Beary Simple Wargame: First Draft of Rules

 The first draft of A Beary Simple Wargame is posted as a page.  If you have a few minutes, I'd gladly appreciate any feedback.  I'm especially interested in hearing what confusions you see or how it could be better simplified/clarified for younger players.  The goal for this ruleset is for it to be memorized by adults after a few turns and clever kids after a few games.  

Painting Progress: Christmas Break

The most completed units

 Today we’re traveling and won’t be back until after Christmas. The goal was to get done before Christmas. I fell a little short. Overall the pieces are coming along well, but I’m not using the best paint or brushes. There’s a lot of touch up work to do. The only batch-wide effort left is the bright metal on the muskets and swords.

The Princess’s Army

 

The Prince’s Red Bears

Painting Progress

 Minor progress has occurred. All bears now have the top of their tricorn painted. The trim colors are yet to be determined. The red bears have the back of their tricorn painted as well. 

Beary Simple Wargame: Rules Ideas Coming Together

I've started collecting ideas for the non-combat portions of the Beary Simple Wargame rules.  The goal is to get them collected onto one sheet of paper.  

General Rules:  
Square Gridded Game Board.  Units and Terrain must fit in grid together. Exceptions allowed for impassable terrain.

Measuring: All distances are measured through sides (not corners).  No diagonal movement or ranging is permitted.

Activation:
    Youngest player goes first.
    Players move two bear units per turn.
    Bears can move, attack, or move then attack.

Move Speeds: 
        Bears on foot may move 2 spaces.
        Bears on horse may move 3 spaces.
        Bears on foot may push a cannon 1 space.
        Bears moving into buildings, through a tree line, or over a fence/low wall may move 1 space. 
        Bears cannot climb high walls.  They must use a gate.  
        Bears cannot move through other bears.  

Terrain Types:
    Buildings: Only Bears on foot may enter buildings.  Once inside, they receive an advantage if they are defending the building in paw-to-paw combat or if being shot at by other bears on foot.
    Forest: Bears on foot may walk between the trees to cross into the next space, but if they do so they can only move 1 space.  Bears attacking from forests surprise their targets and have an advantage.

Attack:
Combat happens when the activated attacker checks for range and line-of-sight for ranged attack, or, attacker attempts to occupy same cell as defender for melee.      

Cannons have a range of 5 and can only be fired by Artillery Crews.

Bears on Foot have a range of 3.

Bears on Horse can only attack paw-to-paw.
    Players each roll 1 dice, add advantages/disadvantages, and then determine the result by subtracting the defender's roll from the attacker's roll.

        If the result is 4 or more, the defending bear runs away.

        If the result is 1, 2, or 3, the defending bear is scared and will have a disadvantage.

        If the result is 0, the defending bear may repeat the attack as the attacker.

        If the result is less than 0, the attack has failed.

       

Advantages and Disadvantages:

    Cannons have advantage over Bears on Foot

    Bears on Foot have advantage over Bears on Horse

    Bears on Horse have advantage over any Cannon Crews

    Scared Bears always have a disadvantage.

    Bears defending from inside buildings have an advantage.

    Bears attacking from forests have an advantage.

    

Future Modules for Experienced Players:
Rallying: 
Flank/Rear Melee bonuses

Locked in Melee
Charging
Diagonal Measurement 
Additional Troop Types: Elite Infantry, Sharpshooters, Melee Specialized Infantry (Highlanders)

I'm definitely open to thoughts/critiques/edits.  The goal is to  have a simple enough framework for the kids to enjoy while still offering some interesting decisions and rewarding thinking ahead and risk management.

Painting Progress: Adding more colors

Over the weekend, Little Prince celebrated his 3rd birthday, participated in his first Christmas pageant, and got to watch the excavator digging the foundation for the new house.  That being said, there was little time to paint.  We did manage to add some paint in a minute of downtime.  The kids each got to use my oldest/worst brush to slather their cannon's carriage with paint.  I'll go back later and fill in the missed spots and get sharper lines.  

