As the 200th nears for the epic battle of Waterloo, who could not be inspired to be a part of a massive recreation of the battle using lead? A couple of years ago our game group in Rochester and another group over in the Appleton/Green Bay/Osh Kosh areas had tackled Gettysburg using Johnny Reb III. This time, Waterloo using Empire (V).
For an epic battle, you need an epic table and we had not only that but an epic location in Adventure Games located in Osh Kosh WI. It is a seriously nice game store.
Those of us coming in from Minnesota, arrived on Friday afternoon. The locals had already gotten the table pretty much setup. Next was the unboxing and organizing of all the armies we would be controlling. Across the Brits, French, Dutch/Belgians, and Prussians we needed and thankfully had lots of hands.
Here we’re oogling what will be but 1 of 3 tables setup for the game. Both on the left and on the right were yet another table (tho not quite as wide) to give depth to the game. On the left in the foreground is Dan Wideman who was serving as Wellington. On the right in the picture Michael Mathews who commanded the 1 Corps and Ney. On the table the closest built up area of course is Hougoumont which was scratch built. Off in the distance the white is la Haye Sainte and way on the table edge on the far end is la Haye/Saxe Weimar/Papelotte.
Here is the “back” table. This was the table behind the initial French line. Likewise there was a similar one behind the Brit line. The last thing we did was to deploy our holdings for those things that would start on table. In my case, I was running the French IV Reserve Cav. I’d start behind the II Corps and more or less screen the flank and watch the rear just so there wasn’t any Prussian surprises.
While we had historical army lists, we did not know what the arrival times for the Prussians would be. Likewise both sides were given the leeway to go with their own deployment.
For us across the line, from left to right it was I corps with the III Reserve Cav swinging around to the left of Hougoumont. The II Corps and my Cav were to attack on a line just to the right of Haye Sainte and to the left of the woods around Papelotte.
The French Guard was held in reserve as was the VI Corps. With that we called it a night.
It begins….
9:00am, not especially early we started. Many pictures to be taken and lots and lots of die rolling ahead.
Napoleon ordered the artillery forward on the road and have the artillery deploy as a grand battery and see what we might be able to prepare. As historically happened the majority of the Brits took cover on the backside of the hills so the direct targets were few. The garrison in Haye Sainte took quite a bit of love and some cav you can just barely see attracted a cannonball or two. With the ground being muddy (as it historically was), we delayed moving forward to meet the long red line.
From what we could spy off in the distance, Wellington was probably in the middle. Brit cav was no were to be seen. We didn’t see the Dutch/Belgians, the Hannovarians nor the Brunswickers on the main battle line. Indeed the poor troops were all behind the main battle line which meant we would have a tougher time ahead to punch a hole through.
We had these great markers for keeping track of where we were in the game. Not sure who made them, (Dan?) but they were great. As you can see the bombardment from the grand battery was at the 10am hour.
Here we are on the right flank of the French line just after our first movement at the 11am hour. The cav screening is my command and the line of infantry moving forward was Andrew and Aaron running the II Corps.
On the left flank on the table behind were the Brunswickers. Could we make it that far?
Wellington obviously NOT wanting his picture taken as the French I Corps made most of their grand tac movement. Unfortunately a division of French is seen here in place… I believe they didn’t make their activation roll and thus didn’t get the memo to get a move on it.
On my side for this initial hour I wasn’t engaged so that would be it for my Cav for the hour. On the left flank however things heated up quickly with the French on the move and very quickly getting into the heat of the action that started with a few Cav scrums between Mike and Todd. Most seemed to go in the favor of the French.
As part of the grand tac I sort of forgot to mention that the Guard moved forward. Ah, a vast formation of the best troops in Europe and for a Napoleonic gamer it’s quite seldom you’ll ever play with something like this. Napoleon, aka Chuck was one lucky man.
Through the course of the noon hour the French III Reserve corp and part of the I Corp was to get around the Brit flank and into the rear. There in the defense the Dutch/Belgians were to be found…. and they didn’t last long. As this was clear across the table alas there are stories of glory here that will someday have to be told over the fire. It did not seem like much was going to stop the French line on this side.
Behind the line, The French VI Corp deployed in anticipation that the Prussians would be hear any minute. … any minute…. did I say any minute? Alas for those playing the Prussians they didn’t make their early die rolls to enter and thus those that had volunteered to run them had what was a very long wait. All day in real time on Saturday and into the night they would wait… but not arrive until Saturday evening.
Meanwhile on the noon hour we would get engaged with the Brits on the French left flank. Through the impulses it was a very tough slog. Both Andrew and Aaron would make the march up the hill and engage across the line. In the picture above on the right side you can see the historic sunken road. There was much fire traded across that road.
My one annoyance with the whole game is I thought I had heard on Friday or maybe early on Saturday you couldn’t charge across the road. So I avoided it. Later on Sunday there were to be several charges (in both directions) across the space. But! It displays some historical reflections of what really happened in that the French reported it was impossible to charge across, but the British reported they successfully charged across it. So! While a lament, it works for me. It was as it was.
