Joy of Six and Spends

Joy of Six has come and gone, I was really looking forward to this years as we were having a year off from putting on a display game. The only issue was getting to the event! Unknown to the organisers and most of Sheffield's population the vast majority of the roads around Hallam University was closed for a bike race. Sheffield Council have form for incompetence in organising events. Just the other year they had a marathon but failed to order water and only on the day realised cancelling the event!! Par for the course the people standing at the barriers did not know alternative routes nor it seemed did they care. Eventually we found the way in but I know more than one had to park miles away and walk in after trying and failing to find that one road out of many that got you in.

Regardless the attendance was good, not sure how it compared with last years but again space was all used up and plenty of games and traders were in attendance. The food remained good at prices that were reasonable, something that is getting rarer at shows making it the only show I don't take a packed lunch to.

I did not get any photo's of the show, just never got going with that sort of thing. Plenty of good looking games though, it was kind of weird seeing another Waterloo game in the same spot we had a couple of years ago and impressive it was too.

Most games were display but plenty of games were also participation. One such me and Lee played towards the end of the show which I was not really keen to play at the offset as by this point I was feeling rather tired. Turned out to be a great opportunity. The rules are based on Too The Strongest and is the ECW version that looks to be coming out in the future. I am a real fan of the ECW and so am a little difficult to please. I have to say that to this point no ECW rules have really grabbed me but these have a great feel and the mechanics whilst simple are very clever. Hopefully we will be getting our hands on playtest copies so we can try them out further. They are close to wrap up so I doubt we will have much influence on their development but I think these will be our go to rules for ECW.

They look to be able to play out medium sized games (15-20 units a side) in a short evening and should be able to handle very large games without to much trouble. We had around 15 units per side and the commands were all over the place to stimulate a confused command were neither side were ready for the battle and this came across well as you tried to make units work either together or separated by terrain or distance. We both got the gist of the rules relatively quickly and started to explore tactical options and how the game mechanics worked these moves out.

It's enough to say that when we turned up at the show we were selling our old Baccus casting s and getting new ones in the future. Now the plan is to keep the old, carry on painting them and get them on the table then get the new stuff and replace as we go. I am even thinking of trying out To The Strongest rules for our 6mm ancients because if they play as fast and have similar mechanics they could work well for next years game.

Of course a show is nothing without it's purchase. First stop was Leven Miniatures though it was mostly to drop off very late models but I did buy a few bits. Having painted no buildings for myself for well over a year I just did not want to increase the hoard too much, plus I actually don't know which buildings I need. I do know though that I will need to add to my ECW suitable buildings and the Medieval MED18 Large Manor & Stables will work. I also bought GEN18 Spanish Windmill, I really should have bought another one or two of these so will get more at a future show or post. Lastly a retired stone building that originally was in one of the American ranges but again I think I can use it elsewhere.

No one got rich off me with Baccus just getting a small order mostly because I forgot to sort out a list of what else I need for my Magnesia army. So two packs of elephants when I needed the, I bought two packs of Celts, naked fanatics and light cavalry. In both cases as the packs I wanted were sold out (buy early not late!). Again I needed more Celtic infantry than just one pack so need to add to these. The light cavalry will be OK though.

We returned home and everyone had a great time. Lee is buzzing over the ECW and picked up a raft of painted figures as well as about completing the lead required for next years display game. I have a few ECW cavalry regiments on my desk awaiting paint so it's got me revved up as well.

Talking of painting desk, two battalions of 15mm SYW Prussians are about to shuffle off whilst I have three British Dragoon regiments for The Boy's Peninsular army and another four phalanx blocks just marching on behind the cavalry. It's going to be very 6mm for a few weeks.

The Battle of Magnesia 190BC

As I have mentioned before, Lee and myself are planning on putting an Ancients battle at Joy of Six 2018 and we have finally selected the Battle of Magnesia between the Seleucid and Roman armies. I have used a OOB from the internet . This is a truly massive force so I have cut it down to a third of the size as offered there. This still gives Lee 50 units and 77 units!

