Waterloo 1815-2015

I have been Wargaming for 45 years,so by definition I must have fought Waterloo(or sections of it) 45 times! so when we were invited to take part in a re-fight of the battle,by Charlie Wesencraft's club,I had a feeling of "here we go again"-but wargames are not only about the battles,but about the players involved,and Charlie's club is full of characters that make any game worth playing.A mention must be made at this time of Glen,and his young son,Wills,whose hospitality was great,we were made to feel welcome a soon as we walked into his factory unit,where the game was taking place-fantastic!!
The battle itself involved 12 players,and is so well known that it really needs no narrative,so I'll let the camera do the talking,with just a few words under each photo-by the way,the French came on in the same old way,and were sent packing in the same old way!!!!

Getting set up!-Mike had typed out all of the units and placed them in their historical positions,this must have taken him a while,but was worth it,to save time etc-well done Mike.

Ah,the dice!!-there just might be enough of them!!

Napoleon,Charlie claims that because of his age,he was at the actual battle,but we don't believe him!He had Mike,Brian,Mel,Phil and Dave under his command.
Whilst the Allies were commanded by Paul Kirby,who had myself,Glen and Wills,plus Bruce,Ron and John(Wesencraft) under his command.

Let battle commence!! As in the real battle,Hougomont and La Haye Sainte sucked in far too many French troops,but what the heck,it's Xmas!!!!

Ron,at the end of the table,looks relaxed,but in the excitement of the opening moves,decided to fire a gun battery on his own troops!!luckily he was talked out of it-these games are all about the players-great fun!!

Myself,Glen and Wills were on the Allied left flank,facing Brian and Mike,who are putting in a determined attack-Brian was detailed to guard the far right of his position,against any possible Prussian advance-and a sterling job he did too!!

Whilst "Napoleon" sips on his coffee,Mel is attacking La Haye,superbly defended by Paul,who gave the attackers a "bloody nose" for their efforts.

Ron is still looking relaxed,as the French are getting too close for comfort-the British second line had been placed too close to the front line,and a "push back" broke through them!!-Will the French win???

The Allied left is under pressure,as Mike explains the firing sequence to young Wills and Brian.

It's half time,and to much beer boozing and mince pie munching,Sue appeared(Paul's wife) looking like a rose among the many thorns!!

Paul has launched the British cavalry!!-this was rather spectacular,and successful!!-in the centre and right of the Allied line,the French are being held,and on our left,a lucky combination of dice throws saw me "killing" the French commander(Mike) and driving them back down the slope.-is this victory??

Judging by the look on Brian's face,it is!!!

As the Guard appear on the board(led by Napoleon himself-ie Charlie) it is all over,and the Allies have won!!
This was a good day out,and Charlie and I agreed that we need to organise,with more clubs in the region,more inter-club games like this-watch this space!!
A big thank you to everyone in Charlie's club.

Battle of Gilly 15th June 1815

A big thankyou to Dave for putting on last night's game,it was brilliant! All of the figures used were his(which we don't see often enough!) there was colour,excitement and tension throughout the whole game.

Dave gave me the map for the terrain,and I set the table up as near as possible to it-the bottom photo is the table just before the first move-I was Blucher,and Paul was the "little fella"(Napoleon)-I have two hidden regiments,one in the central wood and one on my right flank wood!

Paul's first attack against the Prussian position begins,with colours flying and drums beating and shouts of "Vive L'Empreur" his battalions swept forward-but the acute observer will have noticed that my light cavalry are also sweeping towards the French lines-hurrah!!!!

As more and more French pour onto the field,my cavalry have done their job,but I am being assailed in the rear,by Dragoons and Cuirassiers-woe is me!-I have exposed my hidden Infantry in the central wood,and gave a volley in the flank of the passing cavalry-they did not like it!!!

My reserves are now entering the fray,as my cavalry try and regroup,however Paul is also getting reserves-Help!!(Dave looks happy!)

