Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

The Promise Lives!!

A Prussian Always Keeps His Word!!

Then out of no where rode up the Great Marschall Vorwärts, Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt, having shouted amongst the line Vorwärts Meine Kinder, Vorwärts!! With Honor and Bravery the Legions of Glory smashed into the French rear!!

And when all was done that day, the Great Marschall Vorwärts rode up to the Man he had Promised to and they celebrated. "The Promise Not Forgotten" had been Completed!!

Prussia may not win all the time, but their Honor and Courage is unlike no other. Bested by defeat after defeat The Great Marschall Vorwärts only knew one way!! FORWARD!!

The Only Man never afraid of Ole' Boney, bested him in the end and Won the Triumph Glory!!

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

I am carried away with the euphoria of the moment! And Napoleon got carried away in the Utopia of his idealism!



Happy Waterloo day. I suppose that means another 10 books will be published on the battle!

Here are suggested titles:

1. Wellington at Waterloo: famous horses of the British commander and his staff. Pedigrees discussed and compared.

2. Things that other Waterloo books missed: or how many toenails the Old Guard broke on the march from Quatras Bras to La Belle Alliance. French text with charts.

3. The Swedish role in the Battle of Waterloo, a short, short, very short, discourse on events leading up to June 18th: Swedish text.

4. The Russian role in the Battle of Waterloo, free food coupons to fine Russian restaurants in the back of the book.

5. How the Austrians saved the day at Waterloo: myths and untold stories.

6. The top five recipes of British Army cuisine: meals eaten at Waterloo by the British officer corps.

7. The Significance of the Battle of Waterloo on History, 201st Edition.

8. Quotes of the French Marechals at Waterloo: A short essay on the importance of army communication.

9. Artillery of Waterloo: A Fresh Perspective.

10. Famous duels at Waterloo: Untold Stories Concerning the British Cavalry Officers.

Just what we need, another new book on Waterloo!

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Hahaha awesome Bill!

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

Oh, how did I not see this one coming. The Mad Prussian strikes again.

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Feldmarschall Dale Fürst Lastowicka von Galizien und Lodomerien
Grenzer Regiment Wallachia-Illyria Nr. 13
2. Leichte Brigade
Avant Garde Division
Österreichische Imperiale Armeekorps
Coalition Army

Of course Dale, you should know better!!

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

Two crucial titles for any Waterloo enthuasiast. Without reading these you don't have a balanced perspective I think.

Waterloo new perspectives - David Hamilton Williams
A great much better account than the traditional angle. Shows how the decisive moment was a rupture of the hinge created by the Prussians which conincided with the attack of the Guard. Also explains a lot of the reasons the French attacked the way they did with for example the massed cavalry.

The Battle - Alessandro Barbero
Also a different angle helps explain Napoleons strategy in a much better way.

Blucher was the allied hero of Waterloo in my view. Wellington is over rated IMHO. He made a lot of mistakes throughout the campaign, very good tactically on defense, a fine leader but limited at the operational level. That said his recovery after QB was excellent. Read these books for a perspective on this argument.

Blucher on the other hand was a firebrand whose personal drive and excellent leaders such as his oustanding chief of Staff Gneisenau undid Napoleon. Gneisenau may actually be the unsung real hero of the campaign for the allies.

alute!

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Marechal Knox

Prince d'Austerlitz et Comte d'Argentan
Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur

"What is history but a fable agreed upon"

Colin, I absolutely agree with your comments on this battle and the performance of the leaders. It is very easy to lack the proper perspective until you have researched it in depth. The Prussians did not receive enough credit for their participation and the Dutch-Belgians were badly maligned. The Prussians absolutely saved the Battle of Waterloo and the intiative shown in the Dutch-Belgian deployment at the cross roads contributed to the outcome of QB/Ligny. I do not have the work by Barbero, but William's book is one of my personal favorites concerning this campaign.

Bülow certainly made up for himself after Ligny. But Gneisenau made the fateful decision, when Blücher was missing. He distrusted the Anglo's and was not a fan of Wellington, but kept the Prussian promise to come to the aid of his ally, despite not having it two days prior when the Prussian needed it. It is him, matched with when Blücher came back, whose drive to get to Wellington, von Thielmann's steadfast stand at Wavre, the French missteps & the Anglo stand that made it all happen. I think the Prussians had a well put together command, despite all the Landwehr forces that they had. There is a reason why the General Staff system was so successful.

Kudos as well to the KGL, whom served as a very valuable arm of the British forces as well. Often forgotten about, these fellahs were battle hardened from years in Spain.

For the French side , I think some of the actions at Ligny were quite well played and were very heavy & deserpate fighting. They came real close to destroying the Prussians.....

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

I'd also like to point out, I think the lack of major monarchs being present on the Allied side helped a lot too.... It allowed the General's to do their job....the three from the East fight like a bunch of caddy school girls sometimes.....much like Napoleon's Marshals.....

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support