Whilst Lee has just about all his units to paint I at least have just 31 Four of these will be phalanx units (yes I know I said 20, turns out I need 22). These are a mix of cavalry, mostly cataphract and light infantry so will not be an issue painting them in time.

Lee's Romans are obviously mostly infantry and the units will be a lot less figure heavy than mine, this is the spectacle I was looking for in a game. My massed phalanx eight deep with 96 figures a base fronting up to about 36 figures a base. With the phalanx making up just over 25% of my force they will be a focal point but not the whole battle.

I have also worked out what figures I still need to buy and it's just under £120 worth of castings. Lee I am assuming will have still more to buy so Baccus will be getting a visit at some point. Most of what I am buying can be used in other armies so will not be one shot wonders though just how much use they will get post game is uncertain.

As for Lee's well I guess it depends on how fast the game will play. If fast enough to get a large game played then they should all get out in future games, that is if we can paint up enough opposition outside the Seleucid armies.

Rather than make up a set of new boards we are thinking about battle mats, the battle took place at the turning of the year (could have been 189BC) so we are looking at semi arid. That will come later as we still need to work out the actual size of the table we will need. It should be smaller than the Waterloo game which ran to 16x6 feet. The only two natural features is the Hermos River that the Romans fixed their flank to and a hill behind the Seleucid positions that was fortified but could be left off the table if desired.

So not a massive amount of work for me to do with plenty of time to get it all done. Lee on the other hand has lots of painting to get done, ideally we will get the figures bought before Salute as that is when Baccus put up their prices. I will await Lee's reckoning before making a move.

We will have to start playtesting the battle at some point as we have to balance the larger Seleucid army against the fact that the Romans actually won the battle. The trick I think will be a few special scenario rules that will have to be used to make this more even. Firstly bow troops will be less effective than usual as the day started with poor visibility and was misty and damp that would have effected the effectiveness of the bows at least until the weather improved later in the day. Reducing the bows effectiveness will harm the Seleucids more than the Romans . Most of the other SSR's will probably be worked in to give the Romans advantages rather than take things from the Seleucids.

Joy of Six - The Spoils

As I mentioned in yesterdays post I spent most of my time at our game (so no pics at all of other games) but I did get a little retail time in.

Not that I did that much buying, I could have bought from several of the traders, near misses were Heroic's and Ross for either more WWI planes in the hope of getting me to paint something up or the Russian WWII ones I want to go onto. Rapier for a bigger mix of Ancients but I have to admit I really don't yet need to diversify.

I just got two packs from Baccus, some Egyptian Marines to add a bit more diversity to my Persians. Eventually the Persians will have a large and multinational army, lots of colour and type. I also bought a pack of Prodromoi Cavalry these will actually be used as more Companion cavalry but provide a few more poses. I was going to buy The Boy more Napoleonic British but he really has enough I have yet to paint to buy more......yet.

Something on my to get list for quite some time which I finally picked up from Leven Miniatures is a pack of green stuff for when I need to do a bit of filling or modelling. 

Keeping with Leven for the rest of the way I bought a couple more buildings to go with the others already bought for our Ancients games. These will give me a reasonable sized town.

For my ECW and Napoleonic's I have bought three more of the Medieval range. These are all fairly new releases and as such not yet painted by me and so rather exciting to get at them.

After seeing these buildings painted by Craig Armstrong I just had to buy them, these can be used with Lee's Roman's for Ancients but also plugged into our Peninsular Napoleonic's.

I really love these buildings, as you can see I have rather restocked but that's well below half the story as Mick has given me a whole box of Biblical buildings for a range he will be releasing as soon as I get them all painted. No pressure then. I will be buying a load of these as well as they are bloody marvellous. This is where Leven Miniatures really scores big, most of their ranges have good depth rather than a selection that needs high levels of repetition to make up more than a few buildings. Indeed his latest range is Old West with 18 codes and 25 buildings in total!

So not too big a pile, enough to set my paint to finished ratio a step or two backwards but I have been reasonably busy over the last month making some room in the to paint boxes. I even should finish two things this week maybe a few more and I have more that is finished just waiting a moment to post them.

Joy of Six Assault on Hougoumont.

Can't believe it's over a week since Joy of Six and I've had little time or inclination to post anything, I hate hot weather!

Our experience this year was far more relaxed, we knew exactly where we were going, unloaded the van in two minutes whilst chatting with Igor and his face fuzz. Once inside we quickly set up the board, had a chat with Pete from Baccus and Mike from Leven Miniatures, yes it was that relaxed. Set up of the units was very straightforward and we actually started the first turn before the official opening time. The Boy was the attacking French whilst Lee defended. Me I was just eye candy ;-)

The view from behind the French line, I was really glad of having the ammo wagon bases, without them we would have had rather a large area of empty table. The game started with two Divisions on the table with a third due to come on once the first two divisions had made their attack.

Quite a few onlookers recognised the battle, some from the previous years display and others due to the excellent Hougoumont model from Leven Miniatures. Indeed one of these sets was bought on the back of seeing our game which is always a nice touch.

The Allied view, most of Lee's troops are in reserve and can't be moved forward until certain stages in the battle due to events off set as it were. The Boy in turn can only activate a single Division at a time to keep within the historical nature of the battle. What Lee has that was quite an advantage was a lot of skirmisher bases that only have a attack strength of one but to be removed from play need to take two casualties. A single casualty is exchanged for a retreat instead.

The Boy had four skirmish bases in his first division, these were heavily outnumbered by Lee but were having the better of the firefight. Lee found he was drawn into a pitched battle with these four bases rather than trying to screen them and use the rest of his skirmishers to attack the formed battalions. 

This allowed The Boy to get his first attack into Hougoumont almost at full strength. However that was to change once they assaulted the walls. The -2 for attacking a built up area is always tough to get by but with the skirmisher rule the typical result was that the attack unit lost a strength point whilst the defender is forced to retreat to be replaced by another unit before the French could take advantage of the forced retreat of the first opponent.

Normally we allow the winning unit to follow up on a retreat but to make Hougoumont a tougher nut to crack we did not allow the follow up. This really helped the defender, though it was still possible for the attacker to take advantage of the gap if they got to activate the formation again before the defender got to move.

The attacking units strength quickly dropped from four to two resulting in their inability to remain on the attack against the chateau. The Boy had enough about him to switch these half spent units to attack the skirmishers outside the defences which helped keep the still full strength battalions in good enough order to launch further attacks.

 At this point Lee also switched his tactics and started to try and get at the fresh battalions and where he could not, to pick on the low strength battalions rather than the skirmishers. Casualties started to rise for both sides as Lee was now taking two casualties on some of the skirmishers surrounding Hougoumont whilst The Boy was forced to retreat his strength one battalions though a couple of these suffered a further strength loss and were removed.

The Boy did clear the gardens and then was brought under fire from a Guard Battalion. These were unlucky with their rolls (Lee suffered some really bad dice at times) and then The Boy getting a couple of back to back turns shot this battalion to ribbons. Guard ribbon's though still have teeth and quickly put the French  battalion to flight.

Even with the gardens taken the French could not force the walls and both battalions in the gardens are forced to fall back. The second  assault had failed.

The Boy got his artillery deployed and removed a allied skirmisher from the game but was quickly forced to retreat by other skirmishers who in turn savaged more of the French weakened battalions.

The yellow dice show units that are forced to retreat, these normally continue to retreat until they are off board but for this game we retreated them to the other side of the woods.

