Old Collection, 'new rules' (ACW 15mm)

Years ago we lived in a apartment condo during an occurrence of many fires damaging suites, I told The Wife that should we encounter such an emergency to grab the two large duffel bags of my 15mm ACW and throw them off our second story balcony.  Her “what about the wedding photos?!” was dismissed.  Priorities you know…..

But yes, this was, and still is one of my favourite my wargame collections.  Not having brought it out of the bags for many years, I decided to layout my terrain to see what was still needed. In a rather interesting coincidence KevinA emails me that very day with his new ideas for averaging the huge swing the Fire and Fury ACW Rules d10 rolls can produce.  I was intrigued and so with terrain already in place, PeterM joined us as the Union defender against KevinA’s Reb attack. The existing charts using the ‘weird’ d3s, low-average dice, and troop quality modifiers had the game move along in a more realistic manner rather than the ‘I have all the advantages but you rolled a bleeping 10 to my only a 1!!’ situations were avoided.  Leaving the terrain on the table (how real life can get in the way) we played a second, continuing scenario with Craig joining us as "Stonewall" using more of the table for a good game.

(for the record, I decided require better fields but have enough trees. I used only 1.5 of 3 boxes.  One does need many trees for a 19th C. American battlefield.)

The table set up including the fun little additions in my collection including an observation tower (center), and balloon (right center) and solid wood buildings and fences.  Must get some more farm animals; the sheep (lower center) gives a cute accompaniment.

Chattanooga - Napoleonic style

 Having the guys commit to a full weekend, I set up a secondary game should we need in addition to the larger affair earlier (see post: the big game  ).  I set up a 'bathtub' version of the American Civil War version of Chattanooga.  

In this scenario, the Union would have the advantage of not only the numbers historically but with the rules, multiple commands giving much better tactical maneuver.  The Confederate commander would, regardless of the position of his General, have most of his spread out troops out of command radius and thus less likely to be allowed tactical positioning.  He would be always be forced to only command those troops most needing and leaving the others to the tender mercies of the opposition. 

The scenario roughly follows that of the historical battle.  The Confederates had the Missionary Ridge position in the centre with slightly forward positions of Lookout Mountain on the left and Tunnel Hill on the right held by, in our game by the Brunswickers and Highlanders respectively. While the Dutch-Belgians held the centre ridge. To represent the unexpected rapid collapse of the Confederates on the ridge, I had their combat rating undetermined until contact so even their commander would not know how much they could be relied upon. 

The Union were in three commands: Hooker with his Westphalians would attack Lookout Mountain; Sherman and his Napoleonic Minor States contingent would attack the Highlanders representing the steady troops of Cleburne.  In the middle under the fortifications of Chattanooga was Thomas and the artillery.  In the actual battle a portion of the troops would make a demonstration on the lower slopes of ridge, get shot at and as a un-commanded response charge up the hill and rout the Confederates! I had Thomas' troops ability to do the same (but in future games restrict him even further as this push made all Confederate resistance futile)

We ended up playing two games of this. One Friday night and the other Saturday.  Both followed the historical narrative.  The boys seemed to have quite a bit of fun with these smaller 'fast' games.

part of "Hooker's" Westphalians 

Westhphalians vs Bruswickers defending Lookout Mountain (my command...and my favourite Napoleonic army..love the somber black. Converted plastics)

a mid-battle overview with Thomas's troops in the centre having left their entrenchments and attacking the Ridge (right of photo), and 'Sherman's' troops slowly marching to assault the British Highlanders on Tunnel Hill (upper right).  Lookout Mountain is off-camera lower left.

You can view DavidB's blog at  David's narrative  for more on this scenario

Battle of Hampton Roads ..again....

Based on the TFL "What a Tanker' armour rules,  WillB and I had a go at my "Beast vs. Shingle" game of the Merrimac verses the Monitor naval battle of 1862.

The Merrimac (yes, not the bloody CSS Virginia thank you!)

