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

Command & Control

I INTEND using Bob Cordery's big-battle rules as printed in Battles Of Napoleonic Europe, but omitting most of the section on orders.

In his rules, each turn begins with artillery firing simultaneously.

Then the players issue orders to their units, and there is a dice-off to see who goes first.

The winner reveals the orders he has given, and activates his units, although each unit has to first pass an activation test.

I will be scrapping the issuing of orders, but keeping the activation test.

So, for each unit a die will be rolled, the score reduced by a distance-from-the-general factor.

This is calculated by dividing by three the number of grids the unit is from the general, the result being rounded up.

This factor is deducted from the die roll, a final score of 2 or more being required for activation.

I think this makes for a good command-and-control mechanism, without the time-consuming chore of writing orders (and without the potential arguments around interpreting such orders).

Sixth Sense

IT struck me that it made sense to add a sixth significant feature to the list I posted yesterday, namely La Belle Alliance.

La Belle Alliance - Napoleon's headquarters during the battle, and where Wellington met the Prussian commander Blücher after their victory

The updated battlefield

Waterloo Battlefield

MY review six years ago of Bob Cordery's The Portable Napoleonic Wargame continues to generate traffic to my website.

This prompted me to again go through the book (for the umpteenth time!), and was one of the reasons behind the decision to refight Waterloo this month.

Another reason for the refight is that last year I bought Napoleonic French and British 10mm armies from Transylvania-based Wofun.

They were for a tabletop version of Mike Lambo's boardgame Battles Of Napoleonic Europe, using Hexon II hexes from Nottinghamshire-based Kallistra.

It should be fun putting my purchases together for Cordery's big-battle gridded rules from his Napoleonic book.

I have started by creating a 14x9 grid (north is at the top of the picture)

It must be remembered that a major battle such as Waterloo took up no small amount of ground.

In this case the battlefield was about 2.5miles (4km) long, and so the tabletop should not be cluttered with too much scenery.

But it has to include the significant features, which in my view numbered five.

1. The ridge, running west-east, along which Wellington drew up the Allied army.

2. In front of the west end of the ridge was the fortified chateau of Hougoumont, together with its orchard and garden.

3. In the centre, directly below the ridge, was the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte.

4. In front of the east end of the ridge was the hamlet of Papelotte, which, like Hougoumont, had been fortified.

5. In the middle of the ridge, slightly further back from the rest of the high ground, was an elm tree, which Wellington chose as the best place for him to view the battle.

Battlefield, with scenery added

Close-up of Hougoumont

La Haye Sainte, with Wellington's elm in the background

Papelotte

Tabletop Time

IT has been more than two months since I crossed swords over the tabletop with my regular wargaming opponent, and we are both itching to renew our (friendly) rivalry.

The first thought that came to mind was that we should get back to our aborted 54mm toy-soldier refight of the Franco-Prussian War, using my version of Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules.

I write "aborted," but to be fair we did not so much call it off as were thwarted by covid.

We only managed a trial battle, and a refight of Wissembourg/Weissenburg, albeit enjoying both greatly.

I created a grid for those battles, laboriously using green beads designed for little girls to make bracelets.

But since then I have bought Hexon II 100mm hexes, and it should be fun using them with toy soldiers.

However, this month - tomorrow, to be precise - sees the 210th anniversary of Waterloo, so we have decided to use the opportunity to refight that most famous battle.

More details follow

Vanishing Interest

I HAD quite high hopes for Norman Davies' Vanished Kingdoms - The History Of Half-Forgotten Europe.

It had rave reviews on the back cover, although perhaps I should have paid more attention to the fact that the reviews were from mainstream newspapers and magazines rather than specialist history publications.

The book starts interestingly enough with an account of a Visigothic kingdom in what is now south France.

But by the time Davies reaches Byzantium - called here Byzantion - he seems to lose interest, covering 1,100+ years of the new Roman capital in 13 pages.

I also lost interest soon afterwards, but I will keep the book - it has a decent index, and could easily come in handy as a reference source.

Nice idea - shame about the contents

Seeing Double

I TOLD earlier how the district of Moosach, where I am spending eight days, has Munich's oldest church, St Martin's, which was built around 1200.

Imagine my surprise when, on seeing another interesting-looking church nearby, it turned out to also be dedicated to St Martin.

