Maurice Play test

 

This is part of a wider review of rules for the WSS, WAS & SYW.

• Official Sam Mustafa Publishing Group (a.k.a. the HONOUR Forum)
• Maurice page on Sam A Mustafa web site 

Overview

Like all of Sam's rule books, these are well-written and boast high production values. In addition to the "battle rules," they include guidelines for both "real" and "imagination" campaigns. The rules require a set of cards, which are used to issue orders and influence combat, such as providing a bonus when firing.

Copies of the basic cards can be downloaded for free from Sam's website, along with a copy of Maurice-lite, which is sufficient for an evaluation battle or two.

The rules cover the "lace wars" period and contain optional rules to shade them towards different ends of the period, from the War of the Spanish Succession (WSS) to the Seven Years' War (SYW). The rules play quite quickly and allow historical battles to be tuned to represent the troops or commanders who were present.

It is not intended as a criticism but rather an observation that, like most of Sam's rules, I find these rules to have a number of game-play elements which, on one hand, feel artificial but, on the other hand, add an extra level of skill and enjoyment to a wargame. I believe that you will need to fight a number of battles with these rules in order to learn the best way to win.

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These rules contain a number of elements worth commenting on:

• Friction of Command: The rules allow the CinC to activate one force at a time. Therefore, there is a risk that battles become very focused on one force unless the general learns to spread his focus. Mechanistically, this is similar to the DBx rules sets with limited command action points (CAP) preventing a general from moving all his commands in a turn, or the command role style of rules, similar to Black Powder, which require a successful activation roll to move each command.
• Turn Sequence: Turns are quick to resolve as one force is moved each turn. This gives a quick-paced game where players are not waiting for their opponent to move their entire army before they have their own turn. In two hours, my opponent and I probably had 20-30 turns between us.
• Firing: Is done by rolling dice to hit, equal to the number of bases in a unit, and then a subsequent casualty disruption roll is made based on the quality of the troops, e.g., it's easier to disrupt a unit of conscripts than a guard regiment.
• Melee: The rules handle 1:1, 1 to many, and many to many melees. This is a good example of how well Sam writes rules. Each unit in the melee rolls a D6 and adds factors. The losing side can be destroyed or take two disruptions, and the winner will receive disruption casualties.
• Artillery: A battery has about the same firepower as an infantry base/two bases at canister range.
• Number of Units: A unit can be regarded as a battalion or assumed to be several. A typical army has approximately 15 or so units. The rules include a refight of the Battle of Fontenoy, which has about 18 units per side.
• Special Equipment: Core to the game are the Maurice cards, which must be purchased separately or a simple set downloaded from Sam's website.
• Casualties: Players need to be able to record casualty hits on units until the unit is removed. There are no figures removed as casualties. Five hits destroy most units.
• Scale: The rules work with all base sizes. All distances in the rules are given in BW (base widths). As I was playing with 60x30mm 6mm bases, I declared a 30x30mm base width, which resulted in 120x30mm units.
• Availability: Wargame sites (and in my case, eBay).
• Cost: ~£30 each   for the rules & cards.

Battle

Time Period: WSS 1701 (pre-creation of Britain)

As the game makes use of hidden cards, I fought this with an opponent so that I could be surprised by the cards played. I commanded the English and their allies, and my opponent the French.

The Battlefield

The battlefield was set up to allow for the various tests in the scenario.

English

• 4 English Trained Infantry

• 4 English Trained Horse

• 2 German Allies Trained Infantry

• 2 German Allies Elite Infantry

• 1 German Allies Trained Infantry (attacker's bonus unit)

• 2 Medium Guns

• Nation Advantage: Lethal Volleys

French

• 4 French Trained Infantry

• 4 French Trained Infantry

• 2 French Trained Horse

• 2 French Elite Horse

• 3 Medium Guns

• National Advantage: Cavaliers

Stream Crossing: The English left flank advanced towards and over the stream. As infantry, this did not have any impact. The English horse crossed the stream, which would have placed 1 point of disorder on them, but I played the "Find the Way" card and was able to cross the stream without penalty.

Cavalry vs Cavalry: The French horse charged the English horse. As the French national advantage was "Cavaliers," all their cavalry had a +1 combat modifier over the English. The two elite regiments had an additional +2 combat factor over the English horse. It was a bit of a bloodbath, and all the English horse were destroyed in three rounds of combat. However, the French horse regiments were left with 2 or 3 disruptions each.

Cavalry Frontally Charging Formed Infantry: The two elite French horse regiments, charged a single elite English allied infantry regiment but due to the close proximity a second elite infantry regiment  were able to join into the melee.  This  resulted on 2 horse regiments vs 1 infantry and 1 horse regiment vs 2 infantry.  (The Maurice rules handles complex melee very well).   The French horse lost and were driven back and subsequently took even more disruption from infantry volley fire.  However the disruption they placed on the elite infantry was a factor in the elite grenadiers failing in the assault on the village.

Artillery: As a bombardment order takes a full turn, artillery did not feature much in the battle. The English guns bombarded the village and, given enough time, would have worn down the defenders. I suspect that it may be one of the areas that may improve with more practice with the rules.

Infantry vs Buildings: Infantry assaulting buildings receive a -2 modifier. This puts trained infantry defending a village on an equal footing with elite troops performing the assault.  In this battle my elite grenadiers had already been mauled by the French horse and this resulted in them being defeated in their assault of the village.

Infantry vs Infantry: The English infantry advanced across the field and closed in on the French right. Under these rules, when one side volleys, the other returns fire but after the "active" side. The English national advantage of "Lethal Volleys" allowed a re-roll of any hits which fail to cause disruption. This proved to be a significant advantage, allowing the English to win on their left flank but leaving them with considerable disruption. This isn't a game where units which win firefights or melees are untouched and able to roll down the battlefield fresh as a daisy.

Army Morale: The French won this battle as the British army reached its breaking point. Although even if night had fallen first, the French would have won as they held the objective, which was in the village.

Summary

The rules played very quickly and were easy to pick up. My opponent and I both thought that we rather rushed into combat and should have taken more time to manoeuvre more broadly and take time action cards in our hands.