Gun Carriages and Miters Painted in Each Army's Most Senior Color

Beary Simple Wargame: Putting the Pieces Together

The Beary Simple Wargame made it to the table (floor) for the first time last night.  Most of the rules weren't followed.  The princess was just excited to play with her bears.  Her favorite part was having her cavalry rapidly advance to steal my artillery.  While we had fun moving the bears and stealing the guns, I was working through how the game looks once set-up and how that might impact the rules.

Pink's cavalry bounds over the guns to steal them.

The board we played is for a different, mostly 3D printed, game called Tech?No! Bowl.  It's got all of the mechanics and miniatures of a wargame, but instead of a battlefield, it takes place on a a football (American) field.  The grids are 1" here instead of 2" so each terrain piece and bear should occupy 4 grid cells.  I tried to keep the right spacings to get a visual. 

A possible early-game position. 

After the kids went to bed, and between other chores. I got the first coat of paint on the Prince's/My Red Bears.  I was worried about the coat colors being too similar, but now that the bears have different color fur, it is easer to distinguish them.  

Contrasting fur helps distinguish the armies

I've also been playing around with a flag-bearer.  I already designed a general and bugler, but every army needs a flag bearer.  It's not ready to show yet.  I've made probably a dozen or so flags but none of them seem to work.  I ran into this same problem on my earlier 18th century army with the round body soldiers.

 

Beary Simple Rules: Combat Results

Below is my first pass at combat rules for Beary Simple Rules.  They need to be simple enough for a pretty clever five year old to enjoy and still somewhat interesting for grown-ups too.  She's already starting to get frustrated with games of complete chance (unless all of the chance is going her way).  The rules should be easy enough to memorize for adults. Hopefully, the kids can figure out most of them pretty quickly.

Potential Results:

If the Attacker rolls less than Defender: no result.  

A tie allows defender to counter attack. 

Attacker beating the defender by 1-3 would disorder/pin/scare the defending bear. 

Beating the defender by 4 or more removes the defender bear.  

Bears that are disordered/pinned/scared would roll with a -1 modifier.  Leader bear can rally away disorder/scared.  (Not sure if that complication is worth it for a few years)  Other modifiers would include terrain bonus for being behind cover, and a rock/paper/scissors scheme where infantry beats cavalry, cavalry beats artillery, and artillery beats infantry.  

This system seems to be a good compromise for basic games.  It involves both players so everyone feels like they have a role (or roll) to play in the outcome.  It isn't as swingy as a hit/save result with a single D6, which I like.  Most importantly, the math is pretty easy.  Once the kids learn about multiplication/division, maybe something with 2D6 and doubling/tripling would be better.

If anyone has encountered a system like this before and has critiques, I'd be glad to hear them.

Beary Simple Wargame: Rules Objectives

 The main objectives for the Beary Simple Wargame are:

1: Concise Rules

    Rules should be easily memorized by adults.  After a few plays, hopefully clever children will be able to play without being constantly reminded of the rules.

2: Fast Play

    Kids have short attention spans.  They want to play with all of their toys every day.  Something that takes too long will not be played frequently

3: Thematic

    Kids play games.  They don't simulate warfare.  Every action should have an in-game explanation.   

4: Gridded

    Kids don't want to measure with a ruler or tape.  Gridding minimizes fiddliness and speeds player turns. Gridding should also reduce need for precision in moving pieces when there are long reaches for short arms.  

5: Modular

    As players age/improve, complications/expansions should be layered on to provide more strategic depth. 

6: Minimal Stat Keeping or Markers

    If it feels like homework, kids aren't going to want to play.  There should be no writing required during the game.  If markers are needed, they should be very thematic, very clear, and very rare.

I have a rough outline floating in my head of a IGO-UGO system with each player activating 2-3 units per turn.  For now there will be no limits on which units can be activated or tests to determine if the unit obeys.  Combat would be an opposed D6 roll.  Combat results in: No Change, Defender Counter-Attacks, Defender becomes scared, Defender runs away.  Unit types would be held to 3 (maybe 4) to start and as kids improve, additional types would be added.  Ideally, I'd like to build up to the trait/point system that Ganesha Games uses and multi-based units receiving group orders from dedicated officer units, but that may be several years away. 

