Maurice: A report on our second game

Manufacturers:  Various

Scale:  28mm

Hi,

Yesterday Christopher (aka Axebreaker) and I met for a second game of Sam Mustafa's "Maurice".

The first time we tried these rules had been in August last year and Christopher wasn't as convinced as I suspected of the game's mechanism.

As I'm a great fan of the period of the SevenYearsWar I was pleased to hear that Christopher wanted to give the gaming rules a second try.

The result was that we had a lot of fun and ran a very close game that had all a wargamer could wish.

Luck changed sides at different phases and the victory was won by the last possible action.

Christopher and I had been caught by the game and soon will try a third one.

Here are some pictures of our game with some comments.

Enjoy them. :)

Please notify that we don´t have as many units as we should do to create an Austrian army and a French one.

We just added some more units from our AWI-collection to build up larger armies on both sides. 

Please take the armies as imagination armies. ;)

A view on the left flank of Christopher´s army. He played the defender and had to hold the tower which was the objective the attackers had to get under control.

Christopher´s right flank covered by a Regiment of dragoons (that still needs three riders to be painted - grrrr) and two regiments of infantry.

Again Christopher´s right flank.

The defender´s centre - part one.

The defender´s centre - part two.

The tower between the left flank and the left part of the centre.

I decided to attack with almost all forces quite straight on.

Supported by three pieces of artillery and another unit of infantry. The Croats in the background had been placed there to cover the back of the army against the French dragoons that may try to get the attacker in his flank. The hussars in the rear also had to cover the flank.

The whole setup of the wargaming table.

The setup once more from the other side.

A look at the defender´s front.

The attacker started the battle by bombardement...

...which caused a disruption point on a French unit.

Christopher used his active turn to rally the disrupted unit. I chose not to await a possible cavalry charge from the French dragoons and started to get into a good position for an own cavalry charge with my hussars.

Now Christopher opened fire with his artillery and also caused one disruption point on one of my infantry units.

As I had a good card on my hand I changed formation of my cavalry and got into a brilliant position to attack Christopher´s dragoons.

CHARGE !!!

My formation and also an additional modifying card helped me to destroy the dragoons within one combat move. Christopher had to roll a die and lost three morale points. He still had 8 points left. It was a bad round for him.

But my hussars had been to near to the two infantry units which immediately wheeled and opened fire.

Though the hussars tried to move backwards they had been followed by Christopher´s infantry and got some more disruption points.

Meanwhile I started to move all of my infantry placed in the centre towards the enemy.

The hussars got lost - The firepower of Christopher´s infantry was just too strong. After a dice roll I also had to reduce my army morale from 12 to 9.

My centre now concentrated on the object of the game and tried to throw back the defender.

Christopher just reacted with a bloody bombardement by artillery.

The artillery taking the attackers under fire.

This was the first of a lot of volley phases.

As you can see on this picture the muskets had been used very often.

Our first combat fight.

Christopher´s left flank in danger.

The melee enabled me to kill one of Christopher´s artillery pieces but also caused a lot of disruption points I had to rally.

A second volley phase.

After this volley phase I had to replace one of my infantry units.

For I wanted to get the tower under control I tried to throw back Christopher´s left flank.

And my troops had been lucky...

Another volley phase - this time without smoke markers (sorry).

And again a good result for the defender. I just lost one more infantry unit.

But my troops showed good morale and managed to kill an opposing infantry unit by volley fire ...

... and also Christopher´s second artillery piece. To glorify this great moment I put on smoke markers again. :)
Now the objective was under my control. I only had to hold it until the card deck would be empty and also no player had any cards left on his hand. After this night would fall and the game would end giving the victory to the player who  is controlling the objective. The game also ends if someone´s morale points reduce to zero.

Christopher decided to rally his troops.

His choice had been very wise because he now had the chance to charge my disrupted troops with his fresher units.

We both only had one army morale point left. The card deck had been empty and I had now cards any more. Christopher had one card left. He had to destroy my unit to win the game. Otherwise nightfall would end the game giving victory to me for my troops held the objective.
So the last action will decide about victory or defeat.

Christopher´s infantry took my unit under very strong fire.

This was the last volley´s result. The whole unit was blown up.

A very good game which was a close run.
Thank you Christopher. I enjoyed it very much. :)

Cheers

Mike