A mass cavalry "brawl" is taking place now-clearing the way for yet another French attack-Paul's gunners must have been smoking "happy baccy" 'cos they were causing tremendous casualties on the Prussian infantry and guns,forcing me back at one point-I need my reserves to get into position quickly,or all is lost!(Dave is till looking happy!!)

The cavalry battle in the centre is still on-going,but there aren't as many as there was a while ago(the older persons reading this blog will recognise that sentence from a line in a Lonny Donnegan(who?) song.)
Paul's French are on the move again,but my reserves are in place,and this will be "nippy-tucky"

Look at this for a game!My left is now secure,and my Dragoons are dominating the hill top(for the time being!)-but just look at the number of French troops coming over the stream-"formidable!"

Having beaten off Paul's Cuirassiers,my Dragoons are being subjected to volley fire from the squares-this was to prove a bit too much for them,and they retired(ran away!)
Paul's attacks in the centre intensified,and I really didn't have too much to stem the flow of French troops-or did I? I sent my ADC to a regiment of Hussars to change their initial orders,and told them to sweep around the left flank of the attacking troops,I combined this with a counter attack with some infantry,the result was that the attack was stalled-hurrah!!!

Close quarter volley fire was the order of the day!-this was the French regiment that was caught in the flank by my counter attack,and proved crucial!

Hell's Flames,what a game!!-everything is going on at once,but mainly Paul's last attack is being stopped-he must have thought that he had made the winning move when he swept around my right flank with a fresh regiment-but my other hidden regiment emerged on his flank,and with cries of dismay,they were forced to flee.
By now the French were in a bit of dis-array,and I still held my original positions,although most of my troops were in square,so I was declared the winner(I actually thought a draw would have been the proper result!)

One final photo of this great game-more Dave!!!
Thanks to Dave for putting on such a good game,and thanks to Paul for being such a good opponent-I will now have to go and lie down in a darkened room to recover.
We won't be playing on Thursday,I will have a house full of guests,as my son is getting married on Friday,but roll on Sunday.

Le Cul De Sac 18th June 1815.

Well,I couldn't let "Waterloo Day" go by without joining in the celebrations,as no doubt nearly every wargames club in the world is also doing!!
This game was played this morning against our old mate Alan,and it was,as it turned out,a close run thing!!!

As a preliminary to the game,I thought I might share with you these two items-the first is an actual musket ball from the battlefield at Ligny! and the second is a souveneir from "Les Invalides" in Paris-both bought by Daughter.

Scenario and Table before any movement-I was Wellington,and Alan was Napoleon.

My attacks begin,I wanted to pin the French immediately,so attacked along the whole table.

Whilst my British troops attacked the Guard-held ruin,my Prussians are about to cross the stream-hurrah!!

The Prussian cavalry have attacked the French cavalry,and a "ding,dong" battle took place,which eventually went my way,but before Alan had beaten me a couple of times,but the main outcome of the cavalry melees was that the French infantry were forced into square,and were immobile.-another hurrah!!

I now went completely mad,and ordered the 23rd Fusiliers to charge the guards in the ruin!!-the result was that they were shot down before making any contact,and had to retire-fool!!!!

My 23rd are retiring back over the stream,but I have managed to get two regiments of Guard to retire too-hurrah again,things are looking good for the Allies.

Having weakened a French square with shots from my horse artillery,I charged my Scot's Greys at them-they broke,and the Greys destroyed them-too many hurrahs now!!!

With the French Guard retiring,and the troops in the centre forced into squares,and most of the French cavalry beaten,I was declared the winner of this fairly small but exciting game.
Well done to Alan,hope to see you again soon.
We will be playing a very similar scenario tonight!

Napoleonic Hum-Dinger!!

Last night the "Jackson Five",Richard,Graham,Brian,Paul and I had a "cracking" Napoleonic game,involving a forward British position(Richard) being assaulted by Soult(Brian)with support being rushed to both sides by Wellington(Paul and Graham) and Grouchy(John).