No painting yesterday.  We put up the Christmas tree.  Which really means we spent way too much time messing with dead bulbs on the pre-lit tree then ending up putting string lights around it.  This tree only has to limp through this season.  Hopefully, we're in a new house next Christmas.  

A Farm Near Waterloo

 

One of the secondary goals of the Bear Project is creating 2" square grid terrain.  I hadn't liked the walls I had previously designed, but I think the latest variant will work well.  The bears will likely not be re-enacting specific battles of history, but if they would, they fit nicely.  For those who are not as steeped in history, any of these buildings could fit into any warm weather climate.  Painting the buildings darker gray could probably give a convincing stone look.  

Painting has not progressed.  Facing colors have been selected by the Princess.  The order of precedence has not yet been.  The full suite of four facing colors will only be needed for the infantry. The exact paint matches might be slightly off from what is shown below.

Painting Progress: Days 2-3

Representative Example of Each Army's Progress

Painting continues, even if at a slower pace.  Day 2 saw the Red Bears get their first and second coat of paint.  On day 3, the trees were painted with assistance from the kids.  Two hands on a cheap paintbrush with cheap paint makes for sloppy work. Luckily the trees can be cleaned up with a final coat pretty easily.  I do like how both sets are coming along.  I would have probably purchased better paint if I were to do it again.  The brand the kids picked takes at least three coats to get the right amount of coverage and intensity.

Armies on their drying trays

Closeup of Red Bears

 I’ve continued work on modeling walls with and without gates. I think they’re coming along well but may not be print-ready for a while. I’d like to get some/most of the bears finished painting before adding too much terrain work. The goal is to get a game playable by Christmas break. 

Day 1 Progress

We started with the Pink Bears. They’ve been primed with spray primer. The Princess herself out the first strokes of paint on each bear. I put on the 2nd and 3rd coats as well as getting the detailed areas.

The Pink Bears Get Their Coats

I’ll likely do the same efforts for the red bears next. Then I’ll start batch work like the head, legs, muskets, and tricorns before putting on final touches like noses, eyes, and facings. 

I’m open to critiques of the painting plan. I’m aiming for playable, not museum quality. 

Let The Painting Begin

 I successfully got the minimum requirements for two bear-armies printed. Each force is made of four line infantry companies, a grenadier company, a squadron of cavalry, and a field piece with its crew.  

Army on the March

Both Armies Arrayed

The kids got to go to the craft store and selected the coat colors for their armies.  The princess picked Peachy Pink and the little prince selected bright red.  Her army will have purple, baby blue, white, and yellow facings. His army will have blue, green, yellow, and black facings. Perhaps Highlander (Grizzly) or Norse (Polar) companies will join as foreign mercenaries, but for now both armies will be comprised of light tan teddy bears. 

Peachy Pink for the Princess

Bright Red for the Little Prince and/or The Old Man

Fur Color for All Bears

Combining Buildings into Built Up Areas

One of the keys to my plans for wargaming in small spaces is keeping terrain requirements in check. All of my gaming ambitions need to be stored when not actively engaged.  I suspect the average wargamer has more storage occupied with terrain than miniatures or rulebooks. My plan is to be able to combine simple buildings into more complicated (interesting) built up areas, giving me more complexity with fewer starting components.  With a church, 2 cottages, a barn, and a fort, I was able to create a small town, a gated farmstead, and a small fortress.  The small fortress and farm can exist without creating duplicates of any pieces.  Putting the town on the map with either the fort or farm would require a duplicate of one of the houses. 

Small Fort with Barracks and Tower

Town with Church and Two Houses

Gated Farm with House, Barn, and Orchard Behind

I'm not completely convinced I've got the fences and gates right.  I'll keep working on them.  Only the Generals remain, and rightfully so, my daughter wants her pink army to be led by a princess bear.  I'm thinking that the coat would be the same for the Princess General as the other bears, but have a skirt covering her legs.

