Sturmgeschutz and Sorcery at Garycon VII

[welleran]

This was one of Paul Stormberg's Legends of Wargames classics at Garycon, originally run by Gygax in 1975. The original play report is in The Strategic Review. This edition was run by Terry Kuntz and Mike Reese, who played in the original game.

The Krauts' lead squad approach the bridge, unsure of what to expect:



The Defenders appear, Orcs, Ogres, Ghouls, an Evil High Priest, his giant scorpion, and a wizard (view from their castle to the bridge below):



Why, the lead Germans are suddenly overcome by weariness and fall asleep, except one (very doomed) soul:



Ghouls and Orcs rush to slaughter the sleepers (and feed on them).  The "smoke" is actually a darkness spell which wreaked havoc on the Germans:



The Germans are spread out (and their armor is nearly invincible):



Orcs move to assault the iron dragon (we used Airfix Robin Hood dudes for Orcs, which was apparently what Gygax did) -- a moment later we found that the dragon could breath fire (their flamethrower was mounted on the halftrack - there were no Orc survivors from that assault!  An Ogre followed up, survived the first fire blast, but died in a second mere feet from the vehicle):



Trolls erupt from a secret tunnel behind the German front line and surround a doomed squad:



Kill!:



All in all, an awesome game and nice piece of history!!

[Finarvyn]

Very cool. This was one of my all-time articles in Dragon, and it's nice to see this sort of scenario hanging around all these years later!

[tkdco2]

Nice! What scale are the miniatures? I have a similar castle at the 1/72 scale.

[welleran]

Apr 16, 2015 0:18:33 GMT -6 tkdco2 said:

Nice! What scale are the miniatures? I have a similar castle at the 1/72 scale.

They are 1/72 scale. The castle was an Airfix one (as were many of men) -- I bought one off eBay the other day to possibly recreate the scenario at home.

[tkdco2]

Thanks. I have a collection of 1/72 figures, although most are modern-day figures. Still, I can use my castle (actually just the outer wall) as a Roman fortress.

[Deleted]

The armored vehicles are not 1/72 scale, they are 1/87 scale Roco "Minitanks."

[xerxez]

Man that looks like a total blast!!!

[thorswulf]

What figures were used for the trolls? That is an awesome after action report!

[Finarvyn]

I think that the Sturmgeschutz and Sorcery article in Strategic Review was one of the most influential sources of inspiration for my formative OD&D years. OD&D says you can use the rules to do anything, but getting to see WWII guys battling wizards and orcs really made me realize that there aren't any limits to the game other than imagination.

It's one thing to have someone say "be creative" but another to actually see it in action.

[welleran]

Apr 17, 2015 9:37:01 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I think that the Sturmgeschutz and Sorcery article in Strategic Review was one of the most influential sources of inspiration for my formative OD&D years. OD&D says you can use the rules to do anything, but getting to see WWII guys battling wizards and orcs really made me realize that there aren't any limits to the game other than imagination.

It's one thing to have someone say "be creative" but another to actually see it in action.

Same here -- there was no way I could've missed playing this after having had it in the back of my mind for 30+ years!

thorswulf: What figures were used for the trolls? That is an awesome after action report!

They were provided by Paul Stormberg and made from Elastolin Viking figures -- I am not sure how, but I want to learn!