Battle of Ath (fictional)

The third battle of the fictional100.5 Days Campaign.

The Prince of Orange with his Dutch-Belgian aide. (Perrys)  Nominal commander of the Allied effort.  His tactical advise was not heeded but probably should have been.  The small independent Allied commands suffered as a result.

The Prince of Orange was nominally in command of the contingent of the Allied army consisting of the Dutch-Belgian divisions of Perponcher and Chasse, along with the British and Hanoverian brigades of Alten and British and KGL brigades of Clinton together with Ponsonby’s Heavy Horse. He was ordered to attack the seemingly small contingent of French sitting on the village of Ath.  Through intelligence confusion, it was thought the French were that of d’Erlon’ infantry and the weaken Exelman’s heavy cavalry corps from the battle at Leuze but it was indeed the corps of the determined Vandamme and Kellerman’s heavy horse ready in a defensive position holding Ath.

The early French movement by Kellerman and Quiot's Division to the left.

The early Allied advances.  On the right, already Perponcher's command is failing.  Ponsonby's small but strong British horse can be seen to his left wearing red coats and the Union Brigade's Scots Greys noticeable on their grey mounts.
Chasse's militia with orange flags are moving purposefully to the village of Ath (upper left of the photo).  Alten's command in line in the centre with Clinton's small contingent behind.  They would make no headway against the fire of the French guns (deployed on each side of Durette's division in the middle)

Given his military record, the Prince of Orange, offered no command assistance due to the experienced British divisional commanders stubbornly would not heeding his advise not to attack such a strong French position and numbers.
 [Ed. Note: I rolled for this eventuality as, while I had laid out the battle and even had DaveB’s agreement to the French deployment, I actually felt the Allies would not win such a game and so wanted to withdraw but was out-voted by the dice!]

Perponcher on the Allied right was to advance forcing Kellerman to counter thus giving Ponsonby and the British Heavies and chance to counterattack with advantage.  In the centre, Alten would try to pin the French centre with Clinton following up.  Chasse’s weak division of Dutch-Belgian militia would serve to pin the French force of Donzelot’s division in the village.

Chasse's Militia advance.  The figures are plastic conversions made from British bodies and French arms and packs!

Rather poor command by Perponcher this day (my poor dice rolling of his command PiPs throughout the game…) had his command already strung out and his rather strong artillery contingent was hurt as Kellerman’s horse artillery deployed far to the front, playing upon the limbered artillery and destroying two batteries which prompted Perponcher to deploy them too early.

Belgian line of Perponcher's command.  Plastic conversions by me from Perry British bodies, Victrix French arms, with Victrix British heads and one of Prussian. Packs are French.  The shako plates are close enough for me to be untouched. "Button-counters" might disagree.

On the Allied left, Chasse’s small division was better handled and immediately assaulted Ath as more to avoid the worst of the French artillery canister fire than in engaging in the urban fight.
However they found some success and fought tooth and nail with the veteran French within through most of the day only to be spent by the early afternoon.

Kellerman (the lone cuirassier wearing the bicorne hat - left-center) directs his cavalry. The green flag on the base is our command 'step-down' indicator which represents a half pip on the black die on his base.

Kellerman’s Horse made slow progress moving to the left against Perponcher’s Dutch-Belgians which held up the French infantry reserves of Quiot’s Division moving to that sector.

Ponsonby was observing these moves but was unwilling to move toward the French guns.  The French numbers in guns would tell in the battle and would influence much of what happened in the battle.  The early success of the artillery already weakened the Allied artillery strength concentrated in Perponcher’s command and the Allies had very little elsewhere to counter the French numbers.

Because of it’s concentration, the Dutch-Belgian artillery did have some success, notable singularly causing the loss of a cuirassier element but Kellerman’s command shrugged at that morale loss ( I rolled the required 6 on the command morale!) and continued to harass the Allied right flank commands.   Perponcher’s infantry was forced into square but some already battered, succumbed to the French horse.

In the middle, in face of massed artillery fire, Alten’s Division sustained heavy casualties and decided to finally heed the PofO’s opinion and turned his command away from the French guns’ canister range. Clinton, behind Alten, halted and thus the Allied attack in the centre faltered.

