OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A.

Sheil All Rights Reserve 1

OMOG 19C (One Man One Gun) for classic toy soldiers and any available space. It can be
played on a desktop, a coffee table, a counter top or other surface. The game itself is simple,
easy to learn and easy to play. Games can be brief enough to be played on a lunch break. Aside
from soldiers, the only equipment is a six inch ruler and a pair of dice or six coins. Everything
else is there.
OMOG is a soldier game. You do not need military knowledge to play. The game takes
care of all of that. If you are using Toy Soldier Art figures, it is even easier. Each now comes
with a card that has the necessary information.
OMOG 19C (One Man One Gun) is a game for toy soldiers that is easy to learn, easy to
play and lots of fun. The game is based on the era from 1860 to 1900. Its primary focus is on the
American Civil War and Franco-Prussian War.
The battles depicted in OMOG are actually small actions that would involve no more than
a few squads. The combat on this level includes patrols, probes of the enemy line, raids and
fights between small units of stragglers during a larger battle. There are not enough troops and no
good reason to form battle lines or other maneuvers common to large armies. Each man is an
individual part of a team. Put few teams together and
you have a squad. It is that simple.

To begin OMOG requires a few things.

First is a place to play. The game is designed for a

convenient space such as a desk, table or work
bench. You can play on a coffee table or kitchen
table. The space does not have to be large.
Next, you need soldiers. OMOG was
designed to be used with Toy Soldier Art figures.
These are 2 to 2 ½ inches tall. They are the same size
as the classic plastic army men. They also have the
same weapons.
You need a measuring stick to measure range and movement. A 6" ruler will do
nicely.
You need some way to figure the random factor. You can use coins or a six-sided
dice, or make a spinner with six spaces.

Terrain and Structures

Real battles take place around hills, across rivers, through villages and in woods. You could
make miniature scenery or buy it from a craft store or hobby shop. An easier and more
immediate way of having terrain is to use things that are usually on a desk or table. Coffee
mugs, plates, napkins and books can be houses, lakes, forests and hills.
2 OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A. Sheil All Rights Reserve

Houses: a coffee cup, mug or pencil holder can be used as a house. If you have it right side
up, you can put a soldier inside if he is supposed to be in the house,. Invert it, put him on the
bottom (which is now the top) and he can be on top of the house.
Lakes and impassable areas: plates and saucers can be
used to represent lakes or swamps.
Woods and Jungles: small wooded areas are represented
by an open napkin. You can fold and open the napkin to the
right size for your forest.
Place mats make a good starting point for each army.
Roads are strips of paper.
Hills are made by stacking books, boxes or even thick
cutting boards.
Stacks of pencils or folded cardstock can be walls.
Rivers and streams are strips of paper colored differently
than roads.
A bridge can be as simple as a single strip of paper placed over a waterway.

What makes a battle?

You need three things to have a battle. Soldiers need to move, fight and to shoot.

Move: the way we move in OMOG is easy. An average man covers a certain distance in a given
amount of time. He moves fastest on a road, trail or path. Moving off the path is harder and
takes a little longer. It also takes longer to go through woods or a swamp.

Men on foot
A FULL move is 6", a PART move is 4", a HALF move is 3" and a SHORT move is 2"
A man on a road, or in a town or walled courtyard moves the FULL move. 6"
A man off road moves a PART move.4"
A man going uphill on a road also goes a PART move. 4"
A man going uphill off road goes a HALF move 3"
A man going through a swamp, fording a river or climbing an obstacle goes a SHORT move. 2"
If a road goes through a swamp or woods, the man still moves a FULL move. 6"

Horsemen
A horse on a road, or in a town or walled courtyard moves 2 (two) FULL moves.
A horse off road moves a FULL move. 6"
A horse going uphill on a road also goes 2 (two) PART moves 8"
A horse going uphill off road goes a PART move. 4"
A horse going through a swamp, fording a river or climbing an obstacle goes a HALF move. 3"
 OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A. Sheil All Rights Reserve 3
Cavalry mounting or dismounting: HALF move 3" (Cavalry cannot mount / dismount in swamp,
while fording river or climbing.)
If a road goes through a swamp or woods, the horse still moves 2 FULL moves.

You can make a measuring stick with a 6 inch piece of cardboard. On one side make a line in the
center. This is a HALF move. On the other, mark a line at the 4" point. The longer portion is a
PART move and the shorter is a SHORT move. The entire stick is a FULL move.

Of course, you can also use a ruler.

