Before that, we did something similar outside, when the base was built from sand. But considering the high chance of losing toys, we quickly abandoned this idea, and it was only done a couple of times. Spoons (or something similar) were used as catapults, scooping up sand and throwing it forward.
There was also a time when I would set up toy soldiers on the floor at home, using toy cars and other objects as cover, and then shoot at them from the opposite side with a pistol. But not the one that was sold in the 90s with round pellets (although maybe a couple of times I used that one too), but with a Soviet pistol that had flat bullets with holes. It did less damage, but it was still sufficient, plus the bullets didn't fly far and were easy to collect. Besides, the round ones could fly back at you, which I guess could be considered return fire.