Waterloo Day: Quatre Bras - Part One

The French players led by General Du Gourmand examine the field, while 

Icecream checks the rules on his phone. 

I wrote some time ago of the Waterloo Day we planned for the 200th anniversary of the battle.  I gave a rough description of what occurred, but I think the time has come to give an excellent days gaming it's due.  

General TK views the few Dutch and Belgians arrayed against him. 

Quatre Bras was quite a demanding scenario to write to be honest, as I wanted to capture some of the pressure the allies must have felt, hanging on for dear life while the Duke marched to their aid. This necessitated beginning the game with very few troops on the table, which leaves players with little to do.  I'm not generally a fan of this, but I did my best to find a compromise that allowed the game to proceed at a decent clip and get everyone involved while still keeping the essence of Quatre Bras. 

Kellerman's light cavalry moving forward

I allowed the players to do their own deployment so the French reversed their left and right with Kellerman's cavalry on the right.  Du Gourmand was definitely channelling Ney as he chivy'd his fellows forward.  

General DeCasey began to wonder if the suspiciously empty allied half of the board meant that the Belgians were hidden in ambush. 

"No" says General Du Gourmand, it's not a trap, I've read the 

scenario - now get a wriggle on and get 'em!

The first cavalry skirmish on the allied left. 

The break point for both sides was eighteen units, that is, if they could wipe out eighteen enemy units, they would drive them from the field.  However, this would be lowered to thirteen units if you also held Quatre Bras. The Allies obviously enough began in possession, but were seriously outnumbered, thirty two units to seven at one point, so the pressure was on the French to get to grips and in jig time. 

Ended badly for the Dutch as the Polish lancers  sliced through their opposition and drove the supporting infantry into square. 

"It's OK boss, I've got this under control."  

This was not the first time command relationships in this game were based on something other than unalloyed truth and integrity. 

General Ney examines the situation on the French right as McShannon pours on the pressure. King Billy (centre) ably portrayed by the Unlikely Douglas McKenzie is beginning to feel the pinch.  

"How many Frenchmen are over there?" 

Icecream begins to realise that there are a lot of men in blue coats coming. 

Fortunately, the red coats had started to arrive, just as the last Dutch infantrymen were being unceremoniously booted out of the woods. 

General De Casey looks distinctly unimpressed with the number of Allied reinforcements. 

"The code word is Get 'Em Boys!"

General Du Gourmand gives General McShannon the benefit of his wisdom.  We gave the Allies two "hesitation points", which forced one player to miss a turn in order to model Rielle's hesitation to close.  Rielle had faced Wellington in the Peninsula and was not sure that the apparent Allied weakness at Quatre Bras wasn't a variation on the Duke's ploy of concealing the main strength of his army. 

These hesitation points were represented by small individually wrapped cheeses from Lidl, which had to be offered to the "hesitant" player with the phrase "Sir, of course you could do that, but would not rather enjoy this delicious piece of cheese."

Icecream came back what he described as "...the most insulting unFrench cheese" I could find. I regret to say we did not take a picture, but I believe it was a Lidl variant of Laughing Cow. 

TK looks chipper as he drives the Allies out of the woods. Quatre Bras is now in range of his artillery. The Allies have managed to bring on some reinforcements, but they are mostly on the right. 

Icecream moves some Hanoverian landwehr onto the board, while Marshall-Ney-for-a-day (Du Gourmand) takes over the reins of the French right. General De Casey had to head home as he had just recently become a father. It was good to see him, even if only for a little while. 

Little Miss DeCasey is a beautiful, but demanding mistress. 

"I thought I ordered you to charge!"

Marshall-Ney-for-a-day comes down to the French right to find out how things are going, only to discovered that despite the recent reinforcements of cuirassiers, General McShannon had not pressed the beleaguered Belgians.  

"But they were right there, you had them right where you wanted them!"

"What were you thinking?!?!"

This was probably one of the best moments in the game, not least because General Du Gourmand is a notoriously cavalier subordinate himself who routinely disregards orders in his usual pursuit of l'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace! He trusts in that classic Irish saying, "It is easier to ask forgiveness, than permission" and hopes that success will pardon his disobedience. 

He said afterwards, "Really, it's only funny when I do it."

"Why?"

General McShannon looks on while Marshall-Ney-for-a-day delivers a classic evil villain, why-am-I-surrounded-by-idiots-speech to the door. 

Marshall-Ney-for-a-day seeks spiritual solace. 

Which appears to do the trick.  Icecream (right)appears skeptical. 

"McShannon, I can't help but feel we got off on the wrong foot, but we really need to push on here.  If you drive him back, we can turn the whole position." 

"There are damn few of them there McShannon and best we wallop 'em before their mates turn up."

