Monday 22 June 2015

Falkirk Wargames Club: Waterloo Day1

I was incredibly fortunate to be invited to take part in Falkirk Wargames Club's Battle of Waterloo in 18mm using the General de Brigade rules. This was by far the most amazing wargaming experience of my life and as you will no doubt imagine set off all sorts of sparks of inspiration!!! Below you will find a link to my YouTube video of Day 1:


Or if you would prefer I have uploaded some pictures of the initial setup and opening moves from Day 1:

On Friday evening we all arrived at our host Alisdair's home in Edinburgh and made our way to his Wargames den in the bottom of his garden and the sight that awaited us was awe inspiring!!! 7,500 beautifully painted 18mm figures set out in their battalions, regiments and brigades for us to play with.
I felt like a kid in a candy shop!!! I'm sure we all did!

Billy with part of D'Erlons corp heads up the left of Hougoumont to attack the Brunswickers

A view from the French lines (Billy's command post) looking along the valley over Hougoumont towards the allied position on the ridge line opposite. Allied skirmishers can be seen forward of the ridge position.

The beautiful building complex of Hougoumont well garrisoned my Allied troops. I believe the building is produced by tiger terrain and is very interesting in that although it has the height and detail of 15mm buildings the actual footprint is very much reduced making it perfect for 15mm wargaming. 

The French initial advance limbered artillery with columns of infantry out front heading for the open ground to the right of Hougoumont.

The French advancing on La Haie Sainte, I believe the troops are Young Guard as the French brought on parts of the guard pretty early.

The 95th rifles defending La Haie Sainte were in a pretty exposed position. An early discussion by the Allied commanders came to the conclusion that La Haie Sainte was going to fall and the only question was "how long would it take?"

Wellington observes the initial French movements, the push on La Haie Sainte begins in earnest and the right wing of the French sets off for Papelotte. 

A view from Papelotte along the French lines, the French still have a pretty sizeable force in reserve off table. The advance is most definitely begun.

Almost my 1st roll of the dice and a double 6 for my skirmishers took 2 casualties from the French cavalry brigade (used to be an instant falter if I remember right?) advancing on our positions and their commander stumbled into our lines and was captured! The day started well, would it continue???

The staunch defenders of Papalotte, Sax Weimar and his troops will be sorely tested by the decisions of the Prince of Orange!!!

Nassau troops soften the French columns as they approach Hougoumont.

More Nassau troops looking across the French centre . . .

. . . As the French artillery limbers forward!

La Haie Sainte being put under a lot of pressure by the French Young guard, will they hold out?

And a final shot with the French advancing on Paplotte at the end of day 1, My position for the 1st couple of days of the battle until it was time for the Prussians to advance!!!

I'll get a post up for day 2 ASAP with plenty more pics and lots more action!!!
happy Wargaming!!!

25 comments:

Phil C said...

gosh! - what a superb looking table and extremely impressive miniature units/armies - Awesome!!

cheers,

Anonymous said...

Cracking stuff there Paul
John B

Phil said...

Very impressive, looks like a great and beautiful game Paul...

Paulalba said...

Hi phil, yes it was really awesome to see and to take part in.

Paulalba said...

I know phil, it was a sight to behold!!!

Paulalba said...

I know john it was brilliant!!! I would guess you guys over in Oz have been involved in a few big refights however as this was my 1st and was so huge it has you would expect had a very big impact on my gaming and collecting.

Gonsalvo said...

Marvelous stuff, Paul!

Stefan (aka. Monty) said...

Looks like an awesome game.

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Yes, yes, yes!

Best Regards,

Stokes

John (VonBlucher) said...

Great looking game and glad to see you had an opportunity to play in it. You're correct that being involved with this size with beautiful figures, and terrain goes a long way in keeping your motivation up.
Quite a few years (30 years) ago we played Leipzig in 25mm on a gymnasium floor at 20 to 1 scale. No beautiful terrain but the sheer number of figures involved was impressive.

Paulalba said...

Hi John, yeah it was an outstanding weekend, never really took it all in till afterwards. Really chuffed I was part of it!!! Your Leipzig game sounds like a cracker. My had is off o the guys who can organise games this size!

Paulalba said...

Absolutely Stokes!!!

Paulalba said...

It was peter, I was very lucky to be involved!!!

Paulalba said...

It was awesome Monty!!! The GdB rules worked ace with it to.

Carl said...

What an outstanding looking game!

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

That's one impressive battlefield!

Christopher

Paulalba said...

Oh it was christopher,
Great being part of it!!!

Paulalba said...

I know Carl the guys did us proud! Glad you enjoyed it!

chris said...

Looks fantastic Paul, nice to have friends such as these.

Daniel Moreno said...

Amazing, Paul! I often thought about how much table space would be needed for such and game in 18mm and here it is. Impressive to say the least. 7500 miniatures wow!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Chris, mostly new friends. I have only really known Robert, Billy, Peter and Gary for a while now. The rest of the guys I got to know in the battle

Paulalba said...

Thanks Noss, yes me to, Alisdair, Mark, John and all the other guys who contributed really put on a superb game for us. It was an absolute pleasure to be part of it!

Sparker said...

Amazing looking game - I'm particularly impressed by the undulating terrain system - don't see that done so well very often. Well done to all!

Paulalba said...

Cheers sparker, yeah the hex system the guys used looked great.

Chris Gregg said...

A very nice looking game and I'm impressed that you have got the scale looking right - building footprints and units sizes, distances etc, all look convincing compared to many. Thank you for your efforts in presenting the photos and video.
Chris
http://notjustoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/