More Maurice in the War of the Spanish Succession

It was an early start yesterday to get to Cafe Hollander and watch the England Sweden game over breakfast and celebrating with a pint of Hoegaarden probably a little to soon in the day. 

Any way, with an early start our chores were finished much earlier in the day than I expected so I decided to have a solo run through of Maurice, we had played last week with me in the role of umpire so it would be nice to roll some dice.

Each side would have a single notable

The French force comprised:

• 5 regular horse
• 1 conscript horse
• 5 regular foot
• 3 conscript foot
• 1 irregular foot
• 3 cannon 
• Their notable would be Jonathan Russell, Earl of Bragge and their National Advantage was 'Rally to the colours'.

The Anglo-Dutch force was:

4 regular horse

3 conscript horse

6 regular foot

2 elite foot

2 cannon

Their notable would be the Reverend Howard Whitehouse and their National Advantage was 'Steady lads'

The battlefield drawn was 'Plains' (actually I fudged and redrew an 'Urban' that I first drew) and with more mounted units the Anglo-Dutch chose to be the defender while the French were the attacker.

The terrain was laid out as per below, the large cornfield represents marshy ground and there are a couple of hills that are hard to make out under the cloth.

 Both forces drew up with a solid centre of foot with horse on each wing, the French irregular foot were deployed on their wide left ready to move into some handy woodland, although in the event they were pretty much ignored all game.

Dutch right wing of horse and dragoons

French right wing with the Earl of Bragge leading four squadron pairs of horse.

View from the French left, dismounted dragoons, horse and mounted dragoons, foot and goons and the Earl of Bragge's contingent in the distance.

The Anglo-Dutch deployments with the objective in the village.

The game started with both sides advancing their foot, while the French horse and dragoons pushed up on the left.

The opposing foot close to just outside musketry range.

The French horse pass the narrow defile between the village and the woods and fan out into line.

With a sound of bugles the French horse fall upon their Dutch counterparts

With a nifty 'Stirrups in' the French initiate the combat but good rolling by the Dutch stabilises the situation.

The two lines of foot close to within musketry distance, but the initial salvos are disappointing. 

After rallying their forces the French horse again throw themselves on their Dutch counterparts, again 'Stirrups In' is thrown by the French,but again the Dutch roll some great combat dice to counter.

As may be expected the firefight in the centre starts to sway the way of the Anglo-Dutch and the first French casualties hit the 'Broke Box'  

Removing the front rank of French regulars leaves their conscripts in the rear to take up the fight.

Determined to push on on their left flank the French horse throw in an 'Heroic Rally' and prepare to throw themselves back into the fight.

The Anglo-Dutch reply in a similar fashion in the centre, can their foot triumph before the French batter their way through the horse on their right?

Sensing a decisive phase of the battle the French commander throws his foot onto their opposite numbers.

He has a trick up his sleeve, 'For the King' allows him to ignore his casualties in the next round of combat, while for the Anglo-Dutch their 'Steady Lads' allows them to re-roll their combat die when defending, this could be interesting!

The French lay it on hard, and but for the dastardly 'Steady Lads' re-roll would have triumphed along the line. In almost all the combats the Dutch had been 'doubled' but their re-roll swung the melee back towards parity.

As it is the French end up with another unit in the Broke Box

As do the Anglo-Dutch

The French line is looking rather thin now, and although it is the French players turn the Anglo-Dutch force another firefight.

Another two units are added to the Anglo-Dutch Broke Box

But another two are also added to the French Broke box and their Army Morale is close to collapse!

Then it gets even worse.

In an attempt to even up the score the French draw a squadron pair of Dutch horse into combat against their fresher troops

The resultant melee goes as expected this time, but there is still a huge disparity in the Army Morale

With the French centre reduced to one battalion of Bavarians and a battalion of the Greder regiment of Germans in French service they know that the game shall soon be up.

And indeed it is!

A very enjoyable game which despite the lopsidedness of the result could have swung much more to the French if their horse had been able to make an early breakthrough on the left and if the infantry charge in the centre had been more successful.

A few more images from the game