The first division was now spent, one point for every battalion with a yellow die and two points for any removed. Once equal to the number of battalions at the start the formation can not advance, once above and they have to retreat from the field. We have found that this rule rewards removing mauled units from the front line and rewards the use of reserves.

The Boy starts his second Division forward whilst Lee repositions his skirmishers to handle the new threat. The first division was light infantry and had the skirmishers, two useful advantages. These had neither and now would face a tougher approach.

Rather than struggle through the woods The Boy advanced to the opposite flank and tried his luck their. A mix of skirmish fire and artillery caused a number of casualties on his way in but overall he was lucky not to have suffered more.

The third Division deployed on the opposite side of Hougoumont but more for show as at this point they are unable to attack. In our original playtesting with a second board their advance to this point cost them quite a few casualties from guns across the valley.

The British Guard Battalion has moved to defend the front of the gardens but finally the French get into the chateau, though at great cost to their strength.

 Now allied reserves are fully released. The Boy has little left from the second division and would not be able to hold out long without further reinforcement from the third division. By this point is was about 3.30 pm and rather than continue we sat and chilled chatting with other gamers. 

I am happy to declare the game was a success, I was able to chat a lot with onlookers whilst Lee and The Boy either continued to make moves or also talk with interested parties. As such you could see the battle unfolding whilst being able to explain the ideas behind the rules and the mechanics. Five gamers supplied me their email address for a set of the rules to be sent. If anyone wants them just use the blogger contact button on the right and I can send you them.

The show had more games, possibly more traders and definitely a higher attendance than last year to continue the year on year increase the show has maintained since it's original incantation. I would say it dropped off a bit late in the afternoon, but still remained quite busy. 

Not many 6mm Sceptics seem to have been in attendance (they got in free and if converted got show discounts). The show remains then almost wholly 6mm supported. The bring and buy seemed not to have done well, possibly as a fair number (me included) brought anything but 6mm to sell. Other than that the traders seemed to be busy all day.

I know Leven had a good day and Baccus had a lot of spaces on their stand. I also saw a good number of punters crowding the Commission Miniatures stand which is good as they really do a great alternative to metal.

The show then was an even greater success than last year and has cemented the venue as the one to use. This year has seen the use of more side rooms so adding to the shows footprint.

My only regret was not getting to see the show in all it's glory. When I left the game I felt a little guilty so most times it was just a nip. Next year I am hoping to go just as a visitor though Lee is pushing for a big ACW game. He has the figures all sorted, the buildings to paint, the battle, terrain and rules to sort so possibly, possibly I can get my year off. However, plans and possibles for games for the following three years are well underway.

Joy of Six - Final Prep

With Joy of Six just two days away I finally finish the last miniatures for our demo game The Storming of Hougoumont. Long term followers may be scratching their collective heads at this point since this time last year we managed to do a display game of the whole of Waterloo without missing a single battalion. So what gives? Well mostly I am just adding furniture with four French caissons as the board looked a little empty when we set up the troops for the game so I thought it would fill in the empty area a bit. 

However one battalion that was on the field as a full unit has been split into four skirmish bases for a more historical use. Lee had some spare voltigeurs so all I needed to do was base them up.

These are Adler and typical of this supplier with very nice sculpts with loads of animation. The only issue is that the larger of the caissons are a little to big to go on the 60x30 bases so need to be put on a 60x60 base across the diagonal.

I wanted to take advantage of the larger base so made an effort to tell a story. My favourite is dashing through a gap in a hedge with one of the excellent Leven Miniatures trees built into the hedge.

The other three are less flamboyant but with the fantastic sculpting look like they are racing towards the guns with much needed replenishment.

These will be placed behind the advancing French as The Boy tries to take Hougoumont by storm.

In this game they have no physical use beyond eye candy but in future games could be part of victory conditions. Lee and I have discussed the possibility of placing caissons behind foot artillery like we do limbers for horse artillery. Not sure if this will happen as the time taken and cost of each one of these for a battery of guns would be rather expensive and time consuming. It's a possible winter project for the future though I think I would mix in the odd four horse limber or wrecked caisson.

