Maurice - Battle of Gross Jägerdorf

A new game with Maurice, this time the Battle of Gross Jagerdorf. The battle took place on 30th August 1757, when a powerful Russian army invading Prussia received a nose-bleeding punch from a much inferior local army and managed to pull back with relatively minor casualties and in good order, before the overwhelming Russian force could react and counterattack. As you will see in this battle review, the game's outcome was fairly similar to the historical situation.

This is the game map and the arrows indicate the line of march of the four Russian army columns...

 ... and the next photo shows the actual deployment on the gaming table...

Once the Russians deployed, the Prussian army showed in full force threatening the center...

and the rear of the of the marching columns...

The first Prussian charge fell on the Russian rearguard, catching one infantry and one artillery units. Despite the proximity of the enemy, they were able to react, and pulled a hasty defensive line facing the charging cavalry...

... and despite loosing the artillery, it was enough to stop and even reject the enemy cavalry. A well aimed musketry volley put enough disruption in the cavalry units as to have them inactive practically for the rest of game.

The action now moved to the center part of the table. The Russian commander ordered the marching lines to halt and to turn left, starting a long series of volleys exchanges in which the Russians suffered severly, despite puting to flee two Prussian units, when the elite grenadiers (second line on the photo below) closed enough.

 With the trreat at the rearguard alredy conjured and the center holding well, the Russian commander now invested a large number of its command points in moving back the advance guard units to threaten the Prussian infantry right flank. The cavalry was first called...

... and after the infantry, that tried to place a firing line in the Prussian flank...

... only to be caught on their own flank and beaten before they could turn right.

It was at this point that the Prussians broke the the Russian center, destroying two of the infantry units and creating a large gap between the left and right flanks.

  
Simultaneously, the Russian charged the Prussian cavalry for the first time, causing significant disruption on the latter but not enough to be pushed back.

But to the Russians surprise, the Prussian infantry instead of using its advantage in the center to envelop their flank, called for a general retreat, formed in column and moved at double pace towards its own tactical edge of the table.

The Russian cavalry tried to react, charged for a second time and finally broke two of the Prussian cavalry units...

    

...but too late to stop the retreating Prussian army, who left the battlefield with around 60% of its army in good order. 

Victory for the Prussian army, who entered the table, made a significant amount of casualties to the Russians and then made a well paced retreat before the remaining Russian army units could react and counterattack. 

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This has been my second game with Maurice. I'm still getting familiar with the mechanics (not easy, and not  because of any intrinsic difficulty with the rules, but because I played with very experienced gamers...) but the game flows nicely and the card-driven system is a real plus that forces players to make tough command decisions and to plan well in advance your next moves.

I cannot honestly judge to which extent Maurice realistically recreates the historical period (I haven`t read enough yet and my knowledge about this period is limited), but I have truly enjoyed playing the last two games and  my interest in the period have increased significantly.