Joe Morschauser, Wargames Pioneer

Wargames purchases are going to be rare for me in the foreseeable future - money is tight and the hobby is on the back burner. However, I did have a book token left over from Christmas, and I decided to further my interest in the old school pioneers of wargaming by buying a copy of How To Play War Games In Miniature, by Joseph Morschauser. War games was always 2 separate words to these early authors!

Being a minor collecter of old wargames (or should that be war games) books my preference would normally have been for a copy of the original publication, which came out in the same year as Featherstone's War Games. However, the History of Wargaming Project had their own reprint available, and by ordering through a local bookshop I could use my book token. A second hand copy of the original book can be had online for around £20 including p+p; but no book tokens allowed! The attraction of the reprint was enhanced by additional articles on Morschauser's gridded wargames, taken from old wargaming magazines and newsletters.

Image courtesy John Curry

So for £11.95 you get a faithful reproduction of the original book plus about 30 extra pages of old Morschauser articles and a bit of biographical detail. This results in a fairly slim volume of just over 120 pages which nevertheless represents good value for money. There are a number of original photos which are very nostalgic, supplemented by some modern (black and white) photos of John Curry and Bob Corderey resurrecting Morschauser's ideas in recent games. Below we see some gamers having a go at a Morshauser gridded wargame at the Conference of Wargamers a few years ago.

Image courtesy John Curry

Negatives? Well, it's not the original book so the heft is missing (and the smell: ah, the smell of old books!). The photos lose a bit of quality, and there is the odd typo which I assume is a result of glitches in the text recognition software (or whatever it's called) used by Lulu. But once again John is to be congratulated on bringing this old classic to the attention of present day wargamers.

The book itself follows a familiar pattern - introductory remarks about wargaming, chapters on soldier type and scale, setting up a battlefield and the basic principals of wargaming rules. Then 3 sets of rules for ancient (called 'Shock'), horse and musket and modern periods. The rules could hardly be more simple, which is the great attraction of the book for me. Here is an object lesson in how wargames rules can be pared down to bare essentials if you want to try a basic wargame, with all the advantages of quick and easy play. In addition, Morschauser's ideas on wargaming were distinct from those of Featherstone and H.G. Wells: he pioneered the concept of multiple figure bases, and the off-table recording of casualties whilst the units on table remained intact until removed. He can therefore be seen as rather ahead of his time, and the rules will be easy to use with modern collections. One odd omission (at least to modern eyes) is that the rules give no advantage for cover of any kind, which is probably taking simplicity a bit too far. Adding in a consideration for cover can easily be done in one of the usual ways. It should be noted that the gridded wargame was a later idea of Morschauser's: the main rules in the book are not for gridded war games. I was interested to read about these wargames on squared terrain, but I found that the concept is not one that really appeals to me.

It was the modern rules which immediately caught my eye, as being a set of rules which I could easily play with my collection based for Blitzkrieg Commander. I will definitely give them a go, probably as a solo try-out, and I hope this might be the subject of a future post. Interested parties will find a bit more on Joe Morschauser on the Vintage Wargaming  site.

Action at St Johannes

So here we are then. Inspired by the Jack Scruby map from All About War Games (see post for 22nd January below), I developed and played a scenario to test out my rules and continue with my return to wargaming.

The original map came out with proportions of 6' x 5', so to fit my 6' x 6' set up I added 6" top and bottom, resulting in the map below (which is also mildly enhanced and tidied up). For the game some of the names on the map were 'Germanised'.

Scenario - Austria vs Prussia, 1757.

Austria

Feldmarschall-lieutenant Weisser is in charge of a force of a little under 4,000 infantry, 1,200 cavalry and 2 artillery batteries. His mission is to block the crossings of the Schnellfliessend south of the straggling village of St. Johannes, preventing the northward movement of any Prussian forces.

As dawn breaks on this particular day, Weisser and his senior officers are all gathered at the Johanneskirche for a discussion of plans and a brief religious service. Suddenly a small patrol of Grenzers enters the church with news of the approach of a significant force of Prussians, moving up the road from the south-west. Had his cavalry commander not been such a fool, Weisser might have heard sooner! He must alert his troops and get them positioned to counter the Prussian drive.

Forces:

Camped at X - 3 infantry battalions, 1 medium battery.

Camped at Y - 2 infantry battalions.

Camped at Z1 - regiment of dragoons.

Camped at Z2 - regiment of hussars.

At the woodcutters settlement - 1 Grenz battalion, 1 light battery.

At Greens Rock - 1 Grenz battalion.

The brigade commanders must ride out from the church to their encamped units, alert them and get them moving towards the crossing points at the ford and bridge. The Grenz units are each commanded  independently, and are already awake and ready to go. 

Prussia

Generallieutenant von Blau leads a force of 4,200 infantry, 2,500 cavalry and 3 artillery batteries. He has orders to cross the Schnellfliessend and continue north to join up with other Prussian forces in the hills. 