Ponsonby’s horsemen wanted a chance to attack the French dragoons and to perhaps grab victory however unlikely (I rolled for the likehood than that of a controlled withdrawal…very realistically given the British cavalry’s historical record!) However the LifeGuards failed to defeat the French veterans and the Union Brigade wisely did not follow but held.

the last important combat of the battle between the British Life Guards of Ponsonby's command and the green clad French dragoons of Kellerman.

At this point, the battle was very much in the French favour.  It might be noted that the brave Alten brought forward his only viable brigade to support Ponsonby’s failed attack of the French left, but Perponcher’s contingent was now spent as was Chasse. Ponsonby withdrew the rest of his horsemen to be prepared to play rearguard along with Clinton’s fine division unhurt in the middle but unable to make any impression on the main French force.

Kielmannsegge's Brigade of Hanoverians.  Each of the different uniforms represent the individual battalion sized regiments which constituted this formation during the historical campaign.

In the late evening, Allied elements were breaking while the French command morale was holding (the result of my rather lopsided die rolling I am afraid. However, the slow disintegration of the Allies was a logical result nonetheless and the morale chart will always reflect this) The Allied commands one by one started to withdraw. The French continue to hold Ath and the Allies withdrew, Ponsonby’s cavalry holding a successful rearguard action against the now weakened French horsemen.

The 52nd Light Foot Regiment and 95th Rifles of one of Clinton's brigades unengaged in this battle.

Vandamme toasted to the victory.  History will record that he did not immediately report his achievement to Napoleon.  His chief-of-staff would suggest the gathering of casualty numbers and dealing with the enemy dead as the reason. Nevertheless, the length of the engagement would not allow either side to offer contingents to any of their other forces in the area.

Analysis: Because of the lack of overall command in the Allies camp, each small division had it’s only a small command morale amount.  And while mathematically the modifying number is proportionally equal regardless of strength, the unified French commands did not suffer the potential morale loss as do the small Allied commands.  Interesting to note for fictional play rather than historical commands which is our usual staple game.

Waterloo Battle #1

It is 2015 and you know what that means to any Napoleonic wargamer….yes, its Waterloo Season!

Seth made the long drive up here and we had a day of pushing around lead/plastic French and the Allies based on the original historical deployments.

My newly painted Netherlander commander to finally (whew!) complete my 100 Days Campaign collection. Perponcher will hold the very left of the Allied line.  Based on his decision in the historical campaign to hold Quatre Bras, I have him pointing and seemingly exclaim to the rider, "Go like the devil himself is chasing you and tell the Duke that I am holding the crossroads!"

The stalemate on the right of the Allied line - the western portion of the battlefield. Hougomont is the building in the upper corners, the French on the top with Kellerman's Heavies moving through a wheat field. The blocks in front of D'Aubreme's and Detmer's brigades are indicating that they are in square formation - good defence against cavalry who are loath to attack them.

With that, however, Seth taking the French, did not want to get into the Hougomont commitment as Reille did in 1815, so just took the woods and left the troops to mask those buildings, bringing the majority of that corps around the west flank, with Kellerman’s Heavy cavalry in support.  As it was, the Netherlanders of Chasse’ division placed themselves in square thereby thwarting any further moves in that quarter. Clinton’s British helped secure the flank.

Seth then had d’Erlon attack the Allied left flank in a pinning action supported by the Guard Horse and the “Grand Battery” while Lobau moved to mask LaHayeSainte ( LHS) and move to soften up the Allied centre.

Maitland's Foot Guards and C. Halkett's 69th Foot holding off Lobau's advances.  In our rules the artillery CAN fire through your own troops.  Very stylized our rules, but they are now working well.

Game Note: we did not have the Prussians arrive. Only the two of us and I wanted to see if the Wellington could have withstood the French without help so I did not bring out the Prussians. Yes, yes, not historical but an important what-if scenario for this extremely well-documented battle.

Seth's arms of Napoleon

As we were moving things along, discussing the rules finer points and such, I did not really concentrate upon the individual moves of the formations on the table.  A few of the photos will show the general action until Seth needed to depart.

Our Waterloo deployments on a 8 x 5 foot table...
Looking south east from over the Allied right flank with Hougomont on the right, La Haye Sainte in the middle and Papalotte at the left.

I then proceeded to document a bit better if only to give Seth an understanding of what occurred later and to see if his battle plans would have made ol’ Napoleon proud.

The turn after his departure Reille pushed forward to break the stalemate against Picton. Lobau is staled on the crest line against the Hanoverians and British lining it between LHS and Hougomont with half his attached light horse destroyed by concentrated canister fire that depleted much of the ammuntion of the KGL batteries. [ we have a sort-of claw back rule so that effective guns could wear themselves down which has been nick-named “breaking the gun” ]
Milhaud on the far French right successfully beat off Vandeleur’s counterattack while Uxbridge still waited with the Allied heavy horse in the centre.

The Allies Heavy Horse grouped in the centre of the battlefield

The Allies are ready to meet d'Erlon's advance

Side note about the Allied command structure:  In my readings, while it would seem straight forward , Wellington’s corps structure was not employed and the divisional and indeed brigade commanders took much of the incentive of command within their small area with Wellington wandering around plugging gaps.  For the large scope of these rules, I was troubled as how to legitimately group the brigades into our “corps” that allow a good number of elements to be played yet stay true to the Wellingtonian organization.  In the end I had Perponcher command the Nassauers of Pr. Bernard and Bylandt’s Belgians with their artillery on the Allied left.  Picton in his position east of LHS, Prince of Orange with a reduced command but important elements in the centre and of Chasse’s Netherlanders on the extreme right.  “Clinton” in the area of Hougomont is a conglomeration of Cooke, Colville and Clinton’s Divisions from various corps but nicely grouped together.  In the rules command radius is very important.  With that however, Uxbridge historically commanding the entire Allied cavalry has the hardest task of getting much movement from any widely placed brigades.

Uxbridge’s cavalry once in action usually did good work.  Vivian’s light brigade ( represented by the 18th Hussars ) eliminated Milhauds’ 8th Cuirassier but their fellow cuirassiers ran over poor Bylandt’s Belgians.
It was nice to have my Dutch heavy horse flank and eliminate an element of French cuirassier as, for once, a fresh-to-the-tabletop units performs wonderfully especially as it took some time to model it!

The French cuirassiers are flanked by the Belgian Carabiniers Heavy Horse. (see: for their construction: link )

Part of Seth’s plan was not to follow the historical plan but to merely mask both LHS and Hougomont and so placed elements, in cases, very weak ones, in front of each. My elite defenders could not attack out of those complexes and retiring to be employed elsewhere would only give them up. So “Wellington” was forced to continue to man these with strong troops. On the left, Perponcher had the weak 28th Orange-Nassau defend “Papalotte”  representing that and “Fischermont” etc in that area.  Because of the nature of the ground, historically the French did little, but in the game, d’Erlon felt it was finally necessary to force the issue if only to free up the troops caught immobile behind this area. The hedges and sunken roads and rough terrain of the area is represented on the table by hedges which disorder those elements crossing affecting their combat effectiveness.  While the Orange-Nassau bravely defended against double their number, “attrition” very much weaken them and Perponcher was forced to abandon Papelotte or have them destroyed needlessly in the next French attack and thereby negatively affecting his corps’ morale.

Now every one loves the French Guard Grenadiers a Cheval , “The Gods”  <  grin  >  .   Well, Uxbridge finally found the opportunity to launch Somerset’s British Household Guards against them.  Guard against Guard.  While the French were up 1 (experienced) vs the Household (well mounted but inexperienced ) the British rolled a 2….but in true élan style, the GaC rolls the 3 to be victorious!

Guard Horse against Guard Horse!

