May in Review

May saw a surprising increase in not only the number of games played, but I even picked up a paint brush!

Rules played in May:

1. Sword Weirdos 
2. My own modified version(s) of OHSW for melee heavy fantasy (so many cards to draw)
3. My own Sword Weirdos Lite
4. Portable Wargame-ish Ancients (using fantasy figures)
5. OHW Ancient/Dark Ages/Medieval for fantasy
6. My modified Morschauser Shock Period rules for fantasy
   

That's a lot of fantasy.

And it all owes to the arrival of my old school GW Black Orcs "regiment" (10 seems more like a company to me) which, as they provide an opponent for my lizards, sparked a renewed interest in figure gaming. A 24" square playing area, figures mounted 2 to a 3"x 2" rectangle, borrowing some orcs and goblins from my RPG minis to pad out the Orc army, and I was off to the races playing One Hour Wargames scenarios, using rules 4, 5, and 6 above.

Eventually I settled on number 6 as my preferred option for these "battle" sized games.

And there were many of them, but I took pictures only during a few:

Quite a mix here - SCS Direct, Reaper Bones, Reaper Dark Heaven, Games Workshop, and some random toy manufacturer.

Close up of the Black Orcs - GW metal sculpt. eBay purchase - painted by previous owner. I love them.

Reaper orcs in the foreground, GW orks in the middle.

The standard is so orc, it hurts!

The games themselves have been great fun and full of drama, but also the aesthetics of the games just make me happy. They remind me of Maudlin Jack Tar's games on Projects & Procrastinations and the potter bench games (i think that's what it's called) of Alan of the Duchy of Tradgardland, both of whom put on clean, uncluttered-looking games in small spaces. 

A thought on the Morschauser rules: Although the rules are simple, I find I am able to accommodate a variety of troop types, without adding innumerable special rules. Using One Hour Wargames as my reference, I decided "warband" type troops could be represented by increased movement, a front melee value of 4, with a rear melee of 1 (a combination Morschauser does not account for), for example. 

Admittedly, this can result in some imbalance when a force consisting mostly of archers (front 2/rear 1, long range missiles) and skirmishers (front 3/rear 1, short range missiles) run into a force consisting mostly of heavy infantry (front 4/rear 2), but I'm not worried about that. I play each army to their strengths and it works out in play.

The lizards are fast moving, light troops (a mix of skirmish, archers, and warband), with the possibility of long-range attacks and some tough, dangerous dinos (mostly treated as heavy cavalry with more strength points) in support. The Orc army is primarily slow-moving heavy infantry, supported with some warband and light infantry, and occasionally some dire wolves (with goblin handlers) (front 5, rear 3, but speed in the skirmisher/light infantry range).

I imagine it isn't too dissimilar to Celts vs Romans.

The joy of these games has led to a sudden burst in painting enthusiasm - more goblins to fill out the orc army, but also, additional undead to both bring up my RPG collection and to form a whole new army to field.  

Ever since I was a kid and had a set of D&D monster cards, I've thought goblins should be yellow/gold in color. You can see what I mean here: https://rollforcombat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/27-DD-Monster-Cards-3.jpg

Homage to Spiderman's enemy, the Green Goblin.

Smurf-lins. I crack myself up.

Oh yeah! 54mm figures! I remember I used to paint a lot of them! These will function as skeletal giants.

Brains!

I think this is the Reaper mascot. I'm using this figure as the 2nd figure on the undead general's stand.

Just a bunch of giant rats. In addition to being super common for fantasy RPG adventures, I'm them as light cavalry for the undead army for now.

Some stuff just for RPGs:

Almost as ubiquitous as giant rats, large/giant/huge spiders.

I think I have a 2nd dwarf figure - if I paint it, I can field a base of Dwarves as allies for humans.

Continuing the superhero motif - his snarl and oversized muscles reminded me of the incredible Hulk.

And back to the wargaming, the human general has some furry friends:

I've had all three figures sitting in the pile of shame for well over 10 years, I think. Better late than never.

So now I have four forces that I can use. With the huge benefit that all figures can serve double-duty for RPGs.

Speaking of ....

We kicked off our Episodic Campaign in May, with the party adventuring to the Halfling House - an abandoned halfling farmstead deep in the woods. 

The party consisted of:

• Macho Man Randy Savage  (1st lvl. Barbarian with Monk quasi class)
• Morticia (1st lvl. Necromancer)
• The Chaplin (1st lvl, Paladin - playing as an anti-paladin - with Confessor quasi class)
• Clarence (gnome, 1st lvl Scout with Barbarian quasi class)
• Mustard (1st lvl Necromancer with Monk quasi class)

Quasi-classes are a Basic Fantasy RPG optional thing. They are sort of like templates that can be applied to certain other classes (I wave all limits like that though and let them apply whatever they want to whatever they want) to create particular kinds of characters - Archer" is a quasi-class for example. So you could take Thief as your base class, and apply Archer, and voila! Robin Hood.

Unlike multi-class, they just add XP required to advance to the character's base class, rather than splitting XP between two classes.

