Maurice - In the Seven Years War

This week Steve and I had a change from our usual Monday night Vassal meet up and were joined by Martin who offered to run a Maurice Seven Years War warm-up game in JJ's HQ with is glorious 10mm Pendraken collection of figures.

Pendraken - Seven Years War

I can't say I'm that familiar with the ranges Pendraken do as my eyes are long past anything much under 18mm and even that's now a bit of a struggle, but I have to say that once I got my really close up detail spectacles on I was very impressed with these little sculpts, enhanced of course by Martin's brushwork

Our table set up with control of the central road the objective and with me running the Austro-Bavarians nearest to camera, with the classic set up of infantry and guns to the centre and cavalry on both wings, with Steve's Prussians a lot more compact in readiness for advancing through the gap between the woods on his table edge. My plan - get to the road quick, anchor on the right hand village, and hold fast!

Of course the other aspect of Martin's invitation that immediately fired both Steve's and my enthusiasm is that we are confirmed admirers of a lot of the work Sam Mustafa produces and Maurice in particular, but that we have not played them for quite a while and so with Martin offering to run a full on game at the next March meeting at the Devon Wargames Group this seemed like a good opportunity for us all to get back up to speed with this very clever set of rules.

Massed lines of Austrian and Bavarian infantry have advanced to the road and shaken out into line

I don't posses any 10mm terrain and so we had to make do with some of my 15mm trees and roads mixed in with Martin's buildings which included a superb model windmill that I gather is 'de rigeur' on any self respecting Seven Years War table these days and a very fine landmark it was.

The first disruptions appear on my line as Steve plays my men with his cannon as his troops start their advance

As far as sides were concerned we rolled for command of Prussians vs an Austro-Bavarian army with me commanding the latter and just to keep things simple we left out the national characteristics concentrating on getting back up to speed with basic card play using the 'vanilla' forces for both sides.

I am a bit more of a Napoleonic man, but I have to say there is something quite compelling with the massed linear armies of the pre-conscription age and these little minis really do look very fine on mass.

Prussian artillery start the softening up process

My Bavarians move a garrison unit into the village to anchor my right flank

Having thrown some terrain down and arranged our armies we were quickly into the card play and I opted to get their 'fastest with the mostest' by burning my hand of cards bar one in rapid marching, moving my forces up to the road ready to go firm and hold the line.

This was a good reminder on the demands of play with Maurice, reminding myself of the requirements of keeping my army as compact in its deployments as possible, with groups being able to activate based on type, formation and the terrain occupied and with the range from the commander determining the cost in card expenditure.

 

With the Bavarian garrison in place, Prussian fusiliers advance through the wood to their front.

However once on the position, pass moves are an excellent way to gather in a new hand of cards, provided the enemy are busy doing other things like manoeuvring themselves rather than bothering you with, oh I don't know, combat or such like.

The Prussians in the wood had to accept the inevitable disruptions as the difficult terrain interfered with the march

Anyway my plan was working fine and I had a good hand of cards that even allowed me to swing the balance of my right flank cavalry across my rear to join those on my left and as Steve gingerly approached the road, I got the urge to change the plan and start getting adventurous with the rules, of course forgetting the hazzards they present to any such venture in my anticipation of trying out for the first time wielding massed cavalry in a charge.

Steve's serried ranks advance into the valley

Steve and I have traditionally played Maurice for the AWI and so having any cavalry in numbers and certainly cuirassiers was a whole new experience and with Priussian columns shaking out into line as they trudged up to the road got me thinking that it was about time to try them out and see what Maurice could do.

The picture below gives you an idea of my thinking as my cavalry wheel into position ready to take full advantage of supporting my infantry attack with a cavalry attack in that wide open gap to their left, forgetting of course that I did not have the guides card to make sure I knew that ground was what I thought it was and that Steve might just have the card that would inform me that that ground was in reality, broken marshy terrain, absolutely hopeless for pressing cavalry over in a charge.

