"Waterloo Campaign Game advice" Topic

I am looking for recommendations for a good board game covering the Waterloo campaign that serve as a great basis for a miniature campaign. I'd like to use it to generate the table top battles. I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Rob

Kevin Zucker's. Napoleon's return. You can find it either on cyberboard or Vassal. Also last days of the Grand Armée, same author.

Can any game really recreate the chaos that actually dictated what happened over a few days?

Tactics on a ridge south of Brussels sure, but (OK I am no wargamer) can any rules allow for Blucher surviving under his dead horse, d'Erlon's march, Ney at Quatre Bras so passively inept and the opposite at Mt St Jean, Grouchy following commands that defy all comprehension, even to this day (draw nearer to me, if only he had not then qualified that etc) or Prussians risking eveything by marching away from their supply lines, towards an allied commander they did not trust? Countless other elements of chaos that no rules can recreate.

Waterloo was an Allied miracle up until the morning of 18th. After that it was hang on, but brilliantly so. Intervene from the East, but brilliantly so.

Unless the campaign has a much better French staff corps, instructions written in clear text, Rod Steiger in much better health on the day, Grouchy with the gift of second sight and knowing that what Boney said was maybe not what he meant. Never mind DoW telling the Netherlanders that QB was of no importance and being disobeyed effectively. Unless Charleroi is no longer the axis of attack, how can you recreate the chaos theory that was the 1815 campaign?

The block game Napoleon from Columbia Games is perfect I think. You just assign your miniatures to each "block" and then fight the battles on the table top (for skirmishes you might just use the game's quick mechanics).

Each "block" has 1-4 strength points. You just need a way to translate to miniatures, and back.

For a simple camapign system to allow you to concentrate on the battles I'd use 'Hundred Days Battles' – mainly because I have it and enjoy it as a game.
link

I'd second Napoleon. But if you can get a copy of Sam Mustafa's Blucher, it has a great campaign system. I can't recall if the 100 Days card set includes maps for the campaign though.

Deadhead, we try. You can't recreate everything, but to a certain extent that's what the dice are for. Ideally you'd have at least Corps commanders represented by players, but you take what you can get. You'd be surprised how varied players are in how committed they can be to a campaign or even a game. Unfortunately telling the Guard Corps commander that he won't be doing anything until it is late in the day doesn't produce a great gaming experience. So it's always going to be a balance between history, simulation and fun. And to be honest, I'll make sure that it's a fun game over going into excessive detail.

+1 to Crispy – Napoleon from Columbia is our go to

"Napoleon" is a good start. The following campaign used this board as background, but relied on an umpire to coordinate multiple player inputs:

TMP link

Depending on the degree of "fog of war" that you want to simulate, Berthier Campaign Manager might be useful as well.

Depends on the detail required, the napoleon's Last Battles quad allows you to refight the entire campaign from Ligny to Wavre. This is a link to the rules;
PDF link
PDF link
PDF link

Avalon Hill has a boardgame covering the entire war which may work as a battle generator.
link

+ for Extra Crispy. Napoleon is very useful.

We used the edition, that has real division as blocks. You make a chart what every strength point means. You can even fight some battles with the board game.

The battles in the board game have left, center, right. We only played center as a tabletop game, so the winner of a flank could shift troops to the middle.

+1 for Napoleon's Last Battles. The tactical element is a bit generic boardgamey for my taste (strange things called 'zones of control' that no contemporary writer mentions, and you can really only destroy units by surrounding them) – but that's the bit you'd not be using.

For ultra realism, you should probably have an umpire and several copies of NLB in play at once, like one per player, so that you can't see what any other army is doing or where it is. If you were really clever you'd hide your own movements too, so Rod Steiger at Ligny doesn't know what Dan O'Herlihy's actually doing at QB.

There is a specific campaign game for the Waterloo Campaign in Miniature Wargames 386 which looks rather good.

The Emperor Returns for a higher level game or Napoleon's Last Gamble, both Kevin Zucker games

I still maintain if you want to fight the battles on the tabletop with miniatures and just use the board game for camapaign movement to set up the battles you're better off with 'Hundred Days Battles'.

Thanks to all!