For an in-character version of the battle report, look here where we have our campaign blog.
This week I took on an old enemy, the French Armee du Nord, commanded by Markus at the club. I’ve noticed I play a lot of games against Markus (and next week I’m playing him again, an ahistorical match up of my English Hundred Years War against his Spartans (I think – one of his ancients armies anyway) using Impetus). It’s probably because he’s such a good opponent as well as a good friend; I can never rest on my laurels from previous wins against him, as he’s always learning my style and thinking of ways to beat me. With the match-up of these armies, however, I think we’ve found just the right combination of advantages and army lists that I’ve finally managed to confound him. We’ve played with these lists (well, mostly – I’ve added a new Notable, got an extra elite infantry unit, and Markus has several elite infantry units that were trained the last time we fought) three times now, and I’ve (spoiler alert for this game) won each time. After the game, we discussed what Markus could have done to avoid another defeat at the hands of my army, and we haven’t really come to any conclusions. We’re going to have a friendly match in a few weeks so that Markus can test out a few new tactics without putting his standing in the campaign in jeopardy.
We started by drawing the Rugged card, which meant lots of hills. We ended up with 10 pieces of terrain, mostly hills, so that the initial battlefield looked like this on my right:
My initial positions (Markus is still setting up)
I had artillery on my left hand side, next to two lines of infantry, the first row on the plains being elites, all the rest being trained. On my right were my cavalry arm, safely out of the way of Markus’ cavalry, which would easily beat mine – my cavalry and artillery tend to be fairly easy morale losses, so I’ve tried keeping the cavalry behind my infantry lines where they can plug any gaps or make a sudden sally onto a flank.
Markus’ forces on my left, and more hills
Way off to my left, Markus placed his cavalry, ready to try to flank me. I set up first, and this had me worried, since he could fly straight onto my flank and hit my artillery before rolling up my lines.
Markus’ centre
In the centre, facing my forces, were Markus’ infantry. Thanks to my Lethal Volleys, I usually have the advantage over other infantry, and I always place my elites in the front row. Markus’ army, however, have lots of elite infantry now, and a guard unit. I still have an advantage over them (as we will see later), but it’s a much closer thing, especially since he also has a la baionette, which gives him an advantage in close combat.
Markus’ left flank (my right)
On my right, Markus set up his artillery, guarded by a sole infantry unit. As often happens in Maurice, he used these to bombard me for the first few turns – it generally does a couple of disruption, and it means he can pick up cards.
To the hill!
In reply to his artillery shooting my elites, I moves out of his arc of fire and took the central hill. Fighting from higher elevation gives a bonus, so if Markus was to send his infantry against mine, I wanted that to counter his baionette advantage and his guards. My first action was to move my artillery out of the way, and moving my troops so that I could more easily face his cavalry when they came along.
The hated French cavalry make their move
Which, it turned out, was the right thing to do, as the French cavalry then proceeded to march on my flank.
Cover the flanks!
A couple of turns of movement, and I had successfully covered my flank, but I was worried that the line was a little thin there, and was planning on moving over either my cavalry or part of my second line to reinforce the flank. Markus was also moving his infantry forward however, which had me worried about the shape of my line there – lose too many units from my second line, and I’d be on shakier ground there too. Luckily I had a card which enabled me to make one of Markus’ units march forward – and so his guard infantry left the rest of the army behind and marched right up to my volley range. Next turn was Markus’, who decided not to have a volley phase, but I also had a card which enabled me to force him to have one, and so after a round or two of shooting:
First casualties of the game – the French Guard infantry!
I had a couple of disruption myself, but thanks to my Rally around the Colours advantage, I could get rid of those quite easily. I was starting to feel encircled though…
Here come the French, getting into charge position (the dice mark the boundary of my firing range)
On my following turn, I moved my infantry so that they were in volley range after Markus wisely positioned his just outside. This meant leaving my hill, but I had another trick up my sleeve…the following turn, Markus again declined a volley phase – we had about as many infantry units facing each other, but his cavalry were exposed, and we wanted to charge them in, so didn’t want them getting shot as they charged home. Unfortunately for him, I had the other card which forced a volley phase after all, and did quite a bit of damage, making several of his units (cavalry and infantry) disrupted. Markus then charged in anyway, but thanks to some lucky dice rolling from me, and a nice card which blunted his attack, I managed to be on the losing side but not so much that I was automatically destroyed.
Here comes the French cavalry charge
A couple of turns passed with Markus charging me and me rallying off my disruption. After the second charge, I still managed to survive thanks to not being doubled and being able to rally effectively. The next turn being mine, it meant another volley phase, and with the use of a card which enhanced my shooting, I managed to finally put a dent in the enemy cavalry, destroying Markus’ Guard cavalry and other unit. In my turn, I then rallied, leaving me with a scattering of disruptions but nothing serious, whereas Markus’s cavalry was just about spent, and several of his infantry were on their last legs. Seeing the future being less than rosy, Markus offered his surrender, and since I make it a matter of principle to always accept (in Maurice you can refuse to accept surrender in order to more thoroughly destroy your opponent’s army, which can make a lot of difference in the campaign), the game was over. To make it even worse, I rolled for a new Notable, needing a 1, and got it; Markus needed a 1-4 and rolled a 6.
Final position – surrender is offered and accepted.
We had quite a long chat about this game afterwards. I did have considerable luck with cards, being able to force a volley phase twice really played to my advantage with Lethal Volleys, and being able to get a +1 to my shooting when it really mattered made a lot of difference. I also managed to play a couple of First Fire cards, blunted Markus’ charge and could ignore the disruption on one of my units when Markus charged them, which helped me quite a bit. Having elites in my front lines also somewhat countered Markus’ baionettes and made him less likely to double my score in the cavalry charge (though there was a close run – I ended up with 6 to his 11). Luck definitely played a part in this win. On the other hand, the combination of Lethal Volleys and Rally to the Colours meant I could dictate terms when I moved forward – I would fire on my turn, we’d both end up with some disruptions, but Markus was more likely to suffer them than I was, and then as my action, I’d rally away most of my disruptions, leaving me with relatively fresh troops against his demoralised ones, so that if he did charge in (where his baionettes advantage would normally have given him a better chance), I would still have an upper hand. The likely result of such a charge would be to increase disruptions on both our sides, which would have been followed by a volley phase in which I would shoot first, and more powerfully – not a good option for Markus.
The French army that Markus uses has some excellent cavalry, but they really need to get the job done in the first two charges, otherwise they’re spent, and I can use my following volley phase to destroy them. Against an army with Rally to the Colours, it becomes so much harder for them to do so. It may be that these two lists just don’t make a good match-up – my advantages pretty much nullify Markus’ while remaining powerful enough to turn the tide in my favour. Against other opponents, Markus usually wins, and often by quite large margins, so it certainly isn’t his tactical skill to blame. If anyone has any suggestions for how he can handle my army, please post to let us know, either by commenting here or on Markus’ own blog (where a report of the same battle will probably be posted today).
