Final Waterloo 200 Practice game!

Yes I know, not another Waterloo 200 practice game! Well, this was the last one of this 2 year project  - if we haven't got it right now, its too bad, the next time the lads meet its the big bad mega game weekend itself! But after Sunday I am confident it will reach the standard of a world class game, memorable in every way as 'wot I did on the 200th Anniversary of the iconic Napoleonic battle'! 



Anyhow, there is some method to our madness - both the Hall of Heroes venues are thriving commercial concerns, so we can only ask Matt to let us completely take over the whole joint for the weekend on the special day - so we have been practicing several combinations of the 5 tables that will make up the whole battlefield - for this game the Westernmost 4 tables, since we covered the Prussian at the last rehearsal.
 

 
Which left Vic, above, or should I say Count Lobau, who will be defending the 5th table against the Prussians, somewhat underemployed for this game, so he helped some of the less experienced players with the rules.



Speaking of less experienced players, Chris, above, has only played one or two games, but, Black Powder being the elegant rules they are, he has had no difficulties - although that might be something to do with him being a PhD!

 

 

 
We used our time wisely to go over the salient points of the terrain, and its effects on the game, in terms of movement, garrisons, etc, so we will all be on the same hymm sheet in June...



Although as you can see, despite Terry's stakhanovite efforts, we are still not 100% there with the terrain, in particular there's still much painting and flocking to be done. But Rome wasn't built in a day - although it might have been if Terry had been a military engineer back then instead of more recently - and we still have 6 weeks in hand.

 

 

Bryan has also done great work with hand crafting latex rubber roads which fit nicely over our sculpted terrain:

 

 

 

But once everyone was happy with the terrain, and their commands, we held team briefings to issue orders, then got into it...Since we are starting from historical positions, the French issued the opening sally from the grand battery:

 

Then advanced with DÉrlon's I Corps to the West of La Haye Sainte... 

 
But where was Ponsonby and the Union Brigade?

Well, actually they're still on my painting table, so the Household Brigade had to stand in, and the Allied team decided not to commit them - obviously far too smart for the mundane work of breaking up a mere infantry corps - so on that corps came, suffering incidental fire from the gallant band of KGL Rifleman garrisoning La Haye Sainte...

 
Coming on in the same old way....

 
So that as we ran out of time, having only had time for 5 moves after all our briefings and troop musters, I Corps found itself poised on the Ohain road, on the slopes of the Allied ridge...Will it break through, on to Brussels and Glory?

 

 

That, my friends, is something we will know in a few weeks time....