The pencil drawn rivets shown to good effect.  The turret is a wooden liquor bottle stopper - to scale (~ 1:200 )

Designed to 'feel' like the historical battle i.e. lots of shots, not so much effect and with only a few 'critical' occurrences, the game certainly fills the bill, and can be a bit frustrating (no doubt also to the naval gunners of the battle) how our carefully aimed shot can bounce off the armour of your opponent with the frequency which is hair-pulling.  Fun stuff.  At one point Will rolled his defence dice and declared "Don't bother rolling, you can't hurt me..."  Yeah, fun stuff.  It takes patience and a slow whittling away at the enemy's strength.  The real battle lasted over four hours.

WillB adjusting the turret of the Monitor.  My rather crude and very un-mathematical template is beneath.

The two ships make another pass at each other.  The ships tend to do large lazy loops around each other --as did the original combatants.

But in all fairness, karma did go both ways and the all-important 'critical hit' had his pilot house out of action and thus the Monitor was out of control for a period of time. Now of course it was moving slowly (and slowing each turn) but, by luck, drifted just out of line with all my guns (the Merrimac did/does have several blind spots) and I could do little as I was already dead in the water!  His turret still could turn and with a final, point blank shot did enough damage to have my worn out crew surrender their ship (no more command dice).

Ramming at a snails pace does little effect and the two ships merely rubbed against each other at one point during the game

The making of the ships is described here: my previous post

Monitor and Merrimack

ACW naval - modeller madness, part 1

A long time ago I built “The Monitor” the famous American Civil War ironclad warship. Now I am not a particularly fastidious model maker and I like the task of creating a “reasonable” likeness out of cheap materials at hand.  No $28 anchor chains for me.  I choose materials like foam core, bits of cardboard and whatever is lying about.  For example this Monitor is of a foamcore hull and a plastic hairspray lid if I am not mistaken.

I happened to open up the box containing said model which had a self-written note stating “DO NOT make another model as you have lots in 1:1200 scale already!”  Oh man, I have to write that to myself?!  But I did a Minion “pfft” sound and shrug and, seemingly without conscious thought, went about making the companion “Merrimac”

[editorial note:  While purists, Confederate sympathizers, or legalists might take offensive and state the ship was christened “CSS Virginia”,  I am going with the ‘usual’ Merrimac name]

The Merrimac is a difficult ship to make as it has long sloped sides connected by rounded and sloped ends.  To work with card or plastic would be thus tricky to get the shapes correct.  I thus decided on an available block of dense blue styrofoam.  Still very tricky to shape with a long straight but angled cuts with corresponding ends rounded.  With help of a jury-rigged matt cutting device (and a couple of failed tries!) I managed to get the side cuts done.  The angle of the slope is not quite correct which should be at 35 degrees but it was the best I could do and is sloped.  The ends proved easier than anticipated as trimming with a knife brought down the sloped curves close to the mark and the styrofoam was surprisingly easy to sand (never having done such before)

Not small (approx.  very approximately 1:200)  Note the rather poorly rendered grating of the 'old' Monitor.

I am doing the waterline version which does not show the oft illustrated version of the full hull - even the beautiful Thoroughbred Models 1:600 version shows the full length which was submerged.  Probably done for any ramming or collision events in a game.  I must look into that.  However, the basic shape was done.  The gunports were simply carved into the insulating material and bamboo skewers were embedded and cut off at the same length.  After starting to cover the pivot gun ports at either end corners (as these were not so skillfully completed!) I read that the historic ship went to battle without this protection.  I left the ones done but did not now need to do the others.

[editoral note: Found on Wikipedia "these six bow and stern gun ports had exterior iron shutters installed to protect their cannon. There were four gun ports on each broadside; their protective iron shutters remained uninstalled during both days of the Battle of Hampton Roads."]
 So I got lucky then in my haphazard research and construction!

my Merrimac 

The deck details on the top are old railroad window forms.  The smaller intake chimneys on the top deck are cut out corners of round plastic sprues and the large stack itself an old cardboard tampon applicator - hey, it was the perfect dimensions for the 8 foot diameter chimney….