Von Blau is confident that his small but high quality force will be more than a match for any Austrian outposts he meets. He is marching rapidly towards the river crossings, keeping to the road to maximise progress.

Forces:

Infantry brigade of 4 infantry battalions and 2 medium batteries.

Infantry brigade of 3 grenadier battalions and 1 medium battery.

Cavalry brigade of 2 cuirassier regiments.
Cavalry brigade of 2 dragoon regiments.

All units must enter the table in column along the road from A.

Photos

I managed to set up a reasonable representation of the original terrain.

Things went fairly well for the Prussians at first, aided by their higher graded commanders. 

Here they have managed to get the dragoon brigade across the bridge with the larger of the the 2 infantry brigades strung out behind. But the Austrian cavalry was in place just in time - at extreme right you can see the Austrian hussars charging the leading Prussian dragoons.

 A few moves later things are not so rosy for the invaders. The Austrian dragoons have been seen off but the Austrian hussars excel themselves and rout one of the Prussian regiments, supported by fire from the Grenzers' light artillery.

 At the ford the Austrians manage to get their infantry into a blocking position ready to receive the Prussian grenadiers and cuirassiers, who have been stuck in a queue behind the leading brigades. A devastating volley from the first grenadier regiment pushes back one of the Austrian battalions,

 but a stalemate then ensues.

 The Prussians were unable to establish themselves north of the bridge - as each infantry battalion charged over, it was shot to pieces by the ambushing Grenzers and their artillery support, along with long range fire from another Austrian battery you can see in the middle distance. 2 infantry battalions and the 2 regiments of dragoons are done for and there is obviously no point in sacrificing more men. A victory for the Austrians, in 9 moves and about 2 hours of solo gaming.

Conclusions

I think the scenario is a bit of a tall order for the Prussians: that long and winding approach along the road from 'A' gives the Austrians too much time to get organised. Despite some initial bad luck which slowed the activation of the Austrian brigades, they were able to stem the Prussian tide fairly easily. 

If I play the scenario again, I will change the terrain south of the river so a direct road leads from the baseline to each crossing point, ensuring that the Prussians can get some forces across the river. Then with luck there will be a tense battle on the north side.

Best wishes 'til the next post!

Battle of Hochkirch

Having an interest in the Battle of Hochkirch (see this post), I was interested to find that my new copy of The Seven Years War In Europe by Franz Szabo actually had a detail from a painting of the battle as the cover picture. Thanks to the wonder of the internet I can show it in full here. 

The full name of the work is Uberfall auf das preussische Lager bei Hochkirch am 14th Oktober 1758 (Attack on the Prussian camp near Hochkirch, 14th October 1758) by Hyacinth de la Pegna. A very evocative and beautiful work, IMHO. Presumably we are looking from the starting position of the main Austrian army north towards Hochkirch, with the church of Hochkirch prominent and the Prussian tents behind.

Hope you like the painting. If anyone can find a larger image on the net I would love the link.

Cheers for now.

'All About War Games'

My interest in the hobby seems to be slowly reviving, inspired in the main by some Old School messing about. I have been tinkering once again with my own SYW rules, which started by being based on the Horse and Musket rules of Donald Featherstone. I have now added some ideas inspired by Jack Scruby and John Schuster, as explained by the Don in his book Solo Wargames, and the rules have been simplified significantly. I have tacked on my own basic command and control rules. You can download the current iteration here. It felt a bit weird at first, tinkering with rules that I thought might never actually get used, but the fascination is undeniable. I think I may be doing a bit of solo wargaming in future, where I can please myself and watch the game unfold and see how the rules work, away from some of the time pressures of gaming with friends.

Scouring the net for more Old School inspiration, I found (to my surprise and delight) a full copy of Jack Scruby's All About War Games. You can find it here. This seminal work was 'published' in 1957 - it is made up of about 25 pages of typed information and rules, photocopied and sold for $1 at the time; presumably to any of Jack's customers who were interested. The illustration at the top of this post is the only photo in the work - showing a table and armies most of us would  be proud of in 2012, let alone 1957 (the year of my birth). If only it was in colour! Shown below is a battle map from the last page of the booklet. There is no accompanying explanation, but within 30 seconds of seeing it for the first time I was planning a SYW scenario to go with it, and wondering how my own terrain pieces could be used to reconstruct it at home.

I recently cancelled my subscription to Wargames Illustrated. My thanks to the staff member who helpfully and with good grace arranged for me to get a refund. But I was quickly becoming fed up with the magazine itself. Too many adverts, too many advertorials, too much like an industry periodical. Considering all the work that goes into making WI such a glossy product, how odd that true inspiration should come from some very basic photocopied sheets from the distant wargames past.

Of course, if this is your kind of thing, you need to visit http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com/

Best wishes 'til next time.

Sold!

