Napoleon: The Waterloo Campaign, 1815; Avalon Hill Second Edition, 1977.
June 15, 1815. Napoleon has massed his Army du Nord from Soire to Phillipeville. The Prussians are aggressively deployed with parts of the army as far forward as Charleroi. The British are much more conservative, arrayed from Renaix and Oudenaarde to Brussels and Wavre.
Our first game in almost forever. I played against my boys many years ago and they have come a long way as wargamers since then. Little I is the British, and has started in a rearward, somewhat passive defense. T is more aggressive and is set up far forward; literally daring the French to come. As the French, I take the center like Napoleon did. None of our set ups are ideal as we are learning the game for the first time or once again after many years.
June 16-17: As the French move towards Charleroi, the Prussians fall back to the east. The French catch a small force at Ligny. Both sides trade a small amount of fire and the Prussians withdraw. After their passive start, the British push aggressively out of Brussels. The French turn to oblige Wellington and the two sides clash at Waterloo. After a long exchange, the British lose an infantry corps and withdraw.
After starting out in a very forward deployment, T gets very defensive and keeps falling back as the consolidating French army pushes across the Belgium border. It is the rearward deployed British who come out to contest the French, but seemingly lose their nerve in battle and retreat.
June 18-19: The Prussians are massing their forces, but the French try to consolidate forces in the face of the now rapidly massing British. Seeing a chance to attrite the Prussians, the French cavalry go on a long raid and enter Liege with a strong cavalry force. They leave behind a small infantry force that took casualties at Waterloo. The British attack this group at Quattre Bras. Declining battle, the French retreat, but in the pursuit battle all three corps are lost! Although the Prussians have supply problems (losing a corps with Liege occupied), Blucher fails to take the bait and instead moves against the French main body massed at Ligny. The French recall their calvary force and they race to rejoin Napoleon.
Although feeling time pressure, the French (me) fails to act aggressively and instead I wait for one of the Allied players to make a mistake. The cavalry raid is intended to draw off the Prussians (T) and allow the French to take on the British (Little I) alone. The Prussians don’t take the bait, and instead the British catch a wounded detachment and in the pursuit battle get extremely lucky destroying all the units. This alone gets the Allies 1/3 of the way to victory. Now the French must fight!
June 20: In the morning light, the French in Ligny sight a strong British force of eight corps approaching from Quattre Bras while another six Prussian corps marches from Gembloux. The French decide to stand and the Second Battle of Ligny begins. In the course of the day, the British will lose six corps and quit the battlefield. However, the Prussians stand and the battle rages on. The entire French cavalry is committed on the right, but the Prussians stubbornly stand. In the end, it is the French left that crumbles, and with the loss of a ninth corps, Napoleon surrenders.
Going into the battle the French need to destroy six British corps and four Prussian corps to win. The Allies need to destroy five French corps. At the Second Battle of Ligny, the French concentrate on the British to try and knock them out of the war. There was also extremely poor die-rolling for my French; at one point on the right wing six French cavalry corps fail to destroy a single weakened Prussian infantry corps. If the optional Command Control rule had been used the Allied attack could not have taken place like it did. Regardless, the battle ends with the British defeated, but a defiant Prussian army completing the job and forcing Napoleon’s surrender.
Comments
Napoleon plays much better than I remember. The game is rated Introductory for the rules but the strategy is demanding! Battles on the Battle Board capture the essence of Napoleonic combat. The blocks are a simple – yet effective – fog of war mechanism. Road movement limits from town to town means each General must organize their forces and ensure they have sufficient mass for battle and nearby reinforcements. We messed up the Battles rules in the first engagement, but got better as the game progressed.
The Victory Conditions build great tension. The French are racing against the clock and must defeat the Allied armies before the end of the game. The French are stronger than each individual Allied army, but inferior if the Allies mass together. The Allies really just have to survive, but the Logistics rules can force them to fight or slowly waste away if the French get to one or more of the supply hubs.
Playing a three-way game was most exciting. Both boys had their own army (relatively similar in size and power) and neither felt that they had taken the “weaker” side. Game play also keeps players engaged; in a 90 min game we got through 16 turns which included three major battles and two smaller engagements.
The RockyMountainNavy boys loved the game and challenged each other to another round the next day. Little I is already reading up on the Battle of Waterloo and wants to learn more. Although this game is 40 years old, it has stood the test of time well and still makes for a fun campaign.
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 