There in a nutshell is another of the compelling reasons why I love Maurice, even when on the receiving end of its play. How many times do you read in a given narrative of such inevitable military planning cockups, and having just written a post about another favourite set of rules, Kiss Me Hardy extolling the virtues of Clausewitzien friction, here I was presented with yet more of the stuff to deal with and I love those aspects in a set of rules.

My cunning plan of suddenly massing my cavalry on my left flank about to be foiled as Steve plays the unreconnoitered ground card and will put a large unforgiving marsh on the other side of the road.

So in the good old tradition of 'the plan changes on first contact with the enemy' I pressed ahead with the new plan which saw my infantry clear their disruptions received from the Prussian guns completely with a timely laid card and, sticking to my Wellingtonian principles, greeting the enemy with a few well directed volleys by grabbing the first fire initiative, and following them up with a cheer and a bayonet charge.

Not bad for a rapid change of plan, especially when the first of the fusilier battalions, just deployed out of the woods, and the Prussian musketeer unit on the Prussian right dissolved under my assault, which was to prove the highwater mark of the whole attack.

Everything set up for a perfect defence and then I threw caution to the wind and attacked! See what I mean about the figures and the windmill? With Austrian cuirassiers parked up ready to go.

Sadly without the support of my impotent cavalry forced to sit and watch the infantry contest, impatiently waiting for a gap to open up in both respective lines, my infantry got decidedly the worst of the follow up fights, that left both our armies tottering under the morale losses to our respective armies, but with the Prussians ahead on points and me not looking to change that lead anytime soon.

Eventually the Austrian cuirassiers perceived a wide enough gap to join in and lend a hand, braving the fire on their charge in, and even coming out on top in the follow up melee, but having not dispersed the Prussian unit to their front having to ignominiously drop back and suffer the indignity of being popped at by wounded but not knocked out Prussian Musketeers.

With my army tottering on about four morale points left out of its original eighteen we called the game there deciding that my cavalry was in a strong enough position to allow my remaining infantry and the guns to vacate the field of battle, leaving it to the Prussians who had enough of their own wounds to lick. 

Very Albuera looking to an old Peninsular hand, and loud voices heard from the Prussian camp as we withdrew.

'this will not do, write me up a victory!'

Thank you to Martin for reacquainting us with another old friend, Maurice is always welcome at the table, and for bringing along his fine collection of figures to grace the table with and to Steve for a good game and paying me back in buckets for the time I played a similar card on his attacking British grenadiers, marching gaily towards my American militia, until they weren't, and being shot to pieces in a bog.

We will be having a proper go with Maurice at this month's first meeting of the DWG and Martin will be weaving in the flavour cards to the scenario to spice things up in our next set to. 

If you've ever toyed with the idea of giving these rules a go and you love card play and the friction it can create, with the ever present challenge of dealing with the situation you face rather than the one you would choose, then I would highly recommend giving Maurice a go, and if you have the eyesight to cope, ten millimetre is a handy choice, budget wise and for providing the extra space to manoeuvre. For me it will be 28mm from now on and I'm looking forward to show casing my Albany and Tryon County Militia for my Mohawk collection which are fast nearing completion. 

More Anon 

JJ

Maurice - AWI Scenario adapted from Hold the Line

A few weeks ago Steve M and I got together again for an evening of 'Maurice' fun continuing where we left off in our first game in January, playing with the AWI collection and messing about with brigade commanders.

This time we allocated 'Notable' cards to a couple of them, one on each side to see how the command attributes that notables bring could be used with our new level of command.

A US brigade holds the defences as the rest of the army defends forward on the ridge line

The scenario Steve chose to set up with was based on a game I ran at the DWG back in 2015 based on a scenario from the board game 'Hold the Line' recreating the Battle of Long Island.

You can find the details of the orders of battle and set up on the link below to the club blog.

https://devonwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/hold-line-maurice.html

General Howe's mighty British army of 1776 looks formidable as it approaches the American held ridge

As you will see the forward American line is pushed forward onto a commanding ridge in front of the American embarkation point and they are tasked with delaying the formidable British force long enough to allow that embarkation to be successful.

