Project Waterloo: Hanoverians… and (free) flags from Mal’s Small World.

This project required 3 units of Hanoverian infantry. Perry makes a nice range of these troops, but I didn’t really want to incur the expense of buying them (and the necessary time to paint them!). 
Roughly 25 years ago I bought roughly 100 very neatly painted Minifigs British from Jamie, who had brough them to Historicon in the hopes that I might want to purchase them. 

I had no British Napoleonics at the time, nor had I any plans to start a British Napoleonic army at the time, either. 

If I recall, he offered them at $1 per figure. At that price and with the very fine paint jobs, I couldn’t resist… could I? Of course not. 
The troops were more than enough to make up 3 units of infantry in my scheme, but not enough for 4. The regulation Hanoverian Line infantry uniform was all but indistinguishable form that of standard British troop.  I realized that I could use the spare figures (and a few spare Old Glory command figures) to just add Hanoverian Command stands (just the flags, really). Then the three units could be used as either British or Haoverian just by changing one stand per unit. 

Jamie’s original troops formed one unit of 30 in light yellow facings, and one in medium green facings. While I was at it, I changed the facing colors of the requisite figures  so that there is now a black faced unit, that once again can be used as British or Hanoverian. These wonderful flags are from Mal’s Small World blog: https://mal4955.blogspot.com/p/mals-small-world-guide-to-flags-and.html
Among the gems there are numerous flags for the British Yeomanry units of the Napoleonic Wars, Foreign units in British service, ALL of the British Infantry units of the Napoleonic Wars (one of the pedants on TMP sniffed that devices are too large; he’s correct, but really for our purposes the flags look much better and are more easily recognizable with  the exaggerated devices. In any event, if you don’t like them, I’m sure your money will be cheerfully refunded (my standard answer to those who complain about aspects of thigs they didn’t pay anything for!). 
Anyway, there are  flags for all three battalions of the Hanoverian regiments of 1815; it’s likely the regimental (not the sovereign’s) flags had fields in the facing color (and perhaps white for black faced regiments). Anyway, the flags I used, left to right, were for the Luneburg, Calenberg, and Verden regiments. 
But wait, there’s still more vexillogic goodness on Mal’s blog: Flags for all the Danish Napoleonic infantry regiments, eight sheets for flags for the Swedish Napoleonic infantry and cavalry regiments, flags for the Russian Cossacks and Opolochenie, far more than 100 flags for the Austrian Landwehr of 1809, the Erzherzog Karl Legion, and the infantry and cavalry of the Hungarian Insurrectio. Not satisfied? There a few dozen flags for the Tyrolean uprising, too! 
Still not impressed? How about flags for the Napoleonic Army of Mysore, the Sikhs, Rajput, Mehwari, Muhgals. There are flags as described by Kipling for  Jaipur, Lahore, Bikanir, Udaipur, and others. Still more sheets of flags are on the site for the Mahratta, an illustration of the flags of the French Corps of Hyderbad, flags of the Honorable East India Company,  the Bombay Native Infantry, Bengal infantry and cavalry in British service, and the same for Madras. There arter probably well over 1,00 flags on this site, and all are free!  Check it out; yopu will be blown away!

 

Project Waterloo – The Playtest

 We wound up having 5 of us for the game; unfortunately. Kevin had to bow out at the last minute due to work obligations. Either that, or it was his recent election to the Board of HMGS making him feel overwhelmed, LOL!  As I wrote to him, I voted for you even though I like you!”  🙂 Anyway, on the Allied aside we had Kyle, Chris, and Thomas; it was the first visit to the Table for Kyle and Chris. Chris plays more board games, but had played miniatures with William Keyser years ago (a fellow Connecticut resident, and the author of the From Valmy to Waterloo rules. Kyle had never played historical miniatures before, but is starting a D&D Campaign which my older daughter (who likes games, unlike my wife and younger daughter, neither of which is much for games) is evidently going to be a participant!

Barry and I took the French; Barry once again drove all the way from his home in Maine and back for the game. Now that’s a dedicated grognard! Our initial advance was finely synchronized, while our artillery bombarded Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte.

I got bold with my three units of Light cavalry on the far left flank of our army; probably unwisely so!

