Hello all -
My real name is Chris Caron, I live in Wilmington NC USA. I am the father of 2 boys and I have been a big fan of Little Wars for 15 years now, though I have principally tried armies in such games as Warhammer. But to tell the truth I have never converted a soldier and only painted a few for Dungeons and Dragons
But we have settled down and I remember when I was young having all sorts of Army Men, Space Men, and a really nice set of these aliens. I had Britains from Napoleanic Wars, World War II and the American Civil War. But I put those aside when I found a copy of Tactics II, Axis & Allies, etc. Lately I have been getting back into gaming and what got me back on to Little Wars was an internet game called Last Knights.
Ever since I came across Little Wars in my University 15 years ago I've had an itch for Hooks Farm. In fact Little Wars and Floor Games are the only bit of H.G. Wells I've ever read. When I was kid a friend had a fantastic set of Playmobil Union Cavalry, Indians, and Pirates...had the old Pirate ship with the treasure chest and little loose gold coins inside.
We would have Floor Game like adventures with them. For more war like things I went back to the Green Army men. In my locale we could only ever get the green , and rarely the tan or blue. So I painted there helmets different colors. I made a game of using rubber bands that came wrapped around the newspapers and pennies. I would reenact great battles with some 300-400 army men. A friend introduced me to Green Army men war one day. But his rules were basically that the machine gunner got anything exposed zipping his hand and making the tatta tat tat sound...it was a short game. But with my game each cannon , tank, and (ugly) patrol vehicle would get to fire one rubber band and I would have 10 pennies and I'd flip them over hand. A rubber band knocking over soldiers resulted in their demise, a shot lodging in under or on to a tank, patrol car, jeep or cannon led to a furious explosion. A penny hitting a soldier would like wise remove him -also if it touched him after moving around.
Once when I was at my grandfathers house alone with a cousin we devised a massive science fiction battle between all the kitchen utensils, pots and pans and again pennies...my grandfather was not happy when he came home to find the living room littered in such a way.
Anyway I think I prefer Playmobil because as I recall they were fairly indestructible, came with nice feature and supporting terrain. Britains if you can find them now or even Airfix seem rather expensive and brittle by comparison, and the green army men, while cheap and indestructible are rather generic and bland. They also had a nasty habit of tipping over even on the flatest surface.
I hope to learn a lot here, though I think I may stick to building armies of Unions, Confederates, Royal Guards, and Red Coats with the odd pirates, rather than get to heavy into a conversion...but perhaps with some practice maybe