American confusion as the line falls back too early

Sad to say, I, commanding the Americans, made the cardinal error of order/counter-order and the inevitable confusion that created by neither defending forward on the ridge and gaining the benefits of it in the subsequent combat and leaving my pull out too late that I was locked into a rolling fight going backwards with little opportunity to break off.

The British don't need to be asked twice and come rolling forward over the ridge

Steve to his credit never let me recover from the error and although burning through his cards often leaving him with just two or three in his hand at a time continued to apply the pressure as the American line fell back.

All the defenders can do is watch the carnage

At the completion of the first deck the Americans had lost three of their conscript battalions and managed to destroy one British unit in return but the Rebel morale card was in a desperate state as my line recoiled back in front of the defences.

American commanders work hard to stem the British advance

Eventually the US troops found themselves trying to get units into the defences whilst forced to leave a rearguard which succumbed to the pressure of the British assaults and broke the army morale.

With three American battalions out of the fight the pressure grows on the left flank

This scenario demands a robust stand by the Americans if they are to make a game of it and even then it is a tough one for the Americans to win, but the challenge of trying to bleed the British force makes it a compelling set up.

That said Steve played a great hand and never let the pressure up once in the driving seat.

It's all over and I can go home and reflect - note the heap of American casualties to the left of picture

Despite getting my rear end handed to me I really enjoyed the fun of managing a desperate situation that had me 'fire-fighting' all through the evening.

The notable card effects didn't really come into play although the brigade command system played its part when we had brigades split apart when units were destroyed which interfered with the Americans pulling out formations in one group which I think replicated the difficulty of retreat in the face of the enemy quite well.

Thanks to Steve for hosting our game and nice to give his new Tiny Wargames mat its first blooding.

Maurice - AWI Test Game

Following our game of Maurice last month, using Martin's 10mm Seven Years War collection, Steve and I decided to get back up to speed with this favourite rule set by playing with Steve's 15mm collection.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/maurice-awi-campaign.html

For our game Steve picked up the game we played back in 2013 and used the same force mix and cards with yours truly taking the British and Hessians - see the link above.

The start positions for our game

As you will see the British were on the attack with a small hill in the centre of the American line as their objective.

Notables an idea to further develop?

One thing I always wanted to change with Maurice was the inclusion of brigade and/or divisional commanders. I really miss seeing the various levels of command represented and so wanted to play an idea to represent them and using them as part of the activation process.

So in this game you will see other commanders on the table testing out this idea, but I was keen not to fundamentally change the way Maurice plays as the simple but beautifully crafted system is what makes Maurice one of my favourite rule sets.

You could argue that Notables provides some of this layer of command but they have a lose affiliation with any troops they command and don't quite provide that command structure modelling that I am looking to include.

The British ready to advance with a Hessian brigade nearest and a British brigade on the other side of the road supported by guns and cavalry

Thus in the game we modified activation to be based on a command structure with groups of regular or irregular troops to be commanded by a brigade commander, leaving troops such as artillery and cavalry under the direct command of the CinC.

We also continued the use of formation to determine force type which encouraged brigade commanders to try to keep their respective battalions in the same formation and the same terrain to allow multiple activations.

The Americans holding the hill with two continental brigades and the militia on the flank

We treated our brigade commanders as another unit in terms of providing a point to which the CinC could assess his range to a given brigade for command purposes and played that if two brigades in the same formation remained in command range of one another the CinC could activate multiple brigades together.

This simple change immediately created the command feel of looking to keep commanders in range of the CinC rather than groups of units and thus a more recognisable chain of command.

The British close with both infantry brigades staying in the same formation and linked for command. Where did that marsh come from!

The game produced a bit of a drubbing for the British as my British brigade became hung-up on the marshy terrain which caused the attack to stall and cause my forward units to get engaged in an unequal fire-fight.

This card only added to British woes

I soon lost my Guards and a British line battalion around the bog for which for the loss of a Continental unit and a militia battalion were little compensation and with my Hessians trying to get back the initiative by attacking the militia, soon found my right being counter-attacked by multiple battalions of Continentals.

