Rules Additions and Changes

After a little play testing I have decided to change a few things, mainly to do with pinning tokens and Machine Guns. I realised that to flip 3 cards for a machine gun made them incredibly deadly, not to say they weren't, but even when in cover it seemed like being fired on by one was an instant death sentence, when in reality they should be keeping peoples heads down.

So from now on -
1 card is flipped for an MG but the MG does D6 pinning when it doesn't kill.
SMGs are the same but do D3 pinning.
And Semi-Auto rifles do D2 pinning.
Bolt Action Rifles and Pistols still do 1 pinning.

Instead of a soldier being instantly removed when hit by shooting. Flip a card, if it's red they're dead. If it's black they take permanent pinning (pinning that cannot be rallied off) equal to the value of the card. If the total value of permanent pinning means the soldier will always fail card flips they are now considered killed.

I've also been thinking about having the different figures in my collection being a little more diverse, so I wanted to add some traits and special rules to them.

Commandos - Receive 2 leeway for every card flip and can be deployed from any body of water that connects to the edge of the board.
Gurkhas -  Roll 3D6 when charging, and if charged successfully by an enemy flip a card, if the card is black the enemy is killed and the Gurkha remains alive.

More to come soon and pictures of the figures I've been painting.

Thanks for stopping by!
The Simple Toy Soldier

Rules, rules, rules, rules...

Here is what I was thinking so far, I want the turn to have a countdown mechanic, starting high and working down to lower values. Taking a deck of cards the turn starts at Aces, then moves to kings, queens, jacks, tens and so on down to twos. At each point players declare which soldiers they want to act, I'm thinking one soldier at a time taking turns and randomly determining which player declares first at the start of the turn. When both players 'pass' the phase switches to the next card down.

When your soldier acts flip a card from the top of a shuffled deck. If the value of the card is equal or higher than the current phase the action succeeds. If not the action fails. During the game soldiers may receive pinning tokens from enemy fire. For each pinning token on the soldier reduce the value of their card flipped by 1.

Actions -
1) Run
Declare where the soldier will move to and place a counter there.
Success: Move the soldier up to 3D6 inches.
Fail: Move the soldier up to D6 inches.
Joker: The opponent places the figure anywhere along the straight line between their starting position and the counter.
The soldier will move the exact value rolled in the direction of the counter, unless they would move further in which case they stop at the counter.
2) Shoot
Declare a target the soldier has line of sight to.
Success: Remove the target model as a casualty. If the target model was partially obscured by anything or was not the closest enemy model to the firing soldier for a success the card must also be black. If the target was obscured by heavy cover e.g. a bunker, then the card also needs to be a spade for success.
Fail: Place a pinning token on the target soldier.
Joker: Place a 'jammed' token on your soldier.
3) Charge!
Declare an enemy soldier the soldier will move to.
Success: Move the soldier up to 2D6 inches. If they make it into base to base contact the target figure is removed as a casualty. If the soldier does not make it into contact they are placed at the axact distance rolled.
Fail: The soldier automatically makes contact with the enemy but is killed in the process remove them as a casualty.
Joker: Same as fail above.
4) Unjam
Automatic success, no need to flip a card, your soldier just needs to waste an activation unjamming their weapon before they can fire again. Remove their jammed token.

Once a soldier has activated they cannot be activated again until the next turn.
When a soldier carrying an MG performs the Shoot action flip 3 cards and all 3 count. If a joker is drawn the jam occurs before the other two cards so no fire is performed.

Elite soldiers such as British Commandos or German Falschirmjager receive leeway, you can set the leeway as you wish but I'd normally keep it to one or two. Meaning when they flip a card the card is considered to be one or two values higher.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Simple Toy Soldier

What is 'The Simple Toy Soldier Game'?

The Simple Toy Soldier Game (STSG for short) is my own variation of HG Wells' Little Wars combined with those games we of a younger generation played on our bedroom floors before we were thrust into the arms of games workshop. But as it stands currently the game is entirely locked away in the often bizarre vaults of my brain. Hence this blog. This blog will concern itself with rules develompent as well as miniature modelling, painting and eventually gaming. First however I need to catch the bus into our nearest decent town and pick up a few things.

Thank you very much to stopping by!

The Simple Toy Soldier