Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Waterloo +201: East flank-ish scenario

For the 201st anniversary, Mike made up a scenario loosely based on the arrival of the Prussians on the French right at Waterloo.
View from behind the British line. PeterC's Brits & Hanoverians are deployed behind the reverse slope on the flat behind the gentle rise.  Mark's Dutch-Belgians Dutch Belgians are in the village on the far left.
View from behind the French lines.  SteveJ's 2 ibf divs & a cuirassier div are on the left.  On the right Jim has a line div, a Guard div, a cavalry div of hussars & dragoons & 2 batteries.
In the opening moves the French got uniformly excelent command dice and advanced rapidlt except for a curiously reluctant guard div.  The Brits looked anxiouslt to the east, but bad dice kept the Prussians out of sight.
Jim got a nasty shock when a British Hussar division suddenly materialised in front of his advance carelessly lead by unlimbered artillery.  One of the batteries managed to evade behind the infantry, but the other was ridden down. 
Jim's cavalry counterattacked, but the infantry remained pinned down by the hussars.  In the meantime Steve, just returned from Europe apeared full of French elan.  He threw his Cuirassiers at the centre of the British line. It bounced off, kept it busy while his infantry attacked the far flank of the british.
Steve's left is making progress, but it's hard fighting.  His right is moving up.  Jim's cavaly has broken the hussars.  Mark's Dutch-Belgians have come out of the village.  Still no Prussians.
 Heavy fighting continues on the French left.
The Prussians have finally arrived on the east flank.
The French guard's dilatory advance has put them in the perfect place to form a flank guard.  Part of Jim's cavalry plus and his line infantry have moved up onto the British left flank.
Suddenly it all goes pear shaped for the British.  Steve has broken through on the far flank & is overlapping the British line.  His infantry on his right has put pressure on the other end of the british line just as Jim's infantry smashes into it from the flank.
Both British divs break leaving only the Hanoverians surrounded by Frogs on this flank.

The scenario was a pretty loose adaption from Waterloo, but was a good battle anyway.  It's the first time we've taken advantage of the 4.25m table length made possible by the new layout of the wargames room.  The French had a pretty sound plan helped by some good command dice early.  The British hussars gave them a  scare, but the late arrival of the Prussians meant the delay bought by the hussars wasn't nearly enough to save the Brits.




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