Napoleon I Ain't

Popped down to Kevin's this afternoon to get one of his boardgames on the table, we played Napoleon: Waterloo Campaign 1815. I checked up the rules which had been sent to me and also the forums on BoardGameGeek, the best resource as far as I know if you are in to boardgames. The game must be popular as it is now into its fourth edition, we had the first, the main problem with this being the small map, basically no larger than an A3 sheet and way too small for the number of blocks in the game.

Anyway, I took the French and had half a notion on the walk down to try a right flank manoeuvre against the Prussians and take them out first, it certainly sounded like a plan to me and Napoleonic in scope. Kevin had deployed the historical scenario and I immediately ordered the bulk of my forces off to the right in a forced march, perhaps I am being unkind to the French but my troops did not like walking and I lost a large amount to fatigue as they fell by the wayside.

I ponder the opening moves.

I saw an early chance at taking out some advanced Prussian units in Charleroi, big mistake, when revealed these outnumbered me fairly heftily and my forces retreated bruised and battered, I did manage to sneak some cavalry through the allied lines for a thrust at the Prussian lines of communication before I fell on them with the Emperor himself.

The march on Liege begins.

Kevin quickly, far more quickly than me, managed to group most of his Prussians to defend Liege, with further battles in the west south of Brussels my left wing dwindled ever more making my defeat of the Prussians a necessity for victory. Belatedly I managed to seize Brussels for a time with the cavalry but couldn't hold it as Wellington's victorious troops returned.

There is a lot of black in f ront of me.

I met Blucher outside Liege and was left only with one stratagem, I had, like Ney in 1815, to leave it all to my cavalry, they had to destroy the Prussians to get me a victory. As both sides deployed this was possible but only narrowly so before the weight of the Prussian army destroyed my right and centre. The cavalry made a brave effort but numbers were against me and as night fell I boarded my carriage and headed for Paris, the Battle of Liege had done for me. However on the bright side it saved the world from a horrendous Abba song.

The battle of Liege.

Wargames and boardgames although at times inhabiting the same ground are very different. I saw right away that the French were in trouble and sure enough it seemed they could not actually steal a march on the Allies, they could not be 'humbugged.' It took too long to move the French army and it was too easy for the line of the Meuse to be blocked by a quick thinking Allied commander, Kevin managed this perfectly well, although I did eventually manage to get to Liege. I don't think I would make it a second time. Kevin informed me of one competition in which the French won one game out of fourteen, this made me feel a lot better.


I also got hold of the rules for the fourth edition, there is a bigger map and other changes have been made, this is a quick game and the subtlety comes in I suspect the more you play it, I still think the French are on a difficult course but we will see next time.