each.

If you go for 1/48, that is quite close to 1/43 and you can probably find a lot to use.  Only problem is that the game starts to need a lot more table space.  For skirmish games, a cluttered area is great as it provides lots of cover. But the vics quickly get big enough to be more like houses, and then the houses look small because they are often undersized. Undersized houses are needed because they become mountains when correctly scaled with the figures. Again, just something to keep in mind - do you want a large obstacle in the middle of your game table?  Or will figs be able to fight within the building?

If you are looking in the most popular skirmish rule scale which is 1/56 to 1/60 or so or 25-28mm [-ish] then you gotta dig around harder.  Toy plastic or metal cars in this size/scale are a lot less common.  Siku brand is 1:55 and from Germany, therefore available in the EU.  But they are almost unavailable in the USA as they are not exported here - something to do with safety regulations.  Buying them on line and shipping them over puts the into the $15-20 range quickly.

The popular 1:43 scale Chi-Com cars are quite frankly too big.  They make most 28mm figs look like kids getting into a car, and take up a lot of table space.  Plus, they may not fit into your terrain like roads and parking spaces unless you bought / created it to match them.

As I subscribe to the theory that terrain almost always has to be shrunken a bit due to scale considerations, generally speaking terrain pieces should be a bit smaller than in real life.  So, if a building would be 8" x 8" in true scale, it should probably be 6x6" in a wargame, or else it dominates the game space. This is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind unless you want to do the math of scale distortion.

What "looks right" ultimately has to trump any other decision.  A parking lot full of cars is a "terrain type" and shouldn't be represented exactly in most games.  So... what looks right??

Well, cars that are scale correct or a bit smaller.  And that means the car should be about 25-30mm wide in 25-28mm, and about 50-60mm long, for most day driver compact cars.  A few are larger, several are longer [the width of a vic is set by road / parking space / bridge widths, etc] but generally speaking, most of us drive a car that is less wide than we are tall, and 2-2.5 times our height. You can look up the 20-30 top compacts in various formats and that's about what their dimensions are.

So... what is the right choice as "scatter terrain" for urban warfare?

Generally speaking, it's a car that is smaller than 1/43 - it's more like 1/60.

Below, some trucks I got at the grocery store: a military truck, and an old-school farm / dump truck.  They were $6 apiece [thus giving its Chi-com manufacturer a mere $5 profit] but just the right scale for 28mm, IMHO.  So I took pics:

Below, another approach - buy and/or build the mat / table, then build / buy the terrain.  The parking lot sets a visual tone for the game.  These Deep Cut Studio mats are about a bit tight for 1:43 - the middle red car with the stripe is tight in the space and it's a sub-compact.  The top red car is better, but perhaps a bit small, and it is a compact. The pickup truck and the Army truck are just right. But nothing is perfect, including these mats from Lithuania.

Top is a Kidami car.  At Amazon, these are about $3 each in batches of 5, $2.50 if in a batch of 10.  They are bigger than Matchbox cars, and probably just right for 25mm, a bit large for 20mm.  Next down is a Mondo Motors [italian company] subcompact.  It is large, altho its SIZE is not bad for a 28mm car, it's just the scale is way off for a 1/56 car!  Next down, is an Adventure Force pickup truck from Walmart.  These are a measly $3.79 and come with oversize jacked-up wheels, but with a quick adjustment with a screwdriver - and alternate wheels - they are just the right size / scale for 28mm, IMHO.  Next down is the military truck from the above comment.  I got it at Acme, but it's presence is unreliable.

Another angle, same vics.  I like the relative sizes of all three without the Mondo Motors car.  They just "look right" together.

Admit it!  These match up nicely next to one another.  The Army flatbed is biggest, then the pickup, than the private auto. Overall, just right.

This makes the Midami look small. But It is probably realistic for a [sub?]compact 4-door.

Proof is in the Empress' pudding.  Two Empress Insurgents, one Terminator Genisys T-800, which is supposed to stand around 6' tall.

Let's get on the [light] truck!  These look just a tad big.  But not bad, and they fit nicely on the table, overall. Perhaps the door is a bit smallish.

