Jolly Good Show! - Waterloo at Battleground, Middlesborough - Sat 29 Nov

 The third and final BBB rules Waterloo run by the Ilkley Irregulars was on Saturday 29th at the Battleground Show, Middlesborough, UK.  The show is run by Leon from Pendraken Miniatures and had a range of games - different periods, scales & genres.  We were pretty busy all day, so apart from trips to the loos, I didn't get a lot of time to look at the other games and gamers.

The Battleground show is held in the Middlesborough Sports Village, a large sports hall that featured heating and lots of lighting.  It's easy to get to (Motorway or Dual Carriageway pretty much door to door for me) and Google Maps got me there in good time.  It is also FREE

On the day the Irregulars (Mike and I) were joined by Charlie, who provided an excellent Wellington inpression.

I have described the games we put on at Joy of Six and Fiasco in previous posts, so check these out for more details of the scenario etc.

We found the organisers, traders, gamers and public to be really friendly and we had an early joiner in the form of Alan, who played till about 1pm as the British left flank.  He enjoyed his game and has already asked to be part of our Joy of Six Game (we've filled in the forms for Borodino....).

We also discovered several gamers in and around Ilkley - we hope to welcome these gentlemen at a later date to join us in battle.

The battle of Waterloo - participation game 3

Charlie was keen to be British (with Alan for the morning), so Mike commanded the French left and I was the French right.  As this was our fifth fight (you can see the practice games here - game 1 and here - game 2) we had finally mastered the scenario rules and the game went well.  We were also joined by another couple of players in the afternoon, keen to roll dice and try BBB.

I was busy gaming and talking, so only took 4 photos, as follows:

Set up  - troops deployed waiting orders....

Turn 4 - the Prussians arrive at the bottom of the photo - in the centre the Allied defenders of Papelotte hang on by the luckiest of die rolls and repel repeated French attacks.  

The view from the French baseline.  The French right has run out of steam, in the foreground the Guard heads right to repel the Prussians.  

On the French left Mike's massive left hook has fully developed and Charlie (thinking that this is different game) tries to phone a friend.  

In the end, the Allies held three objectives, so the battle was classed as an Allied win. 

All that remained was to pack up and head home....

Reflections:

It has been interesting to fight the same battle five times, we have certainly road tested the scenario.  It is tough for the French - they need early wins against the Anglo-Dutch, followed by a slow Prussian advance.  This did not happen at Middlesborough!

By the time of this game we had got setting up and packing down into quite a slick operation, so there was a small opportunity to look at the rest of the show.

We have enjoyed the games more with a greater number of participants, as one of us can Umpire and the other field questions.

Most of the participants had bought the rules and started to try them out - it is great to see how quickly gamers on the day become familiar with BBB - spending less time looking at the rules and more time planning ahead and interacting with other gamers.  

BBB combines simplicity with a high level of nuance.  It also makes both combat and movement variable - so you can never rely on your troops, or opponents, being always able to perform manoeuvres and assaults.  The more complicated the assault or more units involved, the more likely it is to unravel somewhere along the line...

As mentioned above, we are planning Borodino in the Summer at Joy of Six.  Book your seats early!

Leipzig, 16-18 October 1813, refought Sunday 5th October

 Mike has been keen to fight Leipzig ever since he got his hands on the BBB Napoleonic Scenarios Book , so the other week 3 of us went to the Mike's games room to fight this, the biggest Napoleonic battle.  

As an indicator of the numbers involved, Mark Smith's scenario uses a ratio of 3000 men/72 guns to a stand in order to fit this massive battle on a 6' x 4' table. 

Firstly, the map.  We had a French Commander and an Allied Commander on both the East & West sides of the table, I was French in the West.  All photos will be from the West.

Set up   The southern half of the table.

The northern half of the table.

Move 2 

On the southern front the Allies discovered that the terrain is not in their favour - the French hold the river crossings and have slowed the Allied right hook through the wood.

On the northern front the French under Ney attacked Blucher and checked his advance.  In the middle the garrison in Lindenau hold out against Gyulai.

Move 4  

By the end of move 4 (end of 16th October) the southern French were doing OK.  The Allied right hook had worked its way through the woods and then got stopped there.  The French still held the river crossings at Kannewitz (middle of picture), Krostewitz & Gulden Gossa (middle right of picture).  So long as they can keep the the Allies bottled up, they are in with a chance.

On the French left & middle it's also OK.  Ney has bottled up Blucher's forces and the defenders of Lindenau hold their own against Gyulai.  As night falls, the French hold the villages and all is well.

Move 6

At the end of move 6 things have taken a turn for the worse in the south.  The Allies have broken out of the woods and crossed the river,  The French still hold Kannewitz, but have lost Lieberwolkerwitz on the hill in the middle of the picture. 

