"Maurice"

 We have been enjoying a series of "pick up" games for a few months now. No Big Nappy games for a long time - we'll get back to it.

The appeal is set up & play in an evening with pretty armies on a tiddly 6x4 or 8x4 with some scenery - simple! These have been mostly Warhammer Ancient Battles 2 as we have dipped into the rejuvenated WAB2 competition scene - mostly old duffers like us so nothing too intense! I'll post some piccies. Last night picked up "Maurice" by Sam Mustafa and got some of the 28mm Napoleonic collection out for a spin. Not BIG battalions but lovely to see the guys out & back in action.    

Tony & I muddled through with Chris keeping us honest with the rules which we haven't looked at for about four years. They give a good fun playing experience, lots of decision making & some chaos with a good deal of action see-sawing back & forth!      

I played Austrians - Tony Russians. We have to assume some kind of Imperial power play in some arid area of the world with palm trees & everything! Apparently "Imaginations"!  

Austrian infantry formed my centre with a little artillery in support. 

Tony's Russians are "Gun heavy" - of course.

In the event of a draw holding the objective tips the balance.
Here we see a store of liquid refreshments in the farmyard, these women seem to be making off with a few bucket loads.  

Irregular Austrian foote & horse on my left flank, ideally situated to take the objective.
Neither moved all night!

Cinders sweeping the back yard.

Russian five gun battery, variously Foundry & Front Rank. 
These buggers bombarded my light horse left of centre ultimately breaking them!  

Russian regular foote lined out in the centre.

Russian Dragoons - sadly only 16 of the usual 32 strong Regiment.

Austrian hussars in two regiments on my extreme right flank. 

Facing the above is this line with irregular troops in support & Dragoons behind.
This rather resilient line saw off both of my Hussar regiments. There's a pattern here...

My heavy cavalry - Elite status upgraded to Guard by use of the "Maison De Roi" national characteristic. It didn't do them any good! 

Austrian centre right with Russian cavalry approaching. The ensuing ebb & flow of melee here resulted in their loss too...  

Hmm & Ouch!

These proved as hard to shift as Russian infantry always do.

Russian dragoons in tiddly portions!

Beautiful Austrian Uhlan unit by Wargames Foundry, painted by Tony Laughton - hello mate!

My centre - the guns did nothing & the Guard cavalry under performed! 

Austrian Grenadiers lead my central force of infantry to seize back the initiative.  

The rest of my central infantry force. 

My poor army was defeated by a large margin - Roughly handled by Russians!

Somethings never change...

This was a bucket of fun to play & where we got the rules wrong, if we did, they were wrong for both sides! Maurice is a card driven decision making wargame, you can't do everything everywhere all the time. We'll run out a few more games maybe before we get back to WAB2 games.

I have a large box of 10mm Napoleonics to base just not the inclination to do it!!! I have seriously considered getting around to finishing the 28mm Peninsular collection so we can play a few smaller Napoleonic actions using General d'Armee which I think could be engrossing but not so small as to lose the "look of the thing" which is so important to me. 

Hope you like this mini revisit to the 28mm collection . We'll get back to the BIG Nappy games, all in good time. We're just having quick win fun games post covid/preapocalypse! 

Best wishes,

Jeremy