New Toys – 40mm French and Indian War

Posted on by

Just a bit of show and tell today. I recently acquired some new toys from Nick Nascati. The toys are in the form of 40mm Trident figures that Nick painted and used for his war gaming…

Figures just un-packed

We have a nice mix:

  • Highlanders (78th)
  • Rangers
  • Colonial Regulars
  • Militia / Frontiersmen
  • Unarmed Civilians
  • French Regulars
  • Huron warriors
  • Coureur du bois

The unpainted figures are some HistoriFigs pieces that I will be painting and adding to the mix

Will likely start with a few games using Song of Drums and Tomahawks from Ganesha Games and then try a few different sets of rules for skirmish games and then try some ideas I have for games using a modified version Commands and Colors; perhaps Battle Cry based or perhaps Commands and Colors, Tricorne based – likely a combination of the two and, maybe, on a smaller grid…


Join the discussion on Facebook; join our Facebook group and discuss this or any other war game or miniatures related topic.

A Restricted-Time World War II War Game

Posted on by

A summary of a forgotten article by Joseph Morschauser…

The Time: Fall 1972. The Publication: Donald Featherstone’s Wargamers Newsletter #128, November 1972. Turning to page four (4) we find a regular section entitled: Counsels of War. For this issue the author is Joe Morschauser. Here we learn of Joe’s latest (1972) war gaming project…

Along with his other projects, Joe was planning on a very small modern (WWII being modern in this case) setup for use with restricted-time games, games that would last about two (2) hours. If one can’t fit in a massive sized WWII game, one must compromise and play what fits available time and space.

His idea was to use a tactical map to cover larger scale battles; he would then take out smaller pieces and play these battles out on the table-top. Examples described include: 1) An armored thrust consisting of no more than half-a-dozen tanks and related equipment with infantry setup for a meeting engagement with a rear guard section of a retreating army. 2) A deep penetration mission of the type fought in the western desert; to take out a fuel supply  or ammon dump. These were the types of missions Joe was seeking to setup and play on a small table with limited time. Similar in concept to his earlier games set in Africa during the Great War.

Joe goes on to describe his proposed mix of equipment: the early, less powerful tanks of WWII (PZ III, Matildas and the like) plus the related Infantry types. Due to his dislike of moving individual figures the plan was to mount (infantry) figures in groups on stands. Rifle teams, MG teams and Mortar teams as the basis with AT teams as appropriate. The thought was that these team based stands would counter balance the power of the armored vehicles. As well, as making the game turns faster; fewer pieces to move allows for faster play.

Sounds like Joe had the formula he needed for his target game. I have yet to uncovered any related  follow-up articles or letters on this same topic. As such we do not know how this game plan worked out…

N-Gauge on 2″ hex grid

My first thought on reading this piece was that it matched quite well with a project I started several years ago. I was planning a very similar game using the Scruby N-Gauge figures. Not surprisingly the content of the line matches what Joe had in mind for his game. Perhaps Joe planned on using Scruby figures?  (See a sampling of my Scruby N-Gauge figures above, no infantry, but a placeholder infantry team stand is shown) Finding this article puts me in the mind to revisit that abandoned project; doing something very much like Morschauser describes and my, revised, game will indeed be grid based. My treads and wheels are all, just about, good to go. It was my Infantry organization that never came together. I just never liked what I came up with (that’s why I didn’t include any in the picture above). My recent reading and doodling may finally bring me to an ideal Infantry organization (pretty much as described in Joe’s article). Additionally I’ve been working on a set of hex tiles to use on the game table (not sure if I’ll want 2” or 3” for the N-Gauge, but 3” would be more flexible overall, so they get a +1 for now). My target for game board space requirement is nothing larger than 4′ x 4′


Join the discussion on Facebook; join our Facebook group and discuss this or any other war game or miniatures related topic.

A Bit of Figure Painting

Posted on by

It has been a good two or three, maybe even four weeks since I last picked up the paintbrush. I had a wee bit of time on Sunday, so I tried to knock out a few more (30mm) Zulu. These last few are, what I’m calling rescue figures; I started these a very long time ago using a very bad technique (wanting something to get figures done quickly – it didn’t work so well).

The three Zulu in the foreground were originally spray painted leather brown. Not a horrible choice, but they were too shiny and I just didn’t like the feel/look. As such they just kinda stayed in my box of partly painted figures. I decided to rescue some of the figures. I didn’t do anything with the base coat, but did try to make the figure serviceable. Final result; I can put these on the table now.

I also got in a bit of work on my first US unit for the Mexican American War. Game will be based on The Portable Wargame. Units will be four (4) figures strong for Infantry. Not much progress, but a start.

Lastly. I need more sailing ships! Here is a quick picture of the beginnings of three more Joe Morschauser sailing ships. I just about have this batch completed, only a it of detail to complete (more pictures in another post).

My other game related work this past weekend included some play-testing of my Gridded Age of Sail game. More about this later, or you can hop over to Facebook, and read the most recent postings in the Table Top Talk group – request group membership if you are not yet a member.


Join the discussion on Facebook; join our Facebook group and discuss this or any other war game or miniatures related topic.

Morschauser on Air War Games

Posted on by

Being a summary of Joseph Morshauser’s letter/article found in Donald Feathertone’s, 1966, book: Air War Games pages 100 to 101.

Lacking war game opponents, Joe spent some time building model airplane kits (WWI aircraft) while watching TV. Finally, while on vacation was able to get together with some opponents and play out an air combat game. Apparently, the game worked out quite well, and in fact he claimed it was, in some ways more fun than land combat games.

His game involved quarter-scale aircraft; (he says ‘larger than Airfix’; while I wonder if he really meant ¼ scale – meaning 25% the size of the real airplane? This seems mighty large for his war game table), a bombing run as well as dogfights. The situation was that three bombers had to run across the table and return a number of turns later. All the while fighter planes were attempting to shoot them down. Of course the bombers had fighter escort, some dogfights were in the mix as well. The game used a ‘Roster System’ to track hits (no knocking planes out of the air with a single hit!). He describes the games as ‘… a hell of a lot of fun’. His rules kept in a bit of detail, as he felt that otherwise the game would be too simple and too short.

The game was evenly matched, points-wise, but with the Germans having fewer fighters, given the inclusion of bombers. The side with the most remaining points at the end of the game was the winner. Points were scored, by the Germans, for bombing run results. In the end the Germans lost; the bombing run didn’t go really well and they lost two bombers on the return. The Allies scored more kills, thus end the game with more points.

The next game described was an air race game. This was modeled after the Thompson Trophy races. Three planes raced around a course marked by checkered pylons. The (huge scale) planes were quite colorful and built by Joe himself. The setup event included stands and spectators. The rules covered all the crazy maneuvering required by the real planes in real races. I the end Joe won the race, beating out Hank in the end. Joe had plans to use more and smaller aircraft in hopes of making a wildly fun game for 6 players.

Notes concerning Joe’s war game setup:

We know that, at least in mid-1963, Joe’s table was 17 feet x 6 feet. If we assume he didn’t have the room for or did not build a larger, the table referred to in this piece is the same (Joe’s address remained the same through the 1960s, again safe to assume same location). Given the assumed size of his war game table, I wonder what scale aircraft were used in the games described? Quarter-scale seems too large for the the size of his table. They would be impressive in that scale, but it seems an unlikely size.

As for rules, to date I’ve not been able to track down, even a summary of his air rules (combat or racing). The search continues…


Join the discussion on Facebook; join our Facebook group and discuss this or any other war game or miniatures related topic.