Joining the Matchbox Challenge (Part 1)

Two wargaming blogs I enjoy following, Man of Tin and The Duchy of Tradgardland, have been discussing a design challenge to create a wargame that fits inside a standard matchbox. This concept interested their readers and they have opened the challenge to anyone, with more details available here. The concept of making a wargame compact enough to fit into a standard matchbox intrigues me, so I have decided to give it a try. Over the past week, I’ve been pondering ideas for the challenge while also making progress on painting my house (and I am happy to report it's now halfway done! The house that is, not my pondering.)

A 30mm long ironclad model steaming along.

Not having any of my wargaming and modelling equipment available means I cannot reuse any models, for example, a handful of 15mm figures for a skirmish game. So I decided I would have to create some models for the challenge, while not fully ruling out land games, this has pushed me in the direction of naval and air wargame ideas. Both have the advantage of not really having to include any terrain features into the game, any features required would take up valuable space in the matchbox. The matchbox’s dimensions (34mm x 55mm x 14mm) set the size constraints for the project. 

In the end I decided on a naval-themed game. The American Civil War riverine battles with ironclads seemed like a good choice because their blocky designs should be easier to make using materials like card, toothpicks, and Milliput epoxy putty. 

Four prototype ships have been built to fit within the matchbox and still leave room for a single D6 die, each ship is 30mm long. Having four ships will allow for a variety of scenarios such as one-versus-three escapes, late arrival of reinforcements, or straightforward one-on-one duels.

The half finished models in the matchbox with a small die.

The models are complete and just need a bit of sanding before being painted in a mix of dark grey and brown.

The next steps in this challenge for me, aside from finishing the models, are:

1. Create some riverbanks and sandbanks using string, which can be coiled to fit inside the matchbox.
2. Write some simple rules that fit on a small sheet of paper to fit into the matchbox (around half the size of A4 or Letter paper) or that can be cut up and pasted onto the outside of the matchbox.
3. Design ship cards for each vessel, including their details and stats to support the rules.

The next post on this challenge will be about the rules where I plan to use the matchbox as a measuring tool for movement and ranges.