In the north the French are under pressure.  In Lindenau (bottom of picture) Gyulai has managed to get his cannon up and extend his line.  Ney has retreated to cover Leipzig and to use a unit to cover the gap in the French lines, where an Allied hand is pushing assorted troops forward!

Move 8

In the south the French held on to Probstheida village, having evicted the Allies earlier.  The defenders of Kannewitz held out against the Allies, who found it hard to deploy enough troops to assault and push the defenders out.

In the north things went badly for the French.  The centre defensive line was just about holding, but Leipzig itself was now under threat.  More importantly, Gyulai had taken Lindenau, so there was no longer an escape route for any of the French.

It was at this point that the French decided to surrender.  It had taken 4 of us most of the day to game the battle, it had been intense and engaging to the end.

Thanks and thoughts

Firstly, thanks to Mike for hosting four of us and to Chris and Charlie for an excellent game.  It was a fun day, with the game in the balance until the end of move 8.

It's a big game, the French need 51 infantry, 8 cavalry and 7.5 gun stands.  The Allies need 90 infantry, 16 cavalry and 13.5 gun stands.  

It needs at least 4 players.  I had play-tested an earlier version with Mark, the scenario writer, with just two of us.  It took a much longer time to play on that occasion and a lot of maths!  Playing with 4 players speeded up play and made the battle manageable.  6 players would have been easy to accommodate.

So, I hope this inspires you to give the game a go.  Get 3 friends (or 5), lay out the table and go for it!

xxx

Ligny & Quatre Bras - 16 June 1815 - refought 23 & 30 May 2025

 Slightly out of chronological order - here's the battles of Ligny & Quatre Bras, 16 June 1815 - refought approximately 210 years later.  Quatre Bras is probably not a battle, at least not in BBB terms, but as it was on the same day and roughly in the same place, combining the two actions adds a level of complexity and interest to the battles.

The Scenario was written by Matt Bradley and is available as a free download in the files section of the BBB Group.  You can find it here - but you may need to log on first!

Here's the map:

Mike took the British and Prussians, I took the French.  Here's the table laid out for the start.  Apologies for the lighting - it was actually a sunny day!

French Left

French Right

Turn 2  On the left, the french push toward Quatre Bras, in the middle the French push across the stream and threaten the Prussian line.

On the right, the French Guard threaten Tongrinelle 

Turn 4 - on the left the French took Quatre Bras, whilst the British used their firepower advantage (pink counters) to drive them back out.  In the centre the French took losses as they assaulted the objective villages.  I had formed my cavalry into one big menacing block....

To the right, the French piled on the pressure, with one unit breaking through to take an objective village.

Turn 5   On the left the French lost Quatre Bras and the centre became a slogging match.

On the right, the Guard drove the Prussians out of Tongrinelle, with Mike's left flank getting hammered.

 

Turn 6  On the left flank the French had been thoroughly hammered by the British, but this turn saw the arrival of French re-inforcements!

In the middle the French continue to hammer away at those objective villages and on the right the Guard prepare to wheel left.

Turn 7 - on the left, the French reinforcements shake out of column (2 x speed on roads) and dep[loy ready to assault.  The big block of French cavalry has slowly been whittled down, but still threatens Blucher's right.

On the right, the Prussians have retreated as more French arrive and the Guard attacks the Prussian left.

Turn 8 - on the left the French advance to the Bridge, the British form up to defend Quatre Bras again.  One sneaky unit of Brits has skirted the forest to take potshots at lurking French cavalry.

On the right the Prussians still hold one objective village as the French close in for the kill.

French 9 on the last French move,  it's a standoff at Quatre Bras and the assault against the last Prussian objective village goes in.

On the right the French hold the objective villages, just in case the Prussians try a last minute assault to regain them.  

Allied 9 - the French have not retaken Quatre Bras, but the Allies have not been able to advance south of the river Thyle with more than 50% of their troops.

In the centre the French hold 4 objectives, with the Prussians holding just one objective village.  There are no more Prussians to the right of this picture!

Conclusions 

It was a really good game, not just because I won.  i managed to get most of the rolls i wanted and drove the British and the Prussians back.  Mike was not as lucky with the dice, but he put up a spirited defence and only gave ground slowly.

Having the Allies and Prussians both on the table made a lot of sense - the French need to contain the British and secure their left flank.

This game allows you to field those shiny Waterloo British uniforms as well as the Prussians, plus the Guard gets to play a pivotal role in it all.

I highly recommend the scenario.

Thanks to Mike, worthy opponent and provider of regular teas and coffees!  

Waterloo at Joy of Six - the second practice game - 30 May, 13 & 20 June

 Having played Waterloo once, in preparation for Joy of Six, we then replayed the battle but swapped sides, with Mike as Napoleon and myself as Wellington and Blucher.  See the AAR for our first battle here

We now had Mike's terrain and some more troops created for the game so battle commenced!

Here's the map, orientated so that it matches the pictures:

As we had recently played Waterloo on the other side, we organised our opponent's troops for them to deploy - here is the French army ready to march North:

The "drone shot"

Guard to the left, D'Erlon's I Corps in the middle

Initial deployment - The thin red line

Here's how it looked from my side - these are my troops on table but not yet deployed.  The orange roads are the sunken roads - they give some cover from cannon fire and in the assault.

The Allied right 

The Allied left

Turn 2

At the start of turn 2 (our second day of play) I had brought my stock of hedges, so I had something substantial to defend (? hide behind!).  Mike sent forward his left hook to take Hougoumont.  I appreciated how skirmishers, devastating fire, being in a fortified manor in a wood improved my chances of survival considerably!  On the right of the picture Mike pushes down the ridge towards my Brunswick & Hanoverian Landwehr...

On the left, Mike headed for Papelotte.  The Guard waited....

Turn 4

By the end of turn 4 we had achieved stalemate on the Allied right.  Mike couldn't take Hougoumont and his left hand flanking manoeuvre had not broken through.  For most of the Allied line it was a case of "hurry up and wait".

In the middle my troops were mainly waiting patiently for the French to arrive, except at Papelotte, where multiple French piled in to take the fortified village.  To the left the first Prussians arrive, whilst the French Guard, static till turn three, fill the gap on Mike's right.  Mike had learned from my earlier slow response to the Prussian threat.  Tired from their yomp through the forest, the Prussians slowly advance...

Turn 6

At this point things were going OK.  Mike still hadn't taken Hougoumont and his left hook had been stopped by various raw units - they had gone spent, but then so had Mike's infantry, so he wasn't't able to break through on his assaults.  Mike had established a gun line just out of musket/canister range of La Haye Sainte and destroyed my unit defending it.  I begin feeding units to my right as I'm not sure if my spent units will hold. 

On my left Mike holds Papelotte, however his main concern is more and more Prussians emerging from the woods.  He builds a defence line consisting entirely of Guard.  His artillery amuses itself by long range counter battery fire, which is why there are two guns in the foreground of the picture.  They will recover and return to the firing line in due course.

Turn 8

On my right I now stretched my line thinly to hold Mike's spent units at bay, whilst the survivors of the two spent units went into the hedge lines to recover.  Mike's assault on Hougoumont had been unsuccessful, so he had pulled back his troops to recover.  He had, however, removed one of my better units from the field of battle.

On my left the Prussians put pressure on the Guard.  At the top of the picture A Prussian column heads down the road towards the French rear, it looks like Mike's flank has been turned.  In the middle Picton assaults Papelotte with everything he can, Mike scrambles to react to this threat... 

Turn 9

We played turn 9 through enough to decide the key combats and determine a winner.  

On the right I advanced my line to support the gallant defenders of Hougoumont.  Mike's final assaults here were not able to break through.

In the middle Mike occupied La Haye Sainte on his turn 9.  I assaulted and won using the whole of my middle troops.  Not even the Grand Battery could save the French defenders.

On the left you see the results of the Prussian massed assault.  The Guard started to take losses, but well placed artillery meant that the Prussian column on the road went spent and moved no further,  The defenders of Papelotte did hold out, but the Prussians had broken through and driven off the French relief force.

Conclusion

I am pleased to report that it was another Allied win.  Mike, as Napoleon, didn't repeat some of my mistakes, however he was not getting high enough die scores to breakthrough at Hougoumont.

It's hard for Napoleon - as Wellington all I had to do for half the game was wait for the French and keep my troops from being blown away.  Mike had to win big against me early on and then win big against the Prussians.

When I did go onto the offensive, at the end of the game, the fragile and raw nature of much of my force showed up in failures to charge home and units quickly going spent.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the game and it's been great to play on our bespoke terrain.

All that remains is to welcome you on the day at Joy of Six on 13th July in Sheffield - you are welcome to take a turn or two or stay longer.

Waterloo at Joy of Six - the terrain

 Mike has spent the last couple of weeks creating the terrain for Waterloo at Joy of Six, Sunday 13th July in Sheffield.

Here's a sneak preview of the terrain set up yesterday, as we prepared for our second refight of the battle.

It will be nice to have purpose built terrain to fight on!  😀

  We left the gaps to help us work out how the jigsaw goes together.  Looking forward to seeing some of you on the day!

Update - here's the terrain with more features added:

Looking South from Allied position - Hougoumont chateau in the middle, La Haye Sainte farm on the road in the left centre.

Centre of the battlefield - Papelotte village on the left - it counts as a town and is an objective.

The left side - forests and trees to be added