I destroyed rthe Brunswicj Hussars, but the Horse Guards were another matter altogether. I put some hurt on this Brunswick line infantry as well, but that meant that on their turn they would shoot back, which is just about as effective as a frontal cavalry charge. 

Note the lack of French Light Cavalry now, and the brooding masses of British cavalry arriving. It is Turn 4, and Napoleon has released the Guard Cavalry… and not a moment to soon, then Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard can be seen moving up in support. 

Chris’ British cavalry charge; The Legere unit took double hits; 8 dice, needing 3+ to hit. Not a pretty sight (at least if you were playing French, that is!). 

Red Lancers countercharge to Life Guards. With so much British cavalry around, most of my linen units form Square. Squares cannot be attacked in melee, but cannot move or fire, so they really lose all offensive power. In retrospect, it may not have been worthwhile. 

On the French right, Barry has taken Pappelotte, and is making progress against the Allied Left. 

Not looking good for my command (Reille).  I thought the Allies were the ones who formed square?!
Old Guard Infantry arrives to bolster the crumbling French Left! I got lucky when Kyle got really cold dice – 1 hit on 8 dice needing a 3+ to hit!

Meanwhile, Barry (D’Erlon and part Lobau) has destroyed Picton’s entire command and is rolling up Hill’s now, too. 

View from D’Erlon’s starting positions. The “reluctance” of the DB cavalry to charge really handicapped them. Game ended turn 11, and at that point French had lost 11 units of 30 vs 19 of 29 for the Allies. With over 60% losses losses suffered by the Allies, Napoleon is victorious! “Give me night or give me Blucher!”

Thanks so much to Barry, Thomas, Kyle and Chris for playing! I had a blast!

Rules/Scenario Changes from Playtest

Game took about 3 hours to reach a conclusion. Therefore I am going reduce the hits taken by each unit by one across the board. That should see units eliminated faster.

Add Zone of Control (none for LI and Units in BUA’s) and diagonal movement rules similar to those in To the Strongest!

Eliminate most of the special rules: the retreat from fire rule, Conscript, Steady, Impetuous, Reluctant and Shock attributes (In the end, they didn’t really add much to the game, and some were often forgotten). KISS!

Change rules for Ney so that he simply acts as additional commander who may lead units of any command. 

Earlier release of  Guard Cavalry Turn 3 vs 4), Guard Infantry Infantry (Turn 6 vs 8)

Transfer one Line Infantry from D’Erlon to Reille; that will make all 3 French commands have 10 units each. 

Finally, perceiving the grid on the hills was sometimes difficult. I had planned on making custom ridge lines for the game, and even bought a new foam cutter to do it. Barry has been doing some terrain boards and had a nifty idea about using ceramic magnets to hold the components together. Barry explains “The magnets are from JoAnns fabric, I used a 3/4” speed bit to drill the holes in the foam insulation. The metal tabs were cut from thin sheet metal(from Home Depot or Lowe’s HVAC isle) and then I cut the area they are to go into with a utility knife.  Both magnet and metal plate were hot glued in place.”

Sheet metal inset flush into the edge of the foam board

Magnet inset flush into the foam boar edge

Tools and supplies!

    However, I am planning to transfer the bulk of my Geohex terrain to another gamer who will pick them up at Historicon, and space in the car will be tight, so it makes sense to use the Geohex (prior to transfer) for this event at least. We had a variety of ideas for marking the grid, but I think I may just go with rocks on 1″ bases, which I already use as casualty markers for other games. I may need to make some new ones, though. That is pretty quick to do, however. If I am happy with how the game goes such that I might run it again at other and/or future conventions, I may tackle some custom hill/ridge terrain for the 6″ grid. 

Project Waterloo: Troop Deployment

 

I set out all the troops for the game last night and this morning.
Map of the terrain; each big square i12″ by 12″, so contains 4 boxes. 

Hougoumont and LeHaye Sainte are garrisoned by Allied troops.

Long view of the table and troops.
Deployment Map.

View from the British side; Mont St Jean is in the foreground.

The British Left flank.

And another long view from the opposite end of the battlefield. 

Gaming items added. Litko Dials for casualties, color coded by command., color linked D6 sets, and the Chance Card decks. 

Project Waterloo: The Table terrain set up… and the rules!

 

Hougoumont is in the mid foreground.

Pappelotte Farm is in the foreground. 