TK keeps 'em rolling forward

The pressure is building in the centre.  Wellington arrived, but the French are closing in on Quatre Bras.  Casualties are mounting on both sides, but with the Allies holding the cross roads they could afford to spend more blood if it meant halting the French advance. 

Suddenly Picton!

After a really hard run of luck on the Allied left, the 3rd Division finally showed up. General Von Kerrigan celebrated in the most Picton like manner he could think of - waving a top hat in the air and shouting! 

With more redcoats coming onto the field and his hoped for big push on the right having failed to materialise, Marshall-Ney-for-a-day considers his options. 

Will the 3rd Division be able to stem the French tide on the left? 

Can Quatre Bras be held in the face of overwhelming numbers? 

More soon gentlemen. 

Waterloo Day - 20th June

The boys ponder how they are going to take Quatre Bras while General Villainous LeGlace of the Dutch army checks his phone for cheap flights out of here...

This will be a short post as I have quite a few photos and to be honest, it was such a good days gaming it deserves a full report.  Suffice to say - there was a gathering on Saturday and we played my Quatre Bras scenario and Waterloo.  A great time was had by all - many thanks to all that attended. For all my worrying about how I was going to tackle Quatre Bras - the inspiration provided by last minute panic did the job. 

Marshall Von Casey looking like the sassiest French general there is.

I was actually quite happy with how the scenario turned out. Most of the things I was worried about didn't occur, though the game dragged on longer than I had anticipated (three hours, which is very long for a CNN game) - I put this down to a number of factors. The reinforcements that needed to be deployed took some time, but I think the major factor was that I included too many troops in the order of battle. Having realised my mistake, I reduced both sides by a third.

And then promptly forgot to reduce the victory conditions in accordance with the new troops numbers. That's something I'll bear in mind for the next version.

General Von Kerrigan looking pleased as yet more French cavalry hove into view

Man of the match has to go to General Von Kerrigan, who took on the role of General Picton with hard charging vigour.  Absolutely unflappable in the face of imminent destruction. Well done that man. 

The field of Waterloo

After we finished Quatre Bras, General Von Casey had to womble off as he has recently become a father and had to go look after his new charge. It was great to see him, but a higher duty calls.

The light drawing in, it was nearly five before we finished Quatre Bras, and the Prussians getting nearer, we reset the battlefield for Waterloo and dived in with a will. I shall leave the account (and who won) for the full report. 

Team picture - care to guess who won?

We finished around half seven and stayed for a few drinks afterwards. General Von Kerrigan (on the right with top hat) did excellent duty as General Picton having grasped the fundamental truth of good generalship which is SHOUTING! And hat waving - excellent hat waving on that man. 

Many thanks to all that attended, Marshall Terens, The Villainous LeGlace, General Von Kerrigan, the Unlikely Douglas McKenzie and General Du Gourmand. And a big welcome to newcomer, Marshall McShannon - who took to the whole enterprise like a duck to water and earned immortal fame by out Du Gourmanding Du Gourmand in his first battle. 

More in the days to come. 

Quatre Bras - Part Two - The Allies

The Prince of Orange

- he seems to be waving his hat in every picture I see of him. 

I've spent most of the week hitting the books and getting better acquianted with the finer points of Landlord & Tenant law, which is about as riveting as it sounds.  In between times, I've had a chance to muck about with this Quatre Bras scenario.  The map is drafted and I've done a draft order of battle for both sides. The following order of battle was put together at a scale of one unit per infantry battalion, cavalry regiment or artillery battery. With 59 units of the table, this is wildly too much, but I'm not sure if I'm thinking about this clearly.

The Allies will start with about a fifth of those troops deployed, while the French will have about forty odd units on the table from the start. I also don't expect all the Allied troops to make it onto the table.

The more I think about it, the more I think that this might actually work.  In CCN large armies are great, but they are hard to co-ordinate. The way I see the game developing as a race to seize the crossroads of Quatre Bras, with the Allies trying to hold the town while the French struggle to bring their superior numbers before the redcoats arrive. The other problem for the Allies is that the only a third of their force is made up of redcoats. CCN does not rate the Dutch-Belgians particularly highly, though in this situation they will be defending and will have the benefit of picking their ground which should balance the books slightly.

At present I'm leaning towards the following idea -

The French must either inflict thirteen casualties AND hold Quatre Bras or inflict eighteen casualties.

The Allies must inflict thirteen casualties AND hold Quatre Bras or inflict eighteen casualties.

The action deck has 118 cards (discard both Grande Maneuvre cards), the day ends when the deck runs out and it is not reshuffled.

Now to work out if the reinforcements turn up on a strict timetable or leave some element of wiggle room?

