My small or medium sized Napoleonic games have been played using the excellent new Lasalle 2 rules recently. But, needing to get up to speed on Black Powder rules for a forthcoming Gettysburg mega-game, I decided this Easter to throw everything on the table for a biggish Waterloo themed game.
The game concentrates on D'Erlon's corps operating between La Haye Sainte on the French right, and Papelotte on the left. I still don't have enough 18mm models to do justice to even a segment of this battle, having been seriously side-tracked by the new Epic scale, but it was still to big a game for Lasalle to handle easily.
The view from the Allied line, with Papelotte in the foreground and La Haye Sainte in the distance. Note poor Bylandt's Netherland's brigade has been left out in the cold, gaining little cover from the ridge. Continuing my experiments with two-dimensional terrain, this is simply delineated with the line of flock.
La Haye Sainte consists of two 'building blocks', each defended by a battalion of Lights. Papelotte is just one block, so only held by a single battalion. Both are heavy cover 3+. All Brigade commanders have Staff Rating 8, with CinC's providing re-rolls on 9.
The French open with attacks on both extremities of La Haye Sainte, and, shown above, Papelotte, the centre brigades cautiously supporting whilst leaving space for the grand battery...
La Haye Sainte is attacked from both flanks.
The first attacks are beaten off, but takes a toll on the defenders.
Similarly two battalions, from two brigades, assault Papelotte...
But this time are emphatically repelled with serious losses to one French brigade!
Meanwhile the French centre, hovering uncertainly between either objective, has been driven back down the slope by musketry and then steadily attrited by the Royal Artillery and Royal Horse Artillery. Running disorder makes it difficult to withdraw and rally out of range...
Eventually the third French Assault on La Haye Sainte succeeds in taking the southern half of the complex. With his reserves in disorder and both attacking divisions weakened, D'Erlon decides to rest on these laurels and await reinforcements from the Garde... An Allied victory!
Thank you. I have just built the Epic farmhouse from Warlord Games and it is a nice model, but a bit big on the Epic battlefield. In Black Powder, I have been finding buildings too strong at 3+ and have generally been using 2+ or even 1+. I am not thinking so much about this game, but your Epic Gettysburg might need some buildings graded differently.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm. Yes I expect a battle on my hands with my team mates but I would like our Epic Gettysburg game to feature 10mm buildings, as our Valley campaign has done so far. I think the 3+ is historically justified for a stone and walled farmhouse like La Haye Sainte. The trick is, like in this game, to assault from at least 2 sides, each assaulting battalion to have the full suite of supports - straight away that gives you +6 as against the defender's +3...
DeleteImpressive table and armies, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete"I still don't have enough 18mm models to do justice to even a segment of this battle..." Huh?! Are you aiming for a man:model ratio of 1:1 ?
Thanks Caesar! Well I'd like to do each particular 'segment' of Waterloo with a 1:1 ratio of units, which at 32 figures to a unit roughly equates to a figure ratio of 1:100?
DeleteNice looking game, La Haye can be a pig to take, even worse to try and recapture.
ReplyDeleteThanks mate - yes it is!
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