Wavre 1815

 

The Battle of Wavre, 18th June 1815 can be overshadowed by slightly grander events to the west, where Napoleon met his Waterloo. But it can present a very interesting and manageably sized scenario...

The French team struggled to deploy within their cramped deployment area. Would they attack piecemeal before all their forces were activated, as Vandamme did, or patiently coordinate their attacks?

They did have overwhelming superiority, two Corps against one, but the line of the Dyle presented heavily defended chokepoints...

The Prussian team, on the other hand, deployed in depth...

(which would pay off later, when the mission parameters would change...)

The French attacked 'a l'outrance' right from the beginning....

Encouraged by the discovery of a ford above the Mill of Bierges...

So it was the far left Prussian flank where first contact was made:

The Lancers clearing away the Prussian Jaegars in short order, followed by the infantry columns:

The Prussians contained the bridgehead manfully for several rounds of combat...

But eventually numbers told and tactical necessity dictated a fighting withdrawal, even before the mission changed!

On the other flank, near Limale, the French were struggling through close country to breakout and deploy...

Eventually setting up an assault on Limale and breaking out the Light Cavalry:

Once again the Prussian defense was tenacious, but numbers told:

At the end of Turn 4 it was time for my pre-luncheon bombshell - all objectives were now invalid and the mission had transformed from Attack-Defence to a Fighting Withdrawal/Rearguard action for the Prussians - one of the the most challenging military missions!

Victory points would now switch from towns and villages, where the French had gained a small margin (4-3) to reinforcements for Waterloo - the French team would pick up a VP for every Brigade in good order that marched off the table on the Plancenoit roads. Inflicting Brigade defeat points would still rack up VPs.

The Prussians lost no time in evacuating the line of the Dyle and its villages. Together with their earlier withdrawals they were well placed to defend and delay along both MSRs:

The French pressed on doggedly, resulting cavalry melees giving the French another couple of VPs for broken Prussian brigades:

In the end however the Prussians successfully blocked the exits to Waterloo:

It was a game of two halves: the first half saw the French successfully break the line of the Dyle and win possession of Limale and Bierges. The second half saw the Prussians, already deployed in depth, delay the French advance to Waterloo. However it was simple attrition, defeating enemy brigades, that gave the victory to the French 6-4. The Eagles's last triumph, a historical outcome!