The first St Martin's, now called in German Alte Pfarrkirche St Martin (Old Parish Church of St Martin), sufficed for the area's needs until the early 1900s.

But in 1913 Moosach was incorporated into the spreading city of Munich, and its population boomed so much that it was decided a larger version of the church was needed.

Building started in 1921, taking three years, the new church being called Neue Pfarrkirche St Martin.

New St Martin's

Another view

St Martin is popular in many parts of Europe, being chosen as the patron saint of France's Third Republic (1870-1940).

He was born in the early 300s in what is now Hungary, but was then the Roman province of Pannonia.

Martin's parents were pagans, but against their wishes he started attending a Christian church at the age of 10.

Later, while a cavalryman serving in Gaul and north Italy, he cut his cloak in two to give half to a beggar shivering in rags in the winter.

That night, according to his biographer, Martin had a dream in which he saw Jesus wearing the beggar's half of the cloak, and telling some angels: "Martin, who is still but a catechumen (religious novice), clothed me with this robe."

Relief on the new church, depicting Martin sharing his cloak

High Achievement

MAYPOLES are fairly common in English villages, and some other parts of the UK, but in Germany, and especially Bavaria, they are taken to new heights.

Typically the pole is formed from a large tree, and in Bavaria is painted in the state colours of cornflower blue and white.

A wreath is positioned near the top, and the trunk is decorated with signs representing local crafts, trades, buildings, etc.

Moosach's maypole, near St Martin's Church

The Band Played On

WHAT would a biergarten be without an oompah band?

A lot quieter, but also a lot less fun.

Alter Wirt did not quite have such a band when I ate there last night, but I was entertained by the next-best-thing, an accordionist and trumpeter playing suitably folksy Bavarian music.

Not just for Oktoberfest

Beer Garden

BEER gardens "originated" in Bavaria, and by implication the state capital Munich, in the 1800s, according to Wikipedia.

This, on the face of it, is a preposterous claim - I know many pubs in England with gardens that are far more than 200 years old.

What the article is trying to convey, I suspect, is that the term biergarten, for such an outdoor space, is of Bavarian origin.

In Munich's Moosach district, where I am staying, is an impressive inn called Alter Wirt, which colloquially translates as Mine Host.

Alter Wirt - founded 1442

Wikipedia defines a beer garden as "an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees."

Alter Wirt's outdoor area surely qualifies as a biergarten, although small tables, rather than shared large ones, predominate

Historic District

AM spending eight days in Moosach, a former village with continuous settlement dating back 4,000 years.

It was incorporated into the Bavarian capital Munich in 1913, and now counts as a fairly prosperous suburb, with a tram line connecting the district to Munich city centre, and a metro line running through Mooosach on its way from the city centre to the airport.

St Martin's Church was built around 1200 on the site of a wooden private church erected some 400 years earlier

Another view of St Martin's, which is reckoned to be Munich's oldest surviving church

Three In One

SOME 20 years ago I received, as an incentive, I believe, for renewing my membership of the Pike & Shot Society, a modestly sized booklet of Renaissance military texts.

Inside were extracts from three publications: a diary of the French 1684 siege of the city of Luxembourg, the London Gazette of July 1705, and letters from a junior officer in Marlborough's army (whether any of these date from the Renaissance is a moot point).

The fact it has taken me two decades to get round to reading the booklet suggests, correctly, that the subject matters were not of great interest to me.

Nevertheless, having at last opened it and dived in, I am glad I did, and I finished it, which is more than I can say for some books.

Handsome cover - fairly interesting contents

Slingshot 358

THE May/June edition of the Society of Ancient's journal has a lot of wargaming battle reports.

But the article that stands out for me is Adrian Nayler's on what appear to be votive figurines of Roman allied soldiers.

The cover shows a 12.3cm bronze, which Nayler reckons "almost certainly represents" an Etruscan

In many ways I should have found the wargaming articles more interesting, but I found them very difficult to follow - more captioned photos and/or maps required!

Taking Stock IV

Camelry

Painted specifically for a Midianite army, but can serve with any force that employed Arab camelry.

Taking Stock III

Egyptians

Left-to-right: a unit of close-order archers, three squadrons of chariots, Sherden, two units of marines (bows in front, spears behind) and three units of spearmen.

Under Neil Thomas's rules in Ancient & Medieval Wargaming a New Kingdom Egyptian army (1200-800 BC) consists of 1-3 squadrons of chariots, 2-4 units of biblical infantry armed with spears, 1-2 units of close-order archers and a maximum of one unit of Sherden.

The 10 units I have painted mean I can field any combination allowed under Thomas's rules.

Taking Stock II

My Hebrew forces

From left-to-right are two units of slingers, six units of auxiliaries, five squadrons of chariots and two units of javelinmen.

Under Neil Thomas's rules in Ancient & Medieval Wargaming, a pre-Solomon Israelite army consists of one-to-two units each of elite auxiliaries (Simeonites and/or Ephraimites), average javelinmen (Gaddites and/or Issacharites) and average slingers (Benjaminites).

In addition the army has two-to-four units of average auxiliaries (other seven tribes).

Solomon's army receives an extra choice in the shape of one-to-three squadrons of chariots.

Post-Solomonic Hebrew armies of both Israel and Judah are considered by Thomas to have "lost their cutting edge," and so use his Canaanite and Philistine list (armies that I have not recruited yet).

Taking Stock

MY 10mm biblical project is making slow, but steady, progress.

I recently put in an order for more figures, and think it is time to take stock of what I have painted so far.

Assyrians - organised for Neil Thomas's biblical rules in Ancient & Medieval Wargaming

On the left are three units of mixed spears and bows; in the centre are two units of close-order archers with, behind them, close-order cavalry; on the right are two units of spearmen.

They are meant to be Assyrians, but could just as easily fight for Babylon, with at least some of the units being suitable for other ancient armies from biblical times.

In Thomas's rules the suggested list for a New Assyrian Imperial Army (750-610 BC) is as follows (remembering that his armies always consist of eight units, and that I use different terminology).

Unit type - Number of units

Heavy chariots: 1-2

Close-order cavalry: 1-2

Close-order infantry: 2-4

Auxiliary infantry: 2-4

Close-order archers: 0-2

Clearly my collection is missing chariots, but, as will become clear in a later post, I have more than enough chariots for my Hebrew forces, and they can easily pass as Assyrian.

Indeed, such chariots featured prominently in the Egypt-v-Assyria battle I fought against my regular wargaming opponent in February.

Old Bregenz

I RECENTLY drew attention to Germany's Timber-Frame Road, which runs more than 1,800 miles from the Elbe river in the north to Bodensee (Lake Constance) in the south.

Bregenz is on the lake, but on the southern Austrian shore, and so is not part of the official road.

But it also has timber-frame houses, and not just in the historic upper town, as these examples from the lower town show.

Arias & Airships

BREGENZ today is best-known as a tourist destination, especially for German-speakers.

One of its attractions is that since 1946 it has hosted opera on the world's largest 'floating' opera stage, in Lake Constance (Bodensee in German).

The particular opera is changed every two years, with 2024 and 2025 seeing Der Freischütz (The Marksman).

The stage being finalised for this year's summer season

It looks so much more attractive in sunny weather than with a cloudy sky, as this post from less than a week earlier shows.

Recent Bregenz operas

Across the border in Germany, but also on the lake, is the town of Friedrichshafen, home of the Zeppelin.

Modern versions of the airship still fly, and can be ridden in, although when I last checked a few years ago a short flight cost about 300 euros.

A Zeppelin can just be seen against the sky in the distance

Bregenz Commemorative Plaque

BACK in Bregenz I spotted a plaque dedicated in 1988 on the 50th anniversary of the anschluss that saw Austria taken over by Nazi Germany and incorporated directly into the Third Reich.

The top part of the inscription, above names of some of those killed, roughly translates as: in memory of fellow citizens of Bregenz who lost their lives as victims of National Socialist tyranny from 1938-1945

Lindau War Memorial

I WAS not looking for war memorials in Lindau, but I did come across one, and it turned out to be for what is generally known in the English-speaking world as the Franco-Prussian War.*

The plaque roughly translates as: in honour of those from Lindau who did not return from the 1870-1871 war with France

*I do not claim most people have heard of the conflict, but that is what it is usually called by those who have (rather than the arguably more accurate Franco-German War).