Review: Combat Storm 2nd Edition Boxed Set

The Combat Storm Boxed Set includes Army Men in these poses. Each pose represents a different type of soldier with unique abilities. Image taken from combatstorm.com.

Combat Storm is a rule set produced by Strategy Wave Studios. It is designed for two to four players, ages 12 and older. Combat Storm is a turn-based tactical wargame, intended for use with plastic Army Men as miniatures. The implied scale is 1:35 or 54mm, i.e., one inch of tabletop represents three feet in the game.

The rules are available at combatstorm.com. The rulebook retails for $22.99 U.S., but for an additional $7 U.S. you can purchase a boxed set including the rulebook, about 60 Army Men of various poses and colors, and four vehicles: a main battle tank, a light tank, a self-propelled artillery vehicle, and an air defense/ground support vehicle. Purchase of the rulebook, whether in the boxed set or by itself, grants access to the online Combat Storm Player Portal, through which you can subscribe to newsletters, download exclusive content like print and play tokens for identifying squads and troop states or papercraft terrain, and access utilities such as an army builder tool. You can also purchase additional Army Men, armored vehicles, dice, and additional paid papercraft downloads on the Combat Storm site.

This review describes the boxed set, including a review of the rules.

Video Tutorial: Basing Barbed Wire Fences

We’ve just uploaded a new tutorial to the Army Men Wargaming YouTube Channel! This time, we are taking those gray plastic barbed wire fence sections and basing them, making them more stable – and better looking – on your wargaming table.

Opinion: thoughts on ‘The Three Foot Rule’

The Three Foot Rule is a commonly-used, but not always clearly defined, miniature wargaming concept. At its most basic, the concept involves balancing the level of effort exerted in creating terrain or painting miniature wargaming figures against the expected level of visual scrutiny the terrain or figures are likely to be under during a game. For many wargamers, terrain or figures are rarely observed at distances closer than three feet, so the three foot rule implies that a given detail should be represented on a figure, vehicle, or piece of terrain if someone observing the model from three feet away would expect to see it. Any additional details beyond that level would cost unnecessary time and effort, as it is unlikely that any player would notice them.

It is possible to render incredible levels of detail and realism in miniature, as military miniature dioramas and model railroad layouts attest. Many Old School wargamers view painting their figures and scratch-building terrain as part of their hobby, and excellence in painting and attention to detail is, to them, as noble a goal as superior generalship.

The question for the wargamer, then, is how much effort to exert in order to have an immersive game, without spending weeks or months preparing it. Some view the Three Foot Rule as a middle ground, a compromise between detail and playability.

For Army Men Wargaming, we are using unpainted, poorly-sculpted plastic toy soldiers as miniatures. While some players may feel nostalgic using the figures out of the canister, the esthetic appearance of the tabletop is less important than historical accuracy or having pupils painted on the eyes of each soldier. Those soldiers set the tone for the rest of the tabletop. The level of quality we seek would enable players to look at a piece of terrain and, know, for example, that a building is made of brick, that there are windows on the first and second floors, and that there are doors in two adjacent sides. Apart from that basic functionality, we don’t much care what it looks like.

How about you? What level of detail do you represent in your games? Please consider sharing your thoughts in a comment ot this post.

Unboxing and Video Review: Lenard’s The Corps! Elite 120-piece Army Playset

Our first video in a really long time. Sure feels great to be back in the swing of things.

Review and Casting Tutorial: Meng 1:35 Concrete and Plastic Barrier Set

It’s been quite some time since we’ve posted a video. This time, it is a quick review of the Concrete and Plastic Barrier Set by Meng. A pleasant surprise was that the set actually included a mold for creating these road barriers from gypsum or casting plaster! The review of the set is followed by a quick tutorial on casting barriers from plaster. If you obtain the set or have any ideas that should be added to the tutorial, please let us know in the comments.

Small-Unit Tactics: Movement to Contact

A Movement to Contact formation, as illustrated in Manual 7-8.

Essentially, movement to contact is a form of offense. As the words suggest, your forces move from where they are into contact with the enemy. Often, this movement is ordered when a commander is unsure of the exact location of the enemy, or when the enemy has successfully broken contact and the commander is trying to re-engage the enemy.

While not exclusively a small-unit tactic – movement to contact can be executed at the brigade level or higher – it is ultimately executed at the platoon or squad level, and is mentioned in the Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad Manual.

The primary concern for any unit performing movement to contact is security. Often, the exact location of the enemy is unknown, which creates the potential for the enemy to set up an ambush for the pursuing unit.

Review: Guns ‘n Grenades

Editor’s note: the designers of this game have released a v. 1.5 of these rules, which we recommend. You can read the latest review here. In addition, the designers have chosen to make the current rule set available as a free download! You can download those rules here.

 

Guns ‘n Grenades is a downloadable, tactical rule set for wargaming with 54mm plastic army men, retailing for $1 U.S. The rules are simple – only 11 pages in length, including numerous illustrations – but they make for a quick and cheap game.

The mechanics are easy enough; roll one six-sided die, add your attack or defense modifier (depending on what your troops are doing), and compare it with your opponent’s score. If the attack roll is higher than the defense roll, a hit is scored.

Soldiers each have four stages of life in this game: healthy, wounded, bloodied, and dead. When a soldier is hit, he usually loses one stage. The authors recommend using slips of paper to identify wounded or bloodied targets.

Plastic soldiers are divided into types, based upon the way they are sculpted. For example, a figure holding an assault rifle is a common rifleman, while any figure aiming down the sights of his weapon is considered a sniper. The authors even found a use for that officer-style pose with the pointing arm – they are scouts. There is a total of nine soldier types.

Free Download: Little Wars by H.G. Wells

Here it is, folks – the book that arguably started it all, by Science fiction Author H.G. Wells, best known for authoring the War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Time Machine. It is less well-known that Wells was a pioneer in miniature wargaming and terrain, and you can get an electronic transcript of his rule set from more than 100 years ago by clicking here.

You can also access this file, and many other free resources, on our Downloads Page.

If you give these rules a try, let us know how your battle went in the comments section.

Tutorial: Re-Purposing a Toy Truck for Wargaming, Part 2

The second and final part of the tutorial is finally live! Thank you for your patience.

A quick guide to making an army list

Does your army list currently look like this? Read on, and it won’t.

An army list, for wargaming at least, is exactly what the term implies: a list of troop types and numbers that make up one side of a wargame battle.

For players who are trying to re-enact specific historical conflicts, these lists are complied via thorough research and best represented in whatever manner the rules for the game allow. For example, an American Civil War (ACW) game re-enacting the Battle of Gettysburg would probably need to represent the storied 20th Maine Regiment. Some operational-level rules might have the 20th represented by a single stand of infantry; others may provide some sort of morale bonus to the unit due to the presence of its commander, Joshua Chamberlain. A set of tactical rules might choose to re-enact only the part of the battle connected to the 20th Maine: the battle for a hill called Little Round Top, and figures may represent individual soldiers.

But how do you compile a list for fictitious scenarios? Instead of re-enacting a known battle, what if the players just want to put some Roman Legionnaires against a horde of Visigoths? What if you are playing with Army Men and just want a showdown between green and tan troops?

In those situations – especially if you can choose whatever troop types you want to include – it may prove useful to start with a strategic theme, instead of just grabbing a handful of miniatures and deploying them on the table.