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.

Maurice First Blood

 

Toda I have my first taste of Maurice the set to play 'The Age of Reason' battles written by Sam Mustafa. I did really try to resist the temptation, but the pressure was overwhelming against me: the beautiful and colourful armies of the age (which I started to collect but never finished 20 years ago), the very nice painted 28mm armies owned by some of my gaming mates and frequently displayed at the club over the past months, plus the chats overheard between some of the actual gamers during our recent trip to Salute, were a too powerful combined mermaid's call to resist.

An additional attraction is that Maurice is a card driven-game, my favourite system since playing TooFatLardies rules sets. Although the game is developed in turns, in which the active player may fire (and be fired by the enemy musketry), and choose one action (march, rally, charge or bombard), the cards play an important role. Not only they put a limit to the number of orders issued to the units, but also have an important impact in the turns, as the passive player may modify with his own cards the orders of the active player.

This morning we played a historical scenario, the Battle of Chotusitz (1742) staging Prussians against Austrians. The objective of the Austrians was to take the village and defeat the Prussain army, initially heavily outnumbered but waiting for reinforcements commanded by Frederick the Great himslef arriving in the first early turns.

Seven Years Wars at the Club

A new period is brewing in my wargaming circle, the Seven Yeras Wars and Frederick the Great, played with Maurice the recently released work of Sam Mustafa (known for his popular Napoleonic rules-set Lasalle).

I have not played it (...yet?...) but I have a lot of trust in my gaming mates who have decided to start testing this set... and their first asessment  is: very good... but no, I WILL NOT start another period, NOT at all... I have a strong will and  I´ll  surely RESIST the temptation...

In the meantime, I leave you here from some photos from the battle played this morning at our Club that probably help you understand why I'm NOT playing this period