Ah, Maurice!

Zig and I finally got around to putting Maurice on the tabletop Saturday afternoon. The whole project has been months in the making. I've been interested in it since Kaptain Kobold started featuring it on his blog. Of course, just being interested isn't usually enough for me to move on a project. It wasn't until I re-watched The Adventures of Baron Munchausen for the umpteenth time some time over the summer that I decided that the armies of Reason and the East needed to be put together and made to fight in miniature.

Being a first time for each of us, and being quite a bit different from the usual fare, the first few turns were pretty tentative but we caught on quickly enough.

We set up 24BW apart. I used the Eastern Empire troops. The two armies are nearly identical - My guys have six infantry, two cavalry and two artillery. Zig's Europeans are composed of five infantry, three cavalry and two artillery.

My forward infantry regiments meander forward. I left the pink guys behind as a reserve for some reason. As it turned out, they did play a crucial role later on.

A few turns on. I'd managed to sucker Zig's main cavalry force out to my right with my own horsemen, then reversed course back to the inside. His cavalry got stuck in a terrible spot and would play no further part in the game. Heheh. One of my regiments has been his by some long-ranged cannon fire.

I used a card whose name I can't remember to push my cavalry forward through the woods without taking a disruption marker, threatening Zig's right side. I forgot that units in different terrain cannot be activated together as a force. Curses! The two cavalry regiments were going to have to act independently now.

With little to lose, I had my forward horsemen head towards the enemy cannons as quickly as possible. The cannons fired as the riders approached, but it was for naught as the artillery battery was destroyed.

Meanwhile, Zig's infantry had been maneuvering forward and was now close enough to pepper my troops with musket fire. The cavalry unit took the brunt of the fire and was broken in no time.

Moments later, my Brave Sons of the East charged forward into combat with the invaders. I didn't take any pictures of the affair, but I had a unit get wiped out. My other unit did will for itself but was forced to retreat from the combat which caused further trouble because it had to move through a friendly unit, adding a disruption to each unit. (see the gold and red marked units)

Zig's forces charge back at mine after a very good volley. My combat rolls were shit as you can see (two ones) and I had another two units get wiped out. I'd lost four now - one more and it was curtains for me!

Zig tries to figure out how many musket balls his troops can fire into my last infantry unit in the combat zone.

Like a tide crashing against stone, my soldiers hold! Zig was furious.

My "reserve" regiments move forward to threaten Ziggy's flanks. He had to act quickly or suffer a tragic turn of events.

A few dice rolls later, combined with an inattentive photographer, and we have a result! Each of us lost a regiment but I'd lost my fifth and that was the end of the game.

Another turn and my cannons could have blasted his nearest regiment into oblivion. Oh well... next time.

What a good game! For a "first play" the game ran very well and there were notably few rules mistakes or troubles. Now that we both have a better grip on things, the next go 'round should be even better. Obviously we could do for some larger armies. Those will be forthcoming. I'm currently out of 1.25" bases and need to order some. I do have models though - two more regiments of Ottomans and I can pretty well double the size of the European army with the unpainteds I have for them. What we've got now is perfectly fine for learning Maurice though. I need to work on flags for the European infantry. They look just a bit too plain out there right now.