Struggle for Hougoumont AR (2)

Well the battle continues, sorry for the delay in the post, the blizzard in the Northeast US messed up my morning yesterday and I had to work in the afternoon. I got a few turns in on Boxing Day and few more this morning, have to work again this afternoon, so a quick post.

Rafa made me realise in my last post that I was making an error describing the number of turns. I was undercounting by one half (I was counting 1 turn as 1 French and 1 Allied move). Thus, I had completed 14 turns in my last post rather then 7. This was the equivalent of almost 2 hours of real time, so I should of brought my reinforcements in later then I have done. This is a trial run though, so it is good to discover errors now. I had been trying to schedule the reinforcement entries in an historical accurate way using Adkin's book.

So anyway, I have completed 22 turns now and the battle is raging. All of Baudin's brigade has now entered the killing ground in front of the orchard. They are taking casualties, as are the Nassau. An engineer from the 3/2e legere set a demolition charge and was successful in causing a breech in the previously impassable wall. It is now possible for the French to charge!

The Hanoverians are taking significant casualties and although they are irregular they continually fail DISC tests to change formation and are having difficulty withdrawing. The light companies of the Guards appear to have no such problem and are withdrawing in orderly fashion north being covered by the Coldstreamers.

The 3/2e legere charge through the breech, the Nassau fire in reaction and the large battalion destroys the already decimated French battalion. Other French battalions move into to continue the attack. The Hanoverians take fire from Soye's brigade and are destroyed. 

Jamin's briagde starts their advance, the engineering company attached to the 1/4e legere is moving forward.

 

The 2/3rd Guards advance to the southern wall to support the Nassau, who now have suffered 50% casualities. Lets hope McDonnell can throw some 6's.

The light companies enter through the north gate with Col Saltoun.

Well I believe things are going better then expected and the Lasalle ruleset is holding up nicely with very minimal modification. It is a challenge to handle all the traffic from 3 French brigades around Hougoumont, although the ZOC rule is certainly useful. We will have to see how the French handle their attack: Will they continue to add reinforcements to the assault on the south wall, or will they hold back and use some of their 6 attacking battalions in a separate attack on the north gate. We will have to watch the 1/4e legere.................

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Struggle for Hougoumont AR (1)

I have run 14 turns and so far things are going quite well. The only real problem is that the time element is way off. Generally each turn is supposed to represent 15 minutes of real time, after 7 turns though the 2e légère is just approaching the wall. This is ok, but the reinforcements are arriving too early. I suspect the increased ground scale is throwing off the movement scale. 

Here we see GdB Baudin giving orders to chef de bataillon Le Vol (2/2e légère). Colonel  Maigrot can be seen to the right exhorting the 1/2 légère to enter the wood. 

The French advance toward Hougoumont through the wood. The Hanoverians in the wood start to pick off the advancing french skirmishers. There irregular status and their SK advantage work to their benefit and the 1/2e légère suffer the first casualties. The voltiguers have to retreat. The 2,3,4/2e légère advance and the Hanoverians withdraw. The light companies of the Guards advance to cover their retreat.

Turn 4 has already arrived and we see Soye's brigade advancing from the south west in attack column. The 2e légère are almost through the wood (it is a little hard to see, but if you doubleclick on the photo, you will see that I detach the mounted officer from each battalion and use this as a marker to record the battalions advance through the wood)

Soye's Brigade advance, it looks like the Guards light companies and the the Hanoverians may get caught. The Hanoverians turn and attempt to cover the retreat of the the British. Lord Saltoun watch as his irregular troops attempt to extract themselves from the the French advance.

The 1,3/1e ligne form line and fire into both the British and Hanoverians. The British maneuver into line and start to retreat around the south west corner. It looks like the Hanoverians may be caught! The 2,3,4/2e légère advance into the killing ground. The Nassauers fire a volley but cause no casualties.

The 2/Coldstreamers form a line to protect the retreat of their light companies and hopefully the Hanoverians. Positions at the end of turn 7.

Well fun so far, I will continue to run the scenario as planned, but some problems have been identified. I probably need to change the turn entry of the reinforcements. I am also going to have to reconsider what units can enter the ZOC. As noted in the introduction, I felt only a brigade could attack the complex at one time. I envisioned this to be units from only 1 brigade at a time. As you can see the forward elements of both Baudin's and Soye's brigades reached the ZOC at the same time. I had to hold back the lead battalions under Soye. Maybe, I should have made it that 6 battalions from any brigade can attack at one time. Of course if I changed the turn entry of Soye's brigade this may of not been a problem. Any comments?

Well time to celebrate Xmas and start cooking, I have to figure out how to cook duck and make a trifle. Hope to have another report for Boxing Day. Happy Xmