"Waterloo Reenactment 2009" Topic

The report and photos from the "Daily Torygraph"

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Enjoy

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Would you put these fellows on round or square bases??

We may have to recalculate unit frontages…

LOL @ tshryock!

Don't you just hate it when the uniforms are accurate, but the figures just aren't anatomically correct.

hee hee so mean..

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Regards,

Now I know where the models for some of my 15mm Essex came from…..

I went to see this with 3 of my gaming mates and a few things struck me;

There seemed to be a heavy bias towards Boney – in the visitors shop there was only Boney stuff to buy, no Wellington (or indeed Blucher) statues/busts/toy soldiers, etc. And somebody ought to tell the French reenactors that the Corsican chappie did lose in the end.

During the 2 hour reenactment on the battlefield site on the Sunday one of the horses (ridden by a Chasseur) seemed to have a heart attack and died. Close to where we were sitting one of the Dutch/Belgians was injured (one of my mate thought he saw him falling onto a bayonet) and was carted off in an ambulance – it looked quite serious. So they do suffer for their art.

We walked around the Allied and French camps on the saturday and I have to say that the reenactors were incredibly friendly and happy to talk (I compare this to once going up to a bloke playing a demo game at Salute and asking him what figure manufacturer he was using to be told by the helpful young man that I really ought to leave him alone to allow him to concentrate on winning the game – although he used slightly more colourful language…what my father would call "industrial language").

I thought the whole experience was excellent and thoroughly enjoyable – not least because we drank large quantities of "Waterloo" beer (7%) the night before.

"And somebody ought to tell the French reenactors that the Corsican chappie did lose in the end."

I can't wait for 2015 Waterloo re-enactment – the French will probably not turn up. Hahahahaha

I hate to be mean, but Napoleonic reenacting almost always leaves me wanting. Not only are the reenactments FAR too tiny (nothing says lame like a "unit" of three cuirassiers charging a "square" of 12 infantry) but often, as noted above, you have guys who simply don't look the part. It is too bad Nappy uniforms are SO expensive.

A very close friend of mine is an American Civil War reenactor (primarily) and is part of a campaign group; very rough looking fellows who carry and wear exactly what they would. Almost no tents, very good at drill, and overall they look SO much more realistic it hurts (in a good way.)

Dont get carried away on ACW reenactments. I do it and their are some very good hardcore/campaigner groups. The trouble is you tend to remember the farby mainstream units. My own units standards are not quite as high as I would wish but bringing an original 12pdr to events does mean we tend to camp a little too heavily for my tastes. That said I'm not getting any younger.

The one thing is that you can get large reenactments here in the US for their Civil War. The problem is almost the other way around. I was at a Gettysburg reenactment a few yeas ago when there were more Confederates representing Picket's Charge than took part in the original….

Col Spider,

I don't think I've ever seen a reenactment where somebody didn't at least have a sprained ankle or some kind of other injury.

Two years ago it was extremely hot and one of the reenactors had a heart attack marching away from the battle. Because both the public and reenactors shared the same pathway out of Hougoumont, there was no other choice but to walk besides him as they were doing CPR. It was a bit unsettling to witness.

Dont get carried away on ACW reenactments. I do it and their are some very good hardcore/campaigner groups. The trouble is you tend to remember the farby mainstream units.

The one thing is that you can get large reenactments here in the US for their Civil War. The problem is almost the other way around. I was at a Gettysburg reenactment a few yeas ago when there were more Confederates representing Picket's Charge than took part in the original….

My dear boy! Square bases of course!

Looks like it was a lot of fun for those involved – reenacting is too much work for me – and I agree, the ACW guys can really get hard core – notably the Confederate types who starve themselves to get a "lean Rebel look"

I've seen more fat good ole boy types on the reb side than the lean and mean type. I do all types of reenacting the best is The Great War hsnds down. All you need is maybe a couple of dozen on a side, trenches, sandbags and barbed wire and your good to go all day and night long!

Napoleonic is great as well but any 19th century type of battle you need about 5,000 participants combined to make it interesting. Hopefully 2015 will have a turnout of at least that many.

Most re-enactments suffer because of small numbers. The best I have seen was the Hastings 'special anniversary' event in 2006. There were early medieval re-enactors from all over the world – about 3000 in total. Was an impressive sight!

I've had the fortunate experience of being able to take part in both a Napoleonic and an ACW reeenactment.

Waterloo 2005 had about 3,000 particpants, mostly of good quality impressions:

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Gettysburg 1998 had 23,000 participants of all types. It was a truly massive event:

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Oddly, the vast difference in size between the two events was not really noticeable, because at Waterloo everyone was packed in more, while at Gettysburg they were spread out over a huge area.

23,000 – crikey!

How many combatants were there in 1863? Would be interesting to see what is the highest ratio of original troops to re-enactors.

Hastings had maybe 6 to 8 thousand per side, so the 2006 re-enactment was about 1:4 or 1:5 ish.

The most realistic reenactment was at Perryviile, KY. a few years ago. There were about 5,000 reenactors and we reenacted parts of the battle on the real battlefield site. Gives you a true accurate perspective of the ground and one to one numbers.

You really don't need exact numbers to reenact the battle just exact numbers to reenact part of the battle is the best.

Still breaking down Waterloo into parts for reenactments you would still need a minimum of 5,000 since like Civil War minimum commitments in major battles were at brigade level.

Perryville KY, was great – my unit for the large national forms up as part of Stones Battery. At that reenactment we were placed on the actual site they occupied on Starkweather Hill in the original.

Perryville is one of the most confusing battlefields out there when you first encounter it amongst the rolling hills and the problem of acoustic shadow clearly demonstrated.

Last time I was there we had the moon in the same phase and the weather the same as the original battle too.