Following a successful RV at the M5 Bridgewater services, all the Desert armies are sold. Thanks to Rob for a painless and straightforward exchange of cash for toy soldiers. It's nice not to have to post the stuff off, worrying about things getting lost and damaged in transit.

GHQ A13s, Light MkVIs, a RR armoured car and two A9s head off into the sunset.
Hope you enjoy using the models , Rob.

The idea was to use the money to buy a couple of painted DBA armies (I can imagine some of you making the sign of the cross as you read this). I used to do a bit of DBR, and always enjoyed the games. DBA is so easy to get into and is a very easy game to set up and play. Lately, the hassle and time needed to set up a big table of good quality terrain in a family environment, where one doesn't have a dedicated wargames room, has been getting to me. Even 'Big Battle' DBA can be played on a 4' x 2' table, which would fit straight onto the dining table.

However, it looks like the money will be sucked into paying some of the Christmas bills instead. And to be honest, my dedication to wargaming has been low of late. In fact I have been considering giving up altogether, but I'll leave it for a few months and see if the interest returns. If not, there'll be more soldiers for sale. 

So posting on this blog will not be very interesting or frequent for a while. Thanks to those who are following, and I hope the old posts may be of interest to new visitors. I will keep checking the blog, so if you have any comments, keep them coming.

Best wishes, Keith.

P.S. The desert colour TSS tiles and hills are still available.

GHQ Desert Armies For Sale

I have decided to sell my British, Italian and German desert armies to try a new period. The whole collection consists of around 200 vehicles of all types, 80 or so infantry/heavy weapon bases, and 20 bases with ATGs or artillery. The quality of the pieces can be viewed on my various 'WW2 Desert' posts. I am also interested in selling off my related terrain items including sand TSS tiles. 

I would be looking for £1 per vehicle or infantry/gun base. All items painted of course, and all GHQ. I would prefer to sell the whole collection as a job lot but might consider breaking it down subject to negotiation.

Leave a comment if you're interested and we can go from there.

Update, 5th November.

Details:
Infantry bases (2cm x 2cm) have 3 figures. Heavy weapon bases have the weapon plus crew. Towed guns have a base with the deployed weapon and crew, plus a combined base with the tow vehicle and second gun in the towed position.
Some of the trucks and tanks numbered below are included on command bases designed for BKC, all the other vehicles are unbased. The listings are the fully painted models, all undamaged and painted to a good standard. I have a good deal of unpainted infantry plus a few unpainted vehicles and guns which I will throw in for free if you want them. If you want terrain items we can negotiate.


British
9 x Matilda II, 10 x Crusader I, 10 x A13 MkII, 10 x Lt tank MkVI, 5 x A9, 5 x A10.
5 x RR a/c (3 mg, 2 ATR conversion), 4 Marmon Herrington a/c (3 mg, 1 20mm), 3 x Dingo.
8 x universal carrier, 10 x 15cwt truck, 5 x 3ton truck.
2 x 2pdr portee, 2 x 2pdr+tow, 2 x 25pdr+tow, 2 x Bofors AA+tow.
20 infantry bases, 4 mmg bases, 3 engineer bases, 2 ATR bases, 2 x 2" mortar bases, 2 x 3" mortar bases.

Italian
15 x M13/40, 10 x M11/39, 7 x L3/33, 2 x AB40 a/c.
5 x Lancia heavy trucks, 4 medium trucks, 2 light trucks, 2 radio trucks, 4 motorcycle bases.
2 x 20mm AA+tow, 2 x 47mm ATG+tow, 2 x 100mm gun+tow, 1 x 105mm gun+tow.
18 x infantry bases, 4 x mmg bases, 3 x 8cm mortar bases, 4 x light mortar bases, 2 x ATR bases.

German
4 x MkIV, 10 x MkIII, 5 x MkII, 2 x PzJgr I.
2 x 222 a/c, 1 x 234 a/c, 1 x Radio a/c, 3 x 250/1, 1 x 250/10
5 x light truck, 2 x Blitz truck, 1 x Blitz radio truck, 2 x Kubelwagen, 6 x motorcycle bases
3 SP 20mm, 2 x 88mm+tow, 2 x 37mm ATG+tow, 1 x 50mm ATG+two, 1 x 75mm IG+tow.
9 x infantry bases, 4 x mmg bases, 3 x engineer bases, 1 x 8cm mortar base.

Terrain etc.
5 GHQ middle eastern houses, 2 pillboxes, 16 x 10cm lengths barbed wire, 4 palm tree bases (2 or 3 trees per base), 4 x 5cm lengths walling, around 30 dug in markers designed for my 2cm x 2cm infantry bases.

Pickled Brains Update

Just in case some of you thought I was going nuts, I wanted to demonstrate that those dust clouds did really exist. They are now promised in October, according to the FoW website. I thought they might have been quietly dropped; but apparently not.

So you see, I'm not going mad. On the other hand, a few more products like this one and I just might...