Thoughts on Morschauser’s Frontier Rules

“We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

My large chessboard set-up with “toy” style
terrain and stands of mounted Risk figures.

Earlier this month Bob Cordery posted the text of Joseph Morschauser’s “Frontier Wargame Rules” as published in Wargamer’s Newsletter #62 (May 1967). Cordery’s Wargaming Miscellany blog has long expanded my horizons with his views on gridded wargames and other such diversions. Although I’ve quite enjoyed exploring Cordery’s work in gridded wargames, I’ve never read Morschauser’s How To Play Wargames in Miniature, though The History of Wargaming Project edition has long been on my various wishlists. So I read and pondered the “frontier” game rules from the blog, printed a copy, and ran a few self-play games with a gridded board and some “toy” style figures readily at hand. I discovered a great deal that appealed to my appetite for concise games with basic core mechanics...and a few elements I would fine-tune if I wanted to pursue it for future games.

Signs of Games Past

 “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”

— William Butler Yeats

I have two stand-up, flip page easel folios I use when running game events. They fold up flat, easily fold out into a standalone display, and inform attendees what game I’m hosting (and some other details, like rules summaries or historical context). I offered to loan them to my wife for a conference she was attending. So I had to remove all the letter-sized signs I’d slipped into the inserts; since I just keep adding signs and never really cleared it out, it reminded me of all the various games I’ve run over the past 10 years at regional game conventions and local game days.

Crafting Wargame Pieces

 “Toys are a caricature of reality.”

– Brian Sutton-Smith

I’ve had some occasional discussion lately about making the miniature wargaming hobby more accessible by – gasp! – playing with more easily acquired components than fully painted miniatures with diorama-quality terrain pieces. The amount of expense and effort can intimidate some who might otherwise dive into the hobby. Sure, it’s great to have painted miniatures and crafted terrain and play with them on the table; but buying and making them no doubt puts many off of the hobby by their sheer expense and effort. I started considering options to miniature soldiers and realistic terrain that could provide a satisfying play experience with minimal work. What options could I find to entice kids and newcomers into the miniature wargaming hobby that might fall into the realm of enjoyable craft projects they can then take to the table and play with? I’ll admit I was only partially successful; I failed to suppress my urge for more elaborate and realistic looking components.

Armies in Plastic

 “The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”

– Carl Jung

I’ve extolled the virtues of Armies in Plastic figures before but never featured the company in a post all its own. Goodness knows I’ve mentioned these 54mm (1:32 scale) plastic soldiers enough during the past 10 years when I used them in various projects. Now that the company’s having a summer sale (ends June 30) it seems as good a time as any to talk about the large-scale historical miniatures it offers, good for young wargamers and seasoned grognards.

Armies in Plastic Native Americans
ambush a party of rangers.

These 54mm soldiers come in solid-colored plastic sculpted with enough detail one can identify them with a particular historical period. They range from 18th century conflicts (Seven Years War, French & Indian War, American War of Independence) throughout the 19th century (War of 1812, Franco Prussian War, various British colonial wars), and even into the 20th century (World War I, Rusian Civil War, and, a large jump over WWII, modern forces for the War on Terror). For some periods different forces are the same figures cast in different colors; for instance, AWI redcoats are red, patriots are blue, even though both have the same mix of poses. But most series include entirely original figures: rangers and Native Americans for the French & Indian War; numerous British colonial adversaries (Zulus, Afghan tribesmen, dervishes), several kinds of British colonial troops (including kilted Highlanders), even Germans in pickelhauben and later-war stahlhelme for WWI (to name a few with which I’m familiar).

Wargaming with Stars & Crosses

I’ve discussed traditional chit-and-board wargames before – how they still have a following and occasionally infuse the market with new material – and lament they don’t enjoy greater popularity among gamers who often revel in complex rules. Doug Anderson recently released Stars & Crosses, a game covering company-level engagements in northwest Europe during World War II. It’s available in PDF from Wargame Vault (with a print-on-demand rulebook if you prefer) that can range from a print-and-play, hex-based board wargame to a full-fledged, 6mm micro-scale miniatures wargame with gorgeously crafted terrain. However you play it, Stars & Crosses provides an easy-to-learn wargame experience with basic and expert rules, modular board, and rich possibilities for extended and advanced play. At $2.99 for the PDF rulebook and printable component file, Stars & Crosses is a fantastic way to dive into the board or miniature wargame hobby.

(Note: I know Doug Anderson from various online community interactions focusing on gaming; he provided me a comp download of Stars & Crosses, though I bought a print-on-demand rulebook as physical reference at the game table.)

Gaming Artifacts: First Minis and Buildings

In the “Golden Age of Roleplaying Games” of the early 1980s miniatures seemed an integral part of roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, not surprising considering the hobby’s origins in miniature wargaming. Well before game stores stocked walls of Warhammer or Reaper miniatures for every conceivable fantasy race and monster – and before the rise of popular, tournament-driven fantasy battle games – hobby stores often settled for whatever they could get from distributors at the time, usually from one of the two pillars of the miniatures producers, Grenadier Models and Ral Partha.

I still have some of the earliest miniatures I bought and painted, though I have since re-painted them after much practice and gaining a slightly better ability (though nothing I’d brag about). The Christmas after I discovered D&D I’d received boxed set 2009, “Wizard’s Room,” as a gift but found no practical use for it in my games. Later I bought Grenadier Models boxed set 2005, “Fighting Men,” and a single model of a dwarf holding a spear (possibly Ral Partha but maybe RAFM). The latter I bought specifically to use as a test piece for painting with the TSR Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Basic Paint Set (also received as a holiday gift). I wasn’t too discouraged by my paint job (until years later when I realized it looked simply terrible), and collected a few more Grenadier miniatures to add to my collection, most notably some orcs, skeletons, dwarves, a giant, and some dragons.