The pickup looks just right here - it's the two figs that seem a bit off compared to one another. But this looks like it is a mid-size pickup, not big but not small.

This compact - or sub compact - looks about right.  The standing fig can easily shoot over the roof, and the kneeling guy can easily shoot over the hood.  The T-800 can sight over the entire vic!  This is a good size for a small red car.

This 1;43 Mondo Motors auto is a sub compact, most likely.  As such, it is far too large proportionately.  However, as a terrain piece, it is about the right SIZE for a generic car.  But it makes the figs look a bit dwarf-ish.

by width, the Mondo is too bit, and the Kidami is a tad small for the parking space. At far left, is another generic "1:43" pickup, which could be a large "Suburban" full-size truck, while the white truck is mid-sized.  The red Kidami fits nicely against the other vics, while the blue is a bit big next to the Army truck.

To get more specific, Walmart v. Acme trucks! The Adventure Force pickup is nicely sized, while the blue is very full-sized or too big-sized.  There's variety in truck sizes, more than we think...could be a Chevy Suburban pick up...but too big.

Adventure Force pickup.  Looks just about right for mid-size truck.

1:43 diecast.  It's a bit big - altho a Suburban size truck is quite large, this just doesn't look right on the table. The proportions are off.

side-by-side, not too different. But the blue has a lot more "mass".

This grouping makes the bus and truck look nearly right. Actually, the bus should be at least as tall and longer than the truck.  But the car looks good next to the light military truck.

Here, by comparison, the Mondo Motors car looks much too large. Crazy next to the bus, and obviously too big next to the army truck.

The farm truck scales nicely with the army truck.

The Kidami fits in - looks just right.

This angle really shows how oversized this subcompact is next to a truck.  The phone's camera always distorts just a bit - probably the lens is a bit small.

Below, a group of Kidami pics.

These are scaled wrong, as is the Porsche. The sort-of-hummer and the Benz should be larger and the Porsche smaller.  However, they look like other cars made today, and only a bit small compared to the figs, so I'm OK with this.

Below, Adventure Force pickup looks OK with the Kidami. Lens is distorting things a bit, however, the Kidami is smaller than it appears.

Nice shot - looks just like a small car should.

Closer - might even be a tad big.

This wagon looks a bit small next to the bulk of this guy.  Then again, Soldiers look a lot bulkier with their gear and weapons, anyway.

Below, a traffic dispute in downtown Baghdad?  Ford v. Chevy??

OK, let's pretend the SUV is a Scion, and the Posche a Panarama.  Still, not bad.

This shot makes the three look about right next to each other.  The light army truck is biggest, then the pickup, then the Porsche.  

"you cut me off, dog!"  "Take this, swine!"

Hopefully, this post will save you some time should you decide to buy some diecast yourself.  But overall, switching to 20mm is probably the easiest thing to do.  But they are a bit small for my aging eyes, so 28mm it is!

Storming Forwards - "5 K from Leipzig" Playtest 2

The Emperor Is Looking for a Few Good Clones!

Or men...he'll settle for bio-humans if he has to.      latest (1920×1024) (nocookie.net)

In the never-ending quest to develop the ultimate set of modern skirmish rules, further playtesting was conducted using a different mission, a standard patrol mission. In this one, rather than securing an objective, the valiant Guardians of Order have to plug their way around the board investigating pieces of terrain. In each, a marker denotes the possibility of there being contraband / evidence or actual bad guys. Instead of Scum and Villainy, the opposition is provided by the less-than-peaceful Tusken, natives of the wild Jundland Wastes and other areas that are not to be traveled lightly, if at all.

Below, the locals in all their glory. There are up to eight that may appear, half with hunting blasters [one of which is mounted on a bantha, the Leader, who can also dismount] and half with a gaderffii stick which counts as a melee weapon and will therefore win ties in melee. Figs are Wizards of the Coast pre-painted plastics and the terrain is from the pet shop intended for the recreation of lizards or perhaps Krayt Dragon pups, if that's more your style.

