Blucher rules, Waterloo - the game!

Well, I finally got stuck into my refight of the battle of Waterloo using Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules. Now those Brits of a certain age will know exactly what I mean when I quote Dick Emery - 'I fink I got it wrong again Dad'! of which more anon.
However for the moment I'll post just a few of the pictures, it ain't pretty as I was using the cards provided with the game but as I haven't got six million Brits, French and Prussians painted up in 10mm one just has to make do.

I will give a brief description of what went on in each photo but generally I wanted to stick with the timeline of the actual battle and replicate what happened when it did as close as possible thereby seeing how close the rules could get to what actually occurred.

2nd corp attack on Hougoumont.

Eventually taking it (history out of the window!)

After an initial artillery bombardment by the 'Grand Battery' D'Erlon's attack goes in.

After taking heavy casualties the attack is repulsed, even the Union Brigade had a charge.

The charge of the French cavalry, you can see that each British brigade has paid a point to have a 'prepared' (white) marker on it i.e. in square or refused flanks etc. all cavalry attacking must halve the number of dice.

Prussian 4th corp arrive and the French 6th corp have moved to cover their right flank. After I remembered the rule about reserve movement that is, Neal did give me some stick about that!

A general view of the field at about 16.30.

Prussian 2nd corps by passing Plancenoit and pressing the French.

The final Prussian corp (1st) arriving on Wellingtons left flank.

The Guard preparing to attack.

Partially successful forcing the British back off the ridge, they still had reserves though.

Now I'm going to stop there and discuss where I went wrong.

This photograph shows lichen marking the sunken road. I made it as a difficult obstacle taking one full move to get over, too much, for the scale of game we are looking at it made the French sit there for a full turn and get plastered by musketry before they had a chance to get in.

The ridge itself halved the number of dice which could be thrown by the firing grand battery which loses effectiveness as the turns progress, again I would do away with this rule. The allied brigades were hardly touched, I know some people will say that the reverse slope did protect the allied infantry but during the whole day Wellington had to replace units as they got worn down with those held in reserve, this didn't happen in the game and the infantry was hardly scratched.

The biggest cock up I made was to use too few movement dice for both sides, I gave each 4 dice, far too few with the French in particular simply not being able to do what they did on the day. I should have taken notice of one of the OOB's put up on the Blucher forum which gives the French 7 dice, the British 5 and additional dice added as the Prussians arrive. When I did this half way through the game it made a tremendous difference.

Hey it was a learning experience, I still like the way the rules play out, it's worth the effort once you get your head around the apparent lack of detail and the scale of what is going on. Your not manoeuvring individual battalions here and you must remember that and I do think that when I get the 10mm French and Russian brigades painted up it will make a huge difference to the look of the thing.
Dave.

Blucher rules - Waterloo 1815

Having got the 1815 campaign cards for 'Blucher' as a xmas gift from my son I thought I'd give them a try. Neal and I have played Blucher before and are starting to get to grips with it - a good set of rules allowing you to re fight large battles which we wargamers with more modest collections cannot normally do.
So I got out my hex mats, went over the white marking with green felt tip pen (which I'd been meaning to do for quite a while) and set out the terrain. Even without the troops on the table and the 'real' Hougoumont I must say that it looked ok, quite pleased.

I then got out all of the unit cards checked where they should be placed and laid them out:

British/allied left flank, La Hay & Papelotte.

British/allied centre and La Hay Sainte .

British/allied right, Hougoumont.

Hougoumont from the French left, P.S. The red token represents the garrison of the building which can't leave and is low strength but can on a die roll be reinforced.

French centre.

French right with Plancenoit bottom right.

A view from the French side of the table.

Now don't get me wrong here, there is no way I will ever be able to re fight Waterloo on this or any other scale with Gen d'Armee or it's ilk, but this set of rules will do the job very well for this and other battles, but man the cards look crap!
I am in the process of painting up 10mm armies of French and Russians for the mid to late Napoleonic period, if and when Neal manages to paint up his 10mm British then we could re fight battles having one base represent a division but not (as above) with each base representing a brigade.
So it's cards or nowt. Some people don't mind the cards, as you can ascertain I'm not a fan but they are a necessary evil, it's this or nothing.
I will take my time with it and follow the scenario shown Here don't know the author but I hope he doesn't mind ( his 6mm figures and terrain are stunning).
I'll keep posting the games progress.
Dave. 

Blucher rules

Having bought Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules almost one year ago Neal and I finally got round to giving them a try a couple of weeks ago. Now I have played a game at the club once before and though it was ok there was something missing.
The game at the club was played with 10mm figures on a very small table and was to be fair the only way the guy who brought them to the club could game in his house because of limited space, good for the lad, he has utilised a set of rules to enable him to game a limited engagement on a 3' by 3' table ending up fighting a head to head battle between in Blucher terms a Division per side. Don't get me wrong, one does what one can with the resources available but it didn't feel right.
There was no grand majestic sweep and manoeuvre of troops that I was looking for in this level of encounter. I wanted a corps level re fight of, if I wished the battle of Borodino with units representing either brigades or divisions, not battalions, unlike a brigade/Division level encounter that can be re fought in say General d'Armee rules.
10mm figures were used at the club game, but one group of figures just didn't give the impression of a brigade or division, it looked like a battalion, you could tell yourself it was a brigade but it just didn't 'feel' right. Again the mechanics of the rules themselves played out ok but there was something missing.
So with that experience under the old belt what now. I still wanted to game a corp level game but didn't want to use maps and counters, each to their own but that don't rock my boat. Hence as has been shown in previous posts Here a decision to go with one base representing a Brigade or Division depending on what scale one is playing, I have made sure that there is more than one 'unit' on each base so that it at least seems to represent a formation rather than an individual battalion or whatever.
The newest additions to the armies can be seen below:

So, slightly disappointed though I was with the Blucher game at the club both Neal and I felt a good bit better about it when we had a go at recreating a Salamanca re fight with each base representing a division. The rules were pretty easy to pick up (though the rule book could do with a better index), the game flowed and 'felt right'. Simultaneously I played out a larger knock together game solo at my place using the unit cards purchased in addition to the rules which enable you to get straight into it without painting figures:

As can be seen the British force got their outnumbered arse kicked, listening Neal!
This isn't a detailed set of rules, subtle but not detailed. You do get the feel that you are manoeuvring with corps, battering the weak point in the enemy's line with your mass artillery and exploiting the gap thus created with your heavy cavalry reserve, sixes hit, fives if you have an additional trait but it does somehow all add up with the feeling your fighting a battle, not an encounter.
I still think it will feel better when I eventually get enough figures done to put them on the table rather than the cards you see above (it's not aesthetically pleasing I have to admit) with maybe a bit more terrain, unnecessary in the rules but visually better.
With a table of the size I have to play on this would be the only set of rules that I have personally encountered which would me to re fight large battles and I'm prepared to make compromises to allow me to do that, add to that the Scharnhorst campaign rules in the book which I have yet to try out and I think we're onto a winner.
Dave.