First go with Maurice and first go with Battle Chronicler

I have had the Maurice rules and cards for about a year now. When I initially read them through my impression was, these sound great, I cannot wait to give them a try. Well, other projects got in the way and I never did anything with them.

Yesterday I popped round to chum Steve's place and over a hot beverage we decided that we would break our Maurice duck and give them a go today using his huge collection of 40mm semi-flat 'Toy Soldiers'.

He has a monumental collection of these, all cast by himself from Prince August moulds and painted in a 'Toy Soldier' style, I know that is not every-bodies cup of tea, but we like it and it really suits the 18th Century games.

We settled down and picked two forces, Steve picked Prussians and spent his 100 points on: 9 Trained Infantry (54pts), 4 Trained Cavalry (24pts), 3 Artillery (6pts), 4 Elite upgrades (14pts). I would be playing with the 'Imagination' of Scrivslandia and spent my 100 points on: 8 Trained Infantry (48pts), 4 Conscript Infantry (16pts), 4 Trained Cavalry (24pts), 2 Artillery (3pts), 3 Elite upgrades (9pts).
Steve upgraded two Cavalry and two Infantry to Elites, I upgraded two Infantry and a Cavalry to Elite.

As you can see, neither of us purchased any National Advantages as it was our first game and we wanted to keep it simple.

I won the attacker/defender roll-off and chose to Defend, Steve put the objective in the middle of the large hill in my deployment zone.

This is my first go at reporting a game using the Battle Chronicler software, and I forgot a couple of things, like where the objective went and where the generals ended up.

The Scrivslandians are in red and the Prussians in blue in the maps.

I deployed first, on my left I deployed five of my Trained Infantry and two of my Conscript Infantry with two Trained Cavalry in reserve behind them. My two guns were pretty central and on my right were two Grenadiers (Elite Infantry), one Trained infantry and two Conscript Infantry, in supporting echelon of these were an Elite Cavalry and a Trained Cavalry.

Steve's deployment from right to left two Elite Cavalry backed up with a Trained Cavalry, two Grenadiers (Elite Infantry), two Trained Infantry, two of his Artillery then the remainder of his Trained Infantry and artillery on a large hill and then his last trained Cavalry in reserve echelon.

The initial turns saw Steve make an advance on his left flank which I moved to counter. My large infantry formation started to advance upon his smaller force.

As the game developed both of us were expending our Action cards on the events developing on my left. The infantry were soon in a firefight.

Steve charged both of his Elite Cavalry into my Elite Cavalry

Although I initially fought them off and then used a well timed 'Valeur et Disipline' to rally them up to full strength there really was only going to be one eventual result.

The Prussian Infantry were also getting the better of the firefight, we both lost a unit of Fusiliers, but I was certainly on the back foot.

I started to fall back towards my guns to contract my line and also committed my other two Regular cavalry to that flank. It was about this time that we exhausted the deck. I put the 'Reshuffle' card in and reshuffled the deck, I chose a "Pass" and immediately drew the 'Reshuffle' card on the third pull, phew I would only have to last another 50 Actions.

After some intense canister fire, my reserve Trained Cavalry charged one of of Steve's Elite Cavalry and destroyed them. Steve was still putting my Infantry on that flank under intense pressure, I lost two more Conscript Infantry while Steve lost a Grenadier, I was up against it now.

Another charge by my Trained Cavalry saw off another one of Steve's Cavalry, but my Grenadiers succumbed to intense musketry. As you can see on my extreme right, one of Steve's Elite Cavalry was facing off against my Cavalry, but neither of them could spare the Action Cards to get them committed.

With my Grenadiers gone, Steve charged his Fusiliers into my Artillery who were soon scattered, one of my victorious cavalry units was pulled back to prevent Steve a clear run at the objective.

By now the Action card deck was exhausted and we were left to playing with the cards in hand. I about faced three of my Infantry units that had originally made the feint advance to come back and help my cavalry out on the hill, Steve pushed on with his Fusiliers and Grenadiers.

Despite some nifty rallying my cavalry were eventually shot to pieces but the Prussian Fusiliers and Grenadiers pushing on to the objective were under heavy fire, we eventually ran out of cards with both players touching the objective. A draw!

I was really, really lucky, my initial Moral Value was 18 and by the end of the game I had lost nine units, but when rolling the D3 for the decrease in the Moral Value I was typically rolling ones and twos. That coupled with the almost immediate turning over of the 'Reshuffle' card probably saved my bacon.

I was so engrossed in the game I stopped taking photos really early on, but here are a few images. All the figures are home cast, mainly from Prince August moulds and are painted by Steve.

Getting the Scrivslandia forces out of the box  

Another view of the Scrivslandia contingent

The Prussian aggressors 

The Scrivslandia deployment

The Prussian deployment

Prussian cavalry test my flank