Shooting: The main method to combat the enemy is through shooting. Whether you are firing a
pistol or letting loose with a Gatling gun, shooting is a matter of distance and accuracy. In other
words, how well can you hit a target at a given distance? We call this distance "range" The range
of weapons varies. In the real world, the effective long range for a standard combat rifle is about
500 yards. Effective is the distance at which an average soldier can hit a target under combat
conditions. The effective range of a pistol is about 25 yards.
We have to scale down our ranges. Otherwise our game would be a big shooting match
with no need to move.
Each weapon has a range. Most are split into three segments: close range, medium range
and long range. The closer the target, the easier it is to hit. It is harder to hit a target at long
range than at short range. Here is where we need dice or coins or a spinner. The random factor
is a part of shooting. We use it to determine our chances of hitting a target.
To shoot, a dice is rolled. The range to the target is figured: short, medium or long. Each
weapon has its own numbers needed to hit. For a rifle, it takes a 3, 4, 5 or 6 to hit at close range.
It takes 4, 5 or 6 for medium range. A long range target can only be hit by a 5 or 6. There is a
66% change of hitting at short range, 50% at medium range and 33% at short range.

Here are the basic weapons and their ranges

Weapon Short range Medium range Long range

Rifle 6" - FULL 3,4,5,6 12" two FULL 4,5,6 18" three FULL 5,6
Carbine, Shotgun 4" - PART 3, 4,5,6 8" FULL + SHORT 12" two FULL - 5,6
4, 5,6
Pistol 3" -HALF 4,5,6 6" - FULL - 6
Bow & Arrow 3" - PART 4,5,6 6" FULL 5,6 9" FULL - Half 6

Shooting can be affected by other factors. It is harder to hit an enemy who is behind a wall or in
a house. Sniping from a roof or high point makes it easier to shoot.
4 OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A. Sheil All Rights Reserve
Enemy in woods -1
Enemy in house - 2
Enemy behind low wall - 1
Enemy behind chest-high wall - 2
Shooting at enemy from roof or high place +1
Enemy using crest of hill -1
Enemy firing around a house, tree or wall -1
Enemy firing around or over a large object (boulder, crates, etc) -1
Shooting from a horse that moved this turn -1

Heavy Weapons

For our basic game, we can use a standard small type of fieldpiece. It has a four-man crew. The
weapon fires an amazing 24 inches. The burst area of its shell is 3 inches. Within close range, it
can also fire "canister" or "grapeshot," which is like a giant shotgun shell.
A fieldpiece has four rounds of ammo. Three are standard artillery and one is canister.
It takes one turn to set up a fieldpiece. The gun can be pushed by three men. They must
halt one move before they can fire it.
A gun can fire every move it stays in place. For this game, the piece is mainly defensive.
Artillerymen are considered to have pistols and swords. Troops who are firing the gun
cannot shoot their other weapons for that move.
A fieldpiece starts with four crewmen who must serve the gun. If the number drops to
two, the gun cannot be pushed. A two man crew can fire every other turn. Another non-artillery
soldier can help push the gun and get the number back to 3, but he cannot help fire it.
A gun can be pushed through woods at a SHORT move. It cannot be pushed through
fords or swamps at any time.
Make a 3" diameter disk. The center goes on the exact target. The range for regular
ammo is from 6" (FULL) to 24" (4 FULL). Under 6" it can only fire grapeshot. The target must
be in sight of the gunner. Roll a die. 1 is a dud. 2 means it landed 3" to your left, 3 is 3" to your
right, and 4 is 3 ½" over the target. 5 and 6 land on target.

Gatling guns, Gardner guns and other early machine-guns provided extra firepower for special
occasions. These early machine-guns were usually assigned to the artillery and the Navy. They
were rare in the kind of small actions we have in OMOG.
Early machine-guns tended to jam. They also fired slower than their 20th Century
counterparts. To fire one, we place the Gatling cone with its tip on the gun's muzzle and the cone
over the target. Then a dice is rolled. 6 is a total misfire. Any other number is the amount of
targets within the cone that are hit. Targets are hit in order from the nearest to the furthest.
It takes one move to set up a machine gun. The gun must stop one turn, neither moving
nor firing, in order to be set up. Every time the gun is moved, it must be set up again before it
can fire. Three men to push or carry a machine gun. There must be two trained men to operate it.
Other soldiers can help move the gun, but cannot help operate it. Each gun can fire four bursts.
 OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A. Sheil All Rights Reserve 5
Burst Cones

A small field piece fires a round with a 3" burst: make a disk that has a diameter of 3 inches. To
determine impact for shells, place the center of the disk over the target point. Everyone inside the
disk is considered hit unless he has cover.

Grapeshot uses a cone to cover the area in which it fires. The

cone is an isosceles triangle that has a base of 2 inches and a
length from tip to center of 6". When firing, the tip is placed
on the muzzle. Everything in the cone is hit unless there is cover between it and the muzzle.

