Not So Vintage Toy Soldiers

Cameria had always been a divided nation, ever since the first settlers arrived the North and South were two distinct colonies, peoples, cultures. However after a few bad years of mining the Camerian Council decided to send forces out to take resources from other weaker nations. Ngoai just north of Cameria across the Amenic Sea was the perfect target. Ngoai was an undeveloped nation that still mostly fought with bows and spears rather than the modern rifles used by the Camerians. The plan was to invade Ngoai, and take the royal family hostage, hoping the people would then give in to their demands and give the invading forces all they wanted before any neighbouring nations could mount a counter offensive to support the Ngoai.

In the summer of 986AC the attack was launched. Twenty ships, ten from the North and ten from the South began their invasion. The Ngoai defenders were no match for massed cannon and rifle fire and quickly retreated to the mountains and jungles. Unfortunately for the Camerians the Royal family had escaped once they reached the capital, it seemed the Camerian commanders had falesly assumed the Ngoai Royal Family would remain in the capital to hear demands and push for peace. Both North and South blamed each other for the mistake and soon Camerians were brawling in the streets of the Ngoai capital. It wasn’t long before they turned their rifles on each other, and what should have been a quick bit of colonial expansion soon devolved into a civil war in a foreign country. The Ngoai took advantage of the ensuing chaos and despite their lack of technology pushed the Camerians back to their ships. The conflict became known in Cameria as ‘The Foreign War’, and to the Ngoai as ‘The Fools War’, and was considered by many historians to be the spark that ignited the fire that eventualy built to become the Jendari Collective in 1029AC and even the Camerian Civil war almost 1000 years later.

In 1028AC the Haerkalian toy company SPITZ TOYS produced a range of lead figures depicting the Northern and Southern Camerian forces.

Looking a little worse for wear now with paint rubbed off after many loving years of play here are the Northern Camerians:

And the Southern:

A Northerner up close:

A small set of rules was included with the figures along with two ten sided dice:

FOOLS WAR RULES BY SPITZ TOYS

The game is played in turns.

During a player’s turn each of their men can either move, shoot or fight an enemy in hand to hand combat. Unless a man is pinned, in which case he can only become unpinned.

Each man can be moved up to 6 imperial units each turn. Rivers , fences and rocks a difficult to pass and so the man can only move up to 3 imperial units if he is required to move over or through one of those obstacles.

When a man fires you must first declare which enemy soldier he is firing upon. Then measure the distance between the firer and their target in imperial units. Then roll two ten sided dice to achieve a score between 1 and 100. If the achieved score is greater than the distance then the firer has hit their target. If the achieved score is lower then they have missed, or if their score is 10 or less they have also missed even if their target is closer.

To determine the effect of a hit on target a single 10 sided die is rolled.

If the target has protection by an obstacle such as rocks or trees then on a 1 or 2 they are killed, on a 3, 4 or 5 they are pinned and on a 6 or higher they are unaffected.

If the target has no protection on a 1, 2, 3 or 4 they are killed, on a 5, 6 or 7 are pinned and on an 8 or higher they are unaffected.

When a man is pinned he is laid down. When a man is killed he is removed from the battlefield.

If a man makes contact with an enemy soldier they will immediately fight. Roll a 10 sided die for each man and the higher scorer kills the other. An officer carrying a sword adds 1 to their die roll.

The game can be played until one side is completely destroyed, or until a set number of turns has been played at the end of which the side that has suffered the most casualties is the loser.