Artllery

IT might be thought strange that in the orders-of-battle I posted yesterday, I am only allowing the French to have artillery in our refight of Waterloo.

True, in the battle Napoleon had about 250 guns while Wellington had around 150, but this is only a minor part of the explanation.

The main point is that the Allied guns were chiefly distributed along the army's front in the customary British manner, while Napoleon liked to gather most of his artillery into a grand battery.

At the corps level, Allied guns do not make an appearance, but the grand battery does.

The French superiority in artillery will be offset to an extent in our refight by a -1 modifier it will suffer because of the weather, as I will explain in a future post.

Army Size

WATERLOO is one of the best-documented battles of the horse-and-musket era, and the composition of the three armies - Napoleon's French, Wellington's Allied and Blücher's Prussian - is fairly well-known.

There are differences among the sources, but the basic picture is that Napoleon's forces slightly outnumbered Wellington's, although they were in turn heavily outnumbered once the Prussians, who arrived on the battlefield late in the day, are factored in.

Wikipedia's article on the battle can be thought of as a melding of the sources, edited by multiple hands, which has the unfortunate effect of producing contradictory numbers within a few paragraphs of each other.

However it is fair to say the general picture is clear: Napoleon's army numbered somewhere between 70,000 and 75,000 men, while Wellington had between 65,000 and 70,000, with a particular discrepancy in the artillery.

The French were divided into three infantry corps, two cavalry corps and the Imperial Guard; the Allies into two infantry corps, a cavalry corps and a reserve.

The number of corps does not translate very well into the big-battle rules I am using from Bob Cordery's The Portable Napoleonic Wargame.

But the important thing is that the battle looks and feels right, and I hope my orders-of-battle will help achieve that.

So whereas I am sticking with the term "corps" in the lists below, each such unit really represent a force somewhere between a corps and a division.

FRENCH ARMY

Napoleon (and his staff) 6SP*

I Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions. totalling 8SP

II Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions. totalling 8SP

III Ifantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions. totalling 8SP

IV Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions. totalling 8SP

V Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions. totalling 8SP

I Cavalry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 cavalry divisions, totalling 8SP

II Cavalry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 cavalry divisions, totalling 8SP

Artillery Grand Battery

Commander 3SP

Battery 2SP

Imperial Guard (elite)

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions, totalling 12SP

Total: 103SP

ALLIED ARMY

Wellington (and his staff) 6SP

I Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions, totalling 8SP

II Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions, totalling 8SP

III Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions, totalling 8SP

IV Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

4 infantry divisions, totalling 8SP

V Infantry Corps

Commander 3SP

3 infantry divisions, totalling 6SP

Reserve Corps

Commander 3SP

3 infantry divisions, totalling 6SP

I Cavalry Corps

Commander 3pts

3 cavalry divisions, totalling 6SP

II Cavalry Corps

Commander 3pts

3 cavalry divisions, totalling 6SP

Total: 87SP

Overview of the battlefield before hostilities commence

In terms of numbers on the battlefield, the two forces look at a glance to be similarly sized, which I believe is how it looked in real-life.

However a detailed breakdown of the orders-of-battles shows the French enjoyed a superiority that was only cancelled, and reversed, by the arrival of Blücher's Prussians, and that is reflected in the strength points of the two armies - Wellington's has 84.5% of Napoleon's SP.

*Strength Points - see here for an explanation.

Reverse Slope

WELLINGTON was well-known for his skilful use of reverse slopes - deploying infantry below the crest of high ground to shelter them from enemy artillery.

He used this strategy to great effect at Waterloo, and this needs to be reflected in any refight.

Looking north towards the ridge where the Allied army will mainly line up

Accordingly, in our battle French artillery firing at Allied infantry on the ridge will suffer a -1 modifier for each die throw.

British Firing Line

BRITISH and British-trained infantry - principally, at Waterloo, the King's German Legion - were well-versed in using a two-deep firing line in place of the usual Continental practice of a three-deep line.

To reflect this, such troops in our Waterloo refight will cause their opponents to suffer a -1 modifier in combat.

This will apply in infantry-v-infantry combat (and infantry-v-artillery in the unlikely event of that happening), but not in infantry-v-cavalry.

The reason for the horsemen's exception is that infantry attacked by cavalry in the Napoleonic Wars almost invariably formed in squares, largely negating the difference between a two-deep and three-deep line.

Because Bob Cordery's big-battle rules in The Portable Napoleonic Wargame are at a higher level of abstraction than the battalion or the squadron, the precise formation adopted by individual battalions and squadrons is not represented on the tabletop.

As Cordery puts it: "The basic manoeuvre unit is the division ... and it is assumed that it will automatically adopt the best tactical formation for the circumstances ... so rules about line, column, square, etc are far less important in these higher-level rules."

Since British and British-trained troops formed about half the strength of Wellington's infantry, the Allied commander will be allowed to designate three of his six infantry corps as giving their opponents the -1 modifier detailed above.

Winning

BOB Cordery's big-battle Napoleonic rules somewhat bizarrely have no rule for determining the winner of a battle.