View from behind the Allied ridge position. 

Based upon Martin Rapier’s variant of Neil Thomas’ One Hour Wargames:

One Hour Napoleonic (MR 02.01.24) 

from https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/p/one-hour-wargames-rules-and-scenarios.html



Turn sequence. 1) Draw Chance Card 2) Shoot 3) Move, Resolve cavalry charges 


Unit 

Move

Combat 

Notes 

Cavalry

3

3D6

charge only; 2x dice flank attack or vs Light Infantry,

or Artillery not in cover; 2D6 v Heavy Cavalry 

Heavy Cavalry

3

3D6

charge only; 2 x dice flank attack, or vs Light Infantry

or Artillery not in cover.

Artillery

1 .5

1 box range: 3D6 

2-4 box range: 2D6

5-8 box range: 1 D6 

2 x dice vs flanks of infantry or cavalry, or vs Squares

Ignores all cover except fortifications.

Line Infantry

1.5

1 box range: 3D6

2 box range 1 D6

May pivot to face a charge 

Light Infantry

2

2 box range:  1 D6

Attacks ignore cover. No flanks. Take half hits from

infantry/artillery fire but double hits from cavalry. 

Rifles increase range to 3 boxes (still 1 D6).


Shooting requires LOS, may fire overhead from a higher elevation. Arc of fire +/- 45 degrees, 360 from an occupied

SP/Town. Artillery may not fire from town. Units move OR shoot. Roll specified number of dice.

3+ to hit. Half effect 5+. Quarter effect 6. Reduce morale 1 for each hit. Cavalry do NOT shoot!

Targets that suffer 3 (or more) hits from shooting from a single source = retreat 1 box directly away from source. Steadfast troops ignore this effect.  Conscripts retreat one box as above when suffering 2 (or more) hits from a single shooter.

Rout Units rout when their morale is reduced to 0. Attached Leader +1. If a unit is routed by Line Infantry musketry

(1 box range), the firer may advance into the empty hex. 

MovementUnits face a box side; no diagonals!. May pivot at the start and end of their move only, otherwise move forward,

plus or minus 45 degrees; moves on the diagonal cost 1.5. Standard move rates are for units deployed for combat. 

Reluctant units- must roll a D6 and score less than their remaining remaining hits to advance or charge,

Interpenetration Light Infantry may pass through and be passed through by any troops from any angle. Other troops may

temporarily overstack if they are facing in the same direction at the start of the turn, but must end the turn

unstacked, (so units may swap places or pass through). 

Cavalry ChargesCavalry must have LOS to target to charge (so no charging over ridges or through friendly units). Cavalry

may not pivot before charging and must have enough movement to enter the target box. Cavalry can charge

over bridges or into towns or a wood via a road but at half effect due to narrow frontage. This is in addition

to any cover bonuses the target may have. If the charge routs the enemy, occupy the target box, otherwise cavalry

remains next to the target unit. Units with Shock charging units without same gain an extra D6 in melee.

Only the unit that charges inflicts casualties! Note that Infantry and Artillery may NOT engage in melee!

Impetuous units that charge MUST continue to charge on subsequent turns as long as there are any valid targets!

Square Infantry units may go into or out of square at the beginning of their movement phase. Unit in Square

may not move or shoot, but also may NOT be charged by cavalry while in Square.

Bayonet ChargeIf a Line Infantry unit routs an enemy with massed (1 box) musketry, it may advance into the vacant hex. 

Column of Route.Line Infantry/Guns +1 box cross country, +2 boxes entirely on road. Cavalry, Light Infantry +1 box entirely on

road (no bonus x-country). Treat units as flanked for all combat, may not fight in column of route apart from

cavalry. Cavalry may charge in CoR at half effect. To exit formation, move a normal move next turn.

Roads. Roads may only be used in Column of Route, they allow units to enter/cross otherwise impassable terrain

and impart a movement bonus. 

Infantry charge response vs Cavalry Line Infantry may pivot to face cavalry if charged. 

 

Terrain 

Towns and Strongpoints (SP): Towns fill a whole box, SPs are isolated farm complexes etc. All unit types can end their move inside towns

and SPs; but only infantry can occupy them. Occupied towns and SPs count all their sides as “front”; they can

thus shoot 360° and cannot be charged/shot “in the flank/rear”. Line and Light infantry attacked at half effect

by Line Infantry. Artillery cannot fire while in a town, but fires at units in them as normal. Cavalry can only

charge units inside towns/SP at half effect vs cavalry/guns (5+) and quarter effect vs Infantry(6). 

