Gaming some more Maurice

The forces meet for battle

Man it's hot here! I'm finding it very hard to summon the energy to pick up a brush. Only thing I want to do is try and stay cool. Still, I have something to offer as couple of my friends came over last week end for some more Maurice gaming and as usual had a lot of fun!

We tried as much as possible to have an AWI feel to it, but cannot quite completely pull it off yet so some SYW Austrians played the role as Germans and SYW French played as AWI French. The Americans were as Americans and the British as British as normal. I also got the chance to blow some dust off some AWI buildings I had made a few years ago which was nice.

Mike took on the role of the British and being the good sport opted to play the attacker which is more difficult in Maurice with Franz taking the Americans with me lending a hand and running the game. Mike decided to try a cavalry flanking manoeuvre followed by a strong push up the centre. The cavalry was caught in the flank and wiped out so that didn't pan out. The infantry push was getting a bit hamstrung by terrain forcing a piecemeal attack that was getting a bloody nose. Sadly due to time constraints we couldn't finish the game and while Mike was getting the worst of it he still looked in good enough shape to have another try up the centre so a draw was declared.

Maurice is really an enjoyable game and one we have only really scratched the surface of as we are yet to design our own armies as we usually just dived the figures up we have then play.

Oh I also updated the blog a little by giving it a new header picture of my Iron Brigade I did awhile back. I also added some more pictures to the Iron Brigade post using a terrain background where I just had a white one before which can be viewed here.
 
Here are a few pics of the game:

Thanks for viewing!

The Americans and their French allies

Another shot of the American/French forces

The British and their German Allies

A solid block of red coats

Trampling the carefully cultivated wheat field

Whoever finds the biggest turnip wins!.

A mighty clash of forces!

Umm...sir I think we are outnumbered here!

Who called for back up?

Busy, but have some Dux Britanniarum

The table

Hello everyone things have been pretty busy here and so blogging has taken a hit. I'm currently doing a lot of re-basing oh the joy of it.... , work and summer activities with family and a simple laziness at times that heat can induce is the reason why for the slow down here on Bunker Hill.

A few weeks back Nick and I played some more great Dux Britanniarum which we like more and more. We managed 2 games which will be our goal each time we meet as we don't get that many opportunities to play together mainly due to distance.  I can't remember all the details, but I'll give a very brief summation of the games.

The first scenario I (Hamarolf) needed to capture a noble to hold for ransom.  In this case Nick(Magnus) sent out on patrol Dungbreath who seems to often draw this duty(wonder why....) Dungbreath started on patrol with Hamarolf and his Saxons entering from the table edge and Magnus racing from the fort to rescue him.  Things were going well as my Saxons managed to close on Dungbreath pretty quickly, but equally fast Magnus arrived in the nick of time to repel my Saxons. Result was Saxons licking their wounds and withdrawing hastily the way they came.

The second game was a Saxon raid on a farm stead to capture gold if any and food supplies for the coming winter with the Romano British hurrying to intervene. In this case Hamarolf was able to ransack the farm pretty quickly and form a strong defensive line and basically giving Magnus a bloody nose and sent packing back to his garrison.

This ended the year in game terms and now winter has set in. Hamarolf "The Battler" has now risen to the status of Warlord which now makes it possible for him to actually take territory for himself! YES!!  Nick's leader on the other hand has a acquired a less then hoped for end of year result with the title of Theodosius Magnus "The Simple". Not sure if this was given to him by Hamarolf or the farmer who lost all his pumpkins! However, he really didn't do that bad as the actual game victories is just 2 Saxon wins to 1 win Romano British which is hardly bad at all. The truth is I acquired a lot of wealth through uncontested raids which why I was able to rise quickly to Warlord. So, next time we meet will be a new game year and promises to very interesting indeed!

Now for a few pics of the two games in no particular order. Nick's Romano British are really looking great with super Sabot basing and appropriate figures and a lovely fort that he brought for us to use. I apologize for my Saxons as I've had to use my Vikings as stand ins except for a couple leaders I've managed to finish. I'm working on more Saxons and some matching Sabot bases to correct this so please bear with me.

Thanks for viewing!:-)

Another angle

Leaving the Garrison

A brawl in the wheat

We found the pumkins!

How dare you steal our pumkins!

Give those pumpkins back!.....No!.....ring of steel on steel

The cream of the armies meet!

 

Isenhart "The Peacemaker"

A noble and one of Hamarolf's chief retainers. He is aged 34 and like Hamarolf and Nothhelm comes from humble beginnings as the son a village peasant.

His rise to a noble has much to do with his winning smile as well as his ability in arms. He is known to be a lustful man who has no issues in taking other men's wives to bed with him and if it wasn't for his ability as a smooth talker and handy with a blade would have long since seen him pushing up daises.

In spite of Isenhart's short comings Hamarolf has taken him under his confidence for his natural ability to negotiate tight situations when needed like getting garrison's to agreeing to surrender without a fight or if faced with a stronger advaesery to talk them down or even establish favourable trade agreements. Hamarolf is no fool and keeps a watchful eye on Isenhart, but as long as he keeps in line Hamarolf has seen no reason to let this valuable asset go.

The figure is again a lovely Musketeer miniature that is normally Hengist or Horsa that I use as one of my nobles re-named Isenhart "The Peacemaker".

I added a campaign history page on the top of the blog for those interested. Nick and I also had a couple more great games I'll post up when I have time.

I almost passed out when it seems my blog disappeared, but thankfully my wife was able to recall it back somehow! Thank heavens she is a computer wiz as I'm just the opposite that being a computer idiot.

Thanks for viewing!:-)

Miniature Company-Musketeer Miniatures