The full hull illustration found.  The end, bottom portion of the casement and hull all were submerged.

The odd shaped pilot house pyramid is a bit of green stuff; and the false bow - to keep the water from piling up against the front casement - are pieces of card painted as the wood timber construction.  The small rowboats to each side are 3D prints made to my specification generously by ChrisP, a wargame buddy, with my davits plastic packaging material cut into shape and inserted into the hull.

With flag at half-mast and a boat along side are we witnessing a surrender?  Na, just my (wrong) flag was not permanently attached.  It was the first Confederate National Flag that the ship flew.

ACW naval - modeller madness, part 2

Played a few games using the two ships as I am developing rules for the ironclad fight based on “What a Tanker” .  Fun, two-player game, but with the same circling maneuvering, firing with little effect, as the historical engagement!

The Merrimack and Monitor (MkI) in game action in muddy waters

Having played this naval game with DennisC at the club the previous night,  I noticed some damage to my Monitor’s turret, no doubt caused by moving around the gun directional marker required for this glued down cardboard part.  The top grating was represented merely by rather poorly painted lines (I did not say I was a good model builder!), so I was willing to remove to repaint and replace.
   As I built the vessel a long time ago, I discovered I had simply glued two metal gun barrels on the bottom.  If I paint the interior black I could use an open grate as did the historical ship.  It would look good.  As I was looking for appropriate ‘grating’ I discovered some other bits I had collected for making of other ships including various caps for monitor style turrets.  Among these were liquor bottle stoppers. As in the back of my mind the Monitor’s turret, especially now, seemed a bit off.  Too large.   So curiously, I checked the dimensions:

Monitor’s turret was 20ft diameter by about 10ft high.  So to my 1:200 scale it’s diameter should be calculated as 20 feet x 12 inches = 240 inches divided by 200 (scale) = 1.2 inches (19/16) or 1 and 3/16 inches.

….checking the wooden cap to my booze bottle stopper… 1 and 3/16”  !!!

The height is perfect also!  With the attached cork trimmed this would allow me to give the model a moving turret.  No more required marker.

Well then, a change was in order and Monitor Mk II was begun.  After a failed first attempt at drilling gunports into the solid wood (luckily I had several of these stoppers….)  I was happy with the holes created (drilling was ideal as the ports had rounded ends).  The muzzle ends of 25mm scaled barrels were cut short and glued in and the turret painted black.

the Merrimac along side Monitor MkII...now better in scale....

The hull is cut from black foamcore from a template scaled to a top-down view of the ship.  The smoke stack of the older model was not replaced as historically this was not installed and in any event, I had this in a wrong design anyway!.  The overall shape and details are more historical accurate but Iron plates were again indicated by lead pencil lines and rivets by dots. Lots of dots, but done while watching sports so not so tedious to do and surprisingly effective.

Anyway, not an award winner by any means, but looks ok to be pushed around on the table top.

an artists impression of the Battle of Hampton Roads and the two famous ships

[The “decommissioned” older model is now going to help my 15mm armies with offshore support]

Mini Gettysburg - Day 1

The monthly ClubNight had KevinA, the Micro King, put on his “three-day Gettysburg in an evening” game.  Spoiler: it only went to the end of the first day, but it was an interesting game.

We, the all knowing gods, could indeed see all the 14 by 11 miles of the field of battle and surrounding territory but still with the long distances the troops could travel in a turn (some four hours game time) things moved quickly and so kept the mysteries alive.  I didn’t quite know in which direction the Union troops would take and that was mirrored in my own decision for the entry of Longstreet’s corps, the third and last to arrive.  Go north and reinforce Hill and meet the onslaught of the masses of Union troops arriving in a couple of turns, or go slowly across country to mass against the isolated Union corps on this side of the the Round Top ridge line?  After some internal deliberation, I choose the latter.  The pressures of higher command!

