Maurice Campaign - kick-off and game one The Battle of Wevelgem

Wednesday saw myself and Drew kick off a War of the Spanish Succession campaign using the Maurice rules. We've had a few games with the rules now and the campaign system looks rather good, although is geared for more than two players.

I would play the allied and Drew would play the forces of Louis XIV.

The church at Wevelgem, the Dutch objective for the day

Drew picked a French force with some Bavarian infantry, based around a core of elite horse with the Cavaliers national advantage, my Allied force was much more of a mish-mash of Dutch, English, Scottish, Swiss, Danes and Hessians under a common banner, I took the 'Rally to the Colours' and 'Depot Battalions' national advantages.

Our first game would be the Battle of Wevelgem a village near the border of Picardie as the Allies attempted to drive the French back behind their forts.

The starting deployments, French nearest

The battle would be fought on rugged terrain and although neither side had any suitable scouts the Dutch easily won the scouting roll and elected to attack.

The Dutch placed three pieces of terrain choosing two low hills and a village while the French also chose two low hills and village and completed the layout with a ploughed field in the center of the table. The hills don't show up too well in the photos as they are under the cloth, so we decorated them with a few trees and in one case a windmill.

Conscripts of Regt. Greder await the Dutch attacks

The Dutch commander chose a unit of Wurtemburg cavalry for his mercenaries.

The French deployed their infantry out front supported by their guns and held their cavalry in a refused position to their centre left.  The Dutch had a solid center of infantry with horse on each flank, their guns were deployed to support the right of the infantry attack and the cavalry on that flank.

The Dutch began with a general advance throwing forwards their infantry and guns supported by the horse on their right, their horse on the left remained passive for now. The French took the opportunity to reinforce their hand and resulted to passing or bombardments for the initial few turns.

The French then committed their horse to their left to hopefully stem the Dutch advance, outclassed, the Dutch horse on that flank halted just out of range and their guns were deployed to try to disrupt the elite French horse, the Dutch infantry continued their relentless advance although the large field in the centre soon made that much harder to coordinate.

Dutch horse halt in the face of the French cavalry and prepare to bring up the guns to support them.

 Le Compte de Frou Frou continued with his bombardment of the Dutch advance and soon the first casualties of the day were taken when Dalrymples battalion of Scotsmen in Dutch service, already disrupted by their passage through the corn fields were broken by gunfire!

Death of a Hero played on the French soon saw the honours even though.

The prepared French positions, it does not show too well, but the guns are on a low rise behind the infantry they are supporting.

To try to break up the threat on my right I played a Confusion on the advancing French horse and although it held them up slightly Drew soon played a Coordinated to get them back into formation, my plans were foiled!

The Dutch infantry were now in musket range of the French and I prevented the initial French volley by playing 'Firefight' to prevent it.

Le Compte De Frou Frou, should his troops be worried that he looks to his rear instead of at the advancing Dutch

 With the French cavalry advancing on my right it was time to start softening up with my guns and I'd been holding on to a 'Well Laid Guns', so duly tore into them and missed with both barrels - bah humbug!

Drew countered with a Confusion of his own drawing my Nassau Saarsbrucken horse out into a trap. I really needed to Rally my foot for the onslaught in the center was going my way but I should make use of my 'Rally to the Colours' to force the advantage.

Bugger!

In the eventuality the Nassau Saarsbrucken horse did not do so badly and were able to regroup and rally from the outnumbering thunderous charge of the French horse.

The infantry slog had evened out somewhat and the lines were thinning alarmingly, although the French were only at Army Morale 3 and I was still at Army Morale 5.

The Allied foot punish their opposite numbers

The French horse charged in again destroying my Nassau Saarsbrucken horse, but 'The Death of a Hero' combined with wiping out his elite Regt. Crussol foot saw the French morale break and the Dutch gain a Marginal Victory.

Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our pursuit and only earned two Epic Points for the battle while the French gained one.

There may soon be a whiff of grape!

Having lost six units in the game my 'Depot Battalions' really paid off as three of them, including the valiant Nassau Saarsbrucken were rebuilt at Trained status rather than dropping to Conscripts. Also Hays Dragoons were promoted to Trained status. The Nassau Usingen and Dalrymple foot were reformed at Conscript status.

The Dutch alliance now comprises five Trained horse, one Elite foot, three Trained foot and five Conscript foot supported by two artillery.

Although I had only earned two Epic Points, Michael von Pfanenstein joined my forces.

Infantry on the French right, however the Dutch horse is rather sluggish

Having been destroyed the French elite Regt. Normandie were replaced by Conscripts, although the fates were good to the French with both the I/Champagne and Bourbonaisse foot being promoted to Elite status.

This leaves the French three Elite horse, two Elite foot, two Trained foot and six Conscript foot, supported by three artillery.

Their latest rosters can be found here for the French and here for the Dutch.

Early phase of the action

The French deployments around the church at Wevelgem

This Dutch attack was repulsed, although the Regt. Normadie and all the guns were doomed.

Those Frenchmen and Dutchmen are at it again

Last Saturday Drew came over to mine and we played a couple of games with the War of the Spanish Succession collection using the Maurice rules. It was over a week ago and I've slept since then so the details may be a bit vague.

As usual, Drew took the French and Bavarians and used a force of something like:

2 Elite horse

6 Regular horse

1 Elite foot

4 Regular foot

3 Artillery

National Advantage: Cavaliers

I used the Anglo-Dutch with if I recall a force of:

1 Elite horse

2 Regular horse

2 Conscript horse

2 Elite foot

5 Regular foot

2 Conscript foot

2 Artillery

National Advantage: Lethal Volleys

French and Bavarian foot prepare for the onslaught

We set up the first game, Drew would be the attacker so added an extra unit of foot. This one was pretty much over by the time we had played through the first deck.

Drew pushed up his left flank horse while I advanced with the foot to face his foot and horse. 

Game 1 French deployment

Stuck in front of the lethal volleys of the Anglo-Dutch foot the French and Bavarians soon withered. Many an heroic cavalry charge wash thrown in and pushed off.

All the bravery in the world was unable to break through the volleys of the Dutchmen

French horse managed to get onto the flank of the Dutch foot, but the French army morale collapsed before they could capitalise on it. 

As this had only taken about an hour we lined the forces up again and had at it. Again Drew would play the attacker.

This time the Anglo-Dutch deployed in the same fashion as they had before, while the French and their allies took a new tack. They put all of their horse en-masse on their left flank and made much more use of their artillery to bombard the Anglo-Dutch foot from a distance.

French foot in the centre

As the Dutch horse on the left flank had no opposing numbers I pushed them up the battlefield to hopefully draw French reinforcements. This was not to be, and as you can see from the image below the Anglo-Dutch horse on my right were heavily outnumbered.

This is only three quarters of the French horse against my few Dutch horsemen, there is another pair of units behind these!

 The Dutch infantry did get moving into the centre and some very fortunate card usage was able to prevent the sledge hammer that fell on my right from breaking through immediately, although eventually all the horse on that flank were routed.

French foot

Refusing their right flank the Anglo-Dutch infantry advanced on their opposite numbers and the Lethal Volleys soon did their work although at the end of the game it was much closer and the French route to the objective was open and it would have been theirs if their morale had not collapsed.

Dutch horse advance on the French right flank

All the figures are from Baccus 6mm and were painted by myself.

A few more shots from the game

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