[Maurice] Part five of an occasional series: The Irregulars

Here’s the final installment of my look at my Maurice army, which also bears a very strong resemblance to my Might and Reason Austrian army. This time, I’m going to be focusing on my irregulars – Grenzers and Hussars. Since this is the final installment, I’ll also be showing a picture of my command stands – Commander in Chief, Notables, Sub-Generals, etc.

First up are my Grenzers, who are Croatian light infantry from the frontier. As you can see from the basing, these are much more spread out than the regular troops I’ve posted pics of before:

Grenzers

Catching up

Just a quick post for the first time in a few weeks. My wife had to have emergency surgery on her left eye a couple of weeks ago after her retina started to detach, and I’ve been looking after her since then. It hasn’t been a fun time chez Lemming.

This is more of a general post than anything else, my game a few weeks ago of Maurice for our campaign had to be shelved, then my opponent had to work, and next week is getting ready to go to Vegas to play some fantasy catmen game or other, so it looks like we’re going to tentatively play on the 15th May, so expect a report then.

There’s been a mini-resurgence in Impetus at the club over the last couple of weeks, mostly concentrated on the Ancients rather than Medieval period, with two strands to it – a Peloponnesian war arena and a Successor Wars arena. I’ve been considering doing an Impetus Ancients army for a while, and might do one next year after I get my Longstreet army done and hopefully complete my Muskets and Tomahawks army. I’m looking for a second major project for next year, so this might be what I go for. I’ve looked over Markus’ lists, and the Graeco-Bactrian one looks fun – lots of different elements, which I like in an army, including elephants. We’ll see, anyway.

Note that I said my second major project for next year.  I already have one major project earmarked for next year (or the second half of this year, depending on when I get my ACW Union army finished). There’s a kickstarter for By Fire and Sword which looks interesting, and which I’ve pledged into.  A few others at the club have got the bug, and plumped for various armies – Tatar, Cossacks, Muscovites, Polish-Lithuanian, and Mark already has a large collection of Ottomans, so I decided to go with a Swedish army, figuring that if we end up playing in the Thirty Years War at some point, I can use them there too.

Tramp the Dirt Down

I’m not normally a fan of Elvis Costello, but this song he wrote about Thatcher really sums it up for me.

On quite a few fora that I frequent, especially those with a large contingent from the UK, there are quite a few non-Brits surprised at the vehemence expressed by those of us who suffered under Thatcher now that she’s dead, or those of us celebrating the fact. I think it’s one of those things where you had to be there at the time. There’s a daily mash satirical post here which is pretty much accurate. If you’re from the north of England or Scotland in particular, and especially if you lived through the 80s in the UK, you’re almost certainly one of those getting ready to either dance or piss on her grave, and for good reason.

[Maurice] Part four of an occasional series: The Cavalry

I couldn’t stay long at the club last night, so didn’t get chance to get a game in. I watched / umpired the remaining Maurice campaign game for this round for a little while before I had to leave though (and which our alliance won, thereby ending the war with our side victorious). Huzzah!

To celebrate our victory in the Silver War(e), I thought I’d do another quick post on my Maurice / M&R army. This time, it’s the regular cavalry in all their glory. I’ll do one more at some point, featuring my Irregulars (both infantry and cavalry) and commanders / Notables. Anyway, here are our brave men on horsies:

The massed ranks of the Cavalry

At the front there are our two units of dragoons, followed by four units of kurassiers, and at the back are our four units of cheveaulegers. For Maurice, I usually only have 3 cavalry, so I generally use two cheveauleger and a unit of kurassiers. I’ve been treating the cheveauleger as conscripts, the dragoons as trained, and the kurassiers as elites, but at the moment, they’re all trained.

[Bolt Action] Two more batreps: Gebirgsjaeger vs Rangers

I managed to get another couple of games of Bolt Action in at the club last night against Ernie, who was trying out a new US Rangers list. I used my usual 500 point force (Veteran 2nd Leutnant, 4 squads of 6 veterans with AR), and Ernie had a variety of units – a large veteran unit with some SMGs, a BAR and LMG, a large regular unit with SMGs (and BAR and LMG? I think at least one of those options anyway), 2 MMGs, a 2nd Lieutenant and aide, and a medic. We set up the first table using another couple of pieces of our megagame table, and rolled for scenario – Maximum Attrition. The goal in this scenario is simple – destroy the enemy.

Initial table

[Bolt Action] Two Batreps: Gebirgsjaeger vs Russians

Managed to get in two games against Markus last night, we’d arranged to play Bolt Action and because we got started early, we easily had time for two games, so after the first one we switched roles and played the same scenario on the same table, something that’s always fun to do. Markus had set up a great looking table before I arrived, and we rolled for the scenario – 4: Hold Until Relieved. I played the defender, with my usual 500 point list of a veteran 2nd Leutnant accompanied by 4 squads of 6 veterans all armed with Assault Rifles. Markus had a 1st Lieutenant with aide, a PTRD AT rifle, medium mortar, a couple of units of regulars with LMG, a large unit of rookies (with LMG?) and a pretty hefty unit of veterans, partially armed with SMG if I recall correctly. Sometime later today, Markus will undoubtedly be posting a batrep to his blog, which if you aren’t already reading, you should be (even if it does verge into fantasy wargaming instead of proper historical wargaming from time to time ), so you can check against that to see his list.

We placed an objective in the centre of the table, and I chose two units to hide in the woods and prepare to repel the attackers. Markus placed his units at the corners of the board, and so with this state of affairs, we were off:

Starting positions

My other units were part of my first wave (1 more unit) and reserve (my last unit and commander).

[Maurice] A Pferdewurst in every pot!

As promised, here’s the battle report for my Maurice campaign game against Anthony, which kept getting put back since my opponent came out with every excuse in the book not to have to face me. Others might argue that having to look after sick family members, having already signed up for another game, and whatever other feeble excuses Anthony came out with had some merit to them, but I know it was really because he was too scared of the inevitable destruction of his horsies that was behind it. And so it was to prove…

 

By the way, there’s an in-game report of the battle that can be found here on our Maurice Campaign Blog which I recommend reading too (not just this latest battle, but all the batreps on there). Anyway, on with the show. Here were our initial positions – Von Wattsenburg won the scouting roll and decided to defend, stringing out his guard and elite cavalry on his right flank, his irregulars in the woods, conscripts in the town, then his artillery battery, trained infantry, and his poorer cavalry (conscript and trained).

 

Initial Positions