After setting up the classic - pin the front, threaten the flank, and finally “hit the hinge” maneuver - so loved by Napoleon, my dice (and the Union commander ChrisP’s good dice) failed me. All five attacks failed and my forces were pushed back and bloodied.  The main attack I set up on the hinge unit itself had my 12 dice to the Union’s 5 only to have me to roll 40% success to the Union’s 80%! Ugh.  Did Napoleon have to endure that?!

Thus ended Day 1 and the game unfortunately as time ran out.  While not really feasible in only four hours, with experienced players with the rules, and a full day to play, yes, Gettysburg could be done.  The rules were  “Bonnie Blue Flag” HEAVILY adapted by KevinA.  Diced for command points use is crucial.  Combat dicey but simple.

The overall look and feel was good.  I like the 6mm for the grand tactical effect. Each stand represents a brigade of some 2500 men.  The long ‘operational moves’ (infantry stands could move up to 12 inches off road and 18inches (!) on road) meant corps would be quick to be placed in the battle but real thought would be to where, as once in battle that is really where they would remain and die.

yes, a board game could do the same, but it would not have the visual 3D look now would it?

Buford's cavalry before the Lutheran Seminary.  Their commander choose not to fight there and retreated to the hills beyond Gettysburg thereby changing the game from a historical to a what-if.  

Union has the darker blue labels, the Rebs the whiter ones. The player commanding Hill's corps departed suddenly so I was left with what he had done.  Like Robbie Lee trying to make sense of what was what when he arrived on the battlefield I suppose.....

The red beads represent disorder. Note my Rebs have a lot of them, and lots of hits too... The infamous "hinge" was near the location of the blue die and marks the high point of Confederacy in this game!

ACW: 20mm in the Wilderness

Joined DennisC’s game of 20mm American Civil War Wilderness Battle(s) on his special designed mat for the table; a very large dark green outdoor carpet with exact cutouts for the rare clearings in this heavily treed area of Virginia some 150 years ago, unfortunately laying between Washington and Richmond and thus, a battle zone.

The two yellow stars represent the two crossroads the Confederates must take to prevent Union reinforcements coming.

The figures are 20mm metals in Dennis’s collection (but a good portion painted by myself a few years ago) using the new brigade version of “Fire and Fury”.  These employ the same, rather overly complicated, IMHO, firing charts that the regimental rules used.  Some of the players had a tough time trying to figure out how to go thorough them and seemingly forgot each turn forcing me to have it at hand and calculate over and over. This task certainly took much of my attention away from my commanding my own forces (so much so that I think I failed to move some brigades for a turn or two!)

Some of the Union boys (painted by me for Dennis a few years ago)

Command control was important for a huge game like this, as Dennis does a very good job in setting up a historical affair but perhaps a bit to big for the limited time at available on the club’s Friday nights to have a satisfying conclusion.
In this case, the conclusion within the umber of turns, and real time, was a “cheesy” move by John to sidestep his lead brigade, so successful it was behind the Union front lines (!) onto the crossroads yellow star to claim ownership thus eking out a technical partial victory for the beleaguered Confederate side.

As you can see in the photos, “fog of war” were the blocks of wood which hid the potential forces of both sides placed in their historical positions.  As “Commander” of the Rebs, I gave detailed instructions to all three of my co-players who nodded their agreement, then immediately proceeded to wander about doing their own thing!  Sigh. ‘Friction’ indeed. Interestingly I had recently read a wargame magazine article in which the author was suggesting that special rules were not needed to create confusion or command control difficulties for armies on the tabletop; just use lots of players!  Now I know how Lee or Grant felt when battles and their sub-commanders did not proceed as anticipated.

large Union out flanking move...or faint with few or none?  The use of blanks.