The entire party survived their first outing, although a TPK was a real possibility when they were attacked by a bunch of stirges and three of the five went down with 0 HP. We're playing with the "death save" option a la 5e, so that helped them out quite a bit in that fight.

They cleared the whole place of monsters and looted all the treasure, but they want to come back with a cart for the furniture, which is worth a few hundred gold, before proceeding to The Purple Worm Graveyard. Of course, if they're returning to a site, there's a greater than zero percent chance that something will have opportunistically moved in during their absence and/or they will be attacked on the way in or out.

Macho Man is now being followed by a giggling ghost child (it's not part of the adventure, it was just a thing i added to an empty room and he befriended it by returning its doll, found in a tree house. The doll is also something I added just to add some mystery to the tree house.) This is the kind of thing I love as a GM, and why I don't prep stories or plots. I like it to emerge at the table.

The party was curious about the intended recipient of some letters they found (an actual part of the adventure but with no intended significance that I'm aware of) and though he letters are decades old if not older, I'm going to turn the recipient into a recurring thread that I'll plant in the other adventures they go on, to help bring the game world to life. 

If the players express interest in something, I try to reward them for it.

So, while I'm not writing up adventures or building dungeons for this campaign, it's already taking on a life of its own beyond the pre-written adventures.

Finally, I have been jonesing to get my 40K figures on the table for some One Hour Skirmish Wargames, Space Weirdos, Planet 28, etc. but I really wanted suitable terrain that isn't just me digging through my son's old toys (actually, strike that...i love his old toys, but I want to repaint them to be more suitable for my vision. When he goes off to college in a few years maybe :D )

Enter "poorhammer" as it's called by some - most of us know it as DIY scenery and terrain. 

Cardboard, cereal boxes, card stock, sprue cuttings, canvas knitting mesh etc. I decided on a ruined/abandoned industrial-type site, rather than Grim Dark Gothic ruins, as the latter has a very specific look that I do not feel I could do justice with my "measure 30x-cut myself" crafting ability. 

Also, an industrial site seems to me to be more "universal" - good for battling troops but also for ragtag bands of scavengers and smugglers. Possibly even a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

 Here's where it stands as of now:

This was the first piece, and I sort of fumbled along with trial and error. It was supposed to be a proof of concept, and I ended up really liking it.

 

Occupied!

"Sheet metal" from the lining inside a can of Pepperidge Farm Pirouette cookies. This might be my favorite - works as an objective to capture, but also provides cover, and adds to the atmosphere. 

Clearly a piece of sprue, but it reminded me of an old antenna.

I love how corroded and rusted this looks. The texture of the corroded area was a happy accident of repeated hot glue mishaps.

The other side. I pictured this as having been a converted shipping container or makeshift foreperson's office

Oops! Missed aging the copper pipes!

This is the entire lining inside a can of Pirouette cookies. I was really sloppy gluing the dop disc to the cylinder, but I like how it made the rim look ragged and corroded once the paint was added. Another happy accident!

The aftermath (or as I like to say, "Genius at work!":

I did make a purchase on eBay of some scatter terrain to supplement my hand-made efforts. 

I picked up Mantic's Terrain Crate: Industrial Scatter Terrain to be precise. The pieces look great, and will add visual variety, act as objective markers, and provide substantial amounts of light cover. 

Finally, because one of my 2025 goals is to do more social gaming - well more social things generally even:

I joined the One Page Rules Discord server and once there was pointed to a group in North GA that meets for games regularly. They play at a game store a bit far away for their regular weeknight gaming - 30-90 minutes depending on traffic (Atlanta traffic is like that). Never mind that it's a night I can almost never make because I typically have a guitar student that night, but a bunch are open to weekend gaming with advance notice. 

So, I'm trying to arrange a meetup for mid-June. Wish me luck!

Ok, finally (this time for real), on May 4th a distortion pedal that I wanted way back in 2017, and which was discontinued, returned for a single day, and one now resides on my pedal board:

It's a good basic distortion - nothing fancy. I could have purchased cheaper used Boss DS-1 or something, but R5-D4! 

Until next month!

January/February Recap

 Lots of irons in lots of fires, and blogging regularly has received the axe, but I am still out here doing my thing, and I got in a bit of painting and gaming in January and February.

Finally got my Pozzuolo del Friuli scenario on the table using modified One Hour Wargames "Machine Age" rules

Morschauser Shock modified for Fantasy, One Hour Wargames scenario on 2/3 scale table, i.e. 24" square.

Morschauser Shock and Horse & Musket modified for VSF. One Hour Wargames scenario. Full scale, i.e. 6" bases and 36" square.

For reasons, I started painting the Battle of the Alps (Italy and France) in 1/72, with multi-figure basing. this is the first platoon of alpini.

I also painted five additional 28mm lizard warriors - one Reaper Bones and four Dark Heaven - and have gotten the first platoon of 1/72 French started.

Oh, and I played the classic GDW game, Battle for Moscow, several times in a single day, and also a game of Burning Mountains 1916, from Compass Games - with turns spread over three days.

Cheers!

