The Battle of Windmill Hill – Part 2

 

Turn 4 and the Emperor has arrived on table with Davout's Division. From now on the French get an extra +1 on the initiative die roll each turn.

Davout's men are followed hot on their heels by Ney with the Heavy Cavalry.

On the Allied side the Austrians arrive - well it had to be them didn't it?

The Prussians start arriving next - this is Zieten's Division moving west towards the Village.

This is the situation at the end of turn 7. Because of the terrain and the way the troops are arriving in succession, we have a much more challenging game developing than the usual line 'em up and shoot 'em down type.

This is Massena's Division manoeuvring on the French right flank.

Turn 8 and The Guard arrive, all the troops are on the table now (about 800 figures in all).

The Allies are making a strong move to reinforce their right and make sure they retain the Village.

The French and the Austrians get to grips on Windmill Hill. So far casualties have been quite light but as we head into turn 9 this may be about to change.

Finally the compulsory nostalgia shot - the sort of game I wanted to play when I was 12!

I thought I would briefly explain how we’re running the game for those of you who might be interested:

I began by writing an OOB breaking each army into six Divisions and then set up the table, Matthew then got to choose which army he had and whether he would be fighting from the north or south table edge. The Advance Guard of each army was then deployed on the table.

Each of us had drawn up an Order of March for our armies with one Division allowed to come on the table each turn starting with turn 4 (we kept this secret from each other for added tension). The troops had to arrive on the base line of the central terrain square in column and were issued with general orders at that point.

I then play through each turn using Matthew’s orders for the French (having written my own before I read his email). At the end of the turn I update him with casualties, unit status etc and supply him with photos of the battle and let him know which side has the initiative for the next turn.

So far it is all working very well and the system has been improved by Matthew producing a very nice map each turn showing the position and intentions of his units.