Army Pink

0 of 1 General Bears

4 of 4 Line Infantry Bears

1 of 1 Grenadier Bears

1 of 1 Cavalry Bears

1 of 1 Artillery Bears

1 of 1 Cannon

Army Blue

0 of 1 General Bears

4 of 4 Line Infantry Bears

1 of 1 Grenadier Bears

1 of 1 Cavalry Bears

1 of 1 Artillery Bears

1 of 1 Cannon

More Terrain Progress

 

The Current Terrain Collection

The terrain collection has expanded.  It now includes (left to right) a barn, two house variations, 2 forest variations, a church, and a blockhouse.  All structures fit in a 2" grid.  The barn, houses, and church have removable roof pieces which can conceal bears.  The blockhouse is a single piece, but bears can occupy the ramparts.  

I've also added corner embellishments that can be added to any of the building models.  These primarily add some visual weight and breakup large flat walls.  The corner supports also add rigidity to the structure when 3D printed, making it more suitable for smaller hands.

Over the past few days, the 3D printer has been churning out models.  I'm going to be out of the house for a considerable chunk of the upcoming week to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I can get both sets printed before I leave.  

Army Pink

0 of 1 General Bears

4 of 4 Line Infantry Bears

0 of 1 Grenadier Bears

1 of 1 Cavalry Bears

0 of 1 Artillery Bears

1 of 1 Cannon

Army Blue

0 of 1 General Bears

0 of 4 Line Infantry Bears

0 of 1 Grenadier Bears

0 of 1 Cavalry Bears

0 of 1 Artillery Bears

0 of 1 Cannon

Terrain Progress

 Designing the bear-game terrain continues.  I've redesigned the roof texture to be more Mediterranean.  Smaller roof tiles allows smaller roof segments to have appropriate detail.  The church and cottage below have the same exterior dimensions and base roofline but I think they loos sufficiently different.  The church gets arched and taller windows and doors and a small steeple to differentiate it from other buildings.  These designs are heavily influenced by the simple terrain designs highlighted at https://gameofmonth.blogspot.com, and https://portlandlittlewars.blogspot.com.

Church

. 

Cottage

I've also made a breakthrough on the forests.  The trees are big enough to obscure the bears, yet small enough to fit in the same 2" grid as the bears.  Hopefully the straight section of trees isn't too top heavy.  If they do end up being too heavy, I'll glue them to a base that the bears would also stand on.  The sections with trees on two sides shouldn't be a tipping hazard.  

What Bears?

Terrain Yet to Start

Large Buildings

Fences: Linear cover away from buildings

Fields?: Slows movement & conceals some bears?

Field Works?

Rocky Outcroppings: Linear cover away from buildings

Hills?: Might avoid.  Tends to complicate rules.

Cliffs?: Might avoid.  Tends to complicate rules.

Terrain Work-In-Progress

Small Buildings

Forest

Modular Terrain

Now that I'm relatively locked-in on the bears' dimensions, it's time to work on some terrain.  I'd like to keep the style relatively generic so that it can be adaptable to wherever the bears might find themselves fighting.  (Bonus points if it can be used for humans later)  To that end, I've settled on a slate tile look with very simple doors/windows and stucco/flat walls.  

As with most of what I've designed, I try to use a core catalog of parts and re-arrange them to make different outcomes.  To make the bear project successful I'll need, a variant or two of small cottage houses, a few variants of larger houses, a church, some storehouses/barns, and maybe a few dedicated commercial buildings.  

Basic Cottage Variant 1

Basic Cottage Variant 2

biggest design constraint for terrain is determining if/how units on the board can interact with it.  I'm assuming that the games my daughter and I will play will be largely narrative based so bears will likely need to search houses for honey/treasure or hide from enemy patrols.  I've designed a basic building that the bears can fit in with a removable roof.  The underside of the roof has supports that keep it centered between the gabled ends.  I hope that the gabled ends of the building are rigid enough to survive play.  If not, I'll likely end up redesigning the roof such that it incudes the gabled ends.

