Yesterday morning I made an early dash to Bath (lovely part of the country) to play a thoroughly enjoyable Napoleonic wargame using vintage Hinton Hunt from the collections of Ian and Roy.
I played the part of Wellington and had to settle to leading my side to second place. Your intrepid War Correspondent did not make extensive notes so I can only leave you with snapshots of the action from the Allied side of the table!
The Left Flank (Picton)
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| The serried ranks of Picton's Division in the early morning haze. |
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| The French advance against Picton |
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| The Swiss enter the Church yard... |
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| ...and get mauled horribly! |
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| They didn't stay around much longer. |
The Centre (Wellington)
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| The source of much hilarity throughout the day and the only troops responsible for inflicting casualties on every nationality on the table-The Rocket Troop. Hurrah! |
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| Napoleons Old Guard advance - which was to be my undoing. |
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| With support from the combined Grenadiers and the guys with sky blue pompoms!!! |
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| Despite the excellent musketry of the Silesian Landwehr (my Death Star unit on the table as it turned out!) the Old Guard contact the Allied line. The writing was on the wall for yours truly. |
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| The British Naval Contingent's last stand in the Centre. |
The Right Flank (Blucher)
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| Over on the right flank the largest collection of A class cavalry ever assembled. The horse artillery piece would have been REALLY useful had it not been destroyed so quickly! |
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| The whole right turned into a cavalry mincer for the Allied cavalry. Blucher's mid afternoon quote"Sorry I appear to have lost the cavalry" was a masterclass in understatement! |
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| Blucher's infantry denying the French the 1VP for undisputed ownership of the "rock" - despite the constant threat from the remaining French cavalry. |
Games end!
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| The Centre has collapsed, the left flank is definitely ours and the right is holding on. Unfortunately the number of Allied routing/destroyed units tipped the balance against us! |
All that remains is to say a huge thank you to Ian, Roy, Tony, Clive and Nigel for a thoroughly enjoyable game. Plus thanks to Mrs S for having us and the delicious food!
To be honest, it was a damn near run thing - great photos Matt!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous painted figures and great photos of the game - marvelous!
ReplyDeleteLooks like it was a stunning spectacle and splendid fun.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
Great, brings back memories
ReplyDeleteWonderful bit of nostalgia there, great stuff.
ReplyDeleteA great day out! - good photos, too - the French look more confident than they felt at the time!
ReplyDeleteOutstanding! I can attest to the quality of Mrs S's cooking too!
ReplyDeleteOutstanding stuff! Thanks for the report and pics.
ReplyDeleteThe figures look good and the game sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed great fun with a very friendly group of enthusiasts. I do wonder if Ian might look at the advantages of being A class and of attacking in column. I don't expect even the best infantry in line are going to hold against two Old Guard battalions in column, unless that is the British line have the 52nd swinging in on the flank. However, even good shooting by a line will have a tough time stopping a column from charging it and once it does the column has the advantage of being in column attacking line and charging . Does a column actually get such an advantage as it chaeges in? In density terms a coumn is not a solid mass, but actually a series of companies whose deployed depth is not much more than the line it faces
ReplyDeleteOn reflection moving the artillery to assist Picton was a mistake-I should have used them to stop the columns. Infantry fire, even with the "Silesian sharpshooters", is not enough to stop those Guard columns without six plus casualties a turn.
DeleteThey also serve who only soak up the allied rocket and artillery fire.....(a view from the Swiss, who think they hung around for quite long enough, thank you).
ReplyDeleteLovely to see these marvellous figures in action again following the brief sojourn, for many of them, post-Waterloo 200. Great to see them featured on two 'foreign' blogs too! Thanks for posting Matt. Happy birthday Ian.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos of what looks to be an excellent game
ReplyDeletePaul
Great job, class in a glass!
ReplyDelete