Sunday, August 11, 2013

MAURICE AND IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME


Having been away from wargaming for 3 weeks on vacation in Spain I caught up this week with visits to two clubs.
On Monday I went to Falkirk and District Wargames club at Grangemouth and watched a 15mm SYW game of Maurice.  In this game a better trained Prussian force was attacking an Austrian force holding a line of low hills.
Prussian left wing advances

Prussians attack the hill
 Most of the action took place on the Prussian left wing where they managed to drive an Austrian battalion from the flank hill.  A counter-attack by Austrian cavalry was easily driven off.  A further Prussian attack on the Austrian centre was then launched but by that point time had run out for the game.  It was declared a draw as though the Prussians had inflicted more losses they had not broken the Austrian army or taken the line of hills.  Thanks to John, Greg, Dave and Dougie for letting me sit in.  The basic rules are simple but I am not convinced by the command system.  Basically I think the rules do not suit the multi-player games that I am normally involved with.  However I will try the rules again.

On Thursday I went to the SESWC in Edinburgh and played in a 28mm game of IN HER MAJESTY’S NAME.  Colin Jack provided the figures and scenario and the buildings were the clubs.   This was our first attempt with these rules so we only used 2 companies of adventurers.  Campbell Hardie and I commanded the Servants of Ra whilst Colin and Mr Ray Neal commanded Princess Victoria’s Lifeguard Hussars.   As often in a Colin game this is an entirely female unit.
Professor Abir and his minions of evil
Though the Servants of Ra had mystical powers and talents their low grade cultists proved incapable of withstanding the accurate carbine fire of the Hussars.  At the end of the game though we had disposed of Princess Victoria we were left with a tiny force around Akhenaton and Prof Abir and declared the game a victory for the Hussarettes.
It was enjoyable and we will try it again with a company per player.  I am busy studying the rules to see what we missed.
Princes Victoria's Life Guard Hussarettes
 

7 comments:

  1. Nice - who made the Princess Victoria's Hussars?

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    1. The Hussars are by Hinterland - they make a great range of spiffing young ladies. Some of the sailorettes appeared as the crew of the Zeppelin in my 1914 River Aisnes game.

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    2. Bill how do you and Colin like the INHM rules, Going to try them out with my friends Henry and Steven when I get back to home from my USFS work in Montana. 57.75 hours last week Fire season has finally arrived in earnest out here in the West. Cheers VFW

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  2. Nice looking games Bill. For the multi player Maurice game did each player control his own complete army and did they add an additional action card deck? This must happen or it doesn't work properly.

    Christopher

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    1. Chris - no. It was a test game for 2 of the players so they kept it simple. I think we will try with 2 decks and notables at a later date. This month I hope to try a 2 player Maurice 28mm AWI game based on the OB from one of my Black Powder games.

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    2. Invariably if two players are playing one army then one player will be twiddling his thumbs while the other does an action. The rules are designed for each player whether playing singly or in a multi player game to control his own army with his own playing cards. I cannot stress enough following the guidelines for multi player games given in the book and highly recommend advising your friends to do so otherwise it simply falls apart and drags instead giving the high drama it's supposed to do.
      My first game of Maurice was not an enjoyable experience because we did like your friends and tried playing a multi player game with one deck and one army each side, but when I played my second and further games controlling my own army both singly and in multi-player games was a completely different experience and was extremely fun! Really night and day kind of thing.:-)

      Christopher

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