Below, the Heroes of the Empire, the same squad previously fielded with a few bonuses based upon their post-battle roll-ups. Below them are the markers used to denote victory points [blue] or enemy [yellow]. The system I used is that each of the 8 terrain pieces has a flipped marker on it. When the Stormtroopers touch the marker it is revealed as either its value in victory points or its value in Tuskens - which Tuskens is randomly decided.

As a reminder, VPs are rolled against at the end of each turn - if the dice are equal or less than the amount of VPs, the game ends.

Below, I played a couple of test games to make sure my scenario parameters worked.  In this last playtest, the Stormeys triggered the main body - yellow 4 - in the first terrain piece they patrolled.  As it contained the Leader, he was able to activate the other two markers, one each turn, for support. 

The fight was pretty intense, with the gaderffii stick-wielding Tuskens slugging the scout sent to check out the marker, who went down wounded. He was rescued by his buddies who were placed in overwatch positions and achieved fire superiority and administered first aid. The Tusken leader charged out from behind the hill but was wounded. The Stormeys then dominated the firefight with the supporting Tuskens who took some wounds and fled. Overall, a well executed tripping of the Tusken ambush.

With this, I was pretty certain that the game was ready for its next tester, and made an appointment to meet up with Steve, who is an experienced gamer and has played several other skirmish games. Plus, he's a Star Wars fan and can make great Tusken barks!  

Below, I set up a table at a local FLGS [which thankfully has open play and a good attitude about the Wuhan-flu]. The mission was to secure the center building and drive off the natives suspected of illegal weapons manufacturing. Below view is from the Stormey side.

And this view is from the Tusken side.

Steve caught on to the mecahnics - and therefore the tactics - of the rules quite quickly.  He experimented with various Actions that subtly alter the tactics, and established a good battle rhythm for his team.  He learned "on the job" while engaging his first couple of Tuskens in a field on the way to the building. That firefight triggered the alertness of a few others that were able to snipe at his team from cover on the far side of the building [from Steve's point of view].

Steve pressed on out of the field and enveloped the building on two sides.  He then engaged more Tuskens on both sides of the building. On the West side, two were sneaking up using the building as Cover. Steve's point man ended up in their ugly faces, outnumbered...

The team of three exchanged fire with the supporting Tuskens with hunting blasters, then ended up in melee with gaderffii stick-swinging thugs. After some unlucky rolls, Steve had a couple of troopers down, despite KO'ing one Ugly and Wounding another. Fortunately, leveraging his own supports, Steve was able to regain the initiative, administer advanced First Aid, and kill the bad guys on the west side, and suppress the snipers.

Meanwhile, on the east side of the building, the Stormtroopers team triggered the main force including the Tusken leader and and some of his warriors. This meant they had to fight it out in close terrain. The Stormey's stuck together and using covering fire were able to beat off the gaderffii stick brutes and organize for a bantha charge!

Pressing on, the White Knights of the Empire finished off the foot soldiers, shooting two down...

Then, their Leader - I believe - won a melee against the bantha, and administered a bucket of old-fashioned whoop-ass!  The remaining Tuskens fled the table.

Overall, a good playtest.  In the excitement, I forgot to do some morale checks for both sides, caught up in explaining the rules and such. It always happens!  At least I remembered to take some pics this time.

There were a couple mechanical tweaks that need to be made - Steve had great questions and it made it clear what needed to be clarified or simplified in the rules.  Just so he would have the entire "Five Kliks" experience, I had him roll up his campaign results, and he got a few skills and some fate for his team.

Again, these beta rules are an unfinished product, but have been great to work with, provoking a lot of thought on my part, and plenty of opportunities to develop the rules a bit further in the 6d6 style.

All this makes me want to make more progress on my Taliban - who will make great substitutes for Tusken Raiders in the Real World!

Fighting "Chain of Command" in Crete

 Hey, anyone seen a big cannister of military stuff laying around here...?

from: WW2-Chronology-335-px800.jpg (800×776) (wp.com)

Was privileged to play in a truly lovely WWII skirmish game by dedicated and project-minded local veteran who shared with us the fruits of his Wuhan-flu confinement - would that we had all done so well!  He chose TFL's "Chain of Command" [CoC] as his poison, and we were his first playtest group.

