Today is the 207th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo … and yet again, I haven’t fulfilled my plan to re-fight the battle. I really must rectify this failure on my part; after all, I have enough figures and a set of rules that I know will work, but I keep getting diverted from my goal.
A map of the Waterloo campaign.
A map of the Waterloo battlefield.
Perhaps I’ll manage it by this time next year … but I somehow expect that I won’t.
My point-to-point campaign map for map the Waterloo campaign. I have yet to use it!
One thing that I will try to do today … and that is to watch Sergei Bondarchuk and Dino De Laurentiis' 1970 film, WATERLOO.
I did get to play a waterloo campaign in a club a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteGreat fun it didn't go well for the allies, didn't even make it to waterloo. A long line of fighting retreats as i remember.
One day i hope to try again.
I shall be watching waterloo tonight 👍
Stephen Smith,
DeleteOn the 200th anniversary of the battle, I took part in a re-fight of Waterloo using 54mm figures (https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2015/09/waterloo-in-54mm.html) … and it was great fun!
One day, I hope to re-fight the campaign using 25/28mm figures from my Napoleonic collection.
All the best,
Bob
I love your maps, and the movie. I plan on a 3x3 refight of the battle, but not the campaign but with a twist tonight.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteWith the exception of my point-to-point map, the rest were found online.
I look forward to reading your Waterloo 3 x 3 re-fight battle report.
All the best,
Bob
Thanks, I hope you enjoy it.
DeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteI’m sure that I will!
All the best,
Bob
I wish you joy of the day Bob. I was just reflecting on that magnificent game we took part in. All the best.
ReplyDeleteConrad Kinch,
DeleteI hope that you had a great day!
I have very, very fond memories of that re-fight of the Battle of Waterloo, and earlier today I actually spent some time looking at the photos I took.
All the best,
Bob
I've lost count how many times I've done Waterloo, although the grandest was with the WRG horse and musket rules in 20mm. We upped the figure scale to 1:200 and spent all weekend on it. I was younger then. The French tend to win more often than not, hardly surprising as the Corsican Ogre reckoned the odds were 60;40, even after the Prussians turned up.
ReplyDeleteMartin Rapier,
DeleteI'm not surprised that a re-fight at that scale took all weekend using the WRG rules and a 1:200 figure scale! Mind you, it must have looked very impressive.
I am always interested by the fact that when wargamers re-fight Waterloo, Napoleon wins more often than he loses. Is this the result of 20/20 hindsight or are they on better fighting form than Napoleon was on the day? Who knows ... but it is an interesting conundrum.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
DeleteThe problem with wargaming any part of the Waterloo campaign is that the events - albeit perhaps a very simplified, Anglocentric version of them - are so well known that it is impossible to recreate the perceptions of the historical participants and the limited intelligence available to them. A disguised scenario - Charles S Grant's Wolfenbuttel War is based upon Waterloo, but set in his father's Imagi Nations of Lorraine and the VFS, for example - might work, so long as none of the players see through the disguise, but that might be too much to hope for...
I think the best one can do is simply create a game that entertains players by allowing them to see the events - or an 'alternative history' version of them - unfold in front of them, whether that be on a tabletop, using a version of PW, in a boardgame such as Palitoys' Battle of Waterloo (1965) or W1815, or on a map, like the Solitaire Waterloo.
I'm sure hindsight is a major reason why Napoleon wins in many wargames of Waterloo; another could be the game structure. When I was involved in Game of War, for example, there was little or no provision to represent the appearance of the Prussians and their effect upon the battle.
But we should always remember that the fact something happened historically does not necessarily mean that it was actually the outcome with the higher probability beforehand. Consider the simple example of a saving die roll: if I have to score 6 on a normal die to save the hit, the chance is 5:1 that I will fail - yet I throw a 6 and succeed!
So Napoleon's assessment that the odds were in his favour, insofar as one can calculate such things, could have been entirely correct - but he still lost the battle.
Best wishes, Arthur
Arthur,
DeleteAs you argue very well, trying to re-fight Waterloo as a straight figures game is full of pitfalls because the mains events are so well known … and a disguised scenario would probably be the only way that it might work from a fun gaming point of view. I suspect that far too many multi-player re-fights are not much fun for the participants unless they enjoy being a subordinate … and if there are only two players, the battle could easily become a tedious exercise in moving figures and little else.
To present the whole campaign as a series of games might work, especially if players were allowed to change some of the decisions that were made by the three main commanders. There might not – for example – be a battle at Quatre Bras – or the Prussians might have decided to retreat to the northeast rather than the northwest, creating a bigger gap between the two allied armies. Your suggestion of an ‘alternative history’ version of the battle would probably be the most successful option for someone looking to just fight the battle itself.
I agree about the problems that arise from both hindsight and game structure. To try to re-fight Waterloo without the prospect of the arrival of the Prussians makes it almost certain that Napoleon will win. When I took part in the 54mm lawn game recreation of the battle, the Prussians were a significant influence on events even though they only became involved in the fighting at the very end. Both sides were conscious that they were coming, and in the case of Wellington, it was very much ‘hang on until the Prussians arrive’ whereas Napoleon was in a more ‘let’s smash Wellington and then turn on the Prussians’ mood.
As to the odds being in favour of Napoleon … well, I think that he might have overestimated how well his own troops would do and how badly the Allies would perform … but would he have risked a battle if the odds had only been 50:50? Probably, but not certainly.
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
ReplyDeleteYou might have to bite the bullet and just doooOOOoooo it! Any time. Don't wait for June. You know you want to...
Meanwhile, I long ago did the prep work for Ligny, and STILL haven't got around to playing it out. That was supposed to complete my 'Hundred Days' battle series (that began with a brigade action at Perwez, you might recall - http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2019/04/portable-napoleonic-wargame.html)
At some time, I do want to 'do' the Hundred Days' as a campaign, though. So many projects... so little time...
Who would have it any other way?
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteI must admit that I am finding it very tempting to stop work on my current Belle Époque project and to re-fight the Waterloo campaign.
Perhaps I should push it further up my 'to do' list, but at present - like you - I seem to have too many things that I want to do and not enough time to do them all!
All the best,
Bob