The machine gun cone is 18 inches long. It is diamond shaped. The cone tapers to 3 inches wide
at the 9" line, and then back to a point. This is because it is
possible to fire a burst at a group at half range, but at greater
ranges the weapon has to be aimed more carefully.

Cover from heavy weapons

Person in woods, behind walls or houses have cover if a heavy weapon cone is placed over them
provided the cover is between them and the point of impact. They can roll dice to see if they are
safe. The point of impact is at the center of the disk for shells. For grapeshot / canister and
machine guns / Gatlings / Gardner Guns, the point is the muzzle of the gun.
If they are between cover and the point of impact, they do not get cover.
Roll dice for each one with cover. If you get the numbers indicated below, they survive.

In house or bunker: 3, 4, 5, 6
In woods 5, 6
Behind stone wall 4, 5, 6
Behind wood wall 5, 6
Behind tree or other narrow object: 5, 6

Ammo rules

Fieldpieces and Gatling guns have a limited amount of times they may shoot. The easy way to
deal with this is for each player to have separate stacks of coins, chips or other markers for each
heavy weapon. As the weapon fires, he discards the appropriate marker.

Hand to Hand fighting

There are times when troops come into contact and fight with bayonets, knives and whatever else
they can swing at an enemy. Each player rolls dice and adds or subtracts according to the table
below. The loser of the roll is removed.
6 OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A. Sheil All Rights Reserve

Cavalryman fighting a man on foot +1

or, Heavy Cavalry charging men on foot +2
Lancer charging cavalry in the open +1
Heavy Cavalry charging light cavalry +1
Soldier with rifle that can use bayonet +1
(Bayonets do not get bonus in houses or woods.)
Bayonet charge adds an extra +1
Elite troops get +1
Two to one: when two attack, each of the two add +1
Fighting a man in armor (Cuirassier) -1
Three to one - rule of three: when three fight one, the first adds +1, the second adds +2. If the
enemy is still standing, he is automatically removed by the third.

Cavalry Charge: Cavalry can declare a charge if moving against an enemy who is more than a
PART move away. The charge gives then an added attack bonus for the charge. They can only
charge once per game. As cavalry responds to a charge by moving, there is only an added bonus
for cavalry charging cavalry in the special circumstances listed above.

Bayonet Charge: A rifleman can declare a bayonet charge and rush to hand-to-hand combat at
an opponent who is at least a SHORT move away. He may not shoot that turn. He may only
charge once per game.

Repel Horses: a charging horse can be stopped by three foot soldiers. At least two of them must
have rifles that can use bayonets. They must face the charging horsemen. This removes the
charge bonus for cavalry and the bonus for cavalry attacking infantry. The third soldier may shoot
that turn; the two others may not.

Unhittable

A soldier who is behind a house, a hill or a woods cannot be hit by direct fire. He can be
hit by a mortar provided his is 2" or more from the house, hill or woods AND you have a soldier
in position to see him. Mortars fire at a high angle and can come in close.
A soldier more than 2" away from the edge of the woods cannot be hit by direct fire or by
mortars fired from outside the woods. He can be hit by other soldiers in the woods..

Units
Troops are organized into units. The basic unit of OMOG is the team of three to five men. Two
to three teams make up a squad. The squad requires at least one officer. Troops must move as a
unit. In the unit, troops must remain within half a move of the nearest team member. If a team is
reduced to 1, that soldier must either hold his position until another team arrives, or move to join
the nearest team. Officers can move independently. They do not have to remain with a team.
 OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A. Sheil All Rights Reserve 7
Turn Sequence

Turns follow this sequence: Side 1 move, then Side 2. After movement, both sides fire
simultaneously. When firing is done, hand to hand combat is resolved. The next turn move,
Side 2 moves first. Alternate every move thereafter.
Each side has 2 minutes to move. Nothing more can be moved when the time limit is up.

Winning

There are several ways to play. Here are two example, but you may come up with your own:

Objective: each side picks an objective on the enemy side of the board. A player must take the
objective and prevent the enemy from doing the same. (For example, "Take the red house." or
"Hold the bridge on the left".) He must hold the objective for 3 turns.

Wipe-out: the game is played for a certain amount of time. For example. the time limit is twelve
turns or ten turns or an hour. The side that makes the enemy lose the most soldiers by end of the
game wins.

Optional: To maintain the best playing conditions, it is wise to limit the size of opposing
forces. There is a simple formula. Each side can have approximately 1 man per square foot of
battlefield. Of course, smaller amounts are allowable.

OMOG 19C Basic is published by

T. Sheil

Freehold, NJ 07728
See us on the net at http://www.thortrains.net/toysoldierart
OMOG 19C © 2010 T. Sheil and A. Sheil All Rights Reserve