One Hour Waterloo

 I'd been mulling over the Horse and Musket One Hour Wargames rules in my quest for a Napoleonic set for a while, as I find Neil Thomas's Napoleonic sets a bit fiddly and overly attritional in places. Very fortuitously Simon pointed me at this https://wargamersblock.blogspot.com/2021/12/one-hour-wargames-marengo-part-3-combat.html

Now, this is just the sort of thing I was looking for. Still a bit tactical for my tastes, I want to manouvre Armies, not a couple of Divisions, but even so a very sensible step in the right direction. I worked up a higher level variant and converted it to hexes. I had a few questions in my mind about movement rates, ranges, rallying and interpenetration, but I thought the best thing was to set up a typical Napoleonic battle and work through some use cases to see what felt right.

Et voila. One Hour Waterloo. This is the 6x8 Waterloo a la Carte scenario converted to One Hour Napoleonic, and I extended the depth of the table by three hexes to give a bit more space for reserves etc. The elements are roughly 6-8000 infantry or 3-4000 cavalry, so a couple of divisions for the French, a division of two for the British and Prussian Brigades. Most of the artillery is factored in (justifying why infantry can shoot so far), but the Grand Battery is modelled as two elements, each representing 60 guns plus supporting infantry from D'Erlons Corps.

The British left. The various Guard Light Companies, Nassauers etc are in Hougoment and Maitlands Guards Division on the ridge behind. In OHN terms, a unit of Light Infantry and a unit of Formed Infantry. I'm using my 6 hit variant, so most units have 6 hits, but the Guards have 7. In the centre the 95th and Brunswickers hold La Haye Sainte, while the ridge has Alten in reserve, Kemp to the west of the road and Bijlandt to the east. The Union Brigade and Dutch Belgian Cavalry are in reserve, commanded by Uxbridge, while Wellington is on the ridge. 

Over here Pack  holds the ridge, while various Dutch-Belgian units are in and behind Papelotte.

The Formed Infantry can fire two hexes at low effect (1D6) representing divisional batteries and skirmishers, and at one hex, massed muskets fire at 3D6. Ouch! 

The French left. Reille has three 'divisions' on the left, support by Kellermans Cuirassiers. Two of these divisions are formed up as Light Infantry - this makes them more mobile and gives benefits against cover and fire, but are hideously vulnerable to cavalry and can't used massed muskets. I'll let the French have the option of changing from Formed to Light and vice versa, at the cost of potential disruption. The British have to choose at start and are fixed.  

At the front of the ridge is the Grand Battery accompanied by Ney. Lobau has two divisions around La Belle Alliance where Napoleon is lurking. The Imperial Guard are behind with two infantry units with 7 hits each, representing the 12,000 Guard infantry. The Guard Cavalry are next to La Belle Alliance. 

D'Erlon is on the right with just two divisions (his Corps only had 14,000 infantry), supported by Milhauds Cavalry Corps. I've been a bit generous with Lobau, whose Corps was even smaller, but between D'Erlon and Lobau they had 24,000 infantry, enough for four elements.

The Guards in and around Hougoment. The British start with one Light Infantry element (the Brunswickers etc) and have the option for a second, which I picked to garrison Hougoment. Light troops in cover are very hard for Formed Infantry to winkle out (half hits for being dispersed, half hits again for cover) - which in my variant is hit on a 6. 

The battle is set up as close to the historical deployment as possible. It just saves thinking too much, and I'll go with the historical attack led by D'Erlon, with Reille pinning Hougoment. The French have 14 turns to destroy five Allied infantry units and get three infantry of their own off the north edge. The Prussians start turning  up on turn 7, and the Imperial Guard are released on turn 7 too.

The battle opened with furious fire from all the forward positions. At these ranges all units are throwing 1D6, the big difference is the scores needed. The units in the open are hit on 3+, formed infantry in cover on 5+ and light infantry in cover on 6(!). The exception are light infantry attacking light infantry, who ignore cover etc, so hit on a 3+. They still only throw one dice though, so the combat is quite slow paced at range.

This went on a bit longer.

The Nassauers in Papelotte were hideously unlucky as D'Erlon kept rolling 5s and 6s. Their morale was only 5 to start with and they soon took 4 hits.

The Grand Battery was hammering Bijlandt on the ridge, while taking galling skirmish fire from La Hay Sainte. One element soon had 2 hits.

