AWI for Maurice and Washington's Army

AWI Americans

 Having played Maurice a few times now I was inspired to start painting my Peter Pig AWI Americans.  These had been bought as a starter force for the Piggy rules "Washingtons Army", but will now also be used for Maurice.

My planned Maurice force consists of 9 Regular infantry units (4 to a base), 7 Irregular infantry (3 to a base), 2 cavalry and 3 artillery.  The figures I had already bought allowed me to make up 5 regular infantry, 3 irregular infantry, the artillery and the general, so that is what I have done so far.

7th Pennsylvania

3rd New Jersey

12th Continentals

 1st Connecticut

Lexington Militia

 The regulars are all in different uniforms, just because I can.  So far I have the 7th Pennsylvanians (Blue with red facings), the 3rd New Jersey (Buff/Blue), the 1st Connecticut (Red/Blue),  the 12th Continentals (Brown/Red) and the Lexington Militia (civilian clothing).  The irregulars are all civilian dressed too.

Continental Artillery

1st Minutemen

The planned regular units are Haslets Delaware Regt (blue/red with light infantry caps), the Green Mountain Boys (Green/Red), 3rd New York (Grey/Dark Green) and 1st New Hampshire (Green/Red with LI caps).  The irregulars will be 2 units of Indians and 2 more civilian units. 

2nd Minutemen

3rd Minutemen

 I also need to base up some Noteables, which will be general figures on a base on their own.

After all that its on to the British, who will need to be started from scratch as Gus was getting them originally.

General

How not to win a game of Maurice.

Last night I ran of game of Maurice for 4 of the lads.  To make a change I used the 15mm English Civil War figures that Colin painted many years ago.  Gus and Andy took the Parliamentarian side, with Nathan and Panjo getting the Royalists.  Gus and Nathan have played the game before, but Andy and Panjo were new to it.

The Royalists had 5 units of cavalry (2 elite and 3 trained) and 9 units of infantry (1 elite, 2 trained, 4 conscript, 2 irregular).  Their cavalry had the "Cavalier" bonus (reroll melee dice if charging enemy cavalry) while they all benefitted from "Rally to the Colours"(regulars reroll failed rally dice).  The Parliament force had gone for the quantity over quality theory.  They had 9 infantry (2 elite, 3 trained, 5 conscript), 7 cavalry (3 trained, 4 conscript) and 1 gun.  Their benefits were "Steady Lads" (regular infantry reroll combat dice when defending) and "Clerics", of which they had 5 to assign when they felt the need.

The Royalists were defending and deployed all their cavalry on the right flank, infantry in the center and secured the left flank by putting their irregular infantry in the woods.  The fatal flaw in their set up didn't come to light until near the end of the battle, but the infantry were deployed with 2 lines of 2 units, then the final 3 units in column behind them.  Now which units would you expect in the front line?  Trained and/or elite I hear you cry.  Not so says Nathan, conscripts will hold the line adequately.  So the elite and trained were in the 2nd line I hear you say?  Not so my friends, conscripts again shall hold that position.  This decision would cost the Royalists the game, along with a failure to do anything with the cavalry until it was too late.

Gus and Andy deployed 2 units of trained cavalry on their right flank, facing the woods!   The center was held by 3 lines of infantry, the difference being the front line was made up of 2 elite and 1 trained unit.  The left flank had the remaining 5 units of cavalry supported by 2 units of conscript infantry. 

The initial turns saw the Roundheads advance and engage the Royalist infantry in a firefight, before charging home.  After the initial melee the Royalists were down 1 unit (elite vs conscript) with the other on 3 disruptions.  The next turn passed and the Royalists lost another unit as the Roundheads charged again.  Then another went to sustained volleys as both sides tried to rally troops and regain cards.  It was turn 5 before the Royalist cavalry did anything, by which time the army morales were at 18 for the Roundheads and 5 (from 14) for the Royalists.  Three 6's for routed units had cost Nathan and Panjo 9 morale points.  The Royalist cavalry charged, but only 1 unit could reach.  That fought well despite being outnumbered, but still bounced back.  Then the Roundhead infantry charged again, smashing 2 more units of Royalist infantry in 2 turns and Nathan managed to roll a 5 and 6 for morale, meaning the army broke and ran. 

The use of clerics in the fights had given the Roundheads a definite edge, but if they had been up against trained or elite infantry then they wouldn't have broken either of the first two units when they did.  The failure to use their cavalry finally cost Nathan and Panjo the game.  If they had got them involved then the Roundhead infantry would have had to turn some units to cover their flank.

So all in all, a bad day for the King.  Panjo had been saying from turn 2 "Move the cavalry", but Nathan had blinkers on and could only see the infantry battle.  Gus won his first victory, having suffered 2 defeats in our previous games, but is was more down to Nathan's odd set up than anything else.  Everybody seemed to enjoy the game, I just wish I had remembered to take some pictures.