Each army starts with a strength-point value, as explained here.

In our Waterloo refight Napoleon's French army will have an SP of 103, while Wellington's Allied will have an SP of 84.

The rules state that when an army has lost a third of its strength points, it is exhausted and can no longer take aggressive action, "ie it will continue to fight to defend its existing position, including firing at the enemy, but will not continue any movement towards the enemy."

When both sides have reached their exhaustion point, Cordery goes on, "the battle ends," but the reader is not told how to determine the victor.

I have decided that if an army loses half its SP, it will have lost the battle.

In addition, a special rule is needed for Waterloo to reflect the arrival late in the day of Blücher's Prussians.

This could be done on the tabletop, but I do not have any Prussian figures.

I could easily remedy that, but I am only really interested in the Franco-Allied fight, and so the following special rule will apply.

If the Allied army has not lost within 15 moves, ie its strength points have not fallen below 43 by that time, Prussian intervention will mean victory goes to the tabletop Wellington. However, if after 15 moves Wellington's army has reached exhaustion level, ie it has lost a third of its strength points (28SP), the French have three more turns to reduce the Allied army to below 43SP.

The Duke

Strength Points

INFANTRY, cavalry and artillery bases in Bob Cordery's Napoleonic Portable Wargame rules typically have a strength-point value of two.

Strength points refer not to a base's offensive value, but to how many hits it can take.

My WoFun 10mm infantry and cavalry have two rows of figures per base.

A base of French infantry, representing a division in my Waterloo refight

It will be an easy matter to remove a row when a strength point has been lost.

I have set up my artillery to have four gunners to a base, so the loss of a strength point can be shown by removing two of the gunners.

So far, so simple, but a complication arises with Napoleon's Imperial Guard, each division of which I intend to award an SP of three to reflect its elite status.

I will need some sort of discreet marker that can be removed when the first strength point is lost.

Napoleon and Wellington, as army commanders, will have an SP of six, and each corps commander will be worth three SP.

These are purely notional numbers and do not reflect any offensive or defensive capability.

However, the loss of such figures will be important as under the rules an army that loses a third of its strength points counts as exhausted, after which it can no longer take offensive action.

Artillery

IT must be remembered that the interpretation of Bob Cordery's big-battle Napoleonic rules I am using for refighting Waterloo is at the corps level.

So individual units, with the arguable exception of Wellington and Napoleon and their staffs, are not represented.

This means there are no infantry battalions or cavalry squadrons, except in as much as they are represented at the division level.

Similarly there are no artillery batteries - at least not ordinary ones - but the rules do make provision for a grand battery, which was a French speciality where as many guns as reasonably possible were gathered into a single massed battery.

A French grand battery, with its commander

The figures are from WoFun, the base being 43x43mm.

Cavalry

CAVALRY units in Bob Cordery's big-battle rules from The Portable Napoleonic Wargame consist, like their infantry colleagues, of two-to-four bases.

Each base, as with the infantry, is 43x21mm, with two lines of either eight or nine horsemen.

A division of British cavalry - two-to-four divisions constitute a corps

A cavalry corps with the corps commander and a trumpeter

The same corps in column of divisions

Once again the figures are 10mm, from Transylvania-based Wofun, on Hexon II hexes from Kallistra of Nottinghamshire.

Infantry

INFANTRY units in Bob Cordery's big-battle rules from The Portable Napoleonic Wargame have two-to-four bases.

In the case of a division, each base represents a brigade or Continental-size regiment, while in the case of a corps, which is the setup I will be using for refighting Waterloo, each base represents a division.

Cordery uses bases that are 50x25mm, with three figures that I take to be 25/28mm.

I am using 10mm figures from Transylvania-based WoFun, which I have put together with two 12-man lines of infantry on bases 43x21mm.

A division of French infantry - two-to-four of these constitute a corps

Each infantry corps has a command base, which in my setup consists of an officer, an ensign with flag, and a drummer, all on foot.

Under the rules the divisions of a corps can spread out, as long as they remain in contact, ie are on contiguous hexes.

However, they can also also concentrate in a single hex, so it is important to be sure they fit!

I am using Hexon II hexes from Nottinghamshire-based Kallistra, and they are 100mm across.

A French corps fits comfortably inside a hex when arranged two-by-two

The corps also fits nicely in column

Commanders

ARMIES in Bob Cordery's big-battle rules in The Portable Napoleonic Wargame are organised into divisions or, in my case for Waterloo, corps.

Each army has a "commander and staff represented by one foot or mounted figure."

The obvious choice for my Allied army is the same figure of Wellington, nee Wellesley, that saw sterling service during my "3D" refights of battles from Mike Lambo's Battles Of Napoleonic Europe (an ongoing series).

The Iron Duke - a 10mm figure from Transylvania-base WoFun

Wellington beside the elm he used as his command post for the battle

Since Battles Of Napoleonic Europe is confined to Iberia, I have had no occasion to employ a model of Napoleon, but it was easy to find a suitable one among my WoFun collection.

The Emperor in classic pose

Rear view of Napoleon beside La Belle Alliance