Over at Papelotte the garrison was relieved. Yes, I'm allowing units to interpenetrate, under certain strict comditions. Napoleonic battles just don't work otherwise, and these are large formations which would normally leave significant gaps to manouvre through. This is something I fundamentally disagree with Neil Thomas on. 

In this case, units have to be be facing in the same direction and can temporarily overstack - so in this case they have swapped places. This is more liberal than the rules in the original variant.

Retreating didn't save the Nassauers and they were blown away by long range artillery. Bijlandt was also down to one hit left by now. Time to attack! D'Erlon, Lobau and Milhaud surged forward. How did the infantry, with a move of just one hex, interpenetrate the artillery? Well, they could have swapped places, but I didn't want to move the guns, so I let the infantry spend a turn stationary 'preparing to move forward' and then they moved two hexes the following turn.

That seemed to work OK.

D'Erlon runs into massed musketry from Papelotte, supported by the brigades on the ridge and La Haye Sainte. Four hits on the right hand unit, ouch!

The Grand Battery keeps pounding Bijlandt.

Over at Hougoment, the Nassauers and Guards Light companies have had enough, several turns of fire from Reilles Light infantry and attached batteries have reduced them to 1 hit. Maitlands Guards take over, these guys are Formed Infantry, but have 7 hits.

Over with D'Erlon, the artillery and infantry open fire and finally rout Bijlandt and put some hits on Pack, who is suddenly looking a bit lonely on the ridge. It has just occurred to me that the defenders would have been much better off on the reverse slope... Papelotte and La Haye are holding out nicely though.

At this point, the entire Allied cavalry reserve rides over the ridge and crashes into D'Erlons weakened divisions, wiping two of them out. I completely forgot the rule in the Marengo variant that cavalry need LOS to charge, but this was so glorious....

These guys could interpenetrate Pack as they move 3 hexes and are all facing the same direction. Units are facing a hex vertex and can move through either of the front facing hex sides. I also allowed a 1 hex pivot prior to charging, which with hindsight is far too generous. 

The British heavy cavalry are now in easy cannister range of the Grand Battery, and are counteracharged by the Guard Cavalry. Milhauds Corps has managed to get stuck on the wrong side of Plancenoit though.

The British cavalry survive with one hit left and the Guards bounce. The Dutch Belgians move up to fill the gap behind them, and the British pivot, and charge Lobau's last division in the flank. D'Erlons last surviving division on the right formed into Open Order last turn (at the cost of a hit) and nipped into the woods next to Papelotte to avoid the cavalry.

The Allied cavalry ride the unhappy French down, but are now flanked by 120 artillery pieces at point blank range... Quell desastre! That is three French divisions routed. Just like real life.

Time for the French cavalry to counterattack. "Look after my watch". Milhaud hits the British in the flank, while the Grand Battery shells Pack on the ridge. Following the barrage, the Guard Cavalry, led by Ney, charge across the valley and into the shaken British infantry.

The moment of decision is close. It is Turn 7, so Napoleon commits the Guard! Lobau's last division occupies Plancenoit in case the Prussians turn up. The Imperial Guard pile up the road in 'column of route', led by Boney himself. Column of route is a special movement mode in the Marengo variant, and very clever it is too - a rapid road move which ends with the unit facing sideways. The lead Guard unit is 'preparing to interpenetrate' the guns in front, shown by shoving it up the rear of the limbers.

Back on the right, the Guards Cavalry flatten Pack. Why oh why didn't I form up the British on the reverse slope? What an idiot. The French cavalry are up on the ridge now.

The Dutch Belgians counterattack Milhaud. They pivot and hit them in the flank, combined with fire from La Haye, Milhaud takes four hits but the Dutch bounce.

I'm not very happy with all this pivoting and charging, I think I'll restrict charges to frontal arc only (which is still 120 degrees, quite a generous arc!).

Up on the ridge, Alten forms square with Wellington in the middle. In the standard NT rules, squares are immune to cavalry, but I'm going to allow cavalry attacks, but hitting on 6 only. I'll treat squares as a flanking attack for artillery though, so double damage.

In the Marengo variant, Infantry don't form square, but instead can pivot to face, which exposes a failed charge to devastating musketry. Ill think about the options here. 

At least Hougoment and La Haye are still holding out.

