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Tuesday 8 June 2010

Preparing for COW

I have been continuing my preparations for COW2010 as it is now less than four weeks away.

So far I am managing to keep on track with regard to my preparations. As I have already mentioned in a previous blog entry I have managed to re-write Joseph Morschauser's 'Frontier' wargames rules for a modern audience, and last night I finished the transcription of his 'Shock' Period, 'Musket' Period, and 'Modern' Period wargames rules as published in his book HOW TO PLAY WAR GAMES IN MINIATURE (1962).

In making the transcription I was struck by both by how simple yet effective his game mechanisms are and how similar they are to those used in board wargames. I was also struck by the fact that although he uses the same basic game mechanisms for each of the different sets of wargame rules, he manages to write the same thing in different ways, and that you have to read all the different versions of the game mechanism to understand how it actually works!

My next target is to transcribe his 'Ancient' wargames rules. These are similar, but not the same, as his 'Shock' Period wargames rules, especially as the former uses individual figures on a gridded terrain and the latter uses stands (or as Morschauser like to call them, trays) on an ungridded battlefield.

2 comments:

  1. Bob, If you want to save some effort - I belive I have the Ancients rules transcribed already. Check my Table Top Talk site: http://www.tabletoptalk.com/?page_id=335

    This post contains the rules as presented in: The Miniature Parade Volume I Number II – winter 1967

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  2. Mike,

    Thanks for the very kind offer. I had started, but any opportunity to reduce my planned workload would be much appreciated.

    Once COW is over I hope to make all the stuff I have produced available for others to read.

    All the best,

    Bob

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