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The twin Duchies of Nassau (much reorganized after losing territory to France and the new Grand Duchy of Berg) joined the confederation of the Rhine in 1806. 

Using the previously referenced “English Waterloo” hex scenario for Blucher as a guide, the following are needed:

French Army:

2 Legere:  7 hits

13 Ligne: 6 hits

2 Cuirassier: 7 hits, shock

5 other Line Cavalry (Hussar/Dragoon/Lancer/Chasseur):  6 hits

2 Guard Light Cavalry: 7 hits, shock

1 Guard Heavy Cavalry, 8 hits, Shock

2 Guard Infantry, 8 hits, shock

1 Guard Artillery

1 Line Heavy Artillery

The French troops are no problem; I have far more than these!

Leaders:  Napoleon, Ney, Reille, D’Erlon, Kellerman, Milhaud

As the game will have three players a side, these have to change, along with the command structure. Thus Napoleon and Ney will share Army command; each turn the French player will have to decide which one to use; each will come with their own characteristics. 

The three player commands will be Reille, D’Erlon, and Lobau. In the interest of the game, the troops will be pretty evenly divided amongst the three commands, with La Garde in Reserve.

Anglo Allied Army:

3 Nassau Line:  5 hits

1 Dutch-Belgian Line:  5 hits  Conscript

3 Hanoverian Infantry:  5 hits  Conscript

2 Brunswick Infantry:  5 hits

5 British Line:  6 hits  Firepower, Steady

2 British Light:  7 hits  Firepower, Steady

2 British Guard:  7 hits, Firepower, Steady, Shock

1 Brunswick Cavalry:  6 hits

3 Dutch-Belgian Cavalry: 5 hits  Reluctant

4 British Light Cavalry:  6 hits, Shock, Impetuous

2 British Heavy Cavalry:  7 hits, Shock, Impetuous

Leaders:  Wellington, Picton, Orange, Buttlar, Collert, Uxbridge

Like the French, I have more than enough British for the game already. I also have more than enough Brunswickers (MInifigs painted 3 decades ago). I have a single Nassau regiment, and no Dutch-Belgians or Hanoverians. 

In contemplating the situation, I decided to get a second unit of Nassau troops (There were 2 Nassau regiments in the Confederation of the Rhine anyway, so they will be useful elsewhere as well). Rather than get a 3rd Nassau infantry, I decided to get one each of Dutch and Belgian infantry for variety. These troops are only of use for the 100 days campaign.

I didn’t want to get 3 units of very limited use cavalry, so British Light Dragoons in shako will have to stand in for them. OK, that works, I have 4 such units and only need 3.

The Hanoverians posed the biggest problem; I didn’t want to paint up 3 more units of very limited use troops! In considering the situation,. It occurred to me that I could use the (very nicely painted)  Minifigs British Line infantry I purchased from Jamie W. at Historicon about 25 years ago, and could even give them Hanoverian militia flags!  I have 66 such figures plus 2 mounted officers; with adding a few spare Old Glory command figures that would make 4 units, and I could even retain the original flags on their own command stands if I want to use them as British again. OK, Hanoverian dilemma solved with zero added expanse and perhaps some minimal added painting. 

As for Leaders, it will be Wellington as C-in-C, Picton, Hill, and Prince Wilhelm of Orange. Once again there will be some special characteristics for them. All I will need to paint up there will be Prince Wilhelm.

An order was thus fired off to Perry Miniatures last month for the necessary troops (some of the DB units I wanted were out of stock, but others were readily substituted, and they arrived across the pond in record time. 

Painting information was needed for some of these new troops. Fortunately. I have pretty much bought every Osprey Napoleonic uniform title I can find, so I already had these:

       As referenced in the first post of this series, 28  or even 15mm budlings would not work for this game, so I wound up using 10mm “Batlescale” models from Total Battle Miniatures in the U.K. Like my beloved 28 mm buildings by Hovels, these use a sort of forced perspective the preserves the overall look of the building while deceasing its footprint on the gaming table. 

Hougoumont

All very nice, but I am, quite content with my own versions!

Here’s the second unit of Byzantine Cataphracts.

     Shortly after Historicon 2024 games registration opened, John Spiess approached me on behalf of HMGS Next Gen, asking me if I’d be interested in running a series of games for HMGS Next Gen in Lancaster this year. The games would be held in the Foyer outside the Dealer hall, so very prime space for visibility. The theme for Historicon this year is “Historicon goes to the Movies”. I knew that I would want top do a Napoleonic game, but the rules needed to be simple, with a conclusion rendered in 2 hours. Rifleman Harris would also be appearing at the convention, so the battle of Waterloo was the obvious choice. Oddly enough, in 55+ years of Wargaming, the bulk of it Napoleonic, I’ve never run played in a game based upon Waterloo. Well, OK we did the entire 100 Days as a Campaign in a Day back circa 2025, and Ligny that years well, but that’s not really the same thing at all.

    The game woukld be run three times, with a 1 hour break in between each game. In addition, it would be a walk up game; no preregistration. The target audience would be youth and Novice gamers, although by no means limited to same. Given that, a gridded board was a must, and I figured some variation of Neil Thomas’s “One Hour Wargames” might be the most suitable rules. 

    The next issue would be terrain. The buildings at Waterloo, particularly Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte, and couldn’t easily be substituted for with other pieces. We were  also limited to a 6 x 10 foot long table (I am hoping we may be able to modify that to  5 x12 feet at the show, but no guarantees). Any model of Hougoumont, in particular, that was in anything near 25 mm scale would be huge, and occupy 1/3 to 1/2 of the Battlefield!  OK, so how about 15 mm?  It turns out hey would also be enormous (There was one forced perspective 15 version that might have worked, but unfortunately the owner has been indisposed and was not taking orders.  That lead to finding a 10 mm version that would fit the bill (more about that in a future post)

    Next, how about a scenario? Although crucial to the outcome of the battle, form a game standpoint, I knew I could not include the Prussians. If Napoleon doesn’t defeat Wellington by a certain point, the default is an Allied victory with Blucher’s arrival. At the excellent Hexes and Miniatures site I found a scenario for just this situation for a hexed version of Sam Mustafa’s Blucher rules at: https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-19028574/documents/1d47dce8e2d841c89274f9eb11582147/Waterloo.pdf

    The scenario requires less than 30 units a side – enough to still be quite a spectacle, but still doable and leaving the players 10 or less units each to command. Finally, I plan to use quotes form the movie for “chance cards” to be played during the game. Thus the game was registered through HMGS Next Gen as “Waterloo in Two”. There is still a lot to do for the game, but I am making excellent progress on all aspects.