The Imperial Guard move up to La Haye Saint in column of route. Napoleon is with them. They will need to pivot and deploy into combat formation next turn. 

Things suddenly get a bit exciting at Hougoment. Reille manages to chip Maitland down to one hit left, so Keller man sees a chance and  charges! This isn't as silly as it seems as Cavalry vs towns are quartered in effect, so Kellerman throws 3D6. needing a 6. And misses.

Up on the ridge, Wellingtons square is pounded by the French artillery, reducing it to two hits. The Guard cavalry take the opportunity to charge. 3D6 needing 6s. Like Pack, Wellingtons chaps should have been on the reverse slope.

The French cavalry fail however, and bounce.

Sadly this doesn't stop Milhaud from charging along the ridge and into the flank of the British infantry supporting Maitland. It looks like Kellerman has ridden past Hougoment to join him and threaten the shaken British light infantry cowering in the far corner.

Disaster for Wellington. Both British infantry units on the ridge are overrun by French cavalry. The Guard unit SE of La Haye obliterates the Dutch Belgian cavalry with close ranged massed musketry, while the other Guard unit marches north.

The French have now eliminated four Allied infantry units, but lost three of their own.

Blucher finally turns up. Given the dire situation they come on in the northeast corner.

The French cavalry are playing cat and mouse with the British Light Infantry to set themselves up for a charge. Now I'm restricting the charge arc, the infantry keep running out of the way. With only one hit left, they can't stand and fight. 

Now the last Allied cavalry has been despatched, Reilles open order troops come down off the ridge. They were (relatively) safe on the ridge from cavalry, but dead meat on the plain. They can now march forward with impunity, and simply march past Hougoment. The British formed infantry might score some hits, but the French will be long gone moving at two hexes a turn before they are seriously threatened.

I may have to think about units just running past each other, possibly a permeable ZOC like the one I use in the WW2 variant. 

Reilles last division is still trading shots (very slowly) with Papelotte, while Lobau forms up into open order, again taking a hit due to the chaos and confusion of changing from formed to open. The guns on the ridge are wheeled around to face northeast.

The British Light Infantry are trapped by the French cavalry, so dash back onto the ridge to block the road to Brussels for one turn at least, It is a bit like to role of the BAOR in the 1970s and 80s... 

The Prussians are coming on in force now. Typical. The French cavalry are running interference to slow them up.

La Garde Recule! The garrison of la Haye Sainte inflict enough losses on one of the Imperial Guard Infantry to rout them. Mon dieu. Wellington has retired into the farmhouse.

However, at the end of Turn 13, it is all over. Four French units are poised to leave the map on turn 14 (even if one of them is down to 1 hit) and there is no way the Prussians can stop them as the French cavalry are bravely holding them off.

Well, that went very well indeed. The game play answered some questions I had in my mind and threw up a few more. It took rather more than an hour, more like two, but as I had fourteen units a side, more than twice the usual number, that isn't surprising. The result was also historically plausible, the Prussians were a bit late arriving, but within the realm of expectations. I made a huge tactical blunder putting all the British on the ridge instead of behind it. I was still thinking of Waterloo a la Carte where the ridge position is an impregnable Maginot Line, halving all attacks and just impossible to attack. In the Marengo variant rules, being uphill provides a benefit against cavalry, but leaves units exposed to fire.  

Anyway, given that Wellington deployed his army in such a foolish fashion, he deserved to lose, although it was by the shallowest margin.

I really liked the treatment of the different arms, particularly the 'Light Infantry' type, and the differentiated ranged combat for infantry. I'll keep the restrictions on charge pivots, as the vertex alignment makes charges quite flexible already. Things I need to think about are whether to have ZOCs or not to prevent units running past each other, and also some restrictions on how many infantry units in an army can swap between being Formed or Light. The move rates might need a bit of thought as well, I might allow line infantry to move cross country in a march column 2 hexes.

The really big question is rallying. Allowing units to rally adds complexity and can drag things out. I might allow it as some sort of leader activity, similar to the reorganisation activity in my WW2 rules. Anyway, food for thought.

I need to set up some more battles, perhaps something a bit more manageable next time. I might have another go at Ligny, or possibly Wavre as I'm sick of Quatre Bras after all those Napoleons Battles games last year. I'm actually quite excited about this, perhaps I'm finally on to something.