Grenadiers Take Cover Inside the Cottage

The most challenging terrain designs are going to be the organic shapes needed for forests.  I could solve this problem by having the trees be removable from their stumps.  When a bear unit needs to occupy the forest, the human player would remove the canopy from the terrain piece and place their bears on the stump field.  This is probably the easiest to design but is somewhat immersion breaking.  The other option I'm considering is making lines of trees to mark the outside of the forest.  The downside there is that the forest would need to be 2x2 grid spaces to completely enclose bears. After I'm satisfied with a few different buildings, I'll make a decision on the forests.  

Terrain Yet to Start

Forest

Large Buildings

Fences: Linear cover away from buildings

Fields?: Slows movement & conceals some bears?

Field Works?

Rocky Outcroppings: Linear cover away from buildings

Hills?: Might avoid.  Tends to complicate rules.

Cliffs?: Might avoid.  Tends to complicate rules.

Terrain Work-In-Progress

Small Buildings

Artillery Bears Completed

I now have the bear minimum of bears designed.  (there are a lot more bear puns than I thought)  A bear army can now have a general accompanied by his bugler, regular infantry, grenadiers, skirmishers?, cavalry, and artillery crews with their gun. 

Gunners: Ready to Load

With the exception of the artillery each "game unit" is a single piece with two bears merged together.  The artillery unit has two parts; the crew and the gun.  Like the rest of the units the crew is merged together at the hip and shoulder.  This allows more bears to fit in a smaller frontage, giving a better massed effect.  Assuming the bears are 40mm tall and a 2" grid, the crew and gun can just bearly fit in a cell.

The Crew Needs to Stand Close

Yet to Start Designs:

Artillery

Artillery Crew

Drummer?

Standard Bear-er?

Pirates w/ bandana headgear?

Pirate w/ flowy shirt?

Cannon on Naval Carriage:

Sailing Ships?:  Would be very simple and probably gridded

Work In Progress:

Horses: Eyes, nostrils, tails, manes, legs?

Terrain: Buildings, Forest, Bridges.  

Horses & Cannons for the Marl-Bear-Ians

"Where a goat can go, a man can go. And where a man can go, he can drag a gun." - General William Phillips

Whenever I walk US battlefields, I'm always impressed with just how far armies used to drag cannons and how they managed to get them over some of the more rugged terrain features.  That being said, General Phillips would be very disappointed with the Marl-Bear-Ians' soft paws.  Their guns will stick to flat open terrain. 

Two Grenadiers Man the Gun

I was able to reuse the cannon from the 18th century commission earlier this year. I did increase bulkiness the carriage and barrel to provide a more toyish look. The crew will be a separate model than the gun.  I'm imagining as the kids get older, a more advanced game might see crews being forced off of their gun and pieces of artillery changing hands several times.  Proper gunners with swabs are in development to crew the pieces.

Profile of a Horse

The horses have been revamped to give more cartoonish details.  I opted against the legs, but did add eyes, manes, and tails.  The core body and neck may be repurposed for cattle, pigs, or sheep if necessary.

Cavalry Troopers: Ready for the Charge

Yet to Start Designs:

Artillery

Artillery Crew

Drummer?

Standard Bear-er?

Pirates w/ bandana headgear?

Pirate w/ flowy shirt?

Cannon on Naval Carriage:

Sailing Ships?:  Would be very simple and probably gridded

Work In Progress:

Horses: Eyes, nostrils, tails, manes, legs?

Terrain: Buildings, Forest, Bridges.  

More Marl-Bear-ians

Line Infantry, Grenadiers, Advancing Line Infantry, Cavalry

The line of teddy bear soldiers continues to grow.  I 3D printed a sample of three bears merged together at approx 40mm tall.  This seemed like the right height/mass to play with young kids.  The downside is that they ended up 2.25" across the widest point. My historical ranges are based on 2" grids. Ideally, I'd be able to reuse most of my terrain. Unfortunately, I don't think much of my existing terrain will work for the bears. They're just too wide at 40mm tall. Reusing the game mats is a worthy compromise though.  To fit the existing grid, I decreased the units to two bears. I increased the spacing a little bit so that they don't overlap their neighbors so much, and sit in a 1.75" square.  This should allow me to have a little space around to make scenery.  

