Musings on gaming an Ape Uprising

Ever since seeing one of the new Planet of the Apes movies (Rise or Dawn, I don’t remember which one), I’ve been intrigued by the idea of gaming out the early days of the Ape uprising. I have some thoughts on how I would organize such a game and will lay them out here in hopes of refining them for possible future use or inspiring others.

Because the ape faction starts from nothing and expands to have thousands of followers, the scope of the game will vary massively with battles increasing in size as the game progresses. My thoughts right now for the start of the campaign involve a small skirmish style battle in which the Apes attempt to break out of their cages and take control of the facility in which they are held. Their opposition would be weak, mostly lightly-armed security guards and unarmed researchers. The apes, however, would be spread out and totally unarmed, yet more numerous. After the apes eliminate resistance in the research facility, they’d likely spread out into the streets of San Francisco where they would face a mix of police, armed civilians, and perhaps later National Guardsmen (to refight the Battle of the Golden Gate Bridge). An ape victory there would be followed by a breakout into the California suburbs and countryside, where the apes would find the US army, National Guard, and militia.

I’m not entirely sure what would happen then. I envision a series of battles between the growing ape army and the disintegrating human forces. I would like to integrate California secessionists, armed autonomous anarcho-primitivist militias, human collaborators (PETA with guns?), and other oddities into whatever it is that happens next. As of right now, it seems like a series of battles of varying sizes against opponents of different strengths.

I admit there are several problems with this concept. I have a specific plan for what battles would be fought and in what order, something that might irk any potential players.  More importantly, perhaps, most of the battles require an ape victory in order for the campaign to progress. An ape loss at the research facility would effectively end the rebellion and end the necessity for gaming any future battles. An ape loss at a laterdate could be recovered from and might actually advance the plot in an interesting direction. Another possible problem is the requirement of many different ape figures. As their army will progress technologically as the game goes on, I would need figures without weapons followed by ones with makeshift arms and finally apes with captured human weapons. I’m not entirely sure the required moulds exist and if they do, I’d probably be shelling out a hefty sum to get such a variety of figures.

I also foresee some issues in acquiring the miniatures to actually game this campaign.  I’m also unsure exactly what scale this game would be played out in, but several reasons have me leaning towards 10 or 15mm (or perhaps a mixture of the two). I have my eye on several different ranges of 15s that would fit with this idea. Secondly, I have much more experience with smaller scales, and would feel more comfortable painting models of those sizes, than, say 28mm. Finally, there is the fact that a variety of figures will be needed. It would be a lot lighter on my wallet to buy hundreds of 15s, as opposed to 28s. Of course, it’s also possible that I could use different scales for different parts of the campaign. The initial fight for the laboratory might be better gamed in 28s while something smaller would be easier for the larger battles later on.

I’ve come to like CP Models 15mm “Hairy Beasts”. This set only has three poses (one of which seems to have an insect head…), but the same company also sells chimps in boiler suits and lab coats. Admittedly, they have no armed apes, but if needed, I could always model my own weapons and add them into the hands of these figures.

For later on, I’ve found Highlander Miniatures “Monkey Boys”. These “boys” look fairly chimplike, and are dressed in modern-looking military fatigues (which can pass for civilian clothing relatively easily). Unfortunately, they appear to be out of stock, and are also limited to five poses. Still, they look good and are worth acquiring if I never need armed apes.

I can't seem to find the original home of this picture. I prefer this paint job, but have seen ones in which the chimps are less uniform. 

For years I’ve really liked the look of the 10mm Pendraken Samurai Ape range, though I don’t think they’d really fit with a revolt in the early 21st century. I’ve ordered a few of them recently, but they are yet to arrive.

Samurai Apes.  Painted by Arsenus of Pendraken Forums.

Finally, there is always the option of purchasing figures intended to represent humans and converting them to be apes. While the erect posture of the humans might not be entirely accurate for apes, using humans as substitutes would definitely be cheaper and make finding figures cheaper.

On a less speculative note, I’ve received news that my order from Irregular Miniatures arrived several days ago. Between that and the new order from Pendraken (to acquire Lawn Gnomeesque “pixies” and small samples of Space Minotaurs, Ratsburgers, Samurai Apes, and a few others), I’m a bit anxious to return home and begin painting. I certainly enjoy it out here and will be sad to go, but there’s a lot waiting me at home.

The box is a bit smaller than I expected.

What I'm Working On

At the moment, I have two major projects going on.