( our combat dice are unique in that three of the sides are zeros so meaning no pluses, one side is a 1, one side a 2 and the final side a 3.  The effect of the dice is thus usually none but you could get some dramatic changes in fortunes as can happen in battle and history.  )

Over the French left flank.  Hougomont on the right

French centre action with Lobau advancing between Hougomont (left) and LHS (right)

The mass of the French Imperial Guard dominating the battlefield (centre)

over the French right flank with Milhaud's cuirassiers on the right and d'Erlon's corps moving slowly forward

representing Marshal Ney 

With a formation’s morale affected by both it’s own casualties and any of the army’s corps collapses, events late in the battle tend to have dynamic results and a snowball effect.  Our “Corps Morale” chart dictates what the player must do with his elements. For my view, this is a good thing as it takes the “ Oh, well, I lost almost 3/4 of my division but I can afford one more loss before I have to test again” silliness away from the player and so in our Corps Morale Chart with even good die rolls, he cannot advance and with poor, he is in rout.  It gives the battle more of a wind-down feel than the often heard “Boys, it’s 11pm and I have to get up in the morning, let’s call it a game…” ending to most war-game battles I have known.

I just LOVE the cuirassier uniform!

and black is nice too... Brunswick Hussars and Horse Artillery destined to be ultimately destroyed.

It is thus, that Picton’s and Clinton’s formations on the Allied side and with Lobau’s and Reille’s corps with the French now collapsing just as Napoleon and his important command points are roused (by the dice) from his sickbed and heard to exclaim “ Do I have to do everything myself?!!”  I promptly roll sixes for his command!
But as the solo player I was left with a dilemma.  Should Napoleon stay, with only the Guard in the centre and Kellerman’s cavalry stuck on the far left,  to continue this desperate combat or have him withdraw to continue the campaign with the Guard intact?
While I rolled for the result - the retreat.   I later decided, for game development, to continue to the VERY end.

The Prince of Orange  - "he" did better I believe than his historical counterpart in this game

Napoleon again arose from his sick bed - he really was having medical issues this day apparently-  to roll double sixes for command and pushed the Guard up the ridge!  While Kellerman’s Cavalry Corps broke while still generally intact - but far away from the rest of the army which was in full retreat who could blame them - the Guard artillery generally did the trick and Uxbridge’s, Clinton’s British and eventually the Brunswickers after a rearguard holding action, all broke.  Only Perponcher’s Nassauers remained (ironically the first Allied unit I painted as they are a favourite of mine!).  The road to Brussels was open and Wellington in full rout. Vive le Empereur!!
Seth’s plan worked.
Yes, yes, no Prussians but the French could have won except for their intervention…..

The 2nd Foot Guards representing Byng's Brigade which retired with the rest of Clinton's command near the end of the affair without being seriously engaged.  Such are the fates of battle.

new units for Waterloo

Painting being steadily done to complete Wellington's army for Waterloo.
The Hanoverians made up a large contingent both with their Field and Militia contingents but also with the old veterans from Hanover who had formed the King's German Legion.

While the red caps are quintessential look of the Hanoverian infantry, there is debate about their use.  I tend to go with the look than the authentic.  If that was not the case, the uniforms would be much, much dirtier.  The yellow of the officer's sash and the white rolls has them identifiable on the table as, well, not British. 

The Hanoverian contingent in the field with the KGL line and lights in the fore forming the first of the "brigades"

The KGL artillery and Light Dragoons in the rear

the British 69th Regiment of Foot showing the effects of the combat at Quatre Bras with sliced shakos and bandaged heads from French cuirassier blades and only the one -the Regimental- flag; the King's Colour was captured in that battle.

The 2nd (North British) Dragoons or better known as the "Scots Greys"   I really do not like painting horses and especially light coloured , grey and white, horses as they are very hard to do realistically.  Reasonably pleased with how these appear. Equestrians please overlook! 

The Scots Greys off on the charge.
[ The blank area on the base is for attachment of their command label ]

Refight of Battle of Montmirail 1814

With the plan for a game still in effect but with a necessary change in the number of players and their timing in arrival, I needed to have a smaller game with later arriving reserves and so the 1814 battle of Montmirail in the campaign for France seemed to fit the bill.  Well, OK, minor changes required with my Prussians replacing the Russians and the newly painted Hanoverians taking the Prussian's place!  The French were still the French fortunately as my original collection was designed specifically for this battle.

