Waterloo 200th Anniversary (3)

Following on from our previous Wellington & Auckland refight posts, on Saturday 21 June a third Waterloo Re-fight happened in New Zealand – at the Christchurch Wargaming Club, in 28mm using General de Brigade rules rather than Blackpowder that had been used in the previous 28mm scale Waterloo refight in Wellington. Continue reading “Waterloo 200th Anniversary (3)”

Waterloo 200th Anniversary (2)

Continuing on from Waterloo 200th Anniversary (1) the second re-fight was staged by our own Auckland Wargaming Club, here in Auckland on the 21 June 2015. The game was played in 6mm scale using Sam Mustafa’s ‘Grand Armee’ rules to facilitate the more sweeping view of the battle and assist in reducing the workload of producing the troops for the battle (there were still over 5,000 figures, in 1/300th scale, painted especially for this refight by several of the club’s members). Continue reading “Waterloo 200th Anniversary (2)”

Waterloo 200th Anniversary (1)

The 18 June 2015 is the 200th Anniversary of Waterloo, the battle – that along with Wavre on the same day – saw the final defeat of Napoleon and ushered in the ’50 years of peace’. Here in New Zealand there’s a couple of historical refights taking place to commemorate the battle. First up in Wellington on Saturday & Sunday 13-14 June there was a large 28mm scale re-fight at the Wellesley Club, then following on from that there was another 28mm refight at the Christchurch Wargaming Club on Saturday & Sunday 20-21 June, and our own re-fight here in Auckland, at the Auckland Wargaming Club, in 6mm scale on Sunday 21 June. Continue reading “Waterloo 200th Anniversary (1)”

Blücher By Sam Mustafa

Early this year Sam Mustafa will be releasing his latest game system in his “Honour” series, Blücher, which provides the ability to fight grand-tactical type games in the Napoleonic Wars. One units, stand, or counter, represents a Brigade or Regiment (incorporating multiple-battalions) or a massed Artillery concentration. Also included with the rules is Scharnhorst, a pre-game campaign that determines the manoeuvres of the opposing armies and ultimately how their deployment occurs on table. Continue reading “Blücher By Sam Mustafa”

A Spanish Village near Waterloo

In a Spanish Village somewhere between Quatre Bras and Waterloo, in Belgium, Napoleon’s advanced guard clashed with rearguard elements of Wellington’s retiring British & German allied force. My detachment of dragoons were in the vanguard of the returning Emperor’s advance, and had stopped for the evening in a strangely Spanish village not far from Quatre Bras, having pursued the English since the battle and the last mentioned place. We selected the village to billet in and establish pickets for the evening in anticipation of the arrival of the leading infantry elements of the following Corps. Unknown to us the English and their their new Allies had sent forth aggressive rear-guard patrols to the village with similar intent, and presumably hoping to deny us the village for the evening, setting the scene for a brisk late afternoon action! Continue reading “A Spanish Village near Waterloo”

Hundred Days British

42nd Royal Highland (who later became the Black Watch) & 92nd Gordon Highlanders
42nd Royal Highland (who later became the Black Watch) & 92nd Gordon Highlanders

Life has been a bit hectic over Christmas – with holidays, work, catching up on gardening & clearing clutter (both wargaming and general household accumulation), and a few other matters – so I haven’t had much chance to progress any posts in January at all, even though I do have several part-written or drafted in outline. Meanwhile here’s a little eye-candy of a couple of my 28mm Napoleonic British units that featured in my ‘Hundred Days’ games in 2011!

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Dominant Hill: The Black Brunswickers Baptism

Recently I finally got my Brunswick Corps close to completion (well barring the grass for the bases, and the 3 Brigade Commander figures) and Cam and I were overdue for another larger game akin to The Crossroads (that we had played several months ago) – so it seemed a good excuse to give them their baptism as an entire corps. This time we went a fraction smaller than that game, but a little larger than a standard Lasalle AB List Game, with the forces selected using an updated version of Cam’s Lasalle Points System originally posted on the AWC Website. The purpose was to try a game with about a reinforced Division (e.g. an Infantry Division with Cavalry Brigade in support) a side, test out the points amendments (especially regarding on-table cavalry), and play a scenario from Charles Stewart Grant’s Table Top Teasers or Scenario Books. This is what happened about three weeks ago…

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A Lasalle Points System: Our Latest Draft

Those familiar with Lasalle will know it uses a set of ‘Army Builder’ lists to design fairly generic Divisions based on an across-the-board average of the real life historical equivalents  (very similar to what SHAKO II also does). To add extra flexibility, assist scenario design, and provide options for building historical forces and such, we’ve been working on a points system as an alternative for Lasalle.

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Warhammer Waterloo Playtest at F’ de Onoro

I recently purchased a copy of Waterloo from Warhammer Historicals – partly because it was on 50% discount, but also partly because initial feedback was quite positive about it’s production quality and content. I’ve had it for a few days but to date have only managed to skim read through it so as yet haven’t looked into the actual game mechanics in detail – but I can say production quality is superb – and on a par with Kampfgruppe Normandy (although Waterloo is not such a ‘heavy’ book).

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A Wonderful 28mm Château d’Hougoumont

I’ve recently been talking to Tony Won (a wargamer & historian in Belgium) about various things Dutch-Belgian and Hundred Days related – Tony is a bit of a Hundred Days expert with 30 years effort on the subject, but is also a wargamer who obviously has some very nice models in his collection.

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The Siborne “Small” Model

The Siborne “Small” Model shows the area around the Brussels-Wavre crossroads including the farm of La Haye Sainte where, during the second phase of the battle of Waterloo at 1.30pm to 2.30pm (Sunday 18 June 1815), Picton’s Division engaged the Divisions of Donzelot, Alix and Marcognet, while the farm itself was still held by the Kings German Legion. This is not to be confused with Siborne’s “Large” model which depicted the entire Waterloo battlefield.

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