Assuming square grid, the scenery will probably be limited to linear scenery on 2 of the sides.  I'll be utilizing some 2.5D ideas I've seen floating around for inspiration.  Limiting the scenery to two sides does allow it to store very compactly (a plus).  There are other options for terrain I'm considering.  

    Purely Linear Terrain:  Purely linear terrain would form the border between two grid cells.  It would inhibit/limit movement between cells vs. assuming that the terrain occupies the entirety of a cell.  

    Two-Part Terrain: Terrain disassembles into two parts; a base and an upper.  When a unit occupies a terrain feature (woods/house) the upper part is removed and the unit sits on top of the base.  For a forest, the base could be a layer of stumps and the trees trunks/leaves form the upper layer.  

Lord Bearington's Cavalry Trooper

In keeping with the toy-like theme, the Mal-Bear-ian cavalry rides into battle on bouncy horses.  I'm still debating whether or not the mounts need eyes, nostrils, manes, legs, or tails. I suspect at least eyes and tails are forthcoming. Keeping the bears' feet on the ground makes 3D printing much easier and results in a more stable model on the table at the expense of the historically obvious height difference between mounted and dismounted troops.  I'm not sure which I prefer yet.

The Command Element: A General and Bugler

Yet to Start Designs:

Artillery

Terrain: Buildings, forest, bridges

Drummer?

Standard Bear-er?

Pirates w/ bandana headgear?

Pirate w/ flowy shirt?

Work In Progress:

Horses: Eyes, nostrils, tails, manes, legs?

Expanding Armory

 

Musket, Blunderbuss, Modern Pistol, Flintlock Pistol

    I set out to make 18th Century Teddy Bear officers more distinct.  There might be a possibility of the Marl-Bear-Ians needing to deal with some "scurvy dogs" (probably still bears).  No self respecting pirate would be caught dead-or-alive without a few pistols.  The first pistol I've designed so far looks much more at home post 1911.  If I'm getting my history correct John-Bear Browning invented.  Maybe adding a lager cylinder could make it look something more like what a Cow-Bear would wield.  

    Also fortunately for myself, the weapons the bears use are the same size and scale that the humans in my other ranges have been using.  I think the bears unlocked quite a bit of variety.

Marl-Bear-O's Wars

 My 4 year old daughter has been asking for her own armies.  I could probably just print her up any of the ranges I've already made and as long as they're pink, she'd be over the moon.  But... she saw the Eureka Bear ranges, and now she  HAS to have them.  They seem near impossible to get a hold of so I've been commissioned by my daughter to make her a bear army.  After looking through Napoleonic, 18th Century, Roman, and Late 19th Century Uniforms, she selected the 18th Century as the "prettiest".  So that's what we're going with.  The current plan is to have very simple unit types of infantry, cavalry, and artillery.  I'm open to any kid-friendly rules that are available, especially if I can cheat to help her win without her realizing.  She's good enough at counting that I can't "misread" dice anymore. 

The Duke of Marl-Bear-O

The Duke's Line Infantry Arrayed for Battle

If the bears stand roughly 25mm, the 3 bear line formation takes up 1.5" (pardon my unit mixing).  I could probably squeeze them and some simple terrain into a 2" grid.  This would keep the game more accessible for youngsters and fit with my preference for grids.  Hopefully at 25mm scale the facings and cuffs could be altered for each unit.  Hopefully, eventually we could make both kids a set and play some Song of Blades and Heroes or the like as they get older.  

Now to start another painting project that I'll never finish...

The Queen's Own Royal Guard Grenadiers

Another Commission

I got my second 3D design commission this week.  When I started 3D design, I shared some of my first models on Thingiverse.  Someone interested in an 18th Century army found my models and reached out to see if I could add a base with dice holder.  I told him that I had done some updating to the models he found and could expand the updated range to meet his expectations.  

Using my general design principles, and reusing assets wherever possible, I set about updating the range.  Below are some of the finished units.