CoC uses teams of 2-8 guys as Units, and that is how the game mechanics fight. The independent leaders usually have a pistol or SMG and can contribute to the violence, but are more useful in the role of running things by giving orders and activations.

As the game is intended to be thrown at a 'con, presentation standards are quite high!  

Below is the German platoon, three squads, each with a leader, an MG 34 team and a rifle team.  The "HQ" has an officer and Sergeant, an Anti-tank Rifle team, and a Flamethrower team [uh-oh...].  This comes down to 8 teams and 2 independent leaders.  As one can imagine, the Rifle teams can lay down some fire and provide bodies. The LMGs lay down a lot of fire. The ATR is OK against light tanks and the flamethrower is effective at scaring pretty much anything, and occasionally destroying stuff, also.

Below is the Commonwealth force.  It is pretty formidable as well. It has squads of the same breakdown as the Germans, a rifle Team and an LMG team.  The Bren LMG is not quite as good as the MG34, but it [of course] has a special rule, cuz basic rules just aren't enough for people... Anyway, the HQ has the same two leaders and a 2" mortar and a MkIV Vickers tank. Basically, it's a light tank with two MGs in the turret - not a great tank but better than none at all!  Plus, it is pretty bullet-proof.

Below, close-up of the lovely figures. The Blue key-rings are for Senior Leaders, the red for Junior Leaders [the Jrs are stuck with their squad, basically]. The black key-rings are for the additional LMG guys, so they don't get confused with riflemen.

Below, the flank road coming in from game West [German perspective]. Rob made large area templates with fixed terrain, and numerous small ones of bushes, rocks, etc. The roads are made from canvas with silicone putty, and on the back is duct tape to prevent curl [and it gives some weight, also]. Many of the bushes are plastics, some for acquariums.

Below, a lovely orchard. The trees are affixed to the base. This is made of thin plastic, I believe model railroad plastics. With the ground covering, it is quite stiff.  Note that they are atop a purchased game mat that has it's own pattern on it. Looking closely, you can see that they don't match up, but the overall effect is great.

Above and below... Rob _made_ all the buildings. Yep, hand made. They were cut from insulating foam and then the brick patterns were etched in with a pencil.

Above, my German squad "appears" on the table near its Jump Off Point [a sort of "blip" from which you can pop into view]. They have hard cover from the stone wall and buildings [a few are inside].

Below, my partner invading Crete from Above, Dave deploys his squad on the wrecked glider template [like...wow!  just WOW!] which is giving him some light cover. They are advancing carefully, since we know there must be some Slimey Limey's ahead, hence the triangular marker at their front.

Below, my squad has been getting whittled down steadily by the Kiwi's at the stone wall above them - to top left you can just see the 2" mortar crew, I believe. Way down the road at top right, you can see the tank!  My ATR crew did a magnificent job, peppering away a bit and reducing its effectiveness with hits. 

CoC concentrates on the effects of "hits" more than the details of damage, not to mention the details of technical armor v. weapon performance. A good choice.

Below, Dave's squad has advanced to a stone wall. He also has a second squad and the FT team and a senior leader. he is engaged against the grape vines above, along which a Kiwi squad has deployed. The good news is we have hard and they have light cover. The bad news is there's another squad at the top of the hill!  Outnumbered and attacking at 1:2, the Germans will have their work cut out for them!

Above, a great view of the customizing done with the glider model, showing a wrecked wing and battle damage. It is not affixed to the template.

Below, a "leader's-eye view" of the para squad the Germans are fighting from their stone wall. These walls are also hand-made by Host Rob, and have a great "stacked stone" sort of look one would find at a working farm. Note the camo smocks, blue helmets, and some helmet covers.

Below, the view up the hill to the objective at the top! The Bofers 40mm AA is an obvious target - the Fallschirmjager are way at the bottom. The first Kiwi squad is at the bottom edge of the grape vines, and the other is towards the top [you can see the red and a black key ring band below the yellow dice]. Above a foot between the bottom squads, another 18" to the top squad, and another 9" to the objective!

Below - terrain moment. The trees are glue to a hole in the base for additional stability. The telephone pole is on a plastic base with a washer under it for weight. You can see the duct tape under the road, and there's a nice close-up of the mat, which has a sort of rocky-arid Mediterranean look to it - very nice.