Back to the battle, Andrew would slowly work his troops and guns and dispatch a regiment or two of Bob’s line infantry. Aaron would I believe do the same across the hour. I wasn’t paying great attention as again I wasn’t engaged with my Cav tho I wasn’t far behind the lines in hope I’d have the opportunity to charge up the hill.
1pm would roll around and across the line each of the impulses were getting quite complicated.
Across the vast field you can see the French battle lines pressing in to the British far off in the distance. The Guard still holding back ready to rush toward either direction should either side falter and here on our left flank, we just weren’t making much headway tho Aaron and Andrew both tried their best.
Aaron started to spill toward the center and started to get engaged with fire across the sunken road. If you look close you can see Andrew start to the top of the hill in places while taking his lumps gaps were starting to appear. Meanwhile my Cav was finally engaged.
On the French right flank and behind the British lines the remaining Dutch/Belgians were forming square…uh … triangle to defend against Eric’s III Reserve Cav Corps, while the other Eric was running the French infantry back here and pressing forward. The lightning bolt wasn’t quite gone but it seemed like it was starting to wane. Much further and certainly Wellington was be getting close to enveloped.
Prussians! Initially their front cav entered on the French back table on our left flank. The VI Corp engaged and pretty quickly pushed them back.
2pm! It’s not looking good for the Brits.
The Grand Battery unlimbers off the hill and towards the left and part of the Guard moves to the left, “just in case” the Prussians were to arrive.
O hi! It’s Napoleon attaches himself to Guard Imperial and marches forward to engage the British center.
Meanwhile behind the British line, on the left of the picture was the Brunswickers that I was hoping to reach with my cav and off on the far side of the picture you can see the French battle line starting to meet British cav and the remains of the Dutch/Belgians.
In the center back here are more Brit cav (their best) and the Hannovarians there in the woods.
At this point it was getting busy for Eric so I took control of the IV Corp cav. The other Eric and I continued our push forward. I charged and discovered that this cav was actually reasonable, so much for easy victories.
Meanwhile on the French left flank holes were starting to open up and my cav was getting ready to start to make their move.
Meanwhile in the center the French Guard was meeting the best of the British Infantry. The famed 95th Rifles being one of them, taking fire and immediately breaking. They didn’t even get to fire a shot back. That was amazingly impressive.
More carnage! More carnage! Napoleon (the stand just back from the French line on the side of the hill) pressing the line forward. Indeed, between Mike on the one side and Chuck in the middle, Todd and Dan were getting hit back but Guards don’t exactly wear bulletproof armor either….
Here we see the other half of the III Reserve Cav. They would charge up the hill with the fresh French infantry and hill the Brit line pretty hard.
Meanwhile on the French left flank I started my charge with two cav squadrons. One stopped short of the first line of Brits who didn’t get into square with a really crappy die roll on my part.
The second cav squadron made it up the hill through the line of Brit infantry and into the Brunswickers. They stopped just short the only unit of Brunwickers that were successful at rolling to form square. Everyone had failed.
There they are! Well done men! Alas my die roll with the last impact against the squad we just sat there. And this was the end of the day on Saturday.
On Sunday we’d pick it up at 10am. The carnage continued. We kept playing tho I sort had wished we had picked up on Saturday night. To me the question was settled tho in fairness to the Prussian players who barely had gotten to do anything, we kept playing.
We moved the forming Prussian battle line and the French battle line to a slightly different table so they’d have more frontage. With the back french table it just wouldn’t have worked for either side. Too much stuff and too much need to maneuver.
In the center of the British line Dan then committed his best cav to counter the other half of my cav that had I pressed up the hill. My front line hit his front line and amazingly it was a straight up 50/50 roll to see who would win. I lost and with that my cav was thrown back disordering everything behind it. From there least for that small part of the action it was to get worse. My ACE 24 cav was no match against 35 and 30 ACE Brit cav and as a result while one of his last thunderbolts, certainly kept the situation from being a full on route.
On the bottom of the picture, the Brunswickers were starting to help a bit and some quick thinking by Bob while losing another Brit battalion or two, was able to stop up the line. Tho another line of French cav wasn’t far behind.
On the French right flank between the French guard and the I Corps the Brit flank continued to be turned. They put a lot of lumps on us but still another fresh French division was ready to spring ahead.
The last picture of this little battle blog, the French Grand Battery reformed facing the Prussians. The Prussians were held in check, no chance to unite with the British line.
In summary a very grand time. It was a mighty good weekend and I very much appreciate all the efforts from everyone involved. I’d say even Grumbles (the dog on the chair) approved. Thanks again to Adventure Games in Osh Kosh WI for opening early and staying late to host. You’ve got an awesome store Teddy!
I’d call it a French victory tho certainly Wellington wasn’t licked but the need to pull back was there. The French would take the field.