With everyone with coffee and cake in hand,  I had the "umpire chat" with Bob and Ian commanding the Prussians (Sacken's Russians)  With only Ricard's French Division on the table, I told them that they were ordered to take the village of Marchais to open up the road to further advance per the historical plans.   While I did indicate further French forces were moving up, I did not indicate that these were the French Imperial Guard in great numbers!  Sacken was equally surprised apparently.
I commanded the Prussians of Yorck - my Hanoverians - which guarded the LOC for the army.  I took these as Yorck historically seemed to do little which is ideal for me.  Involved with the rules for the others, I often forget to move my own troops!

The "chat" with Dave commanding the French has him wanting to destroy the Allies.  However he has negative victory points for losses of Old Guard elements. Nevertheless he was excited to command an attacking ( ! ) force with good troops for once.  He had the quality, the Allies had the numbers.
Interestingly this battle had few cannon as the mud of northern France during this rainy winter of 1814 made the movement of artillery extremely difficult and only a few batteries were available to Napoleon.  The flat terrain of the area and no significant historical influence meant a flat table.  At this level of combat, the problems of hedges, minor streams and the like, are of no concern of the corps commander/player.  Makes terrain deployment easier anyway!

The Prussians I had deploy first. As they ARE Prussians I left the original command labels on the bases and so Thielemann = Lieven and Bulow = Taillsin's corps.  Ian also commanded Vassilitchkov's cavalry labeled as "Jurgass".   Ian and Bob decided on corps deployment lines and with that, placed all their meagre artillery on the right and left of each respectively thereby creating a 'grand battery' of 17 points ( ! )

 With Ricard's Division holding Marchais, Dave moved the Old Guard infantry forward but was faced with the move by Bob holding a good position to his flank but the massed Prussian batteries to his front.  His moves by the very powerful French Guard horse were a bit less troublesome but he did have to pick his targets as not to get into an attrition contest with the more numerous Allies.  My historical holding back of the Prussians helped him somewhat but he still had to worry about this flank also.
You can read more from his blog at :  link  He writes an excellent report of our battles

The Allies numbers and good tactics were seeming to hold sway for the moment but I had planned for the later arrival of Barry after his early day shift.  I had him command the French Young Guard reserves.  Their arrival on the tabletop was predicated upon when he would show up!  His timing was good as it turns out.  

A few more turns later, the Prussian horse were beaten from the field by the powerful French guard horse and one of the Prussian corps had collapsed.
The Hanoverians with necessary action required with the arrival of the Young Guard, tried to hold Bailly and Fontenelle on the Allies left flank to protect the line of retreat. Widely spread, attacks of the powerful Young Guard and the 'Red' Lancers of the Guard broke the corps eventually.

We forgot to plot the number of turns completed but all agreed there were many and so concluded that on the short winter days of northern France, night was to fall and the fighting concluded.  While a  minor French victory, it cost Napoleon three wrecked Old Guard elements.

A scenario with powerful but fewer French elements in a central position with more numerous but poorer quality Allies holding front and the flanks made for an interesting game I thought.  

Much discussion again about the rules.  I suppose at this point the players all consider each game a play-test and so the rules are now always scrutinized!  Much of the discussion can be more about tactics than about the level we are trying to achieve with these rules, however all agreed they are coming around and are fun to play.  Most of the proposed changes are more procedural than any huge change.

I thank the boys for coming down and having a good game.  My motivation is revived.

early moves of the battle with the Old Guard marching up toward the massed Prussian guns of their center, the mass of Bulow's (nee Taillisin) corps behind the farm of Greneaux and the hand of Ian moving up Prussian dragoons trying to hold the mass of the French Imperial Guard horse

Close up of the Prussian infantry

The Old Guard seeing the massed Prussian guns in the distance and probably whispering "oh, merde!"

The initial cavalry clash

My newly painted and seemingly nervous Hanoverians. Rightly so under my rather dubious command.

My Hanoverians - historically the Prussians - thin on the ground with the Young Guard Division about to take the Village of Bailly [ top ] and part of the victory conditions and [bottom] the Guard Red Lancers threatening a brigade in square [noted by the cube marker on the base] in front of the village of Fontenelle.

 my Young Guard in the command of Barry during the battle