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!