The first is a set of 10/15mm Fantasy armies.  I intend to use the Hordes of the Things (HotT) ruleset, which does not distinguish between those two scales.  If all that matters is the base size, I'm willing to have troops of different heights together as long as they look passable.  The "evil" army is comprised of 10mm (though I'm fairly certain they're taller than 10mm) Pendraken ratmen, Night Goblins, and Haedusmen (bull monsters).  Most of these have been painted, and they need only basing.

Ratmen

The opposition to the ratmen is an army of normal rats nemeses - dogs!  These dogmen are from Alternative Armies and are meant to be 15mm.  Instead of buying individual sets of figures, I opted to buy a 24AP army for HotT use.  I was satisfied with the purchase, but have since purchased several renaissance-era cannons and cannon crew that I intend to convert to dog artillerists.  Like the rat army, the dog army is not yet finished, but I hope to finish it within a week or so of my return home.

A dogman

What the dog army is supposed to look like

I am also working on a vague 15mm science fiction setting.  The figures are a mix of Alternative Armies, Stan Johanson, Pendraken, and other things I've picked up over the years.  I have several different "forces", most unpainted.  There are a group of Cowboys, intended to represent Firefly-esque colonials, a group of Canine punks, a small squad of generic human troops, and an assortment of different figures that I consider a single mercenary unit.  The largest force is comprised of a funny range (now out of production) made by Pendraken called Desert Rats.  These Desert Rats actually are anthropomorphic rats, and are equipped with pistols, grenades, and even a few heavy weapons.  I had to buy some of these figures, and I've formed the beginnings of a unit I call "Virgil M. Vermin's Third Shock Legion"  The Legion will have rat troops while its command will be a mix of Alternative Armies humans and rats.  All these groups roughly fit into a setting I've been in the process of creating for years.  The rats and human troops belong to an authoritarian, multi-stellar empire, while the canine punks, mercenaries, and cowboys will represent insurgent groups opposed to the authority of the first faction.  Work on my science fiction troops has barely started, but I'm optimistic about this year.

The only picture I can find online of the Desert Rats.

Canine punks.  They look better in person.

But wait, there's more!  Yesterday, with my newfound monies from the summer, I placed an order with Irregular Miniatures.  Don't let their rather old-fashioned website and lack of a webstore fool you, they run a tight ship (at least in my dealings with them so far)  A question earlier in the summer was answered promptly, and pictures of the codes I requested were sent very quickly.  I purchased a wide range of miniatures intended to supplement both my fantasy and science-fiction armies.  My fantasy armies will be bolstered by Dark Dwarves (to fight alongside the rats), regular (Light?) Dwarves for the Dog army, and fifteen Goatmen.  The canine punks will be bolstered by nearly thirty "space scum", a motley assortment of futuristic thugs of various species that I hope will be enough to field an urban punk army against the Rat Legion.  I tacked on a few aliens and humans that I thought looked interesting, as well as a squad of space Goatfolk!  I'm excited to see this order, though that won't be until I get home as I had the package sent there.
 

Space scum

Goats with guns!  In space!

I really hope that this year will be a productive one for painting and gaming, and I hope that having a blog to update about my work will be helpful.

Who are you!? What is this?!

Let me start by saying this is not my first experience with blogger.  I've had several before, though I've deactivated most of them.  Why?  I've matured greatly in the last few years and in retrospect my prior work comes across as immature and sloppy.  As an example, I did not use the spellcheck feature, so my writing was riddled with errors that I was too lazy (or actually unaware of) to correct.  For this reason, it seems necessary to create a new site.

I have decided to return to writing online about my wargaming.  I should point out that I am not by any means much of a gamer.  My previous blogs may have misrepresented me, as they imply I game frequently.  That is not the case.  I have a number of figures and most are unpainted, but I do plan on that changing in the near future.  My plan is to post pictures of my miniatures, review the ones I own, post AARs, and ramble on about any and all ideas I have.  I might throw in odds and ends about movies, books, the state of the world, and any other topic that flashes through my mind.

I am currently working at a Scout camp far from my home, and taking my miniatures and paints on a plane and then into the New Mexican heat seems like a poor idea, so I am hundreds of miles from my armies at the moment.  Upon return, however, I plan on finishing up the two armies I have that are near completion.  My hope is that once I have two usable forces, painting additional units will seem a less insurmountable task.  Ideally, my productivity will increase at that point and take on a more regular schedule.

As for who I am, I currently attend college in Virginia.  I'm interested in wargaming, (alternate) history, and politics.  I've picked up the hobby of drawing maps on Microsoft Paint of alternate worlds, and that consumes a fair bit of my time.  I also read a lot (perhaps too much...)  I particularly enjoy technothrillers and classic science fiction, though I read from a wide range of genres on a case by case basis.

I sincerely hope that this blog can be updated regularly and is entertaining to its readers.