Richard and Brian started the action from move one and continued to fight until the last move,when Richard was pushed off his position,and his cavalry support was beaten.
Meanwhile on the British right flank,Graham was soundly thrashed,until Paul sent him some heavy cavalry,who turned the tables,and it was me who got a good thrashing(I know people who would pay good money for that kind of treatment!!)
In the centre,Paul was controlling(??) the British game by taking pressure off both Richard and Graham,by deploying his infantry,cavalry and guns to good effect,however I eventually broke his centre,and with Richard's hill taken,and my left flank secured against the Farm,the French were declared the just winners-hurrah!!

photo's to follow...............

In the top photo,Richard and Brian discuss the finer tactical skills needed to win this hill,in the lower photo,Brian's attack begins.

In the top photo Brian has swept the British off the hill,and his vast array of cavalry are making progress in the background.In the lower photo,I have "hood-winked" Graham with my cavalry and am just about to deliver the "coup de grace" on his cavalry-note the British in line in the background_what was Graham thinking about?-did he think I wouldn't reform and charge this easy target?-He was wrong and the result was the loss of a Regiment!!-hurrah again.

The battle for the centre begins,will Graham's depleted column get there in time to stop my column charge against Paul's only gun?-

The top photo shows Graham's reinforced cavalry scattering mine,and my infantry moving to form a defensive line against the Farm.
The bottom photo shows the British centre in a certain state of dissaray!!-the figures in a mass in the background are British units taken off the board as casualties!!-hurrah again,again.
Brian and I were worthy winners,but the British team put up a damned good fight too,it must be pointed out at this time that Brian has invented a new tactic,called TATA-this stands for Throwing Away The Advantage-say no more John,say no more!!

This was a great game, and well played lads,roll on Thursday.

Battle of Santa Major 1809,Spain.

Last night the "famous five" fought an excellent Napoleonic battle,with Graham and Paul taking the roll of British commanders,and Brian,Richard and I commanded the French.

These first two photo's show the scenario and the table before any movement.

This shows Paul's landing force,which was met by Richard,whose objective was to delay them,whilst Brian stormed the ridge,and I captured the town and out-flanked the ridge-great plan,what could go wrong?

This is Brian's central position,he outnumbered the French by two to one,his cavalry was better,all he had to do was move forward and take the ridge,what could go wrong?

This shows my infantry,about to attack the town "a la bayonette only!) I outnumbered Graham's Spanish by three to one,what could go wrong?-it would be like a walk in the park!! My cavalry and horse artillery are about to start their out-flanking move to my left.

There's the rocket,there it goes,where it lands-nobody knows!! Graham fired the rocket 8 times and managed two hits-not bad!! Along with the rocket he had three highland regiments and a gun battery,backed up with lots of cavalry,who he sent mainly against mine!!

I have eventually taken the town,and the Spanish are vacating it at a rate of knots!! However my cavalry and gun are being beaten in melees and being forced back-but not before I killed Paget!!-hurrah.
To the right of the town,Brian is sending his Dragoons forward against guns and heavy cavalry,whilst his infantry(advancing in line!! ignoring the Scots Greys coming over the ridge!!) are about to be shattered by the British lining the crest.

Paul's force has landed ,and is moving forward to support Graham,however Richard is in a fine position,and will be okay,as long as he doesn't lose his guns!!-guess what? he lost his guns to a well-timed charge by a Portuguese regiment.Now Richard was in trouble,outnumbered two to one,but still in a good position.

This shot sums it all up!!Brian is crying,Richard is gloating(?) and Paul looks positively beaming!!
Our objectives are looking further and further away at this time!!

The final shot,the French centre is devastated,and the British cavalry is reforming,ready to complete their victory,I am fighting a defensive battle on my flank,and Richard is living on borrowed time-and Paul is still beaming!!

This was a good game,loads of action,and loads of mistakes,loads of fun.

Roll on Thursday-probably same terrain,possibly a Roman landing against British warbands.