John on the right, was rewarded for what he admitted was lucky rolls for himself and poor by the Union player by gaining control of the reserve troops formerly commanded by myself.  Isn’t the dictum “Reserves are to reinforce breakthroughs, not to stop them”?
My other reserves saw an opportunity to race up the other road in march column to take the undefended other crossroads but a single brigade, unengaged as Colin, in the Rebs centre, opted to do a two-on-one attack, leaving this lone brigade to move across the road to block the advance and pour fire on the column.  That the fire-effect was poor (Jim L, the Union player having a rare bad die roll) did not prevent the “blitzkrieg” advance from being halted and the chance of the Rebs down that road was done.

big fight in the woods

The many blocks of Union turned out to be many blocks of troops and thus the Confederate advances could not break through…. I really thought many would be ‘dummies’ but as Dennis, somewhat smugly suggested, “ some are ” (…like only one or two !….)
Great scenario with lots of potential for different outcomes with different dice rolls!  However, like R.E. Lee knew some hundred and fifty years ago,  the Union numbers are hard to beat.

"but you are suppose to hold here!"

Yeah, probably 2nd Manassas but “The Battle of the Unfinished Railroad Cut” has a more folksy sound;  was an interesting game of DennisC’s 20mm ACW during the monthly Friday ClubNight in which I and KevinA as Confederates were tasked with defending the unfinished railway line from overwhelming Union forces from Colin and Nate’s disparate assaults, using the 2nd Edition Fire and Fury Brigade rules (which new charts really has it resembling the regimental version!) in this fictional what-if scenario.

The Confederates were well-outnumbered in this battle and indeed even had green units (gasp!) 

The grey strip is Dennis's representation of the unfinished railway cutting which I was suppose to defend.  I did, but not in the way poor Dennis would wish the battle to be conducted :)

Dang many bluecoats.  Fun to see the numerous figures I had painted being used on the table.

Dennis near had a apoplectic fit as I promptly advanced my meagre two units toward the four units facing me a hill away and followed that by moving my other two into the woods ahead.  “You are suppose to defend the line!” exclaimed Dennis at seeing my advances. And then he really shook his head when I then ‘vanished’ my crack cavalry unit.  “Where is it?!” asked Dennis. “It’s moving hidden from the enemy”, respond I.  “Well, I better not see it behind my troops!” added Colin (my Union opponent).  “No it will not ”, I answered, “but will be unseen as you still have four blank blocks  ( indicating more possible Union units unknown as of yet ). More than fair I am thinking”

Indeed my charging Rebs were short a couple of inches from the blocks but as the rules indicate visibility into the woods, Dennis as GM, laid them out.  Colin protested but I suggested “they could smell you d*nmed Yankees a mile away” in my best Southern accent.  Dennis placed yet more Union on the table.  Outnumbered 3 to 1 but not defending his beloved railway defensive positions,  Dennis suggested “this was not suppose to happen!”.

We know the Yankees were there as we could smell 'em......

But I was happy in the tactics.  Especially as my other two units had, again, advanced ( “You are suppose to defend!”) and started to attack Nate’s Union open right flank of their attack up hill against KevinA’s few Confederates holding our right part of the line.  The two Union player’s forces had separated, leaving a big gap in the middle for me to exploit so I came to aid Kevin with this flank attack from the middle.

The units of my attack in the center directed by Stonewall himself.  Lots of bonus command points for that!

All was going well but even early in the game, when the artillery was firing at very long ranges,      casualties seemed very severe.  But now as artillery was in effective ranges due to our advances, the artillery fire became absolutely devastating. Unfortunately Dennis had severely overestimated the amount of artillery which was historically deployed and so had perhaps 4X the number of models on the table which amounted to massive grand batteries of firepower.  Even low rolls were causing disorder and mayhem.  High rolls blew away whole units, including my previously hidden cavalry which I had moved around the hill to advance upon the guns which were unsupported and partially destroyed or silenced and alone in the Union empty middle.  But un-like the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade which, one might remember still did reach the guns, my elite boys were completely destroyed by a single volley by an average die roll by the guns. Sigh.  

a view of Kevin's defence's on our right flank.  Lots and lots of artillery in this fictional what-if battle made for huge casualties

Kevin was still holding his hill but weakening against the large numbers assaulting him.  My attack from the centre had a nice effect as the green (poor) Union unit at the end of their line routed (Nate had rolled an unfortunate 1 on the d10 dice employed by FnF - which ruleset use of the single d10 makes wide swings in one’s fortunes)
This rout would allow that attack would be effective but as often happens with wargames, real time will effect the battle and it was called.  Both sides claimed victory.

