Waterloo Bloody Big Bash Day North - 27th June 2026 - the AAR

 Two weeks ago a group of like minded folk gathered in Sheffield for Bash Day North, which was held at Crookes Social Club

Bash Days feature a number of games using the BBB ruleset, usually using 6mm figures, with a spread of historical periods.

A number of luminaries from the Oxford Club supported the event - Chris - who wrote the rules in collaboration with Dave W, Crispin, Bruce, Mark J and Mark Smith, who wrote the Waterloo scenario that we were using.

I have posted about previous Waterloo games before here, here and finally here.  

Set-up - Mike and I set up the terrain and waited for interested parties to turn up and take charge:

For the French we had Russ and Chris, for the Allies Matt and Mark J, later Emily joined this team.  North is to the left of this picture, I umpired for the Western side of the table and Mike B (the other Ilkley Irregular) umpired for the Eastern half.

Turn 2

The French went for a left hook and besieged the chateau of Hougoumont.  In the centre they formed a gun line and pushed into the British left.  The mass of troops to the middle right of the picture is the French Guard, who move on turn 3.

Turn 4

By turn 4 the French were putting pressure on the Allied right and centre, whilst sending the Guard to deal with the Prussians arriving from the East.

Turn 6

By turn 6 the French had taken Hougoumont but the tempo of the left hook was slowing.  at the far side of the table the Prussians were shaking out into line as the Guard deployed to stop them.

Turn 8

After a ding dong battle in the French centre and left, France had taken La Haye Sainte & Hougoumont.  The Allies still held the ridge and retook Papelotte, whilst hooking up with the Prussians.  At the start of turn 9, either side could still win.

Turn 9

The battle closed with the French centre and left wings, as well as the Allied right, able to defend well but unable to make further headway.  On the Allied left the Prussians made headway against the French defenders, but were unable to breakthrough.  The game ended in a draw.

Afterthoughts

Firstly, a big thank you to my fellow umpire Mike and our worthy contestants.  Win or lose, it looked like they were enjoying themselves.

BBB once again delivered an exciting re-run of a historical event, close enough to actual history but with opportunities to do better on the day.  

Because the BBB rules are fairly simple, Generals spent more time making decisions and reacting to the game than micro-managing their armies in detail, there was definite ebb and flow as the battle progressed.

It was still all to play for till the last turn - the French left nearly launched a cavalry strike to get Mont St Jean, in the British rear, the Prussians nearly got behind the French lines.

I hope that this inspires you to have a go!

Allied & Prussian troops from Mike's collection, I provided the French.

Borodino for Joy of Six - Defences & Houses

 In just under two weeks time Mike and I will be hosting Borodino 1812 as a participation game at Joy of Six.  I needed to make some defences and some houses - here's how I did it, I hope it encourages you to have a go yourself!

The defences - these consisted of the redoubt and the big and little fleches.  These were very recent earthworks, so needed to be mainly soil with reinforcing timber.  I have some mdf trench sections, so I used these for the timber reinforcement and built up the terrain using lengths of lolly stick, suitably cut to size!

The formers:

Note gun ports cut once formers are finished

Redoubt to the left, Fleches to the right

A close up of the Fleches former

This is what they look like when polyfilla has been applied, followed by covering in basing sand, painted and highlighted with earth colours.  Even tough it was summer I reckon the earth would still be dark.

Here are the finished articles - matt varnished and flocked.  

The Houses Pendraken produce a very nice 6mm Russian Church, so I needed 8 more houses to be able to fight the two Russian scenarios in the Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles Scenario book.  This is the basic shape for a 1 storey building.

The next step is to clad the building in logs - in this case 0.4 mm round plastic strip.  Half way through the process I switched to 0.4mm half round strip.  The roofs got strip as well.  All of the buildings have a 2mm strip of stone to simulate the base that the building sits on.

They got a blast of primer and then a coat of acrylic black.  The church is from Pendraken and is also a simple wooden building.

Here's what they look like finished, basically lighter and lighter shades of grey to get that weathered silver timber look.

The most painstaking bit is the creation of the log walls, which need individual strips gluing on, but it doesn't take too long per house.

 

Command & Control - Napoleonic Marshal's Uniforms - part 3

 Following on from earlier posts of French Marshals and their colourful uniforms, here are two more to add to the collection (part 1 & part 2).  The penny is a UK 1p.

Bernadotte left foreground & Junot to the right rearground.  The Bernadotte model is holding a telescope - perhaps watching from afar as Davout takes on the bulk of the enemy, perhaps spying a Kingdom to start his dynasty?  The ADC figure is a Baccus French Elite Cavalry trooper in sky blue with yellow facings and a buff coloured pelite.  

Junot is modelled as Commanding VIII Corps (see separate post here) with an ADC from the Westphalian Guard, whose uniform is topped off by a striking yellow plume.

A couple of minutes conversion work and quite fun models to paint.  As ever, I hope this encourages you to have a go.

Borodino for Joy of Six - forces preparation - the Army of Westphalia

 Ilkley Irregulars will be presenting the battle of Borodino, Russia 1812, at Joy of Six in Sheffield 4 weeks today.  See how our first playltest went here.

My defensive earthworks are done and I have made some suitable Russian buildings, these are for another post.

I also decided, after the first playtest, to create Junot's Westphalians (VIII Corps).  I looked on Pinterest and found this extremely helpful picture:

I also found more pictures covering the drummers, all the infantry regiments and the Marshals and ADC uniforms.

The Westphalian artillery were almost indistinguishable from the French (unless the guns are a different colour, in which case send me a comment!) so one of my existing gun stands will be fine.

