I painted some resin earthworks and made a road for my WW2 jungle skirmish games. This is an after action report with FUBAR one-page rules... a Japanese force is advancing towards a fortified British position. The whole table is considered "jungle" = cover, except the area delimited by the green thread (= open) and of course, the road.

Japanese
1 HQ Squad = Officer, 2 x 50mm "knee" mortars, 1 LMG & 5 men with rifle
2 x Squad = 1 LMG & 11 men with rifle

British
1 HQ Squad = Officer, 4 x SMG
HMG team (3 men) in earthworks; attached to one Squad (1 LMG, 1 SMG and 9 men with rifle) partly in earthworks with some men in reserve

I hope that the photos I made with my cell phone  will give you an idea about the initial deployment of the forces... 

My son picked the British and the game started... one Japanese squad reached the edge of the Jungle area and attacked the trenches with hand grenades, blowing up half of the soldiers inside, including the HMG! Looking at the facial expression of my boy, I declared that the dead soldiers would had become "reinforcements" and they entered again the table from their side of the road...

In the meantime the Japanese HQ squad advanced along the road and encountered fire from the British HQ squad, and from the surviving British rifles in the earthworks... after 50% casualties and a failed activation, the Japanese officer withdrew... instead of committing harakiri!

In the meantime one Japanese squad moved in close combat with the British in the fortifications, that resisted to the assault and were joined by the "reinforcements" in the following turns. A third Japanese squad reached the edge of the Jungle and killed the British HQ squad with hand grenades. But with the poor Japanese officer still fleeing away and the trenches firmly hold by the defenders, we gave the victory to the British.

All at all, a fun game and my boy learned the simple rules almost immediately. I still think that the close combat rules need some fixing (see my previous post)... will see in the next games. I ordered a box of Airfix US Marines for further skirmish games!

... & Jeep with 106mm Recoiless guns... for this Saturday game I dusted off my 1965 Pakistani and Indian armies. The 2nd Kashmir War was the theatre of some of the biggest tank battles after WW2 and is very interesting for the mix of Western vehicles fielded, with some Soviet PT76 added if you want.

- This scenario is very straightforward, with no terrain features except a line of fields in the middle. 


Pakistani (Green)

3 x M24 Chaffee

8 x M47 Patton ( 1 is HQ)

8 x M48 Patton

Indian (Green)

3 x Jeep + RCL 106mm

8 x Centurion (1 is HQ)

8 x Sherman w/76mm

Jeep w/RCL deploy in the fields (not seen over 5” if they don’t shoot)

Pakistani Objective: destroy at least 6 Indian Tank unit

Indian Objective: destroy at least 6 Pakistan Tank unit

The game was fast and I must admit, a bit too simple. Pakistani armour came within 5" from the fields and the Jeeps fired their recoiless guns, failing the targets and receiving immediately one hell of fire from the Patton tanks. With all the 3 Jeeps units destroyed, the Pakistani occupied the fields and started to target the slow Indian Centurions at distance, enjoying the cover. Indians had to come at half range and try to hit the Pakistani with a "six", exposing the old Shermans in the open to the fire coming from the fields. After some turns, 4 Indian tank units were reduced to wrecks and three others were Suppressed, including the HQ, while the Pakistani had only one Patton unit destroyed and one Suppressed. At this time I gave the victory to the Pakistani, since the dinner was ready!

Next time I will play this scenario, I think I will force the Pakistani to exit the fields to reach one objective, for example a village behind the Indian Armour.

In the last weeks I have been busy, painting some good old HO/00 Airfix (8th Army & Japanese) and making some jungle terrain features. I was starting to write down a simple set of skirmish rules for these, but then I found an excellent one-page ruleset called FUBAR for WW2/Modern/Sci-Fi skirmish, that can be downloaded here.

I tried the FUBAR rules in a first solo battle and the result was a fun, quick and simple game. To represent jungle warfare, I considered the table (120x80 cm) completely "soft cover", inside and out the palms and trees terrain feature. This meant that visibility and ranges were very short (6") and target always difficult to hit, unless with aimed fire or with SMG, LMG and grenades. I also did not allow "Run" (= 12") actions - the faster movements being Duck&Weave (=8") and Assault (=8").

For this first game I picked up my whole Japanese force (1 command squad, with one officer, 4 rifle and  2 x 50mm knee mortars; 3 squads with 11 rifle + 1 LMG), opposed by a weak British platoon (1 command squad made up of one officer and 3 x SMG, and two squads each of 1 SMG, 1 LMG and 8 rifles). 

The two forces deployed on the opposite short sides of the table and moved through the jungle, with the British arranging a defensive line and the Japanese attacking it... the most basic form of scenario.

FUBAR activation system is good and works well for solo game. For example,  one of the Japanese squad failed to activate for two or three turns and was left back, with the Japanese HQ being compelled to spearhead the attack. This kind of things make more interesting and challenging games, solo or with one opponent.

Another thing that I liked is the Suppression system. Basically a number of figures in each squad (1-4 depending on status) when hit are Suppressed (lean on one side) instead of become casualties. They can't fire and subtract a -1 to the next activation roll of that unit. I experimented that one unit with 2 suppressed figures become very difficult to activate (you need a "6").

For this first game, I found a bit difficult to make use of Grenades. Single figures should have a limited number of these, but how can you keep track of the number of Grenades for each one, avoiding dozens of counters or a roster sheet? I think one solutions is avoiding  one or two "Throw Grenades" action for each squad during the game, as alternative to firing.

A more major issue aroused with close combat. Rules says that combat continues at the beginning of each subsequent turns; units involved automatically activate; and cannot subsequently activate in that turn. I did not understood how long the combat goes on (until one unit reaches 50% casualties? but it is not written); if a unit can withdraw from close combat (seems not possible since cannot activate during that turn); if suppressed figures have some penalty.  Maybe it is just me (I am not native speaking English) but it looks the less clear section, of one otherwise clear and concise set of rules.

The game was a British defeat, with the whole command squad slaughtered in close combat, one squad fleeing away, reduced to only 3 men, and another squad near to 50% casualties. But the Japanese casualties were also heavy... I will do other FUBAR games and expand my terrain scenics with field fortifications, road etc, to make other scenarios.

After one year, I uploaded a revised edition of the Pz8 two-pages wargame rules. Just go to the Rules section and download the pdf for free! 

There are now 10 titles from WW1 to Sci-Fi, including the new Pz8 Spaceships rules and the 1965-1975 Aerial rules. The already existing rules have been slightly improved, following game experiences and suggestions from other  wargamers. 

To be honest, I often don't remember exactly where I changed the rules... I am getting old... 

Anyway I hope you will like them and feel they are better now. Feel free to comment and send further suggestions... have fun!

I bought on e-bay a small lot of 1/300 tanks labelled, ehm, "modern tanks". They look like Soviet but I am puzzled. Six of them (those with the fumes extractor on the barrel) look like T62 but I am not sure. There is one "X" engraved  underneath the hull, no other code. Note that one of the turrets is slightly different. Then there is one that looks like a T54/55 but again, not sure. And then two smaller hulls, with only 4 wheels each side, and two other turrets. These three tanks have nothing underneath them. If you can help me to identify the type and manufacturer, please comment the article... thank you!