Maurice and more painting.

Despite still being ill and having to take loads of tablets, I have managed to do some painting!  

Having played Maurice at the Devon Wargames meeting, I promptly paid out and bought the rules and cards.  This has caused a dilemma though.  I now need to reorganise my 6mm Seven Years War plans, as 1 base per unit won't work for Maurice.  Ah well, more figures to paint.  I am considering rebasing from the 50x40 bases onto something a bit smaller, say 30x30, as well.  Hmm, decisions decisions. 

Painting wise, the Empress Dragoons are done but, stupidly, I packed them away without taking any photos.  I have also painted up a US beach assault force for Andy.  It was a change from my normal basing as he wanted them to look like they were on a beach, so Vallejo pumice has been used for the first time.  I was impressed with how it went on, although it tends to stick to everything!

There were a lot of figures in the box, with 26medium bases and 15 small bases.  The medic figure is nice, but there seemed to be a lot of hit figures (back left on the single base).  They are done and posted now.  The photos were taken before the matt varnish was sprayed, so they are a bit shiny.

Well, onwards and upwards.  Off to start some 15mm Prussian Landwehr now.  Oh how I love Napoleonics.

More of the same

Latest painting efforts have been more Flames of War and more Perrys Wars of the Roses.

First up are some US Para mortars, painted for a chap in Uxbridge.  Nice little unit with 101 shoulder patches. 







Then there is another 8 stand unit of Wars of the Roses infantry, painted as troops under the command of Rhys ad Thomas.  Yorkists look out, the boys are coming for you! 

Tonight I shall mostly be playing Bloody Barons with Nathan, while this weeks painting line up is French Empress Dragoons in 15mm.  Oh the Joy of it.

What I have been upto lately

Following another weekend in hospital, I managed to get some painting done . 

First up were some M18 Hellcats by Battlefront.  These are for a nice chap in Germany who has ordered from me before a few years back.  Lovely models, but surprisingly small.  They are noticeably smaller than the M10 and Sherman, but still pack a decent punch with a 76mm gun.

After the M18s I moved onto some of my own figures.  The Devon Wargames Group, that I am a member of, do a big "Christmas" game for the December meet and this year we are doing a Wars of the Roses game.  So Perry Miniatures nice plastic figures have been purchased and several are now painted.  The first unit is Sir William Carey of Cockington, a minor knight who can raise only a single unit.

The Saxons stole my denarii!

Thor Nogson was not a happy Saxon.  He had spent all his hard stolen loot in order to be recognised as a lord, somehow gaining him the name of "Thor the Simple", and now he had to find some more right quick!  Ah well, there are always more Britons to kill and he had a good bunch of hardened warriors ready to follow him, at least until his money ran out.  His informants had told him that a British village was loaded with loot, having had a good harvest and escaped being raided last season.  Time to sharpen his sword and gather his men.

The Saxon Lord and one big man led the 2 units of companions and 1 of warriors while the other big man took 2 units of warriors to raid the village.  Unluckily for the Saxons the Romano-British started to arrive on turn 1, with 1 big man leading 2 units of levy and a unit of archers.  The village was on the Saxon left, while the Britons were on the Saxon right.

He called his lieutenants to him and gave them his orders.  Thor Hiadal was to take 2 groups and gather the loot while "Grolish the Generous" was to stay close and help control the other 3 groups. As the advance began the lead men reported back that there were already some Britons ahead and they were forming a shield wall already.  Damn them, how had they known where he would attack?  Still, the decisive Saxon gets the loot, onwards boys and put them to the sword.  He saw Hiadals unit moving off towards the village as he led the rest to stop the Britons from interfering.

The main Saxon force advanced to pin the British while the other force used a fate card to move 4d6 towards the village.  The Romano-British Dux came on with 1 unit of companions and 1 of warriors behind the levy.  The British were in the wrong place to secure the village from the Saxons.

Thor Hiadal looked over to his right and saw more and more Britons coming off the hill.  "Nogson's going to have his hands full" he thought as he loped towards the seemingly empty village.   As he watched the Britons formed a shieldwall, but it looked shaky as they all seemed to be farmers with no armour or even helmets.  The troops appearing behind them on the hill looked to be a better class, but the front line was definitely not made up of quality troops.

The Britons formed a 2 unit shieldwall with their levies, facing off against the Saxon companions!  Meanwhile the better troops were strolling down the hill (3d6 came up on 5 for movement).  The Saxons charged the shieldwall and were repulsed.  The gave out plenty of shock, but failed to kill any levies due to their shieldwall.  The remaining units of the Britons arrived behind the village.  Could they reach the Saxons before they found the loot?

