"Thoughts on Morschauser’s Frontier Rules" Topic

"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.
In his introduction to the rules Donald Featherstone indicated Morschauser played the game on a 12x12 grid with trays of 54mm soldiers as units; he did not specify the composition of opposing forces. The toys I had on hand determined the conditions under which I explored the rules. I had an 8x8 gridded playing field of large squares. Back during the pandemic I'd acquired some Risk figures I'd mounted on bases, along with some small stands of trees and a few wood-block-and-felt hills. Given the Napoleonic look of my soldiers I opted to forego using the very few notes adjusting the rules for use with "Native State" forces (primarily lowering the Battle Power of infantry and cavalry) to see how everything worked out as a general 19th century wargame. Each side fielded one command unit, one field artillery, two cavalry, and five infantry; I could have added an extra cavalry and artillery piece from my toy stash, but I felt it would have crowded the board. I tried several terrain arrangements, then settled on one with a central road, a set of hills on each side, and some unevenly distributed woods…"

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