Maurice Campaign - 'the First War of Succession'

Gary and 3 other lads at the uni club have been running a Maurice campaign loosely based around the Seven Years War, or at least that part of it when a madder than usual Russian Czar was enamoured of Frederick the Great...

Their armies are largely composed of beautifully painted Pendraken 10mil figures, which unfortunately is one of the few scales I don't have an army in, so I have remained aloof from the fisticuffs, also because my time is more than taken up with a Hail Caesar Ancient Greek campaign, Team Yankee, Bolt Action, getting my head around FOW V4, etc etc - typical wargamer overstretch!

But the pair of game put on by the lads this Thursday evening were not only visually very attractive, but also featured some interesting, possibly unusual, and definately not noice tactics so I thought I might blog about it from a position of ignorance - confusion and ignorance has never stopped me blogging in the past if a couple of half decent photos come out of the dozens I snapped!

Please allow Gary to set the scene:

In the South the Prussians hastened to support their Russian comrades and intercept the pursuing Austrians. The course of the battle may well have been predicted when the Prussians won the initiative against an Austrian +2 superiority in scouting.

Once the Austrians had deployed and committed their considerably superior (in both numbers and quality) Cavalry force to their left flank, the Prussians promptly deployed their own cavalry as far away as possible on the opposite flank and covered the Austrian line with their own Lethally Volleyed superior infantry and Grande battery.

Of course marching ones cavalry into such a hailstorm would be quite silly but regardless, the Prussians were a little surprised when the Austrian cavalry about faced and headed over to the other flank seeking out those Prussians now pre-occupied with maintaining their lines in perfect order.

This relocation of the Austrian mounted did however take several actions and the Prussian infantry did not hesitate to advance into musket range of the now mostly conscript Austrian infantry after the battle last month against the Russians. (Units get degraded in quality in the next battle of the campaign after being wiped out in battle)

The Austrian foot could not retrograde fast enough and soon felt the full rathe of those lethal volleys with several lucky rounds of firing reeking considerable carnage amongst their ever diminishing ranks...

 

As the Austrian mounted rounded the right flank of their army and advanced on the Prussian cavalry...

the Prussian cavalry now in the most absolutely perfect straight lines ever witnessed on any battlefield, the Prussian guns and a couple of infantry units came into action in support of their social betters on horseback.

The subsequent clash of horses and men, charge and counter charge, was appropriately deadly.

Was it ever! The dice you see here besides each unit represent their effectiveness at the start of the combat round, 6 for line, 8 for elite, minus disruption points, etc. To these are added the actual combat die roll, and the difference determines winner or loser...

I was surprised to see the much maligned Prussian Cavalry eventually overcome a larger force of renowned Austrian cavalry after an extended and hard fought combat (although the Prussians were characteristically methodical, not to say Teutonic,  throughout the combat around measuring their positioning at each stage of the battle to the exact micrometre and minute of arc, which slightly detracted from the dash and impetuous with which equine fisticuffs are normally associated in my mind!)

Gary explains:

However the narrow frontage of the Prussian mounted plus the assistance of the Prussian infantry all contributed to dulling the advantage of numbers and quality enjoyed by the Austrians (and a couple of very lucky rally rolls for the Prussians helped as well). As the dust settled 3 Austrian cavalry had been shattered including 2 Elite Cuirassier units for the loss of only one Prussian Hussar unit, and the remaining Prussians were in reasonably good order courtesy of those opportune Rallies.



On the other flank the remaining Conscript Austrian Infantry tried as best they could to blend into the scenery to avoid further attention from the Prussian musketry. The Austrian General now suggested that the worsening weather plus interminable saddle soreness should see an end to hostilities. The Prussian leadership quickly acquiesced to an honourable evacuation of the battlefield with colours, weapons and baggage train intact (minus a few trophies of course – damn nice gilding and braid on those Austrian scabbards!) – all soldiers returned to their campfires and bratwurst.

Unfortunately the gods of light and darkness decreed only my photos of the Austro-Prussian game were worthy of public exposure, so please take my word for it that on the other table was an equally enthralling and well presented game between the Russians and French, which involved the Russian main line attack heading directly through the largest forest on the table, to the bemusement of the French and Russian skirmish forces alike!