Pages

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Ottoman Janissary for Maurice

This weekend, I had the pleasure of playing my second game of Maurice.  It was a nail-biter with the game going down to the wire. The deciding rolls were preceded by good-natured hooting, hollering and high fives.  Before you deduce that we're a bunch of hooligans, let me just say Maurice is flat out fun to play.  It's so much fun that it's pushed everything else we play off the plate.

The game is driven by action cards used to activate forces and modify actions on the field.  I grew up in the era of wargaming without cards and as a result, I sometimes view card driven games with a bit of suspicion. No more.  The  action cards are where Maurice shines.  Each player has a hand of cards and actions/activations on the field cause you to use your cards.  As the active player, you are limited in which forces you can activate and use.  During your turn, your opponent can play a card that interrupts an action or activity.  This means that every turn unfolds with surprises, a punch and often a counterpunch. At the same time, you have to pace yourself because you don't want to run out of cards and have your attack or decisive action thwarted.  No cards means no actions for a turn.

Maurice also incorporate a system where you can choose the national attributes for your army, meaning that one army can  have a different style of play in each campaign.  This is in contrast to Field of Glory and other systems where you have to paint up a whole new army if you're looking for a different style of play.

After our first game in June, my friends Mark and Brent agreed to paint up Maurice armies in 15mm to run in an Imagi-Nation campaign.  I realized that I could use much of my 15mm Later Ottoman Turkish army in Maurice including:
  • 5 wicked looking pieces of Ottoman heavy artillery  
  • 4 units Ottoman cavalry
  • 4 Ottoman command stands
  • 2 Irregular units
With these units in hand, I only needed 9 units of infantry to complete my Ottomans for Maurice.  I put in an order for 160 Old Glory Janissary and out came the brushes! For my first batch of 5 units, I painted the base color in a dark blue, then a wash shadows, a mid tone and a highlight over the mid tone.  I generally don't do triads in 15mm as it's a bit of work for a smallish payout.  I think the results here are decent if subtle. The highlight does help them pop a bit and in 15mm, that's an effect I like. You can judge for yourself.    

For the sake of the photos, I put them in column but most of the time, they'll be fighting in a single line of 4 bases.  For the hard core Maurice folks, you'll notice that my Janissary are in a single line per base.  I did try to base them in a double line but I didn't account for the fact that 50% of the Old Glory figures are in firing poses.  As such, you can't properly mount a double line of figures on a single 40mm x 30mm base.  In the 17th century, the Ottomans were a throwback army so I'll attribute their odd appearance to that fact.  If you want to build an Ottoman army with a double line per base, pass on these Old Glory 15s and find a line that does Janissary in march order.

Edit:  Its been pointed out that there is in fact an OG line with marching Janissary.  You have to do a word search for "Janissaries" and it'll turn up the SYW Ottomans.  No photos available on the website so I'm taking this on the word of someone who told me on TMP.  Thanks for the correction!

Here was my inspiration for these units.






18 comments:

  1. Wonderful units! We've got a few of them in our club, and it's always a pleasure to see those blue uniforms...Great bases too, the blue is even brighter!
    To finish : wonderful flags!
    Great work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Phil! Whatever else one might say about an Ottoman army, they certainly are colorful!

      Delete
  2. Hi Monty,

    well done, great work!

    you've done a beautiful blue on their uniforms and it works very well with the brown of bases, congratulations!

    and don't forget to keep an "Ace in a hole" if you play with cards( ok and a derringer just in cases you hools mates try to brawl you ;-);

    Best regards

    thefrenchjester " still Gilles, not Maurice(Chevalier) for the moment;-) "

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are very generous, Gilles. Months ago, someone told me my basing color was too dark. And now that I have a new project, I've chosen a lighter brown to work with. I do think it works and it reminds me of the importance of learning from others! ;-)

      I will be keep my back to the wall with those hooligan friends of mine. That and maybe an extra card of "That's not on the map" up my sleeve!

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Best one word compliment I've heard in, well, forever! I have to remember that one.

      Delete
  4. Really nice, Monty. I feel your pain on the lack of marching figures.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Scott! It was a rookie mistake. This is my first army that isn't ancient or medieval and it didn't even occur to me until the very end when I went to base them up. Now I know!

    I do really like the fact that no shields were required in the painting of these figures.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Monty,
    you did a very nice paintjob on these guys. I like them very much.
    Cheers
    Mike

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Fritz! And your SYW 28mms are spectacular! A buddy of mine has loads of 28mm AWI so we're doing our campaign Maurice armies in 15mm.

      Delete
  7. I really like how those janissaries turned out.

    Congrats mate

    Seb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks sir. I'm enjoying your medieval project. Great figures and I like the Gilles method! ;-)

      Delete
  8. They are looking real good. Especailly the shading on the blue, which is not easy in 15mm!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks dhc. It is subtle but for these guys, I figured it was worth the extra step. I've been painting 15mm for so long that I'm nervous about a Saga project I'm considering in 28mm. We should challenge ourselves from time to time, right?

      Delete
  9. Excellent job on these units Monty! They look great. It's encouraging to hear yet another positive response to the Maurice rules. Although I preordered the book and cards as soon as they were available, they are currently safely tucked away with my SYW minis so that I'm not distracted by yet another project (yet).

    Jason

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind words! I'm with you on this one. One project, maybe two at a time. But no more. If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, disorganization is the hobgoblin of my mind :-)

      When you have time, it'll be there waiting!

      Delete