Steedo and Tiger-king came over for a game of Maurice. Maurice is a favourite of mine and Steedo likes it (I think), and Tiger-king had been asking to play a war game. So while my wife and sprogs were away I thought it would be a good time.
After a bit of hunting around I decided on the battle of Chotustiz - at early battle in the career of Fredrick the Great. So Prussians versus Austrians, but in this case Bavarians versus Saxons. In the real battle the Prussians won mainly with their infantry.
The boys didn’t get free deployment - I had basically set up as shown on a map, infantry in the centre and cavalry on the flanks but allowed them some redeployment. We were playing to break each army. As it was Tiger-king’s first game, I did give him more help than Steedo.
The initial deployments - Bavarians under Von Steedo on the left and Koenig Tiger’s Saxons on the right.
The game started, with some bombardments - the Bavarians getting the best of it, breaking a Saxon foot regiment and damaging a unit of Saxon hussars. Then Von Steedo started moving his cavalry on the right flank - the Saxons steeled themselves on the top of the hill.
The initial Bavarian charge was absorbed, then the counter charged by the Saxons swept most of the Bavarians away…
The Saxon cavalry then moved to destroy the Bavarian batteries, however their charge was hampered by some previously unknown broken ground at the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately they had to retreat down the hill, with the intention to rally and try again.
With the cavalry engagement on the flank, going in favour of the Saxons, but Koenig Tiger unable to exploit this, but Von Steedo then advanced his infantry in the centre - partly to protect his infantry and regain the initiative.
Both sides infantry moved forward - this broke the Saxons cavalry who were threatening the Bavarian artillery.
Unfortunately for the Saxons, there seemed to be a problem with their power as a number of their volleys didn’t to the damage expected. The Saxons morale was also ebbing away, more quickly than the Bavarians - even though the causalities taken by both sides were are about the same.
The Bavarians continued to put pressure on the Saxon centre, but a charge did relieve some pressure.
Unfortunately for the Saxons the continued Bavarian infantry pressure broke another Saxon unit, which caused the army’s morale to crack … a win for Von Steedo.
Well I had fun running the game and Steedo was obviously pleased with the result. However I got the impression that Tiger-king, wasn’t as keen - he said that the card mechanics were interesting, but felt that it was a bit random - which I don’t think is correct. Now I accept that Tiger-king was rolling poorly, well more accurately low when in combat/shooting, when high is good and high when low is good - army morale. The frustration was visible - but this is part of all wargames, as the dice rolls are used to manage the unknowns and imponderables which crop up in war which can’t be accounted for.
A good evening’s diversion for two of us, but perhaps not for the 3rd.
I get some pretty good results from speed paints sometimes and some disappointing ones on others - I will continue to practice. I have put together some Warlord Games celts - with a few spare heads from the Victrix cavalry… some look a little bobble headed. I’m sure that with a bit of paint they will look ok. 
