Blucher - Waterloo 'the Full Monty!'

This Sunday the Wollongong Wargamers met to refight Waterloo using Blucher rules and 15mm miniatures. Yes, all of it, all brigades, at full strength!

Blucher rules gives a very high-level, strategic view of the battle, which is very fast and satisfying, but perhaps not as photogenic as 28mm games of a more operational nature, such as Black Powder...

However my mate Alan has given a very good blow by blow account of how the game developed on his blog: hordesofthethings.blogspot.- Blucher-at-waterloo

I had prepared a scenario which tried to make what is potentially a very one sided battle, if you reflect the orbats and arrival of the Prussians...

A quick way of providing an orbat - distribute photos of the cards! (I & II Corps were combined to speed play)

into more of a playable game...

I knew from experience no-one would bother reading the scenario, but my pre-battle summary of the objectives and victory conditions also fell on deaf ears as everyone concentrated on getting their armies on the table...

With the net result that the Anglo-Allied team hastened to abandon most of the objectives in the first few moves of the game...

Assuming they only had to hold the ridge for victory....

..thereby handing the French a glorious victory as they swept over La Haie Sainte, Hougomont and La Haie!

That's not to say there wasn't still some very hard fighting, particularly between those French units sandwiched between the Prussians of IV Corps...

and the Allied cavalry reserve...

In fact the Allied cavalry was handled with an adroit mix of coolness and verve throughout the game, calmly being held in reserve until needed...

but then taking a very aggressive role...

The Prussian advance on Plancenoit was also stymied by the bold use of cavalry...

With the advanced deployment of a couple of Brigades ending the French ontable 'Reserve' march well short of Plancenoit, with only 3 moves left before night fell...

As always the Blucher rules delivered a fast paced and memorable game which was enjoyed by all, including a novice player who handled a very large and very heavily engaged corps with very little difficulty in terms of applying the rules.

The game has sparked interest in revisiting this most ambitious of battles, probably with a less demanding scenario, and it was great to see what a large collection of superbly painted 15mm minis we have - even though my photography isn't up to capturing it!

I hope it may become an annual event, on or around the 18th June!