Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Testgaming Maurice

Yes, the date I´ve been looking for so long had finally come. 
Saturday, 18th of August - high noon - high temperature and ... - high motivation.
This event had been an excellent ending of my holidays and I enjoyed the company of my friends very much.
Christopher (aka Axebreaker), Franz, Gerhard and I started our first test game on "Maurice".


Preparing the gaming table.


Parade on the armies - here the Austrians.
The one unit in the right middle had not been ready. 
So a prussian command had to complete it.


The French. 


A close up to the units of Christopher - Regiments de Berry, de RoyalRoussillon and an artillery stand on the left.


A superb looking unit - just have a look on the beautiful blog of Christopher:
christopher-bunkerhill.blogspot.com


A view over my Frenchies - the Commander belonging to the collection of Christopher.


The Austrians - part one - Hussar Regiment Nadásdy and Regiment Loudon.


The Austrians - part two - Regiment Wied (with the added Prussians), the CinC and the artillery.


The battlefield after setting the opponents.


It had been a lot of work to paint up the missing units for a first game.
As we wanted to play a bigger battle we also added some figures of the AWI. 
I hope you don´t mind recognizing some units of the AWI.


After winning the initiative Gerhard and I decided to play the glorious Austrians which had to be the attackers. 
The picture above shows Franz on the left and Christopher on the right playing the defending French forces.
The objective of victory was the watering place you can see in the centre of the picture.


Maurice is a game played with ActionCards. The attacker gets 8 cards to start (as he is the beginner) and the defender 5 cards.

The single turns in Maurice are beginning with a volley phase providing the units are in the responsible reach.

After the volley phase the active player (the player who has the actual turn) choses a force consisting of units of the same type, formation and within 2 BW of each other and can decide whether to march, to charge (if his units are in reach) or to rally with this chosen force. He can also start a bombardment with his artillery if he has chosen the artillery as force. He is also allowed to play an event card or to pass. Depending on his choice he then draws a certain number of new cards from the card desk.

For the chosen action the active player has to pay with a card from his hand. He can also spend more cards if he likes to modify the chosen action (+2 for firing units e.g.). But he must be aware that his counterpart can also play modifying cards as a reaction. This sometimes becomes a big surprise for the active player who surely will be confident of victory.

After the action of this turn has been played the former passive player becomes the active one and the next round starts with a volley phase (if the enemy is in reach). And so on...


During the first turns Gerhard and I decided to march with our infantry towards the French forces, stopping just a little outside the musket range of the French. 
Franz and Christopher had not been afraid of that and started to march to the frontline too.


Now it was time to start an artillery bombardment.

The smoke of firing was in the air and as it weighted the Austrian Generals had to notice that the bombardment had no effect.


After another unsuccessful bombardment Gerhard and I let our infantry start a movement against Franz´s and Christopher´s army.


Austria was not lucky on saturday. Maybe the heat (about 33°C) made them lazy or they had just to much drinks the day before - the hit rate was miserable.
Also the French generals had almost every time cards on their hands that cancelled our modifying cards or interrupted our actions.
A circumstance Gerhard and I could hardly believe.

The use of the heroic Hussars was not able to turn fortunes of war.


The French flank didn´t break and we ran out of cards while Christopher and Franz(mann) had a lot of choice modifying their actions.


 The victory had gone to the French for the Austrians decided to withdraw from battlefield.

Though not successful we will surely continue with Maurice.
In my opinion it was a great gaming day. 




And it didn´t end with the BBQ after our test game. Christopher gave us an intro into the rules of BlackPowder and so we played a second game in the evening. Again SYW but with the rules of BP.


  Christopher stayed over night and we both had been able to start another BP on sunday.

This time in my cellar - the temperatures had been over those of saturday.

It is always a great pleasure gaming with like-minded friends in good atmosphere, having some drinks (also non-alcoholic ones) and talking about history. 
Thanks to all of them. I hope we will repeat this event very soon.
Life could be so easy. :)

Cheers
Mike

















13 comments:

  1. Awesome looking game!

    Quick questions, how do you feel Maurice runs with the 6 to 8 units per side? I've always been under the impression that Maurice runs best with at least 10 units a side, but I haven't gotten a chance to get a game in with my new organization.

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    Replies
    1. Hi,
      it ran quite good as it was a test game. I don´t know how the game works with 10 units a side because there are not as much units in our stocks yet.

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  2. Mike, great looking game and after action report. I've heard many good things about "Maurice" and I guess I need to buy a copy now!

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  3. Mike, thank you for this battle report! Absolutely great pictures of your marvellous units - in particular the green hussars attacking I adore!
    Can you post some more informations and your personal evaluation of the Maurice rules? Is ist complicated to learn? How fast can you play - do you loose time in wargaming by reading in the manual?
    I am thinking to buy it also.
    Thank you for this post, it´s a pleasure to read it again and again.
    Monseigneur

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    Replies
    1. Hi Monsigneur,
      I´m proud to hear that you like this post.
      Maurice is quite easy to learn in my opinion, though I have always difficulties in following English written rules.
      If you want to get an impression on the rules you could also download a free light version of the rules.

      http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/downloads/

      Though I have downloaded Maurice Lite before the full ruleset was available I never tried to play it. But it might give you some impressions on the game.

      There is also a forum for Maurice

      http://www.sammustafa.com/honour-forums/

      I´m sure you won´t regret buying the full version as I know you are a great fan of this period. The card system gives the game a funny note. But it is different from playing games like BlackPowder.

      Cheers
      Mike

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    2. Dear Mike, thank you for your explanations - I downloaded the Maurice light-version and it seems to be interesting, but needs training to intuitively play without manual.
      I try to learn from your figure painting style - yo do that so fantastically, really!
      I hope, your next battle will take place soon!
      Peter

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  4. Who is the fat guy in the brown shirt who thinks he is Elvis or something....oh wait a minute that's me!

    Great use of the camera Mike! It was indeed very warm day out there, but super fun and thank you for the fantastic week end!!

    It's true we did get great cards and the fact that we were defending also made it easier for us to claim victory.

    Your absolutely right when you say it's great gaming with like minded individuals and I'm really looking forward to more games!

    Christopher

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    1. The fat guy is me :)
      Just have a closer look on my double chin on the last picture.
      You cannot keep up with my belly. In Franconia a belly like mine is called "Schäuferla-Friedhof" (roast pork cemetery) or six pack wrapped in bacon. :)
      Cheers
      Mike

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  5. Great AAR, whilst I will not be playing that period I like th sound of the rules

    ian

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    1. If you like playing games with card decks and are interested in ACW, when maybe Field of Battle would be a good choice for you.

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  6. Excellent AAR and a fun day out on your verandah it seems. If it had been old west I would have been there. Will meet you next summer at that place. Make sure to finish some gunslingers until then!

    Michi

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    1. Yepp. Great idea. Let´s play a gunfight in Rattlesnake or TreeOaks. :)

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