Last night the Corlears Hook Fencibles test drove my Waterloo scenario using Bloody Big Battles (BBB) rules. I usually avoid putting more units on the table than the designer intends. But the bicentennial of Waterloo beckons me, clouded my judgment. Large BBB scenarios have perhaps 80 infantry bases on one side, with two armies. Here I over-stepped, with over 100 infantry bases each for Wellington and Napoleon, and about 80 for Blucher. I knew it would slow the game down but wanted to test for scenario problems before the big day in June.
My OB is a blend of Adkin's "Waterloo Companion" and Chadwick's "The Emperor Returns". For numbers I relied on the former and for troop rating the latter, except for a few changes I made. Deploying them made clear that the Duke was overly worried about his right flank – the path to the Channel and the fleet. I went with Chadwick's command structure for the Duke's army, since it was deployed with no reference to Corps organization. Picton commanded the left, Orange the center and Hill the right, with the lion's share of troops. Uxbridge commanded the cavalry. French and Prussian command was easier since they followed Corps organization.
The mat is a 6X4 foot canvas mat based on Chadwick's map, hand painted by yours truly.
The table was loaded with toys. When we moved it away from the wall we noticed how much heavier it was than usual. Here are pictures of said 15mm toys.
Here are the French (before I put Wellington's army on the table).
Here are the Anglo-Dutch. (Now the table is heavy. Wait for the Prussians.)
Most of the troops are right, but sharp eyes may detect Austrians standing in for Nassau infantry or some Allied cavalry.
Rick decided to play Wellington and Bill wanted to be Blucher. This left me with Napoleon. Good enough, what better role to stress test the scenario? I started off by launching an assault on Hougomont. D'Erlon's corps began forming a grand battery before La Haye Sainte and moved infantry up in the small valley behind the guns.
Reille's Corps began forming a grand battery between the Hougomont woods and the Brussels road. The attack on the chateau was stopped by heavy musket fire and artillery fire from the main position. Both attacking brigades went low on ammunition but only succeeded in disrupting the British Guards within.
I began moving Lobau's Corps to the east during the 11 AM turns. Becke says Boney noticed the Prussians around Chappelle St. Lambert around 1 PM. So my Prussians arrived too early but I must find some way of keeping the French player from acting on this before they show up. Perhaps if the French get too close to the eastern edge they trigger an earlier Prussian arrival…
I'll cover the Hougomont fighting. A second attack closed with one brigade and was seen off easily. During the fighting the Guards became low on ammunition. The way to solve this is to retire beyond musket range – very hard for the besieged garrison. But the Guards stopped the 3rd attack with musket fire. The 4th attack, a serious one by 2 French brigades, was thrown back with bayonets. A large brigade of Hanoverian line troops advanced into Hougomont woods. Hougomont looked safely in Allied hands for the near future.
In the center, the first attack on La Haye Sainte was stopped by musket fire. The French remained in the woods south of the farm for several hours, trading musket fire with the garrison. On the fourth turn the French rallied, surged up to the farm with a roar (a roll of 6) and threw Baring's men out. The French attack to their right failed with heavy losses and La Haye was a salient in the Allied position. The French did hold against an Allied counter-attack.
A Young Guard brigade had come up in support of d'Erlon's attack. The line troops bolted past in defeat. Allied artillery put a fearful blast in to the revealed Guards, going low on ammunition as a result. I pulled the Guards back. Papelotte fell to an attack by one of Durutte's brigades. The French held it against a counter-attack.
British cavalry charged French artillery on both right and left. Two hot dice rolls knocked out a British cavalry brigade each and left the guns low on ammunition.
Bulow's Corps was storming forward and collided with Lobau's Corps south of Papelotte. The French front line was shoved back. The 3rd Silesian Landwehr attacked some of Lobau's artillery. Wimpy dice saw the Silesians close and another lame roll saw the battery over-run. The Silesians exploited this but were bundled back to their start line by French cavalry.
We were tired – it had taken nearly 5 hours to play 4 turns. BBB usually plays much faster than this but I over-loaded the system with too many toys and too many units. I will try to change the scale of the game slightly – 750 troops or 18 guns per base instead of the overly optimistic 500/12 of this test. I will also merge a number of brigades so there are fewer units. Perhaps with that we can get the game down to something that can be played in two sessions. Aside from this, the Holy Grail of Napoleonic gamers, I intend to stay within the boundaries set by Chris in his other scenarios. For Waterloo, I can't help myself. And I know that the way to ruin a game is to put too many toys on the table. But it looks grand.
Aside from the slow pace we felt the game gave decent results and was fun.
paints his first three ships from the starter set.
