"THE BATTLE OF MECHELIN - 25 June 1815" Topic

After Waterloo Campaign

SITUATION

"One week after Waterloo, the Anglo-Allied army is retreating towards Antwerp.

Lord Hill has been ordered to hold the French advance for one day at Mechelin.

Marshal Davout is attempting to force a crossing of the Mechelin stream line before nightfall.

Hill must delay. Davout must break through."

This is the preamble to a scenario for our After Waterloo Campaign – that postulates the French won the historic battle.
We use Valour & Fortitude v3 rules.

I am polishing up the scenario: OOBs, terrain, special rules, victory conditions etc

Any comments, input, ideas etc are welcome.

BTW, the best campaign battles are not the ones that are perfectly balanced but the ones where everyone remembers what happened and talks about the game long afterwards.

Sounds very interesting.

Swapping Davout for Ney makes this believable.
I assume the Prussains go east?

To kill a dead horse, where is Grouchy?

"Believable"? Well, it is essentially fantasy but I try my best.

In two of the early Campaign battles, the Prussians (& remnant Brunswickers) tried to slow the French down:
theminiaturespage.com

‌"TMP link

…not overly successful, so yes, they've retreated back towards Prussia AND the Russians & Austrians.

I anticipate a couple of battles between British & French before they clear off, leaving Napoleon to deal with his Continental enemies.

And, in breaking news, the Austrians don't seem as hostile to the Emperor's son-in-law as they had been. Watch this space.

In this campaign, Grouchy is fulfilling his historic role: being somewhere else.

In this scenario, Grouchy is a strategic genius. He was not needed at Mt St Jean after all and he proved to be brilliantly placed to flank protect Boney's threat to the inevitable evacuation of DoW's army.

This is like Vietnam or USSR against the Nazis. If there is that will to fight on, whatever the defeats, you will win. I am not sure that latest Coalition had anything remotely like that.

What a brilliant alternative history scenarios. Many alt history books about Waterloo, but most end that Rod Steiger wins or loses. Not sure I have ever seen a fighting retreat portrayed. Inspired and must see more. There is a book in this.

Well, thank you. The battle is inspired by Britain's other Napoleonic evacuation : the Battle of Coruna.

I'm still polishing the scenario for a game in about 10 days.
Even if the British "win", they'll evacuate the Continent….for now.

I don't want to give too much away & nothing is set in stone but the end of this campaign may be a 'Second Battle of Waterloo", sometime in 1820.

Davout is studying his maps.
Hill is preparing his defence.
The Guard waits beyond the southern horizon.

And somewhere in the Low Countries, Wellington is hoping Lord Hill can buy him one more day.