Big Summer Napoleonic Game 2017

The big summer game, August 2017

Battle of Mateitna (aka Tranchantville by the French)
between the French under Napoleon and the Russian/Prussian Army of Kutuzov

From Generalissimo Kutuzov
Commander of the Allied Forces

April 1, 1813

While Napoleon’s forces far outnumber ours, we have forced him to retreat with his back against the Danube,  Now we can push him across and back to his home.

Our battle plan is simple.  Using successive blows to his one flank then the other, we shall weaken him so a final thrust up the centre will collapse his lines.

Each Corps will be assigned a time for their attack in a well coordinated sequence which will confuse and disorientate Napoleon and his underlings!

For our homelands, Victory! God willing.


Yeah, it is, of course, Antietam, the well-known American Civil War battle
( Mateitna spelt backwards, or Tranchant {sharp} ville {town} in French).

For the big summer Napoleonic game, I like to use the scenario from a real battle, not necessarily of the era, to offer a bit of fog of war for the players and explore the dynamics of that historical military engagement.

Building this scenario proved to be taxing, as the Union commander, McClellan - our Kutuzov - submitted his corps in a piecemeal fashion. Not very wargame like.  I countered this by having the Union/Allied player play only one corps at the start, with “activation” at the historical time and unknown to all,  together with a single roll needed of a 3+ on a d6 chance for that turn and each after, to give the effect of player control and unknown attack timing.

Of the Confederates/French, the scenario was easier to allocate.  With essentially only two commanders (Jackson=Oudinot, and Friant=Longstreet) the battlefield could be controlled as per the actual affair.
With a slightly lesser ratio of  1:1500  and  1 artillery pip = 4 batteries, I placed the commands historically adding a light cavalry element to each command  and in equal amounts to each side.  While cavalry was not present in most ACW commands, it hardly feels Napoleonic without some cavalry to give it that flavour!

The Union Allied reserves of Sumner Bulow and Franklin Wurttemberg

The commander names were obviously changed but with no real rhyme or reason but only if I had enough labels already completed!  The use of either Russian or Prussian was also only with consideration of availability.  It even surprised me somewhat that I had enough Prussians and Russians alone to provide the entire Union Army.

"Burnside's Bridge" with DaveB's hand moving adjusting the French forces.

All the players arrived on time, PeterM from this region, with DaveB coming in from Vancouver Island, Seth driving from Seattle that morning, a good two hour drive;  and JamesC and his friend Shawn making the trip from Portland, some 300miles / 470km !!  

The Confederate French commanders of Dave, Shawn, James and two Union Allied players of Peter and Seth (l-r)

Well, did the game follow history despite using Napoleonic troops and rules??  It did!  And closely I might add.  Hooker(Krafft) - PeterM -, and Mansfield(Tolstoy) -Seth- did finally take the Cornfield together with the West and East Woods after some heavy fighting forcing a French withdrawal to tighter defensive line.  This line was anchored by fortifications - aka the Sunken Road - unknown to the Allied commanders.  Like the real Kutuzov at Borodino, our “Little Mac”  in the guise of Kutuzov, was the only spot from which line of sight is adjudicated and like his historical counterpart would not move from his distance location. Also in the pre-battle briefing, I indicated the water was “deemed to be” unfordable.  I didn’t say they weren’t but like the Union troops that day only the bridges would be used.  The bridges, like the real battle, funnelled the Allied attacks. Sumner(Bulow) -Seth- and reinforcements under Franklin(Wurtttemberg) -myself- had no choice but to ‘go up the gut’ and the French held the line.  Barely.

