Yesterday, after a diversion to Element Games in Stockport, I traversed the Pennines to join battle against m'colleague Neil. We chose an American Revolution/AWI theme, using the Maurice set of rules. For a scenario, we borrowed the Battle of White Plains/Chatterton's Hill from Jon Bleasdale's excellent blog: https://grymauch.blogspot.com/2026/04/awi-white-plainschattertons-hill-28th.html?m=1
In this scenario, a combined British and Hessian force has managed to turn the flank of Washington's army. A scratch Rebel force must defend the hill and hold the line as long as possible to enable time for Washington to redeploy his field army. To convert the forces to Maurice needed some fudging of troop numbers. My Allied troops were given the Cadence and Deadly Volleys characteristics. Neil's Rebels were given Skirmish, so his irregular/skirmisher battalions had a weapons range of 6BW as opposed to the standard 4BW.
The map as it appears on Jon's blog.
How that translated to the tabletop. The Yankee forces were all deployed on table. My artillery, light brigade and Hessian brigade all started on table. The English redcoat brigade is off-table.
I bought a couple of packs of snake fencing off Richard Phillips a few years ago so decided to get them painted up for this game. They do add a period feel to games set in the New World.
My Hessian brigade deployed in column. My plan was for the light brigade to pin and delay the main body of Rebel troops,while the Hessians clear out the defenders on the hill. The English infantry brigade would then deal with the remaining American infantry.
American troops on Chatterton's Hill prepare to receive the enemy.
The Hessians moved to deal with Haslet's Brigade at the foot of the hill.
Meanwhile the light brigade marched to my left and deployed around the edge of the hill. I don't know if this prompted Neil to redeploy or he was going to do it anyway, but he sent McDougall's brigade with his main body of infantry to his right around the foot of the hill. This put him facing my light brigade and also increased the distance that the English works have to march to come into combat, taking up precious time.
Throughout these manoeuvres Neil used to extra range of his 2 irregular battalions to good effect, whittling away my troops and causing me to perform several rally actions. The rallies were successful but this delayed deployment of my English brigade.
My Light Dragoons charged a wavering US line battalion and came within a whisker of routing them. The rebels held firm though and the following volley phase saw the Light Dragoons shattered by musket fire, leaving their attached Notable galloping to the rear, no doubt planning his explanation to his general as to none of this was his fault.
My light brigade Jaegers dispatched the Rebel skirmishers who had come down off the hill but were outgunned by the US line battalions and routed. The English brigade finally got into the battle, deployed into line and began to dismantle the US battalions piecemeal.
Up on Chatterton's Hill the Hessians finally sorted themselves out and assaulted the rebels in the earthworks, clearing them out in short order. They then reformed, came down the hill and attacked the remaining US force in their flank and rear.
As the shadows lengthened and the sun set, the American force was reduced to the general and 1 battalion of infantry, outnumbered and surrounded. Maurice is a card driven game and we had worked our way through the maximum 3 decks, signalling the end of the day in game terms. Although the US command had been comprehensively dismantled, they had hung on for the whole day. We therefore decided that they had performed their role admirably and judged it to be an American victory.
A very enjoyable game and a nice change from the standard "line 'em up and knock 'em down" style encounter. The cards in Maurice can be used to order troops, play events or intervene in combat. Neil has become adept at using the cards to good effect. Throughout the game he made numerous timely interventions, boosting rally actions, charges and musketry or imposing penalties on me. This, combined with long range musket fire from his skirmishers stopped me from despatching the continental rebels until too late in the day.
After a few one-off games set in the New World, we will be looking to start a campaign set in the AWI next. I have some Loyalist troops to be painted up and probably need a new general/Commander in Chief base for the combined forces of King George.
Neil's version of events can be found on his blog here: https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/?m=1
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