"Gaming Wavre 1815?" Topic

The Battle of Wavre seems a difficult one to wargame attractively—overshadowed by Waterloo, with no decisive climax and largely a struggle over bridges and delaying actions. Unless you change the topography &/or the forces considerably, it should end in a rather unsatisfying stalemate?

Emmanuel de Grouchy's French must press hard and force crossings; Johann von Thielmann's Prussians need only delay while the main battle unfolds elsewhere. In many ways, a pointless side-show.

Would Wavre work best as:

a standalone battle?
linked to a Waterloo game?
or a "march to the sound of the guns" scenario, with players receiving uncertain news from the west?

The last seems the most promising—but only if the players are somehow unaware of exactly what is happening at Battle of Waterloo and must act under the same uncertainty as the historical commanders.

So is Wavre only truly playable if one somehow obscures its historical context—or even relocates the same tactical problem to another period entirely?
Has anyone gamed it—and, if so, how did you make it interesting?

I've played Wavre several times a it is a great battle, far more interesting than boring Quatre Bras, done to death a million times.

To make life interesting, have the Prussians withdraw troops at regular intervals.

I have done it paired with Waterloo a couple of times, but that is quite a hefty engagement. A standalone battle is more manageable.

Not 'played' it as I have no Prussians. But I'd play it as a stand alone battle. If as part of a campaign the urgent need to get to Waterloo if known about should make the French find another route at the same time?

I'd go for standalone. Victory points for bridges and villages. Yes, it's strategically pointless, but the participants don't know that. And in any event it's too late for Grouchy to march.