The British are forced to review their plan of attack after discovering unfavourable terrain in front of the American position 

As always the command strain meant little opportunity to bring up my guns and I was soon running short on cards with not much respite to risk a pass to regroup my hand. If an attack could go more badly wrong it is difficult to think of one and so my book of  'I wont try that again' memoirs was increased by another hard earned experience.

The Hessians take the fight to the militia

The simple change to include the extra command layer seemed to work well with little change in the mechanics and now encourages the thought to turn these commanders into a type of notable with characteristics that will enhance or detract from the troops they command rather like the notables but with a distinctly AWI feel.

So we were thinking of characters like 'No Flint' Grey adding a plus to troops in hand to hand combat or General Greene adding to the capabilities of irregulars, etc etc.

I think I might produce my own set of brigade notable AWI characters - more anon.

With two battalions of British infantry destroyed in the centre, the Americans counter-attack the British right flank

Thanks to Steve for a fun evening and so nice to get reacquainted with AWI and Maurice.

Next up a book review from Mr Steve, my bows and arrows, the Dux Bellorum collection gets finished and my review of With Zeal and with Bayonets Only.

Maurice - First Game 2018

The New Year got off to a fine start with my first game played and totally enjoyed as Steve M, myself and Martin got together here at Chez JJ to run through a game that Martin is putting on at this month's meeting of the DWG.

The rules for the game are Maurice, perhaps, in my humble opinion, Sam Mustafa's finest creation which comes from a superb collection of rules from this highly thoughtful and creatively innovative rules writer.

Since selling my AWI 15mm collection to Steve, I haven't played a game of Maurice for a very long time, in fact both Steve and I reflected that it had been too long as we both thoroughly enjoy the rules and have never had a boring game with them.

Following a discussion about this planned club game we decided on a play-test and re-familiarisation using Martin's new collection of 10mm Pendraken Seven Years War Prussians and Austrians.

Pendraken Miniatures

Now my old eyes can barely cope with 18mm, so you will not see me painting anything smaller than that, but after putting on my 'seeing glasses' my first thoughts were 'wow' these figures are impressively detailed for their diminutive scale and 'hats off' to Martin for picking out that detail with a lovely paint and basing job that only enhanced the game we played.

The other part of his collection I immediately recognised, having the 15/18mm versions in my own terrain set was the lovely collection of buildings on a purpose built latex surround from Total Battle Miniatures which with their black powder range of buildings are just perfect for this period, although I believe these are the 6mm versions providing a better scale of footprint with no loss of character.

I don't intend on revealing too much about this scenario as it is for a planned game at the club and we will no doubt have a full AAR to follow on the DWG blog once it is played; not only that, but occasionally some of my fellow DWG club members pop over here to see what's going on and I don't want to spoil any of their forthcoming fun.

Suffice to say that in our little play test, my small force of Prussians were tasked with holding on to the small hamlet you see in the pictures while being threatened by a much larger Austrian force of infantry, cavalry and irregulars.

If that wasn't challenge enough, the Prussian force started the action carrying disruption from previous manoeuvres that only added to their worries as the battle began.

Both Steve and I had become 'unconsciously, competent' with this set of rules following the multiple games we played following their release and, given that they are by no means a complicated set of rules to get ones head around, I was surprised at how 'consciously, incompetent' we had become in the recent time to this game.

That said, after a few turns of the familiar card play, which is the essence of these rules, we were starting to get back to the basics of play and the index sheet which was downloaded years ago from the Maurice forum (see the link below) helped enormously in tracking down the particular section of the rules that clarified a particular point in question.

Maurice - Downloads

The game barrelled along and we were soon all delighting in the simplicity and yet extraordinary texture and period feel for the era of linear warfare these rules create.

The added spice for both Steve and I, was the unfamiliarity with some of the rule additions that we were using when playing the Austrian and Prussian forces, particularly modifications on formation changes which were new to us having not had to content with them using AWI armies and thier looser formations.

We progressed our game through a deck and a half of cards and nearly twenty turns of play before the evening concluded and we went through a post game 'wash up' assessment, perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of historical wargaming.