With a roar Thor Nogson sent his men forward.  Shields splintered and spears were sundered as the best of Saxon manhood threw themselves at the farmers.  Men fell and blood flew, but it was Saxon blood and, as his troops staggered back in shock he saw that the shields were still locked, while two of his men lay dead on the ground.  At least the others had reached the building and were heard smashing the place up looking for the loot.  The sentry he left outside suddenly shouted a warning and ran into the building as more spears appeared beyond the village.

Thor Hiadal searched the first building with his men.  Dux Brutus steadied the shieldwall, taking off most of the shock, while the Saxons readied themselves and charged again.  The Britons on the hill moved down and cam towards the village, led by "Octavious the Impaler".  The reinforcements, led by Titus Duksas, moved as fast as they could towards the village. 

Again Thor Nogson ordered a charge and again his men roared!  More carnage was wrought and this time small gaps appeared in the shieldwall, but more Saxons again fell and the Saxon warriors fell back in dismay.  As he glanced to the left, Nogson saw Thor Hiadal leading his men from the village, closely followed by another bunch of British warriors. "He better have the gold" he muttered, before turning back to the battle and seeing that he was in danger of being outflanked.  "Fighting withdrawl" he bellowed and watched as his warriors closed up and began shuffling backwards.


Despite their best efforts, and despite winning all the fights and killing plenty of Saxons, the Britons were unable to catch the retreating Saxons.  Thor Nogson kept enough pursuit cards in his hand to win by enough points to gain a Thiefs Horde of treasure.  He did lose the fight, but got away and will return next month.  Brutus, because of his masterful command of the troops he had, has refilled his ranks and will be waiting for the next Saxon raiders.

The Death of Lucius Alvum. A Dux Britannarium game

As dawns light brightened the darkness, Octha of the Saxons looked hungrily towards the farm in the distance.  Gathered around him were his 30 brave warriors, ready to bring woe to the weakling Britons.  He ordered Abrecan to take 12 men off to the right, while he took the remainder straight at the farm.  Banan, his young cousin, followed him forward as the Saxon warband loped into the land of the Britons.

Suddenly shouts of alarm came from Abrecan's men, as several British warriors appeared on the hill ahead of them.  At least as many men faced him, then arrows started to fall amongst the men as well.  As the Britons formed their damned shieldwall, Octha called his men back together and lead them all straight at the farm.  He had to get the raid done and leave before more of the enemy appeared.

As the light increased, more Britons came into view ahead.  These looked more formidable than the ones on the hill, at least in the front rank anyway.  Still, British shields were no match for Saxon blades, so on they went.  Closing rapidly on the shieldwall ahead, his confidence of a quick victory was increased by the scared looks in the faces of the Britons.  Then more enemies appeared on the left.  A quick glance showed these to be an entirely different proposition, with chainmail showing from behind their shields.  Ah well, they were a bit too far back to make any difference, so Octha pushed on with his advance.

A shouted order sent Abrecan off to the right to block the advance of the shieldwall on the hill.  Then, with a shout to Wodan, Octha lead his hearthguard forward to smash the British shields ahead of him.  A few moments of combat, the clash of shields, the cries of men as they were struck down, then the Britons pulled back.  Yes, several were dead, but so were two of the hearthguard and those damn shields facing him were stilled locked in a shieldwall.  As he rallied the men to charge again Banan cried out, causing Octha to spin around.  The rest of the Britons were charging into the rear of his men!  Damn them all.  As they came in his warriors turned and did their best to stand.  A valiant effort, but no match for the charge of the Britons companions.  Many men fell on both sides, but the Saxons were defeated and broke.  The remaining hearthguard readied themselves as they faced the British counterparts.

Meanwhile, Abrecan was advancing towards the last of the British.  Suddenly a rain of arrows came in, with one findng a weak point in Abrecans mailcoat and he staggered, sorely wounded.  With a furious shout he led his men into the shieldwall.  Shields splintered and Britons died.  These were no warriors, merely peasants from the fields!  Their leader was slain and the rest were driven back and eventually broke and ran, taking their archers with them.  As they turned, Abrecan saw Octhas units defeated, as Octha rallied the last of them and fell back towards Abrecans men.

With all three leaders now joined together, the Britons realised they were outmatched and fell back.  The farmers had long disappeared into the woods, but a search of the farm turned up enough valuables to make the raid profitable.  It was time to head back to his hall and rally new men.  Soon he would be back to take more wealth, though one day he would be back to stay.


The first battle in an ongoing campaign, this was a truly bloody battle.  the Saxons lost 18 men and the Britons lost 20 plus one of their bigmen.  A valiant effort by the British Dux nearly turned the tide, but the death of one of his bigmen and the injury to another left him unable to hold the field, so he withdrew.  It was a fun game, with plenty of to-and-fro moments.  Pride of place goes to the British archers, who kept shooting arrows and whittling down the Saxons.  6 to hit, 6 to wound, but he kept getting them!

Next time I will try to remember my camera!