Callan the Wargamer: Part 1

I managed to spend an hour this afternoon relaxing and watching a DVD recording of ACT OF KINDNESS, which is my favourite episode of CALLAN.

During the episode David Callan fights a series of wargames against Heathcote Land, and the following stills are from these battles.

The first battle is fought at a wargames convention, where Callan commands a small French Napoleonic army and Land commands the British.

Heathcote Land's British Royal Horse Artillery prepare to open fire on Callan's French Infantry.

The French Infantry have formed square because of the presence of British Cavalry, but this makes them a prime target for Land's Royal Horse Artillery and they suffer casualties as a result.

Another view of Land's British Royal Horse Artillery.

The British Cavalry finish the job, and charge into the already damaged French Infantry squares.

As the British Cavalry hit the French Infantry squares they become aware of the presence of French Artillery and Cavalry. This causes them to turn away and return to the main body of the British army.

This timely retreat is not enough to save the British Cavalry, who are chased from the battlefield by Callan's French Cavalry.

The second battle is fought as part of a short campaign set in Southern France that Land suggests that he and Callan should fight. The first move of the battle was shown as a series of stills that were linked together to form a sort of animation.

The French Cavalry advance, forcing the British Infantry to form square.

The tension rises as the advancing French Cavalry are getting closer to the as yet unformed British square.

It is now obvious that the French Cavalry are going to reach the British Infantry before their square will be fully formed.

The French Cavalry hit the unformed British Infantry square, which disintegrated as a result. However Land had stationed his Artillery behind the Infantry, and he opened fire on the French Cavalry with devastating results.

I hope to have enough time to watch CALLAN: THE MOVIE tomorrow, and if it is possible I will try to get some stills from the American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg that Callan fights with Schneider.

Modified Morschauser ‘Modern’ Period Wargames Rules

Both Jim Wright and I have now proof read the latest draft of my adaptation of Joseph Morschauser’s ‘Modern’ period wargames rules. There were no major problems, and the few typos and errors we found were quickly and easily corrected.

I have had several requests for a PDF version of the rules from readers, and I have therefore added a PDF version of the latest draft to the Red Hex Wargames website.

The password to download and print the PDF is: morschausermodern.

Christmas is coming ... and I'm trying to get the next draft of my rules finished!

For the first time in almost a week I have actually had some time today when I was able to sit down and do some work on the latest draft of my adaptation of Joseph Morschauser’s ‘Modern’ period wargames rules ... and I have almost finished!

I have yet to proof read the draft but here it is:

The main changes are:

• The use of a new font – Lucida Sans – rather than Arial (this is just a cosmetic change but …)
• The addition of subheadings to help readers find specific sections of the rules
• The use of ‘can’ rather than ‘may’ throughout the text; this has been done in order to ensure that the text of the rules followed a consistent style
• The re-design of the Unit data table so that the information is in the same order – from left to right – that it is referred to in the rules (i.e. Movement, Fire Combat, and Close Combat)
• The incorporation of ‘saving throws’ into the Fire Combat section of the rules; they are actually termed ‘hit effects’ but are really ‘saving throws’ in all but name
• Changing the Close Combat rules so that they only last one ‘round’, thus allowing a Close Combat to be a ‘draw’ that can be continued next turn

I doubt if I will have time to play-test this latest draft of the rules before Christmas but you never know …

Nugget 231

I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET (NUGGET 231) from the printers today, and it has been put into envelopes and will be posted tomorrow. With a bit of luck it should be delivered within the UK by Christmas and elsewhere soon afterwards.

In the meantime I have uploaded the PDF versions of latest issue of THE NUGGET and THE NUGGET COLOUR SUPPLEMENT to the Wargame Developments website so that all full and e-members can access it before the printed version is delivered.

Still too busy to blog!

May I apologise to any of you who have been waiting for the next draft of my adaptation of Joseph Morschauser’s ‘Modern’ period wargames rules.

I had hoped to get it finished last weekend, but because I have had to help both my father-in-law and my father whilst they recover from their recent surgical operations, the time I have had available to write rules and blog entries has been extremely limited over the past few days. Furthermore I will have little or no access to email or the Internet for at least the next 48 hours, although I hope to be able to do some work on the latest draft of the rules on my laptop.

Nugget 231

I am taking the latest issue of THE NUGGET to the printers later this morning, and I hope to pick it up on Friday so that I can post it out to members of Wargame Developments by Saturday. With a bit of luck it should reach them before Christmas.

I intend to upload the PDF versions of the latest issues of THE NUGGET and THE NUGGET COLOUR SUPPLEMENT to the Wargame Developments website on Friday or Saturday so that full members and e-members can read it before the printed version arrives in the post.

More books to read

Yesterday's post included a book that I ordered some weeks ago ... and had then forgotten about.

VANISHED ARMIES - A RECORD OF MILITARY UNIFORM OBSERVED AND DRAWN IN VARIOUS EUROPEAN COUNTRIES DURING THE YEARS 1908 TO 1914 is a collection of water coloured drawings and notes made by A E Haswell Miller. The collection has been edited by John Mollo and published by Shire Publications Ltd. (ISBN 978 0 74780 739 1). It is priced at £20.00.