The game renewed my love affair with this set of gloriously crafted rules and reinforced my own plans to build a new collection of 28mm AWI to use with them, with some ideas we discussed on the night of introducing divisional commanders, similar to notables in the rules, for activation and command purposes, rather than the group/formation-similarity process, but that is just me messing about with other peoples rules, looking for ever more granularity.

If you have never played Maurice, then I highly recommend them to your attention and the numerous game reports to be found on the net probably attest to my estimation of them.

As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed this my first game of 2018 and Maurice was the perfect way to start the year. Thank you to Steve M and Martin for providing all the fun and as I sit here writing up this look back I have just received my copy of Spring's "With Zeal and With Bayonets Only" to upgrade my education about the British army and its tactics during the American War of Independence - book review to follow.

Maurice - A Great Game System

Yesterday I spent a very enjoyable day at the Devon Wargames Group, running my first game of 2015 and wheeling out a scenario I put together for Maurice. If you want to see the details of the set up and the game then just follow the link to the DWG Blog

Devon Wargames Group blogspot.Hold the Line- Maurice.

I mention in the AAR how good the game was and all of us said how enjoyable it had been to watch and play.

It got me thinking about how innovative Maurice is and the clever design Sam Mustafa has accomplished with it. I hadn't played Maurice for a while, but after a few rounds of card play we were soon in the flow and it is the cards that make the game, firstly, very different from one game to the next and, secondly, also captures the feel of this period of warfare in a very unique way.

When I put the scenario together I was thinking in terms of a clock mechanism to limit the number of turns for the Americans to have to hold their position before being able to claim a win. Then you see that the card play of limited decks enables a variable cut off anyway.

If you haven't played this rule set yet, then really make an effort to get a game.  Sam Mustafa still has his free "Lite" copy of the rules plus DIY cards still available on his site so you can have a go for free.
http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/downloads/

Maurice at the Devon Wargames Group

Yesterday was spent, as I usually spend the second Saturday of each month, in the company of my wargames club, the Devon Wargames Group.

I was looking forward to playing my first game of "Chain of Command", the rules for which I have had since their launch a couple of months ago. Several of our club members were involved in the play testing of these rules, and I was looking forward to them gently leading me through what looks like the most exciting set of rules, let alone WWII rules, to be released in recent times.

Sadly due to illness our game was postponed at short notice and I needed to arrange a second game for the day. I thus turned to a rule set that never fails to entertain and a collection of figures that is starting to show its age and really needs re-painting but I enjoy playing the occasional game, namely Maurice and my AWI collection.

My old AWI collection in desperate need of repainting and rebasing

Given the time I had to organise this game, literally yesterday morning, I needed a scenario that required the minimum of preparation but that would provide an afternoon of fun. I have posted a full report of our game on  the Devon Wargames Group blog.

The scenario was taken from a collection designed for the board game "Hold the Line" and I think illustrates the cross over between board and table top games that has become evident with games like "Command and Colours" and going back to "Squad Leader".

My WWII collection in action on my hex terrain

I speak as a gamer who, for the previous ten to fifteen years, based a lot of my games on hex terrain and hex mats and used rules that worked with them. Thus you will see a link on the Devon Wargames Group page showing the original playing of this scenario using the same figures but on a hex mat. Likewise many of my WWII games used my hex tile terrain system, using a set of rules that I constructed from a combination of "IABSM", "PBI II" and "Flames of War".

With my return to conventional table top games, I still think board game scenarios are a useful resource when it comes to thinking about scenarios, even if, as illustrated by yesterday's game, a little time is required to adapt, adopt and improve, as the old motto goes.

As always, "Maurice" came up with the goods and both Ian and I had a lot of laughs generated by the clever card play mechanics of the game. If you have been toying with the idea of playing this rule set, then I would unreservedly say get in there and have a go, they are great. I would probably say the same for "Longstreet", except the American Civil War has never really excited me as a period to play, but I would play a game of "Longstreet" based on the pleasure I have had with "Maurice".

If you have any thoughts on this post or others, especially of scenarios you have developed from board games the let me know.