My own 100 Minutes Campaign

 I was very taken with Archduke Piccolos concept of a tabletop campaign http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-hundred-minute-campaign.html, and I'd kicked a few ideas around in a previous post. The main thing was to actually try them out. I used his standard 100 Minutes rules, the only modifications were:

1. Elements had 2SP, so hits were distributed among them democractically, and they were only removed with two hits. I rationalised this as units being fresh/spent/routed as in Phil Sabins game designs. They still only got one combat dice per base though.

2. A side with superior cavalry could refuse combat, essentially just pulling back without loss. 

3. As the real Waterloo campaign was so short, I used three turn days, morning, afternoon and night. I initially borrowed the night activities from the Volley and Bayonet ACW supplement, but Ion actually posted some ideas for overnight stuff for his 1912 campaign, so I used those instead.

4. I aimed to fight the battles using the standard system (1 = gun hit, 2,3 = cavalry hit, 4,5 = infantry hit, 6 = leader risk) and my alternate opposed dice system to test it out. 

5. I revised the OBs in line with my own prejudices, particularly modelling the Corps on particular ratios of  troops related to quality. ie one base represented small number of good troops or lots of bad troops. It was the only way to make the vast numbers of Prussians manageable, and downgrading the Dutch-Belgians also reduced the number of Allied infantry stands.

I just went for the central section of Ions battlefield. The Sambre is at the bottom with Charleroi as the major road junction and river crossing, Brussels is up at the top left, with Quatre Bras and Waterloo on the highway from Charleroi, Ligny to the NE of Charleroi, and Hal, Nivelles etc west of Brussels.

The bits of white paper are the various Corps, as I fiddle around with the deployment. The Prussians are mostly off to the east, apart from I Corps which is lurking near Charleroi. The Allies are up around Brussels and to the west, while the French are all piling on from the south edge.

Brussels and Waterloo, with Wavre off to the right. The forest is represented with a few trees. 

Ligny in the foreground, Quatre Bras to the NW and Gembloux to the north. 

Allied Reserve Corps in Brussels and I Corps in Hal. Having redone the OBs from Ions scenario, each Allied infantry Corps had five infantry brigades/divisions, one artillery piece and one cavalry division (the Dutch and Brunswickers certainly kept their cavalry with them, as did the Hanoverians).

II Corps and Uxbridge's cavalry (three stands) ready to march on.

I ended up displacing Prussian I Corps NE of Charleroi or the game was going to be very silly. This was actually the strongest Prussian Corps with four infantry brigades, two artillery stands (it had 88 guns irl) and a cavalry division.

The rest of the Prussian Army, II, III and IV Corps. All similar to I Corps except they each only had one artillery piece and III Corps only had three infantry brigades as it was weaker than the others. IV Corps wasn't due to enter until the 17th as it was so far east. Blucher is with II Corps.

The Armee du Nord. The leading Corps are just south of the Sambre.

IV Corps on the right wing. I merged the two Cavalry Corps into a single 'Right Wing cavalry' Corps. IV Corps was one of the weaker ones so only got three Infantry, plus one gun and a cavalry division. I sort of pro rata'd out the cavalry from the Cavalry Corps as many of the Infantry Corps cavalry divisions were very weak. The RW Cavalry Corps ended up with three stands (Dragoons and Cuirassiers).

III Corps leads on the left. This is a standard one with 4 x Infantry, 1 x gun and 1 x cavalry. The rest of the Armee du Nord piled up behind as they steal a march and head for Charleroi.

The left wing cavalry are also grouped into a single Corps of three stands. The strongest French Line Corps is Reilles II Corps with five infantry, a cavalry and a gun. The Imperial Guard have four infantry, two guns and two cavalry (the 4,000+ Imperial Guard Cavalry). I've assumed some of the reserve 12pdrs have been allocated to the Corps to justify each of them having some artillery. Using my pro-rata system, really the IG should have five infantry (two stands each for the Old and Middle Guard, one for the Young Guard) but it is already a very strong Corps with eight stands.

The weakest is poor old Lobau's VIth Corps with just three infantry divisions and gun, but no cavalry. As the real Corps only had 36 guns, this one certainly needed a few Guard 12pdrs to help. 

The French end up in a huge traffic jam in and adjacent to Charleroi. They don't have enough movement to attack Prussian I Corps, so the Prussians need to decide whether to fight or not. The RW Cavalry lines the Sambre. I'm going to let units cross rivers as X Country/ movement.

III Corps occupies Charleroi, led by Napoleon himself, IV Corps south of the river and Grouchys cavalry on the right. Pirch would be nuts to stand and fight here.

