Worthington Waterloo - British this time

 Mark ran another session of Worthingtons solo Waterloo game. This time we swapped sides and took Wellington against the game system driven French.

There were quite a few players so I just watched. Simon was Wellington, Russell Uxbridge and John was Picton.

The battlefield looks very different from this side. I guess I'm very used to seeing Waterloo from Napoleons perspective. The coloured chits are the special action markers the various wings can take, plus Wellingtons own actions. The British have a left wing, right, reserve plus garrisons in Hougoment and La Haye Sainte, their cavalry reserve and their artillery.

As we learned playing the French, La Haye and Hougoment are real thorns in the side of the French. La Haye is a bit easier for the French to take.

So after several turns pounding, the Allied left was very battered but the Prussians were now turning up in strength. The right had also been a bit bashed but reserves had shored it up.

The French left had largely evaporated in the heavy fighting and their right was tied up fighting the Prussians. The Guard were, as yet, uncommitted. 

Unfortunately, with its dying breath, Jerome managed to take Hougoment. Oops.

This was followed up with a series of French cavalry attacks on the Allied right which eliminated the troops in the front line.

The last reserves were committed to hold the flank.

But another French charge wiped them out. Our only hope now was to defeat the French right wing in concert with the Prussians. 

Uxbridge launched a heroic cavalry charge, but even combined with our remaining artillery and the Prussians, it wasn't enough to finish off the French and so once more Napoleon won the day.

So that is three French wins in a row. I'm not sure if the Allies have just been unlucky, or the French have been lucky, but I can't help wondering if there is play balance issue. Although the battles have been fairly close, in this one the Imperial Guard weren't even touched. It may just be a function of the interactions of the random actions.

It is always a very different experience playing the defender and having to respond to the the various threats and crises, we so often look at things from the perspective of the attacker. It made me think of my old solo WW1 game "Ten Rounds rapid" which also had a defensive focus. I may dig that out for the Tuesday night team as that would work quite well multi player.