These are the four bases of voltigeurs that will do battle to take the orchards off the defenders. The figures are Baccus and are usually seen at the front of our 60x60 battalion bases. We have discussed about how to represent French (and other) skirmishers within our rules and the simple adding of a base of figures at the cost of one strength has seemed to be the best solution. As such I need to paint up at least twenty bases mixed between ligne and legere for future use. A trip to the Baccus stand then I guess.

I will have to probably do a few for the Prussians as well but not as many as the French seem to have always had far more skirmishers out front than the rest of the nations.

Last year was at a new venue that has plenty of room and the big games can be seen from above for a real treat. We benefited from this last year and I am keen to see the big games from the same angle this time round. It's going to be fun putting on a much smaller game this year. No game planned for next year, though if things go well we should be back with another large game in 2018, ok maybe 2019? So I hope to see some of you on Sunday, more details here. 

Dicing With Death

With the Joy of Six just under two weeks away I had a bit of a brain wave. Why I did not think of this before I don't know but there it is.

As you will know I have started to put little dice cells on the bases of both my new Napoleonic and Ancients 6mm bases but I literally have over one hundred bases without these convenient cells on them. Lee has no such markers so we often have units with a die perched on them and subject to falling off leaving us sometimes trying to remember the score on them.

So how about taking a 1p gluing a cell to them and then the usual basing technique to the rest of the top of the penny. A nice small marker that can be used for any base too small or missing said marker.

I have done (I think) enough for our demo game at Joy of Six. I hope to get a few bits done for the table just to add a bit of interest to the game. Above all I am looking forward to using the rules at a live event and seeing the reactions. The Boy and Lee will be doing the most of the playing whilst I mostly sort out the rules and chat around the bloodshed.

Looking forward to seeing more of the games as well. Looks to be some terrific ones on offer. That and the traders, wondering if I can get one of the 6mm Sceptic badges for a discount on purchases LOL.

Joy of Six - Warning Orders July 17th

I went over to Lee's last night so we could reorganise the units we will need in just over three weeks time for Joy of Six. Many of you will remember that last year we put on Project Waterloo that saw every battalion, battery and cavalry regiment that saw action up to about 6pm on the table. You can find the report here. Our plan not to do anything this year as we could not get an ancients game sorted in time was changed when Lee talked himself er, US into putting on a game. Given our choices we decided on using a quarter of the boards (six foot by four) and refight the attack on Hougoumont. 

Action from last years attack.

This will make use of the excellent Leven Miniatures building set and trees as well as a rather small proportion of our troops. I will be fielding about 35 units to Lee's allied 20 odd. However in a change to last years move and talk display rather than actual game we should have time to actually play the game as well so our finished rules will finally get a public outing. Lee and The Boy will be doing most of the playing whilst I will try and cause upset by talking to anyone foolish enough to get close. Last year we and my mate Matt's bunch were the big games so it's nice to take a back seat this year.

Looking forward to meeting lots of you there though so hope plenty turn up. I still need to get my order into Leven as they have released a bunch of new buildings that are rather tasty.

Post setting up the game and sorting out a few wrinkles we sat down to discuss games and new projects etc and whilst most of the chat went the way I expected I was in for a few surprise twists.

It can not be a surprise to anyone that getting a few games of Black Powder SYW games under our belts as soon as possible was at the top of the list. Look for a game in the next two weeks with a mix of painted and primed figs as we both battle towards a respectable force. I like BP so it will be good if we hit it off. If not then it's off to Osprey but lets wait and see.

Lee now is almost done with Napoleonic's. OK what I mean is that Lee now has almost all Nations in 6mm Napoleonic's and his painter has been churning out figures at such a rate he has thrown some 6mm Confederates at him to pad out the returns to keep from quite finishing his collection. Not that he has the Prussians as I have enough for the whole 100 days campaign. I am so relieved we went 6mm. The only question now is which battles to go to first. We can almost fight any battle from the period at Battalion level though we still need to do some work for a few of the really big or exotic ones (such as Egypt) so between SYW battles we will get a few of these going again.

