Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

I have just dropped out of another Waterloo game because the allies seem to me to have only one tactic. Hide units in the woods and attack the french artillery and wagons on the road as they move up behind the advance forces. I consider this tactic comparable to charging cavalry into town hexes which I was told during my training was not done in the NWC. Another comparision would be those ACW players who send small cavalry units behind enemy lines in the hopes of preying on unprotected supply units, artillery or leaders.

Having faced this tactic three times now I would really like to know if there are any allied players out there who play the large Waterloo scenarios and don't use this tactic. If so please contact me as I would very much like to play a game with someone who uses something resembling historical tactics. On the other hand if there are no such players in the NWC then I'm wasting my time here.

<b><i>Fortunately I was able to find a similar minded opponent and we've begun a full Waterloo battle. My apologies for taking so long to update the post but I thought I had done so.

I can only plead that old saying about memory being the second thing to go and I can't remember what is first.</i></b>[:D]

Captain Ken Miller
V Corps
1st Division
1st Brigade
13eme Regiment d’Infanterie Legere

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Not to stir up trouble, but I have a question. I have come across this before, and I understand your point, but speaking from the other side, why should I, or anyone else, be forced to follow "historical" methods, particularly if those methods were not necessarily the best ones available? If a commander has an innovative, and more effective way of dealing with his enemy, why should he not use it? Just because they didn't do that 200 years ago is not, in my opinion, a valid reason. I'm sure the French commanders were all quite peeved at Wellington in any number of battles, for not lining his troops up in front of them, to be pounded by artillery. Was his tactic of defending reverse slopes any less a new, innovative, and effective tactic? I was not under the impression that one was supposed to be predicable, and considerate in allowing one's opponent to not have to worry about his flank and rear security. Apparently whatever your previous opponents was doing, was effective.
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<font color="yellow">2nd Lieutenant Willie Davis
Light Bn Luneburg</font id="yellow">

I have to add a comment here as well I think. To raid into the rear of your enemy or leave small forces for ambushes is not unhistorical. Indeed cavalry often raided and in particular in the ACW as they had negilible battle field value by then.

To counter this you must use screening forces to clear out woods and similar. This slows down the French advance which is more historical than an all out blitz to Brussells.

If you compare what can be achieved in the big waterloo scenarios by racing up the pike you will note that you can do it much quicker than was the historical reality. That is if you don't screen your forces correctly.

Screening and reconoitring will slow you down which is entirely historical.

If your opponent leaves an ambush this means he is isolated in your rear. Fix him with your escort forces and turn a corp around to annialate him.

Indeed you have a huge cavalry force as French which should be deployed all around your army as you advance. This was the historical practice and the main role of light cavalry and dragoons in the Napoleonic armies. Indeed the latter often escorted the Supply and artillery to counter the tactics you have outlined. As a result the ambush practice was generally a dangerous one.

To not escort you artillery and supply is in fact the unhistorical play here not the ambush in my view.

Remember the rule of Napoleonic campaign warfare - Find him, fix him , f..k him.

If he hides in your rear it should not be hard to to the last part as he is surrounded from the get go.

PS: An additional note. The essence of the Waterloo campaign plan for the French is central position. Which by it's very nature has vulnerable flanks and rear. To not allow your opponnent to exploit this seems somewhat one sided. For central position to work it must have an all around cavalry screen in a shape similar to a C lying on its side

Salute!


General de Brigade Knox
Grand Duc d'Austerlitz et Comte de Argentan



Escadron Mamelouks
Chasseurs a'Cheval
Division de Cavalerie la Vieille Garde.





CO. 1er Brigade, II Heavy Cavalry Division, Reserve Cavalry.
http://www.aspire.co.nz/colinknoxnwc.htm

Monsieur as a fellow French officer I would say that the Allies are not doing any thing wrong but playing their game! This is a game not history and you most remember that in Spain this was the normal way of things. I have quit many games not because of this but trying to follow the other players way of playing. Hang in there and play kill them all!

Col Kliff Marbot
3/3 e Artillerie de Cheval
2nd Div I Corps LaGrande Armee

[:I]

Generaal
2de Brigade
2de Nederlandsche Div
I Corps
Anglo Allied Army

A pity you left, Sir. I regret that you were dissatisfied with the battle. Hope you find an opponent who agrees with your view.

I, by the way, commanded the British army.[:)]

Kolonel Sellick Davies,
III Bataillon Nassau-Usingen,
2nd Bde,

Sir,
I would be more than happy to except your challenge at Waterloo, now that I am in my nice new black uniform [:D] Any scenario and you pick your optionals. If you will be kind enough to accept please send your runner over:
tugwilson45@sky.com

Ensign Stuart Wilson
1st Line Battalion
Brunswick Brigade
Anglo-Allied Army

Maybe the discussion (regarding house rules protecting one action but in turn allowing another) should be moved to Pierre's? I had a recent unfortunate (non club) experience where my opponent bemoaned my crashing in on his flanks and smashing him, when he expected to overstack his lines and roll down my middle like a juggernaut. When he complained that my cavalry squadrons swarmed on his flanks, I replied that he should have spread out and perhaps anchored his flanks on the more than secure forest and village.

It did not go well from there. Cest la guerre.

(Mind you, this is not a comment one way or the other on Ken's specific situation.)

<b>Colonel Michael Cox</b>
<font size="4"><i>Principe <font size="1">della </font id="size1">Toscana</i></font id="size4">
Comte de Moselle

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<font size="2">40ème Régt d'Infanterie de Ligne
2éme Bgde, 3ème Div
V Corps</i></font id="size2">
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