The Long Road to Waterloo

In the Beginning

Back in January I had this mad desire to get involved in Napoleonic wargames. No, wait, there is a bit of a back story.

Way back in the 1980's I discovered wargames. First there was board and counter games such as Russian Campaign and Squad Leader. Very quickly I moved onto WW2 with a range of  Matchbox and Airfix figures and tanks. I would then go along to our local wargames club and set up terrain and roll my armies through Europe. Over on the next table there was always a bunch of much older guys doing Napoleonic's. These tables always looked amazing, big blocks of infantry with their bright flags, colourful cavalry and shiny brass cannon. A far cry from our green and grey 20th century fare. While the Napoleonic stuff looked awesome, it also looked like a lot of work to do even a basic army. The rules were complex and looked tedious and there was a bit of player gatekeeping. So, Napoleonic's. Look great, but so not for me. 

Fast forward a few decades. The period of the Napoleonic Wars was a era of history that I had almost totally ignored. Yes, I would watch the 1970's Waterloo every now and again. I totally missed most of the Sharp series, but did manage to love Hornblower. So in 22 I had discovered  the rather excellent 'Age of Napoleon' podcast that could be listened to while working on sewing or other projects. I was intrigued. Move forward a bit and I was looking at expanding my gaming from just tanks and dreadnaughts. I started thinking on this Napoleonic gig, even bought a box of 28mm Landwehr and the Black Powder rules. Now at the same time the folks in Wollongong (who I was following due to a great blog by Sparker RN) were planning a big refight of Waterloo to mark the 210th anniversary of this action. Ok I think, here is a good opportunity to get into the period with a defined project and dates! Some messages later and I am now committed to being a part of the Prussian team. There is a big spread sheet of what units we need to paint. Should not be too hard, It is January and the game is in June...plenty of time!

So gentle reader, here I am committed to painting at least eight battalions of infantry, about five regiments of cavalry, all in the Warlord Epic range. I procured the Prussian Starter Box, binged on some painting how-to videos and got to work.

Getting to Work.

It is now February. I have four and half months to get stuff done. About a battalion every two weeks right? Easy...

By late March I had the 14th Brigade (four battalions and bits) done. This was mostly fun. The epic scale (13.5mm) makes things reasonably easy to paint. However, I was putting a lot  of effort and detail into my units. I was taking more time than I probably needed, but I was liking the results and the process, so I will stick to my approach. Here is some of the work so far.

Infantry Regiment No. 11, 14th Brigade, IV Corps

Painting

14th Brigade

Distractions 

By the time April rolled around I was still plugging away, but now was including cavalry and some leader figures. I also go distracted by a trip to Victoria, and in doing up the Plancenoit Church. 

Another battalion enters the field.

The Church at Plancenoit.

Gen Count Bulow von Dennewitz and ADC.

As a part of the project the guys at Wollongong Wargamers ran a practice game, loosely based on Ligny to test out rules and scale ideas. I managed to get up to and take part in this, my first real game of Napoleonic's. Although we did not get too far into the game, I was a rather good evening and I was rather hooked. There is a write up of this on Sparker's Wargame Blog.

An overnight trip to The 'Gong in order to test rules and workout what the hell I was getting into.

Time is a Luxury

May rolled around as I was thinking that I was falling way behind my schedule. Due to a few discussions about unit numbers and make up, I have committed to painting up an extra two brigades of cavalry. At the time this looked achievable as the cavalry units mostly have only 12 figures in each (for light units, 16 for heavy cavalry). We had also realised that we were way behind in French units. So I also offered to do some of these, but they would be very quick and dirty paint jobs indeed (more about this in a bit). 

By this stage this is what I had.

It was time to get the cavalry happening.

6th Dragoons.

Uhlans.

And always  more infantry. Here is one of the Landwehr units.

1st Battalion, 2nd Neumark Landwehr Infantry Brigade.

And Now - The Final Push!

June. The end of the 100 Days. Crap, when did that happen? I still had a lot to do and I am running out of time. Enough procrastinating! GO!

2nd Battalion, 10th (1st Silesian) Infantry Regiment, IV Corps, Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine.

1st Silesian Landwehr Cavalry Regiment.

1st Neumark Landwehr Cavalry Regiment. 3rd Brigade, IV Corps Reserve Cavalry.

13th Brigade of the Prussian IV Corps.

Old Blucher and his staff.

The French Interlude

Back in May, we identified that we needed more French units. As a part of the solution to this I committed to doing three French battalions. Now these were to be done fast, using paint pens to provide a basic idea of colour and shape. Super fast but absolutely embracing the three foot rule. If you want to get epic scale units on the table, this is a good approach. Each battalion took about four hours in total (including the basing) as opposed to the 16 hours I was spending on my Prussian units.

To be ruthlessly honest - these look ok at three feet.

Now in those final two weeks I may have pulled  a few very late night sessions. Not ideal, but the price I had due to much phaffage months ago. 

 The final battery.

And there it is. A battery of guns representing IV Corps reserve artillery. All the units I need to do for Waterloo were done.

It was late nights and a bit of focused obsession to get here. Did I over commit? Probably. There is a bunch of stuff I did not get done such as buildings/houses, artillery limbers and some camp/support elements. They will happen in time.

Now to pack everything up and head to Wollongong!

Raise high the black flags, children. No pity. No prisoners. I'll shoot any man I see with pity in him. Forward!

The big day had finally arrived! There was setting up the table, sorting out our orders of battle land then into the game.
It was only now that I got to see the shear size and madness of this project. We has approximately 90+ battalions of infantry on the table (or to be committed there), 36 cavalry regiments and 62 guns.

The Prussian Army ready to deploy. 

Hard to describe the size of this. Here is about a 1/4 of the table. The Prussian cavalry try to slow the French steamroller.

I'll leave the description  of the game itself  HERE.

The Dust Settles

It is now all done. I absolutely loved it all. Ok maybe not the late night painting sessions. Playing the game was exactly what I look for in these games. You are making command decisions rather than worrying about the rules etc. The decision to sacrifice my cavalry to slow the French centre, the communiques to Wellington to get off the ridge and attack, the final entry of my main corps to smash the end of the French line and get a foot hold in Plancenoit. Yes we lost, but it was great getting there!

So what now? 

We are planning on  another big game in June next year. Ligny for a Prussian vs French showdown.
I will continue to paint more units as well as some cool limbers and  other things.
I have got in  touch with some Epic Napoleonic players here, so will be getting in some more games.
A big thanks to Sparker RN who welcomed me into this silliness and the crew at Wollongong Wargames, and a especial thanks to the mighty Jane, who put up with my obsessions and late nights.