Toy soldier games: how to play trench battles with plastic soldiers

Setting up the battlefield

A rug is the best battlefield there is: soft for soldiers that fall, with a pattern that gives you lanes for free. You need two armies of the same size (twelve to twenty soldiers each is plenty; a bag of plastic soldiers usually comes in two colours, so split it by colour), and things from around the house for cover.

Lay out five or seven lines of cover across the rug, about a forearm apart: books lying flat, a row of building blocks, a ruler on its edge, pencils, a rolled sock, a tea towel. The line at each end is that army's base. Cover should be a little lower than a soldier, so the soldiers can peek over it. Each army starts behind its base and the line in front of it; the lines in the middle belong to nobody yet.

A turn: move, then shoot

Players take turns. On your turn:

1. Move up to three soldiers, each up to one hand span (or a ruler's length). A soldier behind cover that moves out of it is in the open until it reaches the next line.
2. Shoot with up to three soldiers that didn't move. Pick a target in range (two hand spans, or about one line away) and roll a die: a 5 or 6 knocks it over. If the target is behind cover, you need a 6. If it's in the open, a 4, 5 or 6.

No dice? Roll a marble from behind your shooter towards the target instead: whatever it knocks over is out, your own soldiers included. Marbles make a game louder and much funnier, and they reward a steady hand.

Taking a line

A line of cover belongs to whoever has soldiers standing behind it. To take a line from the other army you have to clear it: when none of their soldiers is left standing at that line and one of yours reaches it, it's yours, and they can't move back into it until they take it again.

That's why soldiers attack together. Run one soldier at a defended line and it spends a whole turn in the open; run six, and they can't all be knocked over before they get there. In Toy Trenches this is the rule that drives the whole game: soldiers wait at your front line, and when eight are there they charge together. You can send them sooner if the line ahead is nearly empty.

Win by taking the line in front of the other army's base. For a quicker game, play to the first army with nobody left standing.

Riflemen, gunners, medics and tanks

Plastic soldiers come in poses, and the poses make good rules. Some ideas:

• Riflemen (standing and aiming): the basic soldier, as above.
• Machine gunners (lying down behind the gun): shoot three times a turn but never move once they're set up. They're how you stop a charge.
• Snipers (kneeling with a scope): shoot twice as far, and only need a 5 behind cover.
• Medics (bending over a kit bag): stand one fallen soldier back up each turn, if it's within a hand span.
• Tanks: only knocked over by a 6, or by a bazooka (any hit), and soldiers just behind one count as being in cover even in the open.

Tactics that win

• Charge together, or not at all. A few soldiers crossing the open one by one are easy targets. Wait until you have enough to get there.
• Hit the gunners first. One machine gunner can stop a whole charge. Snipers and mortars are for knocking them out.
• Keep a medic near the front. A soldier stood back up is a free soldier.
• Go where they're thin. If one lane of their line is empty, charge down it: soldiers who reach a line can shoot along it at the defenders beside them.
• Don't empty your own line. When your whole front line charges, the line behind them is bare. Keep a gunner or two at home.

On a screen

Toy Trenches plays these rules in real time. Supply fills up by itself; tap a card to send a soldier to your front line. Hit soldiers tip over and pop away, medics stand them back up, and a marble, a paper plane full of water balloons or a wind-up mouse can turn a battle. There are 24 battles on the bedroom rug, in the sandbox and in a muddy garden, a Daily battle that's the same for everyone, and two players on one screen.