Waterloo Express!

 

Yesterday's Wollongong Wargamers meet was also the 211th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815. We were committed to run a second playtest of the draft Valour & Fortitude Version 4. Therefore...

Unfortunately, real life intervened with a couple of key players having to drop out. The plan was heavily curtailed. The Prussians weren't coming!

The French order of battle was slightly reduced:

Caesar, the French commander, strategically deployed his two additional 'Divisional Leaders' we were playtesting so as to have good C2 right across the 10 foot battlefield:

French brigades were large, which also eases C2 and makes for a quicker game:

Historically, Caesar deployed the French in strength on his left wing, opposite Hougomont. With the Imperial Guard leading Reille's Corps from the outset. So not that historical!

In the centre, D'Erlon's Corps was well supported by cavalry...

Very well supported!

 

Stormed on three sides by the Old Guard, Hougomont fell after a bloody melee...

An evening's game of this size was always going to be short, so I tentatively advanced a counter attack to retake the chateau - General Haig's drinks cabinet couldn't be left in French hands!

But the Old Guard beat me to the punch and came on fast!

It was time to send in the heavy brigade! The Scots Greys duly charged and broke a square!

But this didn't have much of an impact on the French hordes. I came down off the ridge in a bid to make my volley fire tell...

It worked for a short while...

At least I had gained some breathing space!

On my left, the French cavalry kept me pinned to the ridge, the British gunners doing all the work:

Belatedly, my Light Brigade joined in the fun!

Only to be met by the Imperial Guard Heavy Cavalry - Light Dragoons against the Horse Grenadiers!

To cap it all the French assault on La Haye Sainte in the centre fell at the first assault!

On a positive note, we had a good and thorough playtest which picked out a couple of anomalies and questions. (These have been posted on the Valour and Fortitude - Gamers Group)

But overall, we concluded that Valour & Fortitude is now even better at delivering large games fast with authentic outcomes. And just as much fun as before!

Black September: The invasion of Jordan 1970

This week at the Wollongong Wargamers, Daniel devised a very different scenario for our Clash of Steel game: Arab-Israeli Wars sans Israelis. The Jordanians were the goodies for once, invaded by Palestinians and Syrians: 

Details of the ground were sparse so we set out some generic Mid East terrain, allowing for as much cover as possible:

The randomly drawn mission was Frontal Attack, so, playing across the table rather than up and down it, our carefully placed cover was rendered largely irrelevant. It would be a fast and bloody game! 

The mission rules card required us to place 40% of our forces in Immediate Reserve and each deploy a unit in ambush. 

Easy for the Jordanians with their British style 3 tank Troops! For my Syrians with Soviet style company hordes, it meant I had to put an entire company of T34-85s into reserve. With another in Ambush, I only had one company of T54s to deploy!

Daniel rolled to be the attacker and also got the first move. We both rolled poorly for reserves in turn one.

With my lone on table company I deployed opposite Objective 1, which had a reasonable amount of cover around it:

I also soon realised that playing along the length of the table, with ambushes only deployable in one's own deployment zone, it was better to spring it soon. Daniel had seized Objective 2, which was out in the open. Easy prey for my 10 T-54s (represented by model T-62s):

Then Daniel rolled well both for reserves and their deployment, getting the drop on the flank of my T-54s near Objective 1! 

Fortunately he had used up all his good rolls and the only outcome was a bailed T-54!

I was now in a quandary around Objective 2 - go in and seize it or sit back and get better shots at the tempting Centurion side armour? I played it safe and stayed in cover and took the shots, rolling a seriously un Sparker like crap load of 6s!

At this point things were going well for my Syrians - we were racking up the VPs for Objective 1 and a good few for wiping out entire troops of Cents...only because it was now my turn to roll fortuitously for placement of reserves right on the Jordanian flank!

I was still loath to breakout from the cover of the rocks to close on Objective 2, particularly as Daniel had a troop of hungry Cents neatly positioned to take any such advance in the flank:

So I remained satisfied to let the game time out as a long range gunnery duel, where my superior numbers inevitably told!

Although that sounds boring, it was actually a very exciting game with the habitual amount of Clash of Steel thrills and spills! Thanks to Daniel for a novel scenario which I'd like to revisit before too long!