Ancients, Lee has a few good armies in 15mm that have not graced the table in a couple of years whilst I have played Matt a bunch of times, mostly with my Persians. Hail Caesar will be the rules with Lee and myself happy to move away from Field of Glory. Not that HC is a lock, I just have a fair bit of experience of them with Matt and Kev's Cabin.

Give me a few months and I will have enough Persians in 6mm to give my Macedonians something to chew on. Lee is also extending his 6mm Romans so we can start work on our 6mm Ancients rules as well.

Lee also wants to get on with his Saxon's for Saga and given I have enough figures for about fifteen points we can get a game or two of this going to give him reason to get going.

The biggest surprise is how far Rapid Fire has fallen down the list. Lee continues to buy out the world reserve in figures and vehicles etc but his lust to play has dropped off for now. Of course that means nothing, as soon as we meet up next time he will be pushing for a game of this. 

Until a few months ago we were managing a game at worst every other week but his work has been really busy and real life industries had kicked in but as half the battle is organisation and habit we are booking game time again ahead of time and you can bet within the next two to three months all of the above will have been played at least once.

Project Waterloo AAR Very Photo Heavy

I use the term AAR rather loosely as this was scripted movement rather than an actual game but that was the only way to have shown reasonable movement on the table.

The battle lines at the start shown from Hougoumont down the length of the table. For all the comments about having reduced size buildings rather than ones representing their actual scale against battalions of just 28 figures I felt that with a table this large you can get away with the larger footprint. 6mm really allows you to get the feel of a large battle Lee's work on the table meant no one could use the table edge to secure their flank.

Meanwhile The Boy set up his own Waterloo from the Commands & Colors Napoleonic set. 

The allied line certainly looked on the thin side. La Haye Sainte can be seen right in the centre of the shot.

The centre of the British line was somewhat thicker than the majority of their defence. What struck me was how deceiving the French centre looked. It was PACKED with reserves but from across the table they looked somewhat less in numbers than was the case. This effect will be seen throughout the following pics for all parts of the table.

The French crowd behind La Belle Alliance, the front ranks are IV Corp with the guard bunched up behind them. Makes me wonder what may have happened if Napoleon had released all these troops into the attack before other Corps were already spent.

The same area photographed from the opposite board edge. See how the French numbers were hard to see from the Allied lines?

For much of the battle both the Guard and IV Corp were to stay in reserve whilst others did the work. Hougoumont is almost out of sight through the woods.

Plancenoit was strangely quiet (not to mention the Church was in the wrong location - rectified soon after the photo LOL). Would this remain the case?

All the buildings were Leven Miniatures and had a great deal of comments made. The price certainly attracted interest and hopefully we contributed to their takings. Lee certainly did with him still spending as we helped them load the van!

The small French force tasked with holding my right flank. These had to keep the allied horse and some infantry at bay without getting drawn into an attack on to Frichermont. Their other task was to watch for troop movements further to the right, French reinforcements could arrive at any moment.

Facing them was quite a small force of cavalry, neither side had the numbers to risk starting a brawl so spent quite some time watching each other.

Looking down the line at the less well known locations of Frichermont, La Haie Farm and Papelotte all of which form part of the Allied left flank.

Finally some action. I start to attack the woods to the front of Hougoumont. All the skirmishes could hope for was to slow me down for awhile. The weight of numbers were soon to clear the woods.

I quickly formed up the grand battery and let loose on the hill in the distance. Look at the paltry fire I had coming back at me.

The view down the line, the smoke is provided from the Christmas Snow Blanket bought from a pound shop for about 50p in the sale.

