1st Maurice Game

Bergi and I tried a game of Maurice.  The figures re from Bergi's 15mm Napoleonic collection I had French he commanded the Russians. I opted to me the attacker so I go extra cards sot start (reading the rules again I also should have gotten an additional regular or 2 addition irregular units, but I hardly have reason to complain).

We played with cards down and think it worked out well. Rob is the gentleman  in the red shirt he refereed the game but he did a great job. Bergi and I both  had 5 infantry (one of which was elite) 4 Cavalry (one of which was elite) and two guns.

This was my set up I had the hill as an artillery position you get to place terrain in Maurice each player positioning one of a predetermined number of terrain pieces. The defender gets to place the last piece. I advance my infantry in the center moved the guns forward a bit and then avanced my cavalry to the left of the field you can see at the top of the picture.

Bergi got in first blood smacking around my infantry with his Guns but I was fortunately able to rally the damage off.

 A savage cavalry battle took place on the left of my line I had two units broken as a result, even my elite Polish Lancers were unable to make headway against Bergi's Cossacks. The losses hurt but it drew the army commander and the cavalry out of supporting range of the infantry and guns in the center.

I took advantage of this unleashing a savage volley followed by a bayonet charge both Bergi's guns and one infantry unit were broken and on Cossack cavalry unit was savaged by my left flank infantry's fire. I used the fire fight card to stop Bergi's volley phase and broke another of his infantry on my turn dropping his moral to zero.

This was a good learning game I find the system some what limiting. you can only activate one "unit" at a time.  Your army commander cannot move unless you spend a card and you rely have to make sure he is in the right place at the right time. This limits your options and makes pre-planning your moves a key.  In this game Bergi got into a situation were his Commander had moved over to support the cavalry and was unable to support the infantry with out spending 3 cards. I am not sure this was actually critical to the game, but it certainly felt important, and in anther situation could be critical.

I think I will do up a Maurice army, I may indulge my yen to create an "imagi-Nation" as the home for my force.