Birthday Morschauser!

Last week was my 50th birthday. I find this difficult to believe but my mom tells me it's true. To recognize the day, I thought it would be good to at least field a game of some kind. I settled on Morschauser, rules mostly as written. (Truth in reporting, I tried a more complicated set of rules for a few turns and was just not in the mood).

I rolled 1d6 per strength point, ranges were just as they appear in the book. The only exceptions were having to add mortars and modifying rolls for targets in cover, because there are some things I just have to do.

The scenario is taken from Battlefields & Warriors The fight for Figgins Farm 1863. I tried to use a similar mechanism for reinforcements - the next platoon could enter the table when the previous platoon had a squad that had lost at least one strength point. 

This worked well, although the heavy weapons were the last to arrive and barely saw any action as a result. Next time, I'd move them higher in the sequence or assign them each to a specific platoon.

The Soviets hold the farm of Comrade Figgins.

The 1st German platoon advances and fires on the defenders. They draw first blood.

The Soviet 2nd platoon arrives on the Soviet far right using the woods there to cover their advance.

The 2nd platoons engage each other while the 1st platoons battle over the farm.

The German 1st platoon takes a beating, but they weaken the defenders in the process. The German 3rd platoon advances to follow up in support.

The Germans hold the farmhouse when their heavy weapons arrive. It may be too little too late.

A swift Soviet counterattack is nearly rebuffed but, in the end, the German squad is overwhelmed.

The Soviets reclaim the farmhouse as their heavy weapons advance (see the MG and mortar in the background)

The Germans fall back and good Comrade Figgins's farm is still in Soviet hands.

The Germans were mauled - I awarded 3 points for the farmhouse and 1 point per enemy squad. The Germans lost 4 points to the Soviet 9 points.

Yes, it lacked opportunity fire and morale states, but it was simple and loads of fun. And while a relatively quick game, it wasn't over nearly as fast as you might think.

As for gifts, I picked up Worthington's Ghost Panzer as a present to myself:

ebay score, still shrink wrapped.

It's significantly less complicated than Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit, so theoretically it will be easier to field scenarios where there is a good bit of armor on the table as well as infantry. As a bonus, the maps are mounted. Most scenarios require more than one however, so some plexiglass may be in order to keep them in place.

I hope to field the first training scenario before the month is out.

The big gift was that I forced my family and some friends to play Dungeons & Dragons with me. I ran the sample dungeon from the Holmes Basic edition book, using the Moldvay edition Basic rules. It was a resounding success, with some of the experienced gamers pleasantly surprised that role-play mattered in the dungeon and that it wasn't just hack-and-slash/murder hoboing. 

There's the possibility of a campaign now, which will start in late March probably. Once I decide whether I want to run a classic episodic game with different modules loosely linked, a single large classic module (The Lost City comes to mind), or homebrew.