Maurice FIW

I dropped over to Bruce's last night for a game of Maurice--our first (I think) since we got the full rule and card sets. Bruce cooked up a fictional FIW game, with himself as the French (background) and me as the British (foreground). There was a lot of terrain with the focus being a meadow in front of a small village.

The French deployed to cover the meadow and placed four units of Indians behind the woods on the left of the picture. I presume the idea was to pin me with the troops and cannon and then enfilade and rout me with the indians. This was quite an alarming set up and there was just no room to form much of a line.

I deployed my dodgy conscripts and cannon in the meadow, with my sole unit of indians covering my left flank. The three units of good troops (including an elite group and two notables), I then ran as a column up the right side of the field, trying to turn his line. I had a card that allowed me one move through woods without penalty, which was a big advantage--maybe the first time I have ever used this to modify a march.

I eventually managed to get beside and behind Bruce (bagging his camp--a clutch of goats). Strategically a good play. Tactically, there was some room for improvement as my guys were not optimally positions to form line and sweep forward. I might have been better to move through the woods in column.

Eventually I got it together and moved against his rear area. Bruce redeployed some indians but they got caught in column. He also moved forward his main troops in the meadow into my guns--needing to break my army before his fell apart. I lost a unit but he lost two in the ensuing rumble.

I finally managed to pick off a unit of indians and win the game. This was the first game of Maurice where I felt like I had a plan and I won because it was a good plan (I win a fair bit because of dumb luck!). Overall, a good game with lots of shooting (almost no melee).

Also a short game--I never had to pause to refresh my hand. This reflects the small armies, reliance on shooting, parsimonious card play and some bad rolls by Bruce on the morale table. At the moment I won, I was down to two cards and would have had to take a breather soon to get some more cards. That might have given Bruce the time he needed to redeploy and pull off a win.

Up next: Some 10mm AWI are underway, with flesh, coats and hats blocked in. Now onto pants and the endless straps and cuffs and turnbacks! Perhaps I will get enough time to finish these this weekend--depends on the kids' soccer schedule and the weather.