Waterloo Game

This Sunday the 17th June a handful of the faithful gathered at the Hall of Heroes, our local FLGS, to celebrate the Waterloo anniversary (well close enough!) by having a  Waterloo game...We used Black Powder rules, which enable an ambitious game of this size to be finished in an afternoon...Troy and Bryan played the French side, ably assisted by Richard, who came along innocently enough to view a participation game he'd heard about, only to find himself conscripted to defend Plancenoit against the vengeful Prussians! These folk were led by your faithful scribe, whilst Philip took charge of the Anglo Dutch army, kept busy in restraining his colleagure Dave, aka 'Rommel', from charging everything in sight!

Owing to fairly massive scenery preparations for our forhtcoming Borodino game, which appear to have taken over Matt, the HoH's genial propreitor's house and garage, as well as most of the shop, we were constricted to a 10' x 6' table, a mere handckerchief by our usual standards!

The Anglo Dutch. The allied contingent here represented by the gallant 27th Dutch Jagers, of Quatre Bras fame, and Stevenaart's Battery in the left foreground.

'Raise high the Black flags, my Children!'

The scenario therefore was something of a generic one, based on the latter half of the battle with the French Heavy cavalry attacks exhausted and the Prussians arriving on the scene...Thus the British and French forces no longer had their 'steady' attributes, and would have to take the first break tests of the game, whilst the comparatively fresh Prussians, despite their epic march to the battle, would skip the first such test. However, as it happened, the dashing French team made effective use of their remaining Light Cavalry....



The game started with the Anglo-Dutch army drawn up in classic style on the ridge, the forward slopes of which were liberally dotted with light troops and artillery, and the French 'coming up in the same old way'...

'They came on in the same old way...'

The French were given a fairly generous numerical superiority in infantry and guns, but the Allies had the only heavy cavalry in the game. The French objective was to break through the allied ridge within 12 moves, the Prussian objective was to take Placenoit, and the British one, by default, was to hang on...

Intial French infantry attacks were beaten back easily enough, the British Infantry enjoying a 'Sharpshooter' attribute which allowed them to reroll a miss every time.
 



The French adapted by a well coordinated use of their remaining light cavalry regiments to  force the British infantry into square, and were then able to lauch a series of infantry assaults into those squares, assaults which had all the odds in their favour....


However, the dice gods were not with the Emperor this day, and none of these attacks succeeded, and the British squares held out against both cavalry and infantry.

Meanwhile, across the other side of the battle at Placenoit, our newcomer Richard, despite being less than mobile owing to a Rugby injury (Union I'm glad to say, made me feel quite homesick!) was doing a sterling job of defending Placenoit against the flowing Prussian tide.

Into the muzzles of the guns...

It was taking me some pretty desperate measures to gain a foothold in the village, including ordering the Silesian Jaegers to take on a French 12 Pounder battery, but once my own artillery had come up and subjected the village to a short bombardment, my gallant West Prussians were able to storm, and just about hold onto, the Eastern half of the village...

Shooting them in...Teutonic dice by Nero Gaming Dice.

The Allies on the ridge, however, were feeling a little less desperate as their squares held on, and decided that the time was ripe to seize the initiative. Dave, aka 'Rommel', is always itching to launch a cavalry charge, and spotted an opportunity to unleash both his light and heavy cavalry in a series of spoiling attacks. He eventually gained permission from Philip, despite my pleas for caution, to commit the only allied reserves into the attack!

Thus the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Hussars, the 6th (Princess Charlotte's) Light Dragoons (a fictional unit from the Hervey books), the Brunswick Hussars, AND the 6th Inniskillen Dragoons manoeuvered against the flank of a hapless French infantry Bde....

 

'Get yer bleedin arm up O'Rourke!'


Whilst you might expect this mass of horseflesh to have put paid to the French Infantry Bde that it was attempting to charge in the flank, by dint of a little foresight by the French team, they managed to form a credible defence and held off the attack, but at least the hard pressed allied line gained some respite...

By now the French team were getting frustrated, and only had a few more game turns left. But to their credit, they calmly took stock, and marshalled their forces to mount a third wave of attacks, these being even better coordinated than before, so that each assaulting Battalion was given the maximum amount of supporting units to its flanks and rear...

'Remember England men! Remember England!'
'Thats the way Sir! Thats the way...'

The pressure was starting to mount on the allied line, with unit after unit either shaken or disordered, or both. But, on our traditions we rely, and for these Regiments, that tradition is victory...

'Enfin...enfin...La Victoire et a nous!'

Truly, for any Black Powder afficionado, these last French attacks were a thing of beauty, and deserved to succeed. However, despite the ability of the French team, and the grim determination of their veteran troops, the fates were still conspiring against the French, and, although they gave the allies a few tense minutes, the dice were against them and they never quite managed to break through the ridge...

So more by good luck than judgement, the glorious allies managed to keep history to its true course, dependent as always, of course, on our steadfast lead and plastic soldiers:

Stand by your Colours, Lads!