Blucher Waterloo: The Lasne Defile

On Sunday the Wollongong Wargamers played our annual Waterloo game using Blucher rules - nothing unusual in that...

But this time there was a twist - an alternative history type twist...

Situation

Overnight Napoleon has fallen prey to nagging doubts about the Prussians. Supposing they weren’t completely beaten at Ligny. What if Grouchy mucks up their pursuit? At breakfast, listening to Count Drouot’s account of his battlefield recce, and the remarkably defensive ground to be found east at the Lasne defile, Napoleon decides to insure his right flank: Lobau will defend much further to the east to block any Prussians coming west like a cork in a bottle…Who knows, if Grouchy understands his intention and falls on the Prussian rear, the Prussians could be surrounded and crushed once and for all. If that happens Wellington would scuttle away to Brussels and beyond without even having to be seriously engaged…

This scenario assumes that Grouchy obeyed his orders rather than understanding Napoleon’s intent and is thus far away at Wavre.

As the Prussians do turn up in force, and pressure Lobau, D’Erlons I Corps inevitably gets drawn east in support. However Wellington spots this and is relieved to see a chance to link up with the Prussians early, despatching increasing number of his forces to either intercept D’Erlon or support the Prussians directly…

Ground and Daylight. 

The LASNE river is a Minor obstacle. The BOIS DE PARIS is Impassable. 

All heights have a Crest line 2 inches from their edge, and thereafter are flat plateaus. The area around from the edge to the ridge is Difficult Terrain.

Allies start the Game on Move 8. Game ends at move 30 with nightfall.

Victory Conditions and Army Morale.

There are 2 objectives, the LASNE road crossing and the crossroads outside PLANCENOIT. Winner will hold both at game end; or win through attrition:

French Army Morale Break Point is 8; Anglo Allied is 6; Prussian is 8

Forces:

Prussians IV Corps: Gary and Alan

Anglo-Allied Western Flank: Peter and David

French VI Corps, Young Guard: Caesar

French Cav Corps I and IV;  Guard Cavalry, I Corps: Sparker

Alan, Caesar, Gary, Sparker, David, Peter

What happened:

The French deployed first – Lobau’s VI Corps within the Lasne Defile to the east, the French Cavalry over on the left within 4 BWs of the French table edge.

The Allies then deployed, the Prussians with their complete orbat within 3 BWs of their table edge, the Anglo-Allies just their initial wave of cavalry and horse artillery.

The French then got to make a free Reserve move to react to the advancing allies, which allowed me to move a Heavy Cavalry Corps halfway across the table to confound a Prussian attempt to blitz across south of the Lasne Defile, and thus circumvent Caesar’s strong defences.

The Anglo Allies then got their first move – No. 8.

Both the Prussians and Anglos can on fast and aggressively, and over on my flank opposite Frasnes there were a good deal of cavalry jockeying and charges, with honours just about even.

The Prussians were finding the heights commanding the Lasne river daunting – the initial slope was difficult terrain so they were unable to charge straight across it, but instead would have to face one move of volleying before coming to grips with the defending French infantry brigades on the Plateau.

The horse battery I had sent across with the Heavy Cavalry also found the range very quickly and steadily attrited the Prussian infantry on the left of their line.

On the Western end of the table, the arrival of the Guard Cavalry with 3 very powerful units soon forced the Allied lighter cavalry to fall back with prejudice. 

I probably should have been happy with that but instead took the decision to follow these units up...

 in the hope they would be force to retire off their table edge.

With hindsight, this confined these fine units to a minor role and steady combat degradation in a succession of cavalry engagements with reinforcing units – some of them equally heavy…

Indeed the battle on this side of the table was characterised by successive waves of reinforcements affecting the ebb and flow of the battle. 

When the Young Guard corps arrived, Caesar’s position was looking distinctly shaky, 

with a Prussian Landwehr unit having forced, wait for it...

 a French line unit off the objective – how embarrassment! And this was to become something of a...

 

Recurring theme...

The Young Guard were duly despatched eastwards, but they would have a lot of ground to cover before they made an impact! 