So, six stands of infantry, two with flags and a Marshal to create.  About this time I had a couple of bouts of illness, so it's taken a while to get them finished, but today's the day they had their portraits painted and they relocated to a storage box to await the big day!

The figures are Baccus 6mm - French line infantry 1806-1812 for the most part, NCOs are Elite line infantry 1806-1812, skirmishers French light infantry 1806-1812 and Guard Infantry are French Guard infantry (obvs).  Based for the BBB rules.

Their white coats and bright facing colours will make a nice contrast to the dark blue of the French line and Poles who will be fighting along side them.  

Flags are home prints from originals taken from the now defunct Warflag/Napflag free flag internet site.

Marshal Junot is from one of the Napoleonic Command Packs (Austrian?) and the ADC is French with the addition of a big plume (yellow, in this case).

So, great little project and a nice unit to field 4 weeks today!

Bailen - 19 July 1808 - Fought 4 times over 3 Fridays - 17, 24 April & 1 May 2026

 The Battle of Bailen saw the Spanish, under Castanos, beat Marshal Pierre Dupont, with the French trying to escort their baggage train to the town of Bailen.  Napoleon was not best pleased!

The French are challenged by needing to protect the baggage and by having part of the Spanish army, arrive in the French rear to the West.  French re-inforcements will arrive near Bailen, both of these arrivals are variable.

Games 1 and 2

Mike and I fought the battle on the 17th April using Matt Bradley's BBB scenario in the IO Group pages.  Here is the map:

Game 1

We set up the table and I took the French.  My troops included the Marins de la Garde as an aggressive, veteran skirmisher unit ranging (two stands of figures) down to Schramm's Swiss brigade, who were previously in Spanish service - they are removed if they take casualties or if the Marins unit is destroyed.

Set up

At this point I was in with a chance.  My plan is to charge up the road and also do a right hook.

Move 2

By move 2 it had all gone wrong.  2/3 of my cavalry was mainly blown away, the Marins were dead, so Schramm's Swiss decided to become chocolatiers and watchmakers, the baggage train elected to do a hard right and sneak along the line of the Olive groves.

  

Move 4

By turn 4 I was running out of troops, the Spanish were also approaching from my rear through the Olive Groves.  Time to surrender.....

Game 2

As our game had ended quickly, Mike and I had a very early lunch, swapped sides and started again. 

Set-up - my Spanish lads line the ridge west of Bailen:

Move 2 

Mike goes to the left, so I need to move my troops right to counter this.  He sends one unit to guard his rear (I didn't do that) and ensures his cavalry don't get wiped out.  All good so far.

Move 4

My move to my right was sluggish, Mike also got his reinforcements on to put pressure on my rear.  His unit blocking the river bridge did well, repulsing my impetuous assaults but eventually getting removed.

My troops were now able to assault the French baggage.

End

Mike surrendered on move 5, Spanish troops were pouring into the battle, his units had failed to defend the baggage and there was no longer any way he could win.

Having played the battle twice in one day, I suggested that we give Mark Smith's scenario for the same battle a try.  

Bailen games 3 & 4

Games 3 & 4 use Mark Smith's scenario for Bloody Big Peninsular Battles Scenario book, which should be on sale soon. Here is Mark's map.   Mark has made the map longer and narrower and the woods are in different places.  

The French troops get skirmish ability and are not rated passive and/or fragile.

Game 3

Set up

My initial deployment was, once again, a central push and right hook.  In Mark's scenario the baggage stays on the road, so someone has to protect it!

Move 2

By move two my forces were approaching Mike's defenders, holding the ridge and making good use of the woods.

 Move 4

By the end of move 4 I was advancing on the right and bringing the baggage forward ready for a dash to Bailen.

Move 6

At this point I have not broken through anywhere, but there are still a couple of moves to go....

Move 8 and end.

By move 8 my attacks had failed to break Mike's line and he counterattacked, pushing me back.

Victorious Spanish take the baggage train!

This game had lasted much longer, partly because a different map orientation meant that it took longer to close to combat, partly the French were tougher and had skirmishers.

We reset the battle, swapped sides and fought the battle again....

Game 4

Set up - I was the Spanish and waited for Mike's assault.  Here's the initial positions.  Sadly my photos for turn 2 are way too blurry....

Turn 4 

Here's Mike throwing in his right hook and advancing more slowly in the middle.  Threatening my left made me move troops to counter this.

Turn 6

Mike's push into the woods succeeds, he pushes my left back.  I throw all I have available to stabilise the situation.

Turn 8

By turn 8 the Spanish had stopped Mike's right hook and middle assault, but fresh French troops appearing the other side of Bailen were able to take two objectives at minimal cost.

Turn 9

The game ended at the end of French turn 9.  Mike had 3 objectives, enough for a draw.  The Spanish were beginning holding on but would not have the strength to recapture any of the objectives lost to the French.

Final thoughts

• Playing the same battle with two different scenarios makes it interesting - Matt rated the French as weaker than Mark.
• Playing the same game twice, swapping sides, makes you appreciate your opponent's challenges each time.
• The second two games lasted much longer and Mike almost won as the French, so victory is possible.
• There is a discussion to be had about what constitutes a win.  Will the French always lose, is that the "right" outcome?  Should the scenario always ensure the historical result, or balance the game so that it is possible to achieve a result very far from history, such as a crushing French victory at Waterloo?  I guess that's one of the reasons we game!

My thanks go to Mike for playing the same battle 4 times - next up is more Peninsular action at Rolica.

Matt's scenario is on the BBB Group IO page.  Mark's scenario will be published soon as p[art of the Peninsular Battles scenario book.