The Battle of Waterloo

June 18^th 1815 (By Richard Denning)

This is an account of a refight of this battle that took place at my house on 3 Thursday afternoons in November 1998. As will be seen the French followed a different plan to that which Napoleon did. Participants included members of the October Wargames association and a few other friends . (Thanks to Patrick, Ian S and Ian H , Paul , Clive , Mike ,Ray and John) . We played 1 move as 30 minutes – planning to play from 11.30 am to about 9.30 pm game time – or about 20 moves. As it is we managed to play about 16 moves which is not bad.

Here is a map of the battlefield:

We played on a 10ft by 5ft table . The terrain stretched from 18" west of Hougoumont to 30" east of Plancenoit – and from just north of Rosomme to Mount St Jean. There is an inherent problem with 15mm figs – in that quite often a building such as La Haye Sainte occupies too much ground area for the rules . I.E. a 6" wall is 600 yards of distance. You could actually squeeze 5 units against the wall – more than a division . However in reality only about 1 regiment could actually get in against this distance. The solution is to "squeeze" the buildings somewhat and also to agree that whatever the ground scale only 1 unit may occupy or assault the side of a BU area.

The Refight

The French players concentrated all the Heavy Corps and Guard Artillery with the divisional batteries of I and II Corps into two grand batteries . One was placed on the elevated ground in front of I Corps . This opened fire on Bylants brigade which was deployed on the front slope infront of allied reserve Corps. Bylants units broke after 2 or 3 moves and fled over the ridge. The other grand battery deployed SW of La Haye Sainte opened up on allied I Corps – but did little damage .

After 2 hours of this preliminary bombardment French II Corps attacked. Jerome’s large division assaulted the Woods of Hougoumont held by allied Jaegers and pushed onto the approaches to the Chateau. Here there came under devastating volley fire from the British Guards units there . After a couple of assaults failed the French settled in to a exchange of skirmish fire. This part of the battle was won by the British forces . Jerome’s forces lost 50% casualties without inflicting more than a few in return.

However the assault on Hougoumont covered a move of the western grand battery with Cavalry support round to the west of Hougoumont. The French plan was to roll up the British line by going round the corner of the ridge and subjecting the unprotected infantry to canister fire. The plan had merits – but would take quite a while – and all the time the Prussians were getting closer.

The rest of Reilles Corps moved forward and attacked La Haye Sainte . The KGL unit there held for 3 moves but was eventually evicted.

The fall of La Haye Sainte opened the way for a determined assault by D’Erlons I Corps . They attacked in Line up the slope towards Pictons Veteran division and at the Nassau troops in La Haye, Papelotte and Frischermont. The tactic of attacking in Line was envisaged to beat the British firing line by feeding forward units to engage in volley fire . If units were routed by the redcoats more French units would come forward and in time surely weight of numbers would lead to a French victory.

However the British ( who had chosen the battalion guns option and using skirmishing rifle fire) were able to shoot off French units as they came into range before the French could return fire. Furthermore the British chose this moment to commit their 2 units of Heavy cavalry into the Flank of D’Erlons Corps . This routed I unit and forced 2 divisions into column or square where they were subject to withering British Volley fire.

Mid afternoon there was a bit of a crisis for the British as D’Erlon suceeded in getting a foot hold into Frischermont and finally part of Pictons division ( near Papellotte) broke under the French assault. Into the gap the French charged the Guards Lancers . 2 or 3 British units were routed . Further west Reille’s Corps attacking round La Haye Sainte and up the slope and out of la Haye Sainte was attacking Orange’s Corps. Supported by Cuirassiers they had pushed back the Hanoverians there. There was a serious danger of the Allied position being split in three .

However the British Heavy cavalry along with Vivian and Vandeleur’s lights and Lambeth’s reserve division were able to seal up the eastern breech . The eastern breech was saved by scraping together Kruse’s Nassaus and the Dutch Belgium cavalry.

The Crisis had passed for the allies. Meanwhile from about 4 pm the Prussians had been attacking from the east. In response the French dispatched the entire Imperial Guard, the eastern Grand battery and both Heavy Cavalry Corps . Bulow’s Prussians attacked with vigour between Frischeront and Plancenoit – into the teeth of the Grand battery. They managed to reach the grand battery but an attack by the French Guard and Heavy Cavalry threw back most of the Prussians . Bulow’s Corps by this point had taken heavy losses and was more or less finished as an offensive force.

However more Prussians were arriving under Pirch and Ziethen and the French Guard and cavalry was deeply committed to fighting the Prussians. Only Lobau’s Corps was left as reserves. The British having seen off the assaults were preparing for an attack of there own . Clearly the moment where there could have been a French victory had passed. They began falling back on Lobaus Corps .

In conclusion the French had failed to defeat the Allies before the Prussians arrived and had taken heavy losses in D’Erlons Corps and Parts of Reilles Corps .However they had not been devastated to the same extent as at the real battle. It was declared that the Allies had won . It was accepted that the French might be able to fall back in orders to Quatre Bras and fight a defensive battle there in a day or two.

The army lists follow. A brief explanation. I have departed from Tom’s lists in 2 main ways. Firstly I have made elite Infantry and Cavalry a lot stronger than in the main lists ( I.E. I have French guard cav as 18). I want the elite type units to be a lot stronger than other units not just a bit stronger . I prefer it that way. Secondly the Dutch Belgium and other allied units are French system NOT British/ Prussian system. Toms argument is I believe that he wanted to have the whole army in a list the same system as they were under one command and Wellington tried to blend the army units together. My argument is that this did not occur to any large extent and in fact most of the Dutch Belgium regiments had been fighting for the French for the last several years and so would be trained that way and not in the Prussian system.