The woods cleared and the start of the big push to take Hougoumont. My troops pause at the woods edge to re-order and poor fire on the defenders. 

Meanwhile The Boy plays out his version between talking to punters and spending time walking round the show, painting with Dr Mike and generally being Mr. Cool.

La Haye Sainte gets the treatment as well. Isolated from the rest of the line it can't hold out for long.

Down into the valley Nay charges whilst the guns try to find targets as most of the Allied troops moved behind the crest of the hill. Nay expects to smash through the centre of the line and again be the Bravest of the Brave.

The rest of the cavalry, it was quite a sight to see so many units moving in for the attack. If we carry through the plan to double up the numbers for each regiment then it really will look fantastic when they get used.

La Haye Sainte is lost in a cloud of smoke. I can not understand why I have not be informed of it's fall. My cavalry have swept past it and my infantry are attacking it on three sides but still it seems that someone holds out there.

The view from La Haye Sainte towards the table edge (my right) Wellington and Napoleon continue to look in this direction expecting to see troops appearing at any moment, just not the same troops!

My cavalry crash through the guns and on towards the squares. Heavy cavalry try to slam into the hollow blocks but time and time again they swerve aside as the walls blossom walls of steel tipped smoke. Nay can be seen weeping in frustration as he mounts his third horse.

Slowly the cavalry of both sides close the gap on my right flank. Having watched the mighty cavalry brigades charge up over the hill my lighter cavalry wants to share in the glory of the day, they have no way of knowing the disaster that is unfolding to their left or the coming storm on their right.

Hougoumont continues to resist, I send four battered battalions around the side of the position in hope of finding a way in. The concentration of Allied infantry make this look like a difficult proposition but for now they are some distance away.

With the first assault almost worn out a second attack through the orchards is developing. This is actually leaving a gap in my line that at the moment the British are unable to take advantage of but I need to take Hougoumont soon or risk a counter attack into this weak point.

As I move a third division towards Hougoumont screened by light cavalry the British send in their own heavy cavalry into my attacking infantry that have been sent in after the defeat of my heavy cavalry.

My routed infantry pass through the grand battery followed by the British heavies. I think this might hurt somewhat. Now I need something to start going well. The Allies have resisted all I have thrown at them and are still defending all the way along the line. I still have IV Corps and The Guard but really do not want to commit them without knowing where Wellington is weakest.

Working on the principle that your opponents weakest point is their left flank I send the yet to be committed right flank into action. All the set backs suffered so far can be recovered from if I can pin this flank in place and the soon to arrive columns can crash into it's flank and roll up the line. The troops in the distance have to be French, who else could they be?

This attack is relatively light in numbers but the opposition may be numerous but are expected to fold against the might of a French attack in column.

Papelotte may be defended but I do not expect nearly as much trouble as La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont are giving me but to be sure I supply a strong force to get the ball rolling.

Every farm has it's garrison and as I approach these farms Allied cavalry bear down on my infantry. They are not strong enough to defeat my infantry but do check any further advance at least for the time being.

An inconclusive melee between our cavalry keeps attention on my right flank. At last cavalry can be seen in the distance moving towards the rear and flank of the Allied line. The holding action looks to have worked and superior French strategy can yet win what looks to be a stalemate.

More cavalry appear in the distance moving as if to join our flank. No it can not be, reports say these are Prussians! Well I guess I did not paint them for nothing then.

View from the Allied line where the Dutch/Belgium cavalry are clashing with my flank guard. Plancenoit can be seen in the distance. Now my flank is dangerously exposed, I need to drop back and stop the Prussians rolling up MY flank!

With the welcome news that the Prussians are coming the British infantry reserves start to move forward on their left flank. My attack in this area has now become a danger to the whole army, I need to fall back and shorten the line to generate a small reserve. I need help!

It's not just the British attacking in this area, my French are far away from any real support and the Hanoverian's look to be taking advantage of an open flank.

You can just about see the Prussians coming onto the table. The Guard have yet to react, Napoleon is now aware of the disaster that may soon befall his army. The Guard is to pull the army out of the fire!

Another view, just because........

The third Division to be thrown against Hougoumont only partly arrived as it took heavy casualties as it marched along the British gun lines that had recovered from the earlier French cavalry attacks. The obsession that was Hougoumont has worn down a whole Corp of infantry and tied down very little of the Allied troops.

More French guns are swept away by Allied cavalry which press on to continue the rout of the broken French infantry. 

Finally the Old and Middle Guard start to attack towards the centre. An attack that if started several hours before may have won the battle now can only stave off defeat.

Rallying French infantry shelter behind the guns whilst the odd blown cavalry regiment try to help hold the line. All chance of a victory has passed, now holding our positions and recovering to continue the war another day is the aim.

Meanwhile the Young guard marches towards the right flank as it becomes ever clearer that the Prussians are coming in strength. In the near distance broken French cavalry look to be making an hasty exit.

Still uncommitted line battalions are sent towards the hinge in the line. If I can hold back the British until the Young Guard  can take position to their right then all may still be saved.

Prussian infantry following behind the Landwehr cavalry. The whole of IV Corp was soon to be coming from the right and yet more troops were further in the distance, how was this possible? Treason?

The Prussian cavalry screen links up with the Allies, the worst possible fears are starting to be realised. All offensive action needs to stop.

The French line bends but does not break, can darkness rescue me from disaster?

The view from the Allied left  back to Hougoumont in the distance. The French have bent back from the farms that formed the Allied left flank.

The Old and Middle Guard fill the vacuum left by the Line and Cavalry, though they face no direst threat......... yet.

Almost forgotten, La Haye Sainte had fallen but was not to be the bastion it had been for the Allies, instead it was just a half burnt jut in the line.

The Young Guard takes control of Plancenoit whilst the Prussians mass beyond and the French IV Corp protect the Young Guards left flank but who protects their's?

A tough battle ahead in the streets of Plancenoit.

Wave after wave of Prussians arrive, exhausted from nearly two days of marching the Prussian IV Corp had not tasted defeat at Ligny but hungered for revenge. Parts of I and II Corps were also marching to the sound of guns.

Orders to abandon La Haye Sainte were as unwelcome as they were necessary, at least it had fallen I suppose.

The Old and Middle Guard have nothing to form against in the middle and the Allies start to lap round them. A slow and painful retreat into the history books is the final fate of this once invincible Corp.

Hougoumont remained in the hands of the Allies and as the French line crumbled the already bloodied French face a counter attack and are driven from the field.

Meanwhile The Boy wins his game against an old wargames buddy Richard. I can attest to the excitement coming from the game as Richard came close to pulling off an upset as the scenario is biased towards the French but in the end he could not quite catch up and The Boy goes three wins on the bounce!

His usual tactic, have your opponents options reduced by having him stuck in square!

Our game never reached it's full conclusion but the end was never in doubt though possibly some of the events were out of historical sync. 

I felt like I actually learnt something of the real battle through the reply and can see how parts of the battle effected others and feel I really understand just how bad the sucking in to Hougoumont of French infantry was and how it caused a major problem later when those troops were needed. Also the effect the Guard could have possibly had if released earlier. 

Lee has done a cracking job on the board, his work really made the difference with the game. Now we just need to find the time for actually playing the game and getting it organised with the other guys. 

Thanks also to Peter for convincing us to take Project Waterloo on the road and a big thanks to all who stopped buy and chattered with us about the game, even showing us pics from Waterloo 200 and complimenting Lee on his picking out of certain terrain features such as the opposing ridges and their placement. I was not aware how special this project was to become and with hindsight may not have taken on such a BIG project. However the result is something we can be very proud of but pride I want to say was very much helped by the great and kind comments you the reader have heaped on us through the last three odd years. Next up is something a little smaller :-)