I Corps retires to Ligny, while Blucher leads on Prussian II and III Corps from the east. IV Corps isn't coming on until tomorrow. Another move and the Prussians will be in exactly the same positions as they were historically. You might think I'd planned that. Ahem.

Wellington gets moving. I put put I Corps (Orange) down the road from Brussels, followed by Reserve Corps. Wellington rides to the front and observes the position at Waterloo.

II Corps and Uxbridges Cavalry come on from the west, II Corps heads for Braine le Compte. With hindsight, I should maybe have delayed some of these guys a turn. Oh well.

Back over at Ligny, things are shaping up well. The French have got III and IV Corps into line, the Cavalry Corps on the right and Imperial Guard in reserve, just like the real thing. II Corps is heading off up the road towards Quatre Bras to slow down the Allies.

The Imperial Guard jammed into Charleroi with Lobau behind. I could maybe have given the Guard an extra stand.

Over on the left the Left Cavalry Corps and I Corps cross the Sambre to block Hills II Corps. These guys look a bit out on a limb here.

On the evening of the 16th Wellington gets to Quatre Bras before Ney, and Hill blocks French I Corps. Everyone has moved a lot so there isn't any fighting.

But at Ligny, Alte Vorwarts attacks! The French IV Corps is a lot weaker than Prussian I Corps (five stands vs seven plus a leader), and Prussian III Corps is a lot stronger than the French cavalry Corps. The first test of the combat system? French III Corps is apparently unable to be involved.

Predictably it is a catastrophe for the French. I used the standard combat system and amazingly the French Cavalry held off III Corps (they chose to stand and not withdraw), both sides taking a cavalry hit. IV Corps was almost annihilated though, and took three infantry, a cavalry and a gun hit, while the Prussians merely took a cavalry hit. Blucher was at some risk (a 6) but I rolled seperately for his fate and he was OK. As I'm using two hits per unit, IV Corps just acquired a lot of hit markers and retreated back over the Sambre to lick its wounds.

I then resolved the combat using my alternate 'War & Peace' based combat system. Napoleon attempted to 'march to the guns' and failed(!), and the French proceeded to roll a 2 to the Prussians 5, and were just as badly battered as in the multiple dice system.

 

I realised that if Napoleon had made it, they would have utterly massacred the Prussians though, as W&P is predicated on a much higher density of decent leaders and Napoleon would have given the French an extra +3. Working out the percentage casualties gave me a headache, and I decided to stick with buckets of dice combat system for the rest of the game. 

Overnight, the Prussians had taken two cavalry hits so recovered one of them - on subsequent turns I restricted loss recovery to a per unit basis, as it gave too much flexibility.

The French RW Cavalry had lost a hit so was unable to recover (losses round down), but IV Corps was able to recover two of its infantry hits (infantry losses rounf up), and sidled east along the Sambre still carrying one infantry and one cavalry hit. If I was doing this again I'd use my cotton wool balls as the tile spacers are unsightly.

Faced with the mass of remaining French, Blucher broke contact, after much deliberation. Two Prussian Corps lined up behind Ligny, while the third made contact with Allied I Corps at Quatre Bras. In retrospect this was the turning point of the campaign as the Allies and Prussians had now united, and another indication I was a bit too generous with the Allied entry.

Dawn on the 17th saw the French attack all along the line. The massive and historic Battle of Quatre Bras-Ligny had started!

Over in the west, French I Corps and the RW Cavalry tried to keep Hill and Uxbridge busy. As both sides were almost exactly equal in strength, this was going to be a crap shoot. The Allies had to be really careful the French didn't do a side run straight to Brussels here, so there was a degree of cavalry feinting. 

 

Napoleon personally led I Corps against Wellington at Quatre Bras. Both sides threw tons of dice which largely cancelled each other out, and when the smoke had cleared the French had lost their cavalry division and the Allies had taken a hit on their artillery and cavalry. As it was a draw, they remained in contact.

Prussian III Corps was thrown back in disorder by the IV Corps which was a lucky result, IV Corps only took one infantry hit. This left the Cavalry Corps unable to attack the Prussians. What I should have done was an additional attack  on III Corps before they retired. I didn't bother trying this battle out with my opposed dice system as there was plenty of other stuff going on.

The British and Prussians counterattacked. Prussian I Corps led by Blucher seems to have got a bloody nose from the Imperial Guard, I retreated them one 'out' of the hex they attacked, so they stayed in contact. That was probably a  mistake. II Corps and British I Corps roundly defeated the French I and III Corps however who suffered such heavy infantry losses that they had to remove some bases (two hits on each).

