Jan 10, 2015

Maurice AAR on the Schultze-Böhnstadt blog

This time with a bit more narrative.

Maurice is, it seems, easy to learn and hard to master - or am I being a bad player/umpire? I have fought against three opponents and my 'score' (if such a thing exists in friendly games, being strictly abstract from the 'fun' score, which, on every occasion, was 10/10) is one tactical victory, one draw and one strategic victory. On two occasions I sent the 'boot camp rules' well before the battle to my opponents, but it is less evident compared to actually playing the game. Because of this I gave constant advice during play, but there are a few rookie mistakes that my enemies made:

- Pressing forward with cavalry
- Moving cavalry to the back of beyond (out of proper command reach)
These are cavalry related - I myself am a very careful cavalry commander but in each battle used them with devastating effect - having the <move/charge with enemy unit> cards in every battle, though, helped me a great deal. Infantry fights the battle and cavalry wins it - that's the good old Böhnstadter way. There is a marginal chance that you will have the <move any unit on the table> card and will be able to tread some units down from behind, but holding back and waiting for the right moment is an easier way to glory.

- Focusing too much on artillery altogether
Artillery needs to be very lucky to score enough long range hits, even with a Notable added, to deal enough damage that a unit can't simply shake off, and while a little more mobile than infantry, bringing them to combat as a sort of regimental gun has great risks for them as they are very easy to destroy (there were no attempts to do this in our games so far). I could increase the number of cannons to 5 per side (as it takes 5 hits to 'kill' a unit).

- Hesitating too much and too early in the game what to 'spend' cards on
After the first game's consequences had been learnt of, on the second and third I advised my opponents to be more careless during the march too meet the enemy - there's a good chance that the best cards will turn up again during the clash.

- Not grouping troops
Units must be massed to support each other and be commanded effectively. My massed cavalry attacks support this notion. It can be a hindrance, for example when a unit rears through another as a result of a charge, but the disatvantages of having placed some units here and there dotted on the battlefield outweigh this very, very much.

5 comments:

  1. I've never played Maurice, but I'd like to give it a go one day.

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    1. Just keep this post in mind and you'll be the winner :)

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  2. Andras, it is great that you're helping the transition. You're right, it has some very distinct rules for "friction." I like these rules very much, especially "Thats not on the map."

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    1. It sort of gives a period feel and limits command, the whole idea about moving one group at a time allows for strategic thinking. That card's always played against me!

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  3. Having checked the Lite rules, I am becoming more and more convinced that I should give these rules a try, as you advised. :)

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