As promised, here’s the battle report for my Maurice campaign game against Anthony, which kept getting put back since my opponent came out with every excuse in the book not to have to face me. Others might argue that having to look after sick family members, having already signed up for another game, and whatever other feeble excuses Anthony came out with had some merit to them, but I know it was really because he was too scared of the inevitable destruction of his horsies that was behind it. And so it was to prove…
By the way, there’s an in-game report of the battle that can be found here on our Maurice Campaign Blog which I recommend reading too (not just this latest battle, but all the batreps on there). Anyway, on with the show. Here were our initial positions – Von Wattsenburg won the scouting roll and decided to defend, stringing out his guard and elite cavalry on his right flank, his irregulars in the woods, conscripts in the town, then his artillery battery, trained infantry, and his poorer cavalry (conscript and trained).
Initial Positions
As you can see, I chose to deploy in a tight formation on the right. I’d put the hills where they are to allow me to move up behind their cover from his guns originally, but when I saw that his poorer troops were on my right, I figured the woods would do just as well to cover my advance. I considered starting in column to get down the table more quickly, before he’d be able to get his guard and elite cavalry over to the right flank, but that would have been foolhardy – even his conscript and trained troops on his left flank would have made short work of infantry march columns.
The disposition of my men was as follows: The first two ranks were trained regulars; behind them came the third rank, my grenadiers on the left and centre, and conscripts on the right. To their left my artillery battery formed up, ready to surprise any cavalry that tried to get around behind me, and my cavalry reserve under my new Notable, Alain, Comte de Finay, sat waiting in order to do the same or to charge up the flank in support of my infantry if von Wattsenburg managed to burst through my lines.
My initial position
And so, on we march!
The flank march begins
As expected, Anthony then proceeded to march his good cavalry across from the left to the right where all the action was.
Here come the Belgians…er…Großebärwald cavalry
Luckily for my infantry, it would take several turns for his cavalry to get over to the other side of the table – lucky for me, because it meant that I wasn’t offering him the flanks of my infantry units as a nice target for his elite cavalry immediately.
Vorwärts!
Our steady march forward was briefly hit by artillery fire as we cleared the woods, but not enough to worry about, and it meant that von Wattsenburg had to delay his cavalry a turn – so he quickly decided to halt the barrage and continue with his cavalry advance.
Parading past the village
Cognisant of the fact that his cavalry were almost upon me, I then split my infantry force into two distinct groups, the leftmost two units in each rank continuing forward, while the rightmost unit in each rank started to turn to face the coming horsepocalypse.
Prepare to receive the horsies!
Things were getting a little cramped, but since the attacker is the only one who falls back in Maurice, I didn’t need to worry about my men falling back through their own troops if they lost a combat, since I couldn’t charge cavalry. Of course, that nasty card that allows you to move an enemy unit would have really fucked me up there, but luckily Anthony didn’t have one. Anthony brought his cavalry into charge range, just outside on my volley range, on his turn:
The enemy Guard Cavalry line up ready to charge
This was the worrying part for me – Anthony had six units of cavalry in two ranks, the first consisting of a trained unit, a guard unit and an elite unit, the second comprising two elites and a guard unit. This was how the state of play was before the charge:
About to enter into Volley range, and about to be charged
On my next turn, I advanced, putting my rightmost units in volley range of his poorer quality cavalry, and advancing my infantry on the left so they were in volley range of his better cavalry. Unsurprisingly, Anthony decided not have a Volley Phase on his turn.
Shooting positions ready!
Also unsurprisingly, Anthony decided to charge – hitting my flanking infantry unit with all three of his first rank cavalry units!
Half a league, half a league, half a league onward!
Being outnumbered 3 to 1, I didn’t think this unit would stand, but judicious use of a card affecting his troops adversely coupled with Anthony rolling 1s for his other two units while I rolled a 6, they stood firm, repelling the cavalry charge! Of course, this also had the effect of leaving his cavalry sitting in front of me at the beginning of my turn and my volley phase, and me with the Lethal Volleys advantage…
After a couple of turns…
I poured fire into the good cavalry on my left and into the poorer cavalry ahead of me, Anthony tried to rally but didn’t do too well, and then I shot the crap out of them again, destroying his trained cavalry on the left and the trained cavalry ahead of me – first blood to the Marelenedietrichsteiners!
And still we march relentlessly forward
Moving up to cover the ground left by his routed horse to my front, I wheeled – my plan was coming together – hold off the good cavalry while my other troops rolled up his flank.
On, on, on!
Anthony pulled his cavalry back to rally away from my guns, but on I marched, allowing him no respite, and taking out the conscript cavalry with a fusillade of shot. To help against the trained infantry I’d now reached, I wheeled one of my flank units to face them in order to combine fire with the unit on their flank, with my rear rank (grenadiers) moving up to support the unit that had pursued the fleeing cavalry.
More grist to the mill!
This led to mixed results – on the one hand, the sheer weight of numbers firing on the infantry led to their immediate demise, but my forlorn hope unit was mowed down by another cavalry charge from von Wattsenburg. Luckily I still had my grenadiers ready to face the next charge, and his front rank cavalry were looking a bit depleted now.
Stand your ground!
Preparing to stand and return fire at any further charges, my grenadiers took their position, and with the rout of the enemy infantry to their front, my other flank unit again wheeled to face the enemy cavalry.
Surprise charge
Anthony was then prepared to charge again, setting up three units, one guards, two elites, who were in perfect position to charge in the next turn from just outside my volley range. Things may have been dicey for me, if it hadn’t been for another nasty little card, which I used to force his disrupted guard cavalry to charge my unharmed grenadiers alone, leaving his other two cavalry units split up from each other. I love playing this card, and had held it since the start of the game just for such an occasion. Rolling well, I managed to stave off the guards, inflicting more disruption onto them. Anthony had no option but to charge with his other unit in a last hurrah – he’d been rolling 5s and 6s for almost all his morale loss rolls, and was down to only a few points left, something I was watching closely because in my hand I had the third of my really sneaky cards still to play – Death of a Hero, which allows me to knock off 1-2 morale points when played.
There goes another of my infantry units…
Anthony’s charge worked for him this time, instantly destroying my other flank infantry unit. In response, I moved my troops up – now he was sitting there with disrupted cavalry facing three solid ranks of stable infantry, including my grenadiers who managed to rally off their disruption (thanks to the Rally to the Colours advantage).
The end is nigh!
Another round of fire, and von Wattsenburg’s remaining infantry unit fled the field, while his cavalry took the brunt of the fire, leaving him with three units, on 2, 3 and 4 disruption respectively. Seeing his outlook bleak, and having only 3 morale left, Anthony offered his surrender before I destroyed his remaining cavalry and charged his artillery from the flank. Always the gentleman, I of course accepted it without hesitation.
VICTORY!