At this stage we realised the scenario would have been improved by some sort of scenario specific March Order – units outside of 4 BW of the enemy may activate to once again become unrevealed and so can make a Reserve move in the following turn.

At this point D’Erlon’s I Corps had arrived as reinforcements, but their deployment was fouled by a lingering Guard Horse artillery battery which had not been able to be activated off the edge of the table. Nevertheless a heavy battery and horse battery were able to be deployed with clear lines of fire to the Allied cavalry and squares, and the gunners set to their grim task in this target rich environment - no ridge to hide behind over on this flank!

 Over to the east the Prussians had fixed Lobau's Corps...

 and were well set up to push forward...

and their deliberate approach, whilst incurring artillery and musketry casualties...

seemed to be paying off as they steadily pushed back or broke brigade after brigade...

Over on the western flank Wellington was sending Brigade after Brigade down of his ridge...



to match D'Erlon unit for unit...

So that the engagement had become general, and bloody...

Right across the table...

With the inevitable impact upon each Army's morale factor... Finally, the brittle morale of the Armee du Nord fell from 1 to 0 - Caesar and I had one remaining move to crack the Allies morale by breaking just 2 Prussian or 4 Allied units....

But the Black Flags and the Thin Red Line held out! 

Napoleon loses Waterloo! Who'd ha' thunk it!

Blucher Waterloo 202

This Sunday the 18th June, the 202nd anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the Wollongong Wargamers held our now traditional Blucher ruleset game of Waterloo.

Image courtesy of Kaptain Kobold Semi Professional Photography inc.

We were a bit light on in terms of players this year, since David, our official Napoleonic intellectual, had been granted leave to pursue his political career as a Representative of the People, or something or other, and Peter, who had spent much effort in improving last year's scenario, was overseas. A particular shame, as his improvements delivered a perfect game!

Whereas last year we had gone for Waterloo - The Full Monty, this year we would ignore Placenoit, so also the Prussian IV and French VI Corps, concentrating instead on a narrow table based on the Mont St Jean ridge itself, as illustrated in the red rectangle above, image from The Waterloo Companion, Mark Adkin, an essential aid to wargaming Waterloo!

Which ridge Gary hand built in record time, delivering up 9 foot modelled to his usual impeccable standards.

Also finding time to provide the opposite 'French Grand Battery' ridge, to fully set the scene!

The various strongpoints and salient features were modelled, but, given the scale of the game, each turncated to a single Base Width footprint - Hougomont's grounds being reduced further after this picture was taken. Similarly the sandpit, sheltering only a Bn. was subsumed into the La Haie Sainte model, and the complex of 4 smaller farms out west represented by just Papelotte and Frischermont.

We divided up each army into manageable 'Corps' that would each get by with one MO dice.

Formations	Player	Points (Elan)	Table Position
I Corps (D’Erlon)	Caesar	65	South East half
II Corps (Reille)	Daniel	49	South West half
Reserve Cavalry (Ney)	Alan	41	Initially off table
Guard Cavalry (Ney)	Alan	40	Initially off table
Imperial Guard	Ralph	58	Initially off table

The French had 5 'Corps', but only I and II Corps would start on table, and Alan's Guard and Reserve Cavalry were conflated into one command for ease. The French had an morale value of 15, and a total of 195 points.



The Anglo-Allies had 4 commands, and the Prussians just the 1. The Allies had a morale value of 11, with 187 points.

Anglo-Allied East ‘Corps’ (Cooke & Alten)	Gary	45	North East
Anglo Allied West Brunswick Divison	John G	41	North West
Anglo Allied West Hill’s Division	John P	42	North West
Anglo Allied Cavalry (Uxbridge	John G	59	North Centre and detachments
Prussian I & II Corps (Zieten)	John P	64	Eastern edge of table from move 19

The Prussians had a morale value of 6, at 64 points, with their army representing only Zieten and those elements of I and II Korps which directly supported the Mont St Jean ridge, rather than go further south agains Plancenoit. They would arrive on move 19, about a third of the way into the game. In terms of attrition, realistically we felt only the Prussians might have had cause for concern...but they had Blucher himself, who allowed a free Army activation: Raise high the Black Flags, my Children!