Morschauser Shock Modifications for Fantasy Document

I played another game of modified Morschauser's Shock Period Rules last night - testing a few tweaks made since the last game. 

Human Heavy Infantry clashes with Marine Iguanas (Move 9", Front Melee 4, Rear Melee 2, SP 6, unarmored)

They worked well and gave an exciting game with unexpected highs and lows for both sides, and a lot of narrative flavor.

Here is a link to the document for those interested: Modifications for Morschasuer’s Shock Period Rules for Fantasy    

The modifications are intended to result in satisfying games of an hour or less, with 6 units per side, clearly in the One Hour Wargames way, and I have not tried them with more or fewer units.

Pteranodons were statted with the monster table - a mix of picking and rolling: Move 12", Melee Front 4, Rear 2, SP 8, 2d6 when attacking, and tagged with armored and flyer.

They require a copy of Morschauser's How to Play War Games in Miniature, original or the John Curry reprint as I have, to fill in the blanks.

It's inexpensive to get the e-book version and it is by far my favorite of the wargaming classics, only just behind Little Wars, and I highly recommend it.

Human hero captures the hill but the lizards would reclaim it. It would change hands several times.

I feel that 10 turns has worked well in my games with these rules using One Hour Wargames scenarios, however, if you want to play 15 turns per OHW, by all means.

This plucky unit of Geckos (bog standard Skirmishers in my modifications) held off the enemy General's unit repeatedly.

Going forward, I think, if the result is not obvious after turn 10, I may roll 1d6 and subtract 1 from the score. The result will be how many turns remain (so, on a 1, the game is over).

In the end, the humans claimed the hill, but the lizards were in clear control of the cross-roads. A tie!

The game pictured above was surprisingly well-balanced, probably by accident. 

What I find most surprising about Morschauser's approach, is that even without +/- to die rolls, only different unit stats, the different unit types feel different, and benefit from being used in ways that, to my mind, make sense. 

Now, admittedly, skirmishers holding the hill was not the best choice, but deployment was determined by die roll. 

That they held their own was a delightful surprise, and exactly what I want from the rules.

Morschauser Fantasy Shock

Much of my holiday down time was spent planning/goal setting for the new year - most of it not hobby related. However, on the hobby front I become consumed with the thought of how to make my 54mm fantasy type armies work for me *without* having to buy anything and keeping any painting to an absolute minimum.

What I wanted was something that isn't 1:1 skirmish. I really like my combination of One Hour Wargames periods to make a fantasy set, but of course, I can't just let sleeping dogs lie. 

Many hours of playing around in Google Draw with various basing and organization ideas led to using 6" x 3" sabots, which is suitable for One Hour Wargames. But instead, for reasons that escape me now, I decided to modify Morschauser's Shock era rules to suit my needs.

Something always draws me back to Morschauser. 

The first game went pretty well, but I took no pictures and tweaks were required. For one, I didn't use sabots, but just kind of eyeballed unit frontage.

For the second game, which I played last night, I roughly cut out some 6" x 3" cardboard sabots to get a better idea of unit frontage and added necessary rule tweaks. This time I took pictures!

A Tanitian hero (and her entourage) battles Qamar heavy infantry.

 

Qamar heavy cavalry ride down a unit of Tanitian skirmishers.

The hill would change possession four times. The Tanitian heavy infantry and hero held out for a good while though.

Turn 10. I originally set out 10 turns as the limit - since these aren't OHW rules and I didn't know how long it would go. When turn 10 ended, it didn't seem fair to call it a Tanitian victory given they were being enveloped.

I decided to play on. This is around turn 13 I think? You can imagine how it ends. It did go to turn 15 before Tanitia was driven entirely from the field. Along with another Qamar unit.

I used Morschaser's roster system (instead of tracking with little dice trailing my units like I usually do I made a unit roster sheet. I don't know why it only occurred to me to try this last night and not in the dozens of OHW games I've played), but increased strength points to 6 for basic units.

Rather than rolling 1 die per strength point, I went The Portable Wargame way and rolled 1d6 for the unit regardless (I've done this before when I've modified Morschauser's Modern rules).

I added unit types: mixed skirmishers, heroes, generals,and monsters. 

I added spellcasting as a "tag" to apply to any particular unit that has the ability (my mods push the rules to be very much narrative oriented without concern for any sort of balance - after all, I'm the only one playing, so I am not too upset when I lose, because I also win as long as I have fun and the story is good).

I also modified the melee rules so they are not "to the death" but involve push back results - inspired again by The Portable Wargame and Hordes of the Things (which I have kind of sort of skimmed).

It all worked well and I enjoyed the game quite a bit - like OHW I can play without constant reference to the rules and focus on decision making, but I found there was a good deal more excitement in combat. Not only how much damage will be done but if any at all.

Tweaks were still required though, and I've already updated my modifications with some notes about changes I decided to add during play. I'm looking forward to playing again soon.

Hopefully, these rules will be the basis for a six-sided campaign later in the year (once I knock out three more armies - two of them will be very easy to do though, more on that when I finally get around to posting my plans for the year).

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.