 |
| The teams: French on the left, Allies middle and right. |
 |
| The tables. Hougomont is off stage left. The teams confer. |
 |
| Briefing the terrain and objectives. |
 |
| The French command huddle. |
 |
| Deployment complete. The French confer over their first fate card. |
 |
| The Anglo Netherlands ridge. |
 |
| Marshal Lobau and staff deploy around Plancenoit |
 |
| Plancenoit's 4 defended terrain features are each garrisoned by a Battalion of Young Guard. |
 |
| The French Grand battery opposite the Allied ridge. Heavies and all the Army's 6 pounders! |
 |
| The Grand Battery starts the pre-game bombardment. |
 |
| Causing Allied consternation as brigade after brigade wavers! |
 |
| "Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest." |
 |
| The Allies start to evacuate the beaten zone... |
 |
| Reille's II Corps takes La Haie Sainte... |
 |
| As D'Erlon's I Corps attacks towards Papelotte and Frischermont! |
 |
| Wellington is pleased to see the Prussian spearhead arrive! |
 |
| British Heavy Cavalry of the Union Brigade halts D'Erlon's corps in its tracks! |
 |
| The French form square until their cavalry can assist... |
 |
| Prussian Heavy Dragoons lend their support... |
 |
| But Milhaud's IV Cav Corps has now come up! |
 |
| Stalemate in the centre! |
 |
| The British come down off their ridge! |
 |
| The 1st Royal Scots retake La Haie Sainte! |
 |
| Meanwhile, on the eastern flank... |
 |
| Prussian infantry and guns arrive in force... |
 |
| And get stuck in! |
 |
| And begin to evict the Young Guard from Plancenoit! |
 |
| But the French take La Haie Sainte once again! |
 |
| Then Papelotte also falls to the French... |
 |
| As the sun sets, the British Foot Guards hold the line to allow a strategic withdrawal. |
The final victory point tally, after six turns played, was French 19, Allies 6. But this does not reflect a hard fought epic with several objectives changing hands. A good game in great company!
Wow, that is a big game and a spectacular one to look at. Nice to see the battle see-saw over key points and I thought the Allies had it in the bag at one point. Alas 'twas not to be!
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve! Yes the allied players did well to recover early from the impact of the grand battery but alas the damage in terms of lost victory points to wavering brigades was hard for them to overcome.
DeleteThanks Ralph, a much anticipated post that has hit the mark, it all looks magnificent, thank you. Well done to everyone for supporting such a great undertaking with the army building of recent months. I will keep coming back to this.
ReplyDeleteMy force on the right flank got tricked by the Prussian cavalry gunning hard to hold back the French elites in the centre and I foolishly moved my Cavalry to support the centre which let the Prussians get a foothold near Plancenoit, if the game had made the last two turns it'd be a brutal last stand to defend the remaining young guard and try hold off thr numerically superior Prussians until the game ended. I might have been able to hold the line those two remaining turns, I might have failed. The British mandated tea breaks definitely saved us a lot of bloodshed.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love the photos and it was an amazing game, can't wait for the next one!
Vive le Emperor! What a magnificent game and well done for staging such an epic spectacle. Although once again, the French win a Waterloo refight. Back in the early 80s we did Waterloo using the old WRG rules, and the Grand Battery was terrifying, sweeping whole units away at a time.
ReplyDelete