Last Monday we tried out the Maurice rule set by Sam Mustafa (coincidentally one of the players on the night was named Maurice...an omen?). My only armies for the period of time covered by the rules are from the American War of Independence so when using them we will be concentrating on that for the time being.
So with three of us I decided to be the rules man while the others played, this would be good as we'd be on a steep learning curve, also I don't mind doing this as you can't get your arse tanned! Both sides comprised around 68 points of units and being our first game we didn't use any Traits or Notables (sub commanders). The British would be attacking so gained an extra Trained Unit (selected Infantry). The British Morale started at 14 and the Americans had a starting Morale 15.
Here's the forces;
British (74 points including bonus attacking Unit)
1 x CnC
1 x Elite Infantry Unit
9 x Trained Infantry Units
1 x Trained Cavalry Unit
3 x Guns
Americans (67 points)
1 x CnC
5 x Trained Infantry Units
4 x Conscript Infantry Unit
1 x Irregular Infantry Unit
1 x Trained Cavalry Unit
3 x Guns
The Americans deployed one of their Units in the town (British Objective) and formed a line with their Conscripts in the front, their artillery on a nice bit of high ground and just under half their Units in reserve in columns. The British deployed in a mass of columns roughly facing the American centre.
No hiding what the British were up too on turn one! Keeping all their infantry in column, on open ground and within two base widths they were able to move everyone in a super single force. The American artillery bombarded this huge force on the first turn and with three bases caused three disruptions. A good start.
The British channelling Frederick the Great now split their infantry, one group fixed the American centre in place while six Units deployed in text book style threatening to roll up the American line. You can see in this picture American reserves deploying to face the British flank attack, good artillery firing on the first turn lead the Americans to keep firing when they should have been deploying! (noted for future games, don't leave open flanks!)
Both sides musketry was in general appalling and even though outgunned by the British regulars initially the American Conscripts gave as good as they got. At one point three British hits got triple one on the 'cause a disruption' roll (one being bad)!
American reinforcements arriving to face the British 'sledgehammer'...
First up on the flank as the sides faced off volleys were exchanged and again the musketry was pretty ineffectual due to bad rolling but the first loss was inflicted an American artillery Unit was destroyed.
The British then charged, the Americans counter charged some volleys were exchanged and things were looking shaky for the Continentals. The Americans had lost an infantry Unit and three Artillery Units but what was bad is they took the maximum Morale penalty for each loss (where were those fives and sixes when they were volleying?) and for four units lost had been reduced from 15 Morale points to just six! Note the British weren't getting it all their own way s several units sit with three disruptions and were tottering on breaking!
The duel in the centre continued!
The American town garrison watches the battle to their right develop!
The British left with the hill cleared prepare to roll up the American line...
... but before they did another American Unit broke and with their Morale down to minus one the Continentals fled (again the Americans got the maximum Morale Point penalty when losing a Unit)!
The game ended...
So a massive victory to the British in less than an hour and a half. We saw a mix a good tactics by the British, novice deployment by the Americans and some seriously bad luck for the Americans on the Morale Table rolls when losses occurred! The verdict was a resounding 'yes we'll play those again'! But will it be a good multiplayer game? Looking at this game if there had been left Wing and right Wing American players the left Wing player would have had a very quiet time! We'll try a few more two player games to get the hang of the rules then try a multiplayer game (I already have a idea for this that may negate the above situation)!
A side note, I do miss the Discussion Forum on Sam Mustafa's Honour site, it was a great central location for rules queries, seeing AAR's and what other players are doing, I believe there is a Facebook page but that's not for me...
Thanks for visiting the TSOG Blog!