Allies move through the Cornfield and East Woods as the French fell back to their defensive position.

The masses of Sumner's Corps await their orders to advance

the game-table looking from the southwest with Sharpsburg in the foreground and Antietam Creek along the top with the uncommitted Union corps 

Sumner finally has his marching orders

Likewise to the south, Burnside(Pirch) -PeterM-  finally activated at 10:30am game time (each of our turns being a half hour historically and which proved, once again, in all our historical scenarios to be very accurate time frame) to get across ‘his bridge’ but up against much more opposition than his historical counterpart.  From the moment of his activation, he tried to get across the bridge.  Finally, early in the afternoon, it looked like he would finally push DaveB/Friant off the hill, but, like the timing of D.H. Hill at Antietam, Drouot - JamesC- arrives (at his 3:30pm allocated time and place) to arrive and march up in position just in time to prevent any breakthrough!

The French right holding the high hill in front of Burnside's bridge with artillery support.  The defensive ring anchored on the Sunken Lane can be seen right.

The French centre with the fortifications standing in for the Sunken Lane.

The French under the capable guidance of JamesC as Jackson, his wargaming newbie friend doing well with the sub-command of McLaw and our veteran DaveB as Longstreet, somehow holding on to a thinning defensive line.  A couple of lucky, ’Southern Grit’ inspired? command morale die rolls with commands at the breaking point were made, and the game went on for 28 turns or until 8pm game time, well pass the actual battle’s end (just because we were having fun and to see if ANYONE would break first!)

Franklin's corps (Wurttemberg's Russians) move up over the maneuver restricting bridge.  As you may notice, one of Bulow's Prussian guns has been left behind as a result of the traffic jam.

As the French are on their last legs, so too are the Allies, with attacks repulsed, the battle as like the real event, petered out.  Even R.E. Lee would think it a near defeat but the French held on and were not forced to retreat over the Potomac or destroyed and the Allies would not win this day.

Just as Peter's Burnside in the guise of Pirch, thought the taking of the bridge possible, the historic occurrence of D.H.Hill arriving at the nick of time recreated itself in our game with Drouot arriving with his Guardsmen to save the day!

And like McClellan, I would not use Porter’s corps - who I had in the guise of the Russian Imperial Guard! - or Pleasonton’s cavalry (Prussian Cuirassiers) as this would tip the scales too much and more to the point not be historically accurate. In any event, it was doubtful they would arrive in the action before the end of the day.

I find that the behaviour of the real commanders and occurrences of the historic battle are certainly now understandable based on the events of our tabletop affair.  Interesting to witness, which is why for my Napoleonic collection we have only done historic battles thus far and I am quite willing to continue the "research".

Win or lose, the boys indicated they had a good time.  The historic result for me was satisfying suggesting the scenario was good, the rules again producing a realistic effect, and the rules themselves working well and fluid.

My newly painted French Field Ambulance indicating the LOC/ line of retreat for the French (Perry Miniatures)

Another Napoleonic ambulance

Following a rather fun production of a Russian Field Station (link), I sought to do a "the after-effects of combat"  for each of my Napoleonic armies.  What this says about my phycology vis-a-vis playing war but having enjoyment with toy soldiers is something I do not want to contemplate - mainly as it takes away from the fun! But it is something interesting to look at and eye-candy to place within the blank spaces on the tabletop.

This Belgian ambulance started as the Perry ACW version ( link )  I coveted and which I saw the possibility to convert.  Surprisingly little was needed.  Of course the heads needed to be replaced as to provide the appropriate headgear.  I added tails and turnbacks to the tunics along with epaulettes and cuff-flaps. The Belgians often tucked their trousers into the half gaiters so the pants, together with  the era's mens fashion having them wear loose under shirt and suspenders, has the original ACW fellow standing at the back of the wagon not out of place and thus without need of change.

The wagon, perhaps confiscated from a hapless Brussels civilian, surrounded by the Perry casualty pack, sets the scene of the clean up of the carnage of Waterloo.