Things got unpleasant over in the far left. II Corps attacked Hill, resulting in a bloody draw, but the French Cavalry defeated Uxbridge and they fell back to the road.

Hill counterattacked and defeated II Corps, who fell back behind the Sambre to lick their wounds. If Hill followed up, he would be halved attacking across the river, but he chose to hold his ground and driven off the French 'in the same old way'.

Things weren't looking too good for the Prussians as all three Corps had taken losses and were pushed back towards Gembloux. III Corps had lost two bases and was approaching ineffectiveness.

Uxbridge heroically pushed back the French cavalry. The Allied right wing was looking quite secure now.

And Wellington also smashed III Corps, which fell back behind the Sambre. The French left wing was looking in bad shape.

As the French pushed for the Gembloux Gap, the shattered Prussian II Corps fell back towards Wavre and IV Corps finally turned up (extreme right).

Behind the Sambre, I and III Corps reorganised overnight while the cavalry Corps covered the river crossing.

Even after overnight reorganisation, the French still had all these stands off the table. The way I allocated replacements was each formation got half its losses back, round fractions down for guns and cavalry, round them up for infantry. Replacements were allocated as a priority to units with a single hit, then to units with a double hit, and I ruled that infantry needed to be restored to full strength before being returned, whereas guns and cavalry could return with a hit. This had the effect I was after that gradually the infantry were whittled down and the Corps dice reduced too, but it wasn't as catastrophic from a loss pov as the original system. I didn't want the table flooded with half strength infantry units. As a percentage, typically Corps were losing 10-30% over their overall strength per battle, which was in line with historical experience.

The units on the right wing recovered to an extent. The Imperial Guard (in Ligny) was still at full strength!  The :Prussian line ran south of Gembloux, while the two British Corps were lined up south of Quatre Bras.

Oh my goodness, La Garde Recule! Assailed by Wellington and Blucher, the Imperial Guard take casualties and retire NE of Charleroi. The rest of the recovered French army cross the Sambre.

The French cavalry give Uxbridge a drubbing, but look a bit lonely without any infantry around.

There are still an awful lot of raggedy French units.

The French counterattack Prussian IV Corps.

And the Imperial Guard give Blucher a kicking and retake Ligny. Ouch. The Prussians are looking quite tatty now.

The French infantry on the left return to the fray but are carrying lots of hits.

Blucher is left surrounded by dead Prussians and wrecked guns, only a couple of weak bases remain of I Corps. The Imperial Guard head up the highway towards Quatre Bras, Napoleon in the lead. The Allied Reserve Corps steadies itself and the damaged Prussian II Corps holds the woods east of Quatre Bras.  

The French RW Cavalry try and finish Blucher off and are bloodily repulsed! They are down to one half strength stand. Prussian IV Corps grimly hangs on in Gembloux but now has many hits.

Hill is sent packing over on the left flank and the French finally take Soignes (?).

Hill falls back behind Quatre Bras, Waterloo is in the top right corner.

The Imperial Guard are right in the midst of the Allied Army now.

Prussian resistance stiffens at Gembloux. I think the French have reached their high point here.

The French Army is in pieces. Many Corps forced to retreat and lots of destroyed stands on the baseline.

Allied losses are also considerable, particularly for the Prussians, but not as bad as the French, who have less to lose in any case.

As dusk falls on the 18th, the Allies lunch all-out counterattacks on the French right wing. IV Corps and the cavalry Corps are routed, and the Imperial Guard is assailed from all sides by three entire Corps, led by Wellington and Blucher in person. The Guardsmen fought bravely, but the final assault was too much and they collapsed and fled for the rear. One half strength stand remained and escorted the Emperor back to Charleroi.

Napoleon rages against against fate and betrayal, realising it is all over.

While Wellington and Blucher shake hands over a 'close run thing'.

On balance, that went pretty well. I should probably have played out a small 'battle' beforehand to get my head around the ramifications of the combat system, but jumping in at the deep end very rapidly shook things out! I may revisit my opposed dice concept at some point, but the Memoir 44 type system seemed to work fine, and I'd like to try another campaign now I understand how it works. I though the two step elements and overnight replacement worked very well, and was much slicker than the system I use for ACW games.

Specifically wrt the 1815 Campaign, if I did it again I'd make sure Blucher and Wellington couldn't link up quite so quickly. The Prussians were fine, but the British were too close to the action. I really liked to Army composition, it was just what I was after, and I really liked the multi-day campaign aspect as it gave the actions a strategic context. 

Overall, a great success, and I'm minded to try it for Chancellorsville, which was a multi-day battle fought over a large area with a lot of strategic manouvre. Many thanks to Ion for the concept, this has got a lot of legs.