SOME four years ago I took out a magazine subscription - to Miniature Wargames, I believe - mainly because the enticement to subscribe was a free boxed set of Airfix Battles: The Introductory Wargame.
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| Nice box ... interesting contents |
The game is card-driven, and comes with terrain maps and counters for troops and vehicles.
Although it is described as an introductory wargame, the rules are more complex than many eurogames, while being a lot simpler than the old classics from SPI and Avalon Hill.
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| Inside the box ... after the contents have been sorted |
I never played Airfix Battles as I could not get enthusiastic about playing a tactical wargame with counters (having said that, one of the SPI/Avalon Hill games I own is Sniper!, which is not a strategic game by any stretch of the imagination).
My extensive collection of Airfix 1/72nd soldiers is long gone, either given away or disposed of in a clear-out, and I never got round to buying replacements to be used in fighting Airfix Battles.
But it has occurred to me I could just as easily use larger figures, specifically Army Men I bought three years ago in Jersey (
https://timspanton.blogspot.com/2017/04/50mm-and-all-that.html) and used for a D-Day scenario (
https://timspanton.blogspot.com/2017/04/d-day-scenario-for-plastic-army-men.html).
The plan is to try out the first Airfix Battles scenario against my regular wargames opponent - we both have plenty of spare time in current circumstances.
By coincidence, scenario one is located in Normandy and dated June 6 1944, ie D-Day.
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| Scenario one terrain map |
To the map for scenario one you add four square cover counters representing "woods or buildings that block line of sight," and four rectangular rough-terrain counters representing "mud, craters and other obstacles to movement."
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| Map with cover and rough-terrain counters |
It may just be possible to see that the map consists of 35 squares marked out in five rows of seven. This is easy to turn into a grid on one of my wargames tables.
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| Gridded for Airfix Battles |
Having the right range of suitable terrain was a little more problematic, but I managed what I reckon is a decent-enough job.
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| The completed battlefield |
The dirt track is made from tissue paper, three houses and a wood replace the square cover counters, and the four rough-terrain rectangles are replaced by various other items of terrain.
In this scenario each player receives four unit cards representing a captain, a four-man team of veterans, and two 10-man squads each armed with rifles/light machineguns and two anti-tank guns (bazookas for the Americans; panzerfausts for the Germans).
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| The cards detail each unit's combat capabilities |
In the game, infantry are represented by round counters, but I have replaced these with Army Men.
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| The Americans ... the captain with his veterans are in the foreground, with the two 10-man squads behind |
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| The Germans ... apparently still wearing the uniforms of Rommel's Afrikakorps |
Note it does not matter, apart from aesthetically, what weapons the figures have. As the rules sate: "Don't worry if your figures don't have exactly the right weapons, as it's only the number of figures that count. All other information (weapon stats and unit abilities) comes from the unit cards."
