Toy Soldier Battles II, Antonio E. Belmonte Cerezo, ISBN 9798272688880, 95 pages, illustrations designed and text translated by Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant (one paragraph has been missed and is still in Spanish!).
This is a strange one, I saw it advertised on facebook and thought I'd give it a punt as I fancied trying some simple, fast play WW2 style rules, which is what these are, but not in the way I'd imagined.
The coloured illustrations throughout are quite charming and drawn in the form of Army Men toy soldiers like the ones shown on the cover. And that's a good introduction to what the book is about, go online, buy a couple of those big bags of green and tan Army Men, the ones that come with tanks, jeeps, planes, helicopters and bunkers, grab a couple of dice then settle down on the floor with the kids and have yourself a wargame.
There's a bit more to it than that, units are given a profile based on their armament, mobility and resilience/armour, casualty modifiers affect range and cover, dice for random event activation and there are Victory points at the end. Officers play specialised roles with eight different strengths they can bring to a unit like; Medic, Communications, Mechanic etc. There are chapters for Army Lists, running a campaign and four trial scenarios. It's all stuff we recognise in a set of wargame rules but it's all kept fairly simplistic so it's easy for a newcomer to pick up.
So it's more than a stand 'em up and shoot them down toy soldier game but I'm not sure it's one that will appeal to regular gamers.
Brian -
ReplyDeleteOne never knows. About 14 years ago, inspired by a newcomer to the local Club, I began collecting Army Men and built a couple of armies. Some elements - such as one army's 'Beaverbug' armoured cars - I scratchbuilt out of cardboard and bits and pieces. I even wrote a fairly simple battle set of rules, inventing with it an artillery 'fall of shot' template. 'Jono's World' I called it. After a few months, Jono vanished whence he came, getting on to another project. But I liked the world he created, and although over the last half-dozen years of so hasn't seen much action, is still there in its boxes.
One of these days, I hope to stage some kind of 'lawn campaign'. A publication like 'Toy Soldiers Battles' might be the kick-start I need...
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Ion, I followed Jono's World on your blog and loved it! I think you're right Toy Soldier Battles would be great for your lawn campaign, I do hope you'll get around to it and share it with us all.
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