Morale Hits reduce morale. When a unit has lost all its hits, it routs and may not be recovered in the timeframe of the

game.

 Leaders

An Army may have one or more leaders allocated to it. Leaders move with units or as cavalry although they may

enter woods. A leader stacked with a unit under their command allows it to take one extra hit before routing and

adds a bonus to its morale roll. 

Leader RiskIf a leader is in a box which takes a hit, leader is removed on a 2D6 roll of ‘2’. If the leader is in a box where

the unit routs, or if they are overrun by an enemy unit, they are lost on a 1D6 roll of ‘1’. If they are overrun and

survive, the leader retires 1 box. 

Unit types

Leaders

Army and Corps commanders of notable repute 

Line Infantry Conventional infantry formations operating mainly in close order. They are assumed to have skirmishers screens

and attached artillery, accounting for their long range. Represent 6-8000 men, but the size may be adjusted for

different battles, but keep the 2:1 ratio with cavalry. 

Light Infantry Infantry with a much thicker skirmish screen, and a limited number of formed supports. The optimum units

for operating in broken or close terrain. They also have attached artillery. Represent 6-8000 men.

Cavalry

Close order cavalry, very effective against infantry in the flank or against guns and light infantry. 

Heavy Cavalry

More effective against other types of cavalry. Have attached horse batteries. Represent 3-4000 men 

Artillery Corps/Army reserve artillery grand batteries. Most artillery is assumed to be attached directly to units.

Represent 50-60 guns. Units assumed to have around 20-30 guns each. 

Troop quality Excellent units with high morale and cohesion or possibly very strong units – 7 hits. Good Units with good morale and cohesion – 6 hits. Poor Units with poor training, leadership, morale, tactics or possibly just weak – 5 hits. French Old Guard Units – 8 hits


WATERLOO Commander effects


Wellington – at the end  of any Allied turn, may move up to 3 boxes and attempt to rally 1 unit.

Picton: +1 D6 for shooting at 1 box range  for any British infantry of his command within 1 box.

Hill: British and infantry within 1 box may re-roll 1 missed die when shooting.

Orange: units of his command within 1 box may force enemy to re roll one successful hit from from fire or melee.



Napoleon- at the start of any French turn may attempt to rally one French unit.

Ney – any unit he is attached to adds 2D6 in melee; all adjacent French units add 1 D6 in melee.

D’Erlon:  Units within 1 box get an extra D6 in melee

Reille:  

Units within 1 box may force enemy to reroll one successful hit from Fire per turn.

Lobau:  Units within 1 box may reroll one missed die in melee per turn


Rally by C-in-C:  Roll1 D6:
1          No effect
2,3,4    Regain 1 hit
5,6       Regain 2 hits

1st hit cannot be rallied off.

Project Waterloo: Netherlands Command

 

At left is Wilhelm (William), Prince of Orange and Nassau, accompanied by his ADC. The single figure is General Chasse, who commanded the 3rd Netherlands Division. His nickname was “General Bayonet”, and had fought in the French Army in Spain and then in France in 1814. These are Perry Miniatures once again.

Prince William had to flee the Netherlands with his Father, when he was only 2 years old. He grew up thereafter in Berlin (Frederick Wilhelm II,. King of Prussia, was his maternal Grandfather). He received a military education, and joined the Prussian army. 
He later joined the British army, and, at age 19, became an Aide de Camp to Wellington in the Peninsula. In November 1813, with the liberation of the Netherlands from French control, he returned there, and in December was made a Major General in the British army; by the end of May 1814, he was a full General in the British army – at age 21!  His courage and good nature made him well liked by the British, who nicknamed him “Slender Billy”!

In 1815, he was the senior Allied commander in the Netherlands when Napoleon returned to France. He commanded the 1st Allied Corps at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. British accounts depict him as brave but tactically unskilled, although there may be more than a little bias in those accounts.  He was blackmailed at least once over alleged bisexuality. He became King of the Netherlands upon his father’s abdication in 1840, and died suddenly in 1849.