Below, nice close-ups of the buildings, plus the walls Rob made. Plastic sheet cut up with glued rocks and a great paint job. The markers are bought. The black magnet is for transportation purposes.

It took some doing, but by emphasizing Dave's squads with firepower actions at every opportunity, as well as maneuvering the stronger squad closer, and FT team within [long] range, we finally got the Kiwi squad whittled down and the FT engaged, giving the Kiwis a lot of "shock" points [basically, a disorder / pin point]. When shock gets to certain levels, the squad is Pinned and about 50% effective. When higher, the squad will run and be nearly impossible to stop without a huge amount of effort.  Looks like the Fallschirm will be able to maneuver to the grapevines, finally!

Dave's stronger squad pushed ahead while the shot-up one provided suppressing and covering fire. He lost his senior leader, so I sent mine over as my squad was being beaten like a punchy-clown to almost no one [hot dice by house-host Rich]. Clearly, Dave was the Main Effort anyway!  He assaulted across the gaps, and my leader also helped push the FT team a bit up the hill. We are staging the final advance and assault on the upper squad. You can see them at foto top. Before them is a yellow marker showing Covering Fire being laid upon them. Covering Fire reduces the effectiveness of enemy fire without damaging them. A pretty realistic and simple mechanic. It was criticized as being a bit "generous" however.

Below, atop the hill the first squad has fled to behind the second and will run off the table at turn end, more or less [however, we stayed in one "turn" the entire game].  One British Jr. leader is down and the Sr. leader is wounded, but aside from that the Kiwi squad is in good shape - this looks like an unlikely possibility!

Below, the final assault by Dave's Fallschirmjager. Despite losing the FT team, finally, we managed to get one shot in and that - with a lot of shooting - was enough to convince the Kiwis to fall back beyond the objective!  Also, they took some casualties and lost the use of leader activations.

Despite our masterful assault, we - barely - lost the game due to Chain of Command points. The Kiwis managed to collect enough of them due to delaying us long enough, and won the game if not exactly walking around with the sweet taste of victory in their mouths [perhaps the grapes they stole were the substitute, and they have to be better than the heinous "Victory" brand Indian cigarettes issued].

This was a lovely game, nicely run, that came down to the very last few rolls. While we initially thought the Germans were not going to be able to push hard enough in a 1:1 game and against a tank, no less, we were wrong. The FT team provided an edge to the Germans who were able to get local 2:1 odds against one squad, then again on the second squad. The British 2" Mortar ran out of ammo, and the tank simply did not get a lot of activations.

The game did a great job of simulating the "unreliability" of real life gear and maneuver plans. It also balanced small specialized teams well along with larger more common teams - rifles and LMGs. Leadership of the squad and platoon was essential. There was plenty of it, and we rarely had any issue with doing what we wanted. Also, when my squad was destroyed, it made the remaining leadership a bit more effective in that they were able to concentrate on the remaining teams.

Overall, I felt that Host Rob did a wonderful job streamlining and managing the game, as well as curbing the open-ended mechanics all too typical in a TFL game. For example, it is possible, if unlikely, for one side to hold the activations and play while the other side doesn't get to do much. Obviously, that would suck for the player who doesn't get to activate. TFL would no doubt shrug and say that's too bad and it is realistic. My answer is "if I want suck, I will go to my job in the real army and not worry about playing your game!"

The Chain of Command game gave me the strong impression that it is like most Too Fat Lardies games: it is over-engineered and allows extreme possibilities to happen than can easily make a game lop-sided. One has to plow through a lot of not always well playtested or explained rules and is constantly wondering how they apply to a situation or interact. For this reason, I can't recommend any TFL games, nor can I recommend CoC. In fact, I've sold off and given away all TFL games that I had, even the popular "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!"  

At the end of the day, TFL rules use difficult, complicated mechanics to bring about simple results. Sometimes there is enhanced "feel" and such, but overall, it isn't worth it. Also, any game that can allow you to get a butt-stomping without being able to respond much has sacrificed the "fair chance" rule of games.

So highly recommend you play this game at a con, but can't recommend the rules.