10mm and all that!: 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