"D'Erlon's Assault @ Waterloo - Black Powder scenario" Topic

Here is my first draft at a scenario for Black Powder. I am trying to have it shook out for convention usage in the Summer. Table will be 6x10 with extra spaces for reserves.

Ideally this is the first in a series of 'snapshot' games involving Waterloo highlights that will ultimately lead to a full blown setup in 2015 – seperate thread on that one last week.

figure 6-8 players per side…roughly controling 8-12 units at a time or have dibs on reserves as they come on the field. Comments welcome.

The game commences with a bombardment from the Grand Battery at the targets along the ridge. Only clearly visible targets are the Allied artllery and skirmishers – everything else is behind the ridge or in La Haye Sainte.

Mike

I was curious, I have read through your previous thread and see your OB, but I am unclear about the number of bases for each unit and how big they are.

John

I have went with the the standard of 15mm frontage for infantry and 20mm wide for horse. An infantry base is 45mm wide. 24 foot unit would be about (90mm) 3.5" wide in attack column (2 bases wide)In line that will stretch them to 7".

Units are place holders for general locations…spacing and exact placement cannot be discerned from the map.

Mike

Ambitious! Looking forward to your after-action report hopefully.

Just a note on the lay of the land: The ridge is continuous, the road from Charleroi cuts into the bank which is quite steep right behind La Haye Sainte, then levels out at Wellington's crossroads. The Sand Pit was cut into the slope of the ridge. The East-West road was not paved I believe, and its western branch would also cut into the crest of the ridge for the distance covered by your tabletop.

Thanks – it has been a few years since I was on the battlefield but I hope to capture the key terrain aspects with the terrain I am working on.

Hard to get all the specific terrain bits on the map.

Now what would be very useful is if someone had a key as to where all the different crop fields were (rye and such). My first inclination is to model the majority of this board as rye fields with the odd fallow field or other crops in their stead.

Anyone have any insight on this?

Mike

@mpanko,
I suspect you could start with the Ferraris map for the field network – I'm sure this is only speculative, but it's at least a start, and no one could really criticize you for the reference.

Start with the bottom right corner of map 78. You'll see De La Haye Sainte, Hougoumont, Papelotte and La Belle Alliance, all indicated in that area.

ngi.be/NL/NL1-4-2-3.shtm

npm

For what it's worth, all the accounts I can recall mentioning the crops seem to refer to rye, which at the time would stand almost as high as a man (thatching was done with straw then, not reeds). This applies both to the path of d'Erlon's attack, where the skirmishers shako pompoms looked like flowers in the field to one eye-witness, and to Wellington's right, where the Guards were allegedly hidden by the crops until they got up and started firing.

However you are right that one quarter of the arable surface at least should have been left fallow or given over to grazing. Can't help you with other crops I'm afraid.

For what it's worth, all the accounts I can recall mentioning the crops seem to refer to rye, which at the time would stand almost as high as a man (thatching was done with straw then, not reeds). This applies both to the path of d'Erlon's attack, where the skirmishers' shako pompoms looked like flowers in the field to one eye-witness, and to Wellington's right, where the Guards were allegedly hidden by the crops until they got up and started firing.

However you are right that one quarter of the arable surface at least should have been left fallow or given over to grazing. Today the area around Papelotte is grazing, may well have been the case then as it's rather uneven for ploughing.

Can't help you with other crops I'm afraid, other than to note that crops like cabbages or Brussels sprouts, which today are planted in (smaller) fields for the market, would probably have been grown in kitchen gardens for home consumption then.

mpanko,

happy to drive down and take some pictures of the terrain for you if it's useful – light's pretty lousy in the current weather though.

@Musketier,
I would agree that the crops would still, probably, be standing during D'Erlon's advance. But by the time the British Guards confronted the French Guard in the evening, I would think it most unlikely that the crops were still standing there. The French heavy cavalry would have seen to that a couple of hours earlier.

npm

Yes it's something I've always wondered about. The only suggestion I have for reconciling things is that the Guards' position may have been further to the right than the main theatre of the cavalry attacks – with the French Guard's attack going in their direction precisely because the way up the centre was littered with dead and dying horses and riders?

I would review the photographs of Siborne's two models. Both will show contemporary field planting.

Allan

Thanks for all the help – AllanFMountford you are a bleeping genius! I didn't even think to look at Siborne's model…this is what I found with one google search….

Thanks alot all…very helpful!

Mike