"Large Quatre Bras Game" Topic

My group played a large Quatre Bras game last weekend.

The table was 20' x 5'
we used the General de Brigade rules and
each Infantry bn. and Cavalry regt. was represented at 1:20

We played it out over two days at North Bay Games and Hobbies in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.

Here are a few pictures of the table:

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The table was centred along a line from the Gemioncourt farm to the Materne pond. Pic 1 is the Materne Pond and village of Thyle area. Pic 2 is the Materne Pond.
Pic 3 is Gemioncourt Farm.
Pic 4 shows the edge of the Bossu Wood.

Wow – not that's big terrain!

Here is the initial set-up:

The Nassau Brigade defend the edge of Bossu Wood
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The Netherlands brigade defend Gemioncourt Farm from the French 9th Div. and 2nd Light Cavalry Div.
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The French 5th Div. advances around Materne Pond toward the village of Thyle and the min road to Quatre Bras.
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We played the game in 15 minute turns starting at 2:45 P.M.
Reinforcements were scheduled close to when they actually arrived up to 6:30 P.M. when the British Guard Div. was scheduled.

Good looking game, I like the teddy bear fur.
How did it turn out?

Reinforcements arrive:

The British 8th Brigade arrives on the left.
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The British 9th Br. arrives in the centre.
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The Netherlands Light Cavalry reinforces the Allied position near Gemioncourt and the French 6th Div. arrives on their left.
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The French advance to attack Gemioncourt and defending Netherlanders.
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The Centre heats up:

The French 9th Div. moves to attack Gemioncourt and a lucky die roll kicks out the defending Neth. 27th Jagers and the French capture the farm. One of the Militia Bns. is forced to retreat and another forms square as the French Cav. charges.
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The square stands and Neth. Hussars charge the stationary french Cav.
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In the following melee both sides are forced back, the Neth. off the table and the French back to reform. The square retreats out of harms way.

On both flanks the troops slowly advance
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Looks like a great game
Any idea how many toys there were on the table?

Thanks for sharing!

Hi
The French had 888 infantry, 126 cavalry and 22 guns on the table. The Allies had 1263 infantry, 94 cavalry and 30 guns at the end and another 192 infantry ( the Guards) and 6 guns that didn't make it when we stopped.

More pics to follow.

Cliff

Thanks for the excellent report. I enjoyed the account.

Part 5

On the Allied Left the Hanoverian 4th Br. arrives and advances around Materne Pond. Meanwhile the Brit. 8th Br. and French trade shots. The French advance out of Thyle and charge the flank of the Rifles who rout back. They rally behind the line.
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In the centre the Brits. advance to the hedge lines along the stream and a French Cuirassier Brigade arrives.
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Part 6

In the Centre the Neth. Infantry Brigade puts up a valiant fight throwing back the French attacks but are finally forced back themselves. Most of the Brigade withdraws off the table – only the 7th Line rallies on the board edge.
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Wellington arrives and finds his centre almost denuded of troops. A Neth. Bty. holds the line and the Neth. Dragoons are advanced to stop the French.

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On the Fr. Left the Infantry slowly advances toward the waiting Nassauers
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Great looking game.

Part 7

On the Allied Left the Hanoverian Landwehr Brigade crosses the hedge line and deploys to face moving french Cavalry.
French columns advance out of Thyle and attempt a few charges on the Brit. 8th Brigade. The 79th Highlanders are forced back and a French column is stopped by Artillery.
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Along the stream the Brit. 9th Brigade advances to the hedge line and is charged by French Cuirassiers. One Brit Inf. retreats the rest form squares.
The Brit. 5th Brigade arrives to stabilize the line.
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Part 8

In the Centre the Brunswick corps arrives and advances to push back the French.

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A few turns later the Hanoverian 1st Brigade joins the attack up the road.
Meanwhile Wellington moves toward the back of Gemioncourt to add morale support to a Brunswick unit and is CAPTURED by the French.
An interesting feature of General de Brigade is when a double six is rolled in an attack the nearest General within 9" is at risk. A French battery fired across the valley behind Gemioncourt and hit the Brunswick Bn. rolling double six. Wellington was thus hit as well and the roll resulted in "Startled at near miss, gallops for safe cover and blunders into the enemy lines. Captured and presented to the enemy CinC (Ney)."
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On the road the French throw Lancers and Infantry forward but are faced with fresh bns. and an 8 gun bty.

Part 9

On the Allied Right the French masses push one of the Orange-Nassau bns. off the table and advance to charge the others.
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In the Centre masses of Brunswick and Hanoverian troops advance.
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At that point we decided to call it as an Allied Victory. On both Flanks the Allied were holding off the French attacks and in the Centre the French had little to counter the massed Brunswick and Hanoverian Bns.

A fun game and a scenario that worked much better than I thought it would. It was quite balanced and tense up to the end.
Hope you enjoyed the write-up.

Cliff

Excellent!