The Anglo Allies set up first, using cards face down to conceal their deployment...

At first sight, it seemed they were deploying in the same old way: along the ridge, but with the forward strongpoints stoutly defended...  The game started with the French turn 12 which equates to midday in Blucher. The objectives were allocated a points value:     Hougomont (2 points) La Haye Sainte (2 points), Cross Roads on Ridge (2 points) Papelotte/Frischermont, (1 point each).

We French however, having done the thankless historical deployment hard yards last year, were this year free to deploy as we wished. Accordingly Caesar led D'Erlon's corps directly against the Papelotte complex, using his light cavalry to cover his flank...

Whilst Daniel led Reille's corps against Hougomont, but diverting rather more of his units to cover against the strongly held ridge...

As you would expect, most of the Allied artillery was attached to the Brigades, but there was sufficient concentrations of Royal Horse Artillery to make one's eyes water...

Caesar used his own grand battery to good effect also, and was soon in position to assault the objectives on the eastern flank - hopefully before the Prussians turned up...

Meantime John G in the centre had taken a page from history and launched a couple of Brigades of Light Cavalry against Reille's corps. Unfortunately they weren't the Union Brigade though, so only did superficial damage...

Even though it was early in the game, at this stage I decided to order La Garde au Feu! With one French corps pushing east and the other west, our centre was looking decidedly empty, and I saw no reason why Daniel and Caesar should have all the fun!

Accordingly the Guard was manoeuvered so as to be able to assault La Haie Sainte, after it had been judiciously softened up by the Artillery of the Guard!



Gary was making a fine defence of Hougomont however, the Redcoats' volleying ability was steadily eroding Daniel's combat ability...The was no breakthrough imminent on the French left flank...

Over on the far right, Caesar seemed to be taking great pains to set up his assault with meticulous precision - perhaps he thought those looming dark blue columns approaching his flank was Grouchy?

At any rate the Allied players were struggling to hide their confidence!

But no, it wasn't Grouchy who turned up just as the French assaults were about to go in! There are those Black Flags!

The British and Prussians had a cordial encounter, and hatched their plans...

And Gary, supremely confident of his mastery of the western flank, redeployed his garrison from Hougomont, leaving it apparently safe behind the thin red line....



However, suddently the initiative seemed to swing back to the French - thanks to some powerful cannonading, the gallant garrision of La Haie Sainte was speedily evicted by the Young Guard!

And Caesar managed to storm and capture both Papelotte and Frischermont just before the Prussians could support their beleaugered garrisons...

At this point John G, perhaps alone amongst the Allied players in sensing that this year the Allies would have to work for their victory, began deploying the Allied heavy cavalry...

Alan had already been moving the French Reserve and Guard Cavalry towards our eastern flank, both to attempt to pin down the Prussians...

And also to keep our increasingly threadbare centre together...



So at this stage, the game was evenly balanced, the French having 4 objective points in hand, La Haie Sainte and the Papelotte complex, the Allies also 4; Hougomont and the crossroads...

The allies sought to regain the initiative, with an attempt to recapture La Haie Sainte led by the Brigade of Guards, supported by the Union and Household Cavalry Brigades! Heavy weights indeed!

However this was the Old Guard they were dealing with...



And a spirited attack by the Grenadiers of the Old Guard pushed back a heavy Cavalry Brigade!



However over on the eastern flank the relentless pressure from the Prussians was telling....

And Caesar had to explain to the rest of the rather sceptical French team how he managed to lose one of the hard-won objectives to a bunch of conscript sausage eaters!

But then, as if to balance the Prussian's success, a last gasp effort by Daniel with Reille's corps reached the abandoned objective of Hougomont!

If I could hold La Haie Sainte against the mounting British counter-attacks...

And if Caesar could retake Papelotte - Victory would be ours! However, John P, aware of Caesar's reputation with the dice, was not a worried man...

In the closing moves of the game, all seemed to hang on the number of momentum dice each side would get...

But the dice Gods maintained their disdain for the Allied momentum dice, and, incredibly, smiled upon Caesar's last ditch assault on Papelotte - the village changed hands for the third time! La Victoire et a Nous!

Time to celebrate with a nice cup of tea!