With hobby motivation dwindling and an increase in nap frequency, I’m suspecting a bout of Covid is upon me. Unable to manage much on the hobby front I went rummaging through my draft posts.
Amidst the random and abandoned posts I found an odd thing. A post with ‘mugshots’. Mugshots of my Poundland armymen. I’m not sure what the genesis of this post was. I’m not even sure what became of the figures pictured.
But it’s always interesting to show while up-close they can barely represent a human, and yet when pictured from a distance they can be extremely evocative. It’s why I’ve always enjoyed using them in my games. I hope you enjoy perusing my ‘rogues gallery’, put your favourite face in the comments.
Deathzap 
Inspirational! My painting is similar. When in doubt, sit further away, (as I’m near-sighted).
Absolutely fantastic – you can write a story off these characters 😀
Faces that only a mother could love. Excellent! 🙂
Regards, Chris.
This may or may not be the right place to post this but I have to admit that this blog has inspired me to mess around with my own home-brew skirmish wargame rules.
It only took my since Christmas to bash them out, write them down and edit them into something resembling a compact set of rules but I finished them and I want to share (link below)
I don’t think the link posted, try again, I’d love to read through and try out your rules!
A set of skirmish wargame rules by Liam Brennan
REQUIRED
– two players.
– A table or board preferably 4’x4′ or 4’x6′. This is the BATTLEFIELD.
– Two numerically equal sets of identifiably different toy soldiers. These are OPPOSING soldiers, one set for each player.
-Two sets of four six sided dice, one of one colour (the ACTIVATION die), one of another colour (the INITIATIVE die) and the other two a different colour again (the COMBAT dice), one set of dice for each player.
-A bag of flat marbles. These are used as ACTIVATED and PINNED markers.
-six pieces of appropriately sized and genre suitable terrain.
– a measuring ruler.
– a narrow “line of sight” stick at least 24″ long.
GAME SET UP
-Each player chooses a side of the BATTLEFIELD to play from.
– In turn each player places a piece of terrain anywhere on the BATTLEFIELD but no closer than 6″ to the edge of either player’s side, until all six pieces are on the BATTLEFIELD.
– In turn each player places a single soldier from his set of soldiers on his side of the BATTLEFIELD, no further than 6″ away from the edge of his side of BATTLEFIELD until both full sets of OPPOSING soldiers are on the BATTLEFIELD.
– begin.
THE GAME TURN
Each player rolls his ACTIVATION die at the start of each game turn.
Subtract one from the roll if your side has had soldiers removed from the BATTLEFIELD or has had more soldiers removed from the BATTLEFIELD than the other player.
Reroll the ACTIVATION die if equal totals are rolled.
This total is the number of ACTIVATION points the player has for that game turn.
In turn, and starting with the player with more ACTIVATION points, each player spends a single ACTIVATION point to ACTIVATE a single soldier, until all ACTIVATION points have been spent and the game turn ends.
Once ACTIVATED, place a marble beside the soldier to indicate that the soldier cannot act again until the next turn.
An ACTIVATED a soldier can perform one of the following actions as soon as they are ACTIVATED and before the other player ACTIVATES his next soldier.
– Shoot at an OPPOSING soldier within 24″ provided the soldier has a direct line of sight to the OPPOSING soldier unblocked by other soldiers or terrain pieces
– Move 6″ and shoot at an OPPOSING soldier within 12″ of the spot to which they have been moved, provided the soldier has a direct line of sight to the OPPOSING soldier unblocked by other soldiers or terrain pieces from the spot that they have moved to.
– Move up to 6″ to touch base with a piece of terrain.
– Throw a grenade at a piece of terrain up to 6″ away.
– Move up to 12″ to touch base with an OPPOSING soldier and engage in hand to hand combat.
SHOOTING
Roll the COMBAT dice. If either die rolls a 6, remove the opposing soldier from the BATTLEFIELD.
If both dice roll the same number the opposing soldier is PINNED. Place a marble beside them as if they have been ACTIVATED. A PINNED soldier cannot be ACTIVATED that turn. Multiple marbles can and should be placed with this opposing soldier as often as they are PINNED or previously ACTIVATED.
If the OPPOSING soldier is touching base with a piece of terrain, roll one COMBAT die when shooting instead of two.
GRENADES
Grenades can only be used against terrain.
If an UNACTIVATED or UNPINNED OPPOSING soldier touching base with a piece of terrain has a line of sight to the grenade throwing soldier, they can attempt to shoot at them WITHOUT being ACTIVATED.
In this case both players roll their INITIATIVE die and if the OPPOSING soldier player rolls higher than the player with the grenade throwing soldier, the OPPOSING player soldier can shoot at them before the grenade is thrown.
A thrown grenade allows for a seperate roll of both COMBAT dice against every soldier touching the base of the terrain piece as if each soldier, OPPOSING or not, was being shot at.
HAND TO HAND COMBAT
OPPOSING soldiers can engage in hand to hand combat. Both players roll the COMBAT dice at the same time and if any 6s are rolled, the OPPOSING soldier is removed from the BATTLEFIELD. Soldiers that are touching base with a piece of terrain can cancel any single OPPOSING roll of 6 for each roll of 1 they make.
An OPPOSING UNACTIVATED and UNPINNED soldier can attempt to shoot at a soldier that is moved towards them with the intention of engaging in hand to hand combat WITHOUT being ACTIVATED.
Both players roll their INITIATIVE die and if the OPPOSING soldier player rolls higher than the player with the moving soldier, the OPPOSING player can shoot at them before hand to hand combat is engaged .
END TURN
At the end of each game turn remove one ACTIVATION marble from all soldiers. Any soldiers left with ACTIVATION marbles cannot be ACTIVATED in that turn.
ENDGAME
If a player has half of his soldiers removed at any point in the game, his ARMY is DEMORALISED. From that point on every time a soldier of his removed from the BATTLEFIELD he must roll his INITIATIVE die. A roll of 6 means that his army flees the BATTLEFIELD and the OPPOSING soldiers have won the battle.
I call it “SIX KILLS” by the way 😄
I like it, especially how you’ve included grenades in a way that shouldn’t be over or under powered but suitable to their use in real life.
Thank you. I did want to try and replicate
(having ,to be fair, never fought in a war)
what I imagine would be the credible possibilities of weapon usage would be, while keeping the rules as straight forward and consistent and streamlined as possible.