I recently bought a book on a very different topic ... THE GERMAN HOME FRONT 1939 – 45.

This book was published by Osprey in 2007 (ISBN 978 1 84603 185 4) and is part of the ELITE series (No.157). It was written by Brian L Davis and illustrated by Malcolm McGregor. It covers:

• The National Socialist State
• Law and the Penal System
• The persecution of the Jews in Germany
• Employment
• Civil Life
• The Air War against Germany
• Fire Defence
• Civil Defence

This is not one of the usual run-of-the-mill Osprey book as its contents are more about a civilian rather than a military subject, but it is – nonetheless – an interesting book.

Too busy to blog!

The last few days have been very hectic – which is the reason why I have made no blog entries since Wednesday.

I have been spending a lot of time driving backwards and forwards from London to Canterbury on the M2/A2, and during the long boring bits – of which there are a few – I have been thinking about the next draft of my adaptation of Joseph Morschauser’s ‘Modern’ period wargames rules.

I had intended just to modify the existing version, but I have come to realise that it needs to be re-typed and revised as it has begun to become slightly inconsistent in its language, phrasing, and style. For example, the order that information is displayed on the ‘Units’ chart does not follow the same order that the information is used in the rules.

I have now begun the process of re-typing the next draft and hope to get it finished over the weekend.

To save or not to save … this is the answer! (Well at least for the time being it is!)

After some considerable thought – and some excellent advice and comments from Ogrefencer, Ross Mac, Rob Dean, and Jim Wright – I have made the decision to add a ‘saving throw’ mechanism to the next draft of my adaptation of Joseph Morschauser’s ‘Modern’ period wargames rules.

I intend to use the ‘saving throw’ mechanism I outlined in my blog entry of Monday 7th December:

‘Every unit that is hit by gunfire (but NOT Units destroyed during Close Combat) would be allowed a saving throw:

• 6: Units in the open are not destroyed
• 5 or 6: Units in soft cover (woods, built-up areas etc.) are not destroyed
• 4, 5, or 6: Units in hard cover (trenches, pillboxes etc.) are not destroyed’

To save or not to save … that is the question?

Over the past few days I have had plenty of time to think. I seem to have spent hours behind the wheel of my car driving to and from the hospital my father-in-law is in, or sitting in family rooms waiting to see him whilst numerous doctors and nurses ministered to his medical needs.

My thoughts turned to the recent play-test of the latest draft of my adaptation of Joseph Morschauser’s ‘Modern’ period wargames rules, and the points that had it had thrown up. The most important of these was the possible need for ‘saving throws’ for troops in cover.

Now I have never been a great advocate of the ‘saving throw’ mechanism. I always thought that if you got your basic mechanisms right – particularly the probability of something happening – there was no need for them to be used … and yet the fast, furious, and deadly combat that results for the use of Morschauser’s firing rules do seem to require something to tame the results down a bit. The options seem to be:

• Reduce the D6 die scores needed to hit from 5 or 6 for most weapon types (or 4, 5, or 6 for all types of machine gun) to 6 (or 5 or 6)
• Introduce a cover ‘factor’ of some sort into the rules
• Use Morschauser’s Roster System, which give Units several ‘lives’ before they are destroyed
• Use saving throws

Now all of Morschauser’s mechanisms are simple ones, and I wanted to keep to the spirit if not the word of his original rules. For that reason I rejected both reducing the die scores (such a change would skew the results away from what was originally intended) and the introduction of the ‘cover’ factor (I could not see how I could introduce this change without completely re-writing the rules; I also felt that it was not in keeping with the original rules). I was therefore left with two alternatives: Morschauser’s Roster System and introducing ‘saving throws’.

The obvious choice was to go with the Roster System. It was included in the original book – HOW TO PLAY WAR GAMES IN MINIATURE – and is designed to fit in with the original rules. However I have always found that players do not like writing things down or recording things on paper during battles, and for that reason I looked very long and hard at introducing ‘saving throws’. I then remembered that at various points in his book Morschauser repeats the mantra ...

LET THE DICE DECIDE
... and that clinched it for me … I would introduce saving throws in the next draft of the rules.

My thoughts are that every unit that is hit by gunfire (but NOT Units destroyed during Close Combat) would be allowed a saving throw:

• 6: Units in the open are not destroyed
• 5 or 6: Units in soft cover (woods, built-up areas etc.) are not destroyed
• 4, 5, or 6: Units in hard cover (trenches, pillboxes etc.) are not destroyed

Its advantages as a mechanism are that it is easy to remember, requires no recordkeeping, and is in keeping with Morschauser’s mantra.

The next play-test will show whether or not this is a good idea that should be included in the rules.

PS. As I was about to finish this blog entry it struck me that introducing a saving throw mechanism could also make it possible to take into account the different types of Tank Units that sides might field during a battle. For example:

• 6: Light Tank Units are not destroyed
• 5 or 6: Medium Tank Units are not destroyed
• 4, 5, or 6: Heavy Tank Units are not destroyed

Something else for me to think about over the next few days.