Allied Order of Battle

CnC - Wellington

Prince of Orange

2nd Dutch-Belgian Division - Perponcher - 11

1 Dutch Light Infantry

3 Dutch Militia

1 Horse Artillery

5 Nassau Line Infantry

1 DB Foot Artillery

1st British Division - Cooke - 8

6 Guard Grenadiers

2 Foot Artillery

3rd British Divisinon - Alten - 12

4 British Line

5 Hanoverian Line

1 Hanoverian Light

2 Foot Artillery

Reserve Corps

5th Division - Picton - 14

3 British Line

1 Rifles

4 British Line

4 Hanoverian Militia

2 Foot Artillery

Brunswick Contingent - Brunswick - 11

1 Rifles

3 Light Infantry

3 Line

1 Foot Artillery

1 Horse Artillery

1 Light Cavalry

1 Lancer

2nd Dutch Belgian Cavalry Brigade  - Merlen - 3

2 Light Cavalry

1 Horse Artillery

Quatre Bras - Part One

Scenario design with my trusty batman, Flashman. 

There's a new Epic Waterloo scenario on ccnapoleonics.net which put me in mind of doing a Waterloo day sometime in June. There's a possibility I might have enough Prussians to do Waterloo by June, but one scenario isn't quite enough for a whole days gaming. 

Of the Hundred Days battles, Quatre Bras was the natural choice for a second battle as I have quite a few Dutch and Belgian troops and a very limited supply of Prussians.  

Scenario design is always a bit of a tricky business, I find that ultimately it isn't like a scientific experiment where finely calibrated inputs resulting in a perfect output.  The process for me at least is far more like throwing a pot. Far better to start putting something together and make the (often crushing) mistakes along the way, adjusting on the fly until you achieve a result.  The end product may be less aesthetically pleasing, but in my case, at least makes sure that something gets done.

Examining Quatre Bras as a battle, there are a number of points that  need to be addressed. 

1) The battle is the story of a smaller defending force meeting a larger attacking force and being gradually reinforced over the day.  

2) The battle took place late in the day, opening at about 1400hrs and therefore the French player in particular will be fighting the clock. 

3) The high standing crops between Gemioncourt and Quatre Bras are a distinctive and unusual feature of the battle and should be included.   The forest of Bossu is of course important, but less unusual. 

From a game point of view, there are other concerns. 

1) The battle kicks off with a Dutch-Belgian Division facing a French Corps. I've no problems with this per se, battles are meant to be a struggle, but it does cause problems for our usual method of modelling a battle because of the way we play.  With at least three players on each side, this could mean that the French players will have plenty to do, but that two thirds of the Allied team are sitting on their hands. It may be good history, but it doesn't make for entertaining play.  I will have to think about how to square that particular circle and determine how much of a wait is reasonable to impose on the Allied players. 

2) At present, I've adopted an order of battle where each battalion/regiment/battery is a unit.  This  makes the initial confrontation quite manageable, but means that there are over fifty units on the Allied side towards the end of the battle - which is at the upper limit of what CCN handles well. It is likely that French will have caused some casualties by then and the troops will be more spread out because they will be arriving in dribs and drabs. Still something to be borne in mind.

I may  reduce their numbers proportionately to make things a bit more manageable. 

I sketched out the battlefield last night, something that would be very easily done on a screen, but that I find easier with some hex paper and coloured pencils. Suitable furry company is an invaluable assistance. It was a pleasant occupation and a fine way to while away an hour.  

Mrs. Kinch took very ill last week and is unfortunately still in hospital.  She's receiving the best of care and will hopefully be on the mend soon. It's been a grueling few days between work, trying to get some study done (exams at the beginning of May - phew!) and getting into see her twice a day. But God is good and I hope that she will be able to come home before too long.

If nothing else - Flashman is beginning to get a bit unruly.

M, 32 seeks Dutch Army Officer, must be 1/72 with GSOH.

King Billy being carried from the field of Waterloo

I bet he liked long walks on the beach, sunsets and holding hands. I did a stock take recently and it looks like if I get weaving and paint a figure or two I should be able to play the Quatre Bras scenario relatively soon. I've been saving a very good bottle of 1986 port for the occasion, so it'll be one to look forward to.

On the other hand I don't have any Dutch, Nassauer or Brunswick mounted general officers - so this is something I'll have to rectify relatively sharpish. I had the Waterloo 1815 set, but I used my King Billy to represent an eccentric Rifles officer. I'm sure SHQ could supply me with any number of suitable fellows - but I thought I might appeal to the mess for particularly choice recommendations.

If I'm only buying three figures, they might as well be nice ones.




In the meantime I'll leave you with the sight that greeted Sir Harry Flashman VC and Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria when they got up this morning.


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