Duke of 1815

It's Been A While

I have been away, to the 200th Anniversary of Waterloo, then 5 weeks of holidays. I have also been working and painting for commissions. I have only played a couple of games since coming home, one of which I forgot my camera......doh......

I thought it was about time I got myself back into it.

This game saw Darren and I teaming up again on the French side against John Q and the newest member of our group Alan on the British and Portuguese Alliance.

It was a very enjoyable game, with a bit of to and fro and lots of cavalry action. Unfortunately for me, the lack of games lead me to make a few mistakes which almost cost us the game very early on. We, the French, were using 18 man Battalions (as per early French Formations) instead of 9 man Battalions (as per later French Formations and what I am more used too)

The initial dispositions. The French have the ridge......what......how,,,,,oh well, let's attack anyway

John Q's superbly painted British and Portuguese troops. Alan was in charge of the British while John had the Portuguese

Darren moving his troops forward, with his Grenadiers out to the right of the Battalions

My glorious troops move toward the Portuguese. The cannon in the foreground are waiting to be placed on the bases as I have my home made limbers on the bases for movement.

I'm on a ridge, what do I do now???? My Reserves have the right idea

I stretch out a line to increase my firepower

The King's German Legion lurking about

In the blink of an eye, I had made a blunder. I attempted to move my line into square as there were cavalry close by. Unfortunately they were closer than I thought. I triggered an "Opportunity Charge" from the Inniskilling Dragoons, which smashed my line pushed a square back and made another Battalion retreat

My Casualty pile is huge after being Cavalry Fodder

I moved forward and fired into their flank

As is usual of my luck, I didn't make a dent on their numbers but John Q failed his Morale, so they retreated, out of danger.......doh.......I didn't do that very well......

The Scot's Greys charged my artillery, which ran in to the square. My poor old Hussars had to charge or they would have been caught standing. Unfortunately I was in column and the Greys had a 4 point head start before the die roll, which of course was a one.

The victorious Scot's Greys, they hardly raised a sweat

My Hussars were smashed and to top it all off, my Cavalry General was captured

The remnants of my Hussars "High Tail It out of here"

As the Scot's Greys were "In Control" (strange for British Cavalry) they position themselves 45 degrees

After the initial mauling, I managed to shore myself up with my reserves

Alan and Darren were building up for a massive Cavalry battle

My Dragoons teamed up with Darren's Dragoons

Darren rolled well

John's superb KGL Hussars, under the command of Alan, take on the might of my Dragoons

Alan's Light Dragoons taking on Darren's "Heavy" Dragoons

Our combined Dragoons forced the Light Cavalry back (Note my "Blown Cavalry" markers behind the Dragoons)

John decided to take the initiative and attack my shell shocked infantry......but...... he has moved an inch too far, giving me a sniff of revenge

I managed to break 3 Portuguese and make another retreat,

But wait,

the Inniskilling Dragoons decide to launch an "Opportunity Charge" at my Brave Men

But they failed their "Pre-Melee" due to the amount of breaking and retreating infantry around them and had to retreat.

I was feeling quite happy after having a couple more reasonably successful moves where the Portuguese had to fall back.

But John spoiled my joy by charging my square, causing them to retreat, with the artillery crew

John then turned his attention to another Battalion, which had formed square

Meanwhile Alan had managed to reform his Cavalry and made a "Five O'clock in the afternoon so you might as well have a go and see what happens" charge. He made a huge breakthrough in the middle of the French Lines

Darren was unable to mount any real inroads on his flank. Due to our broken centre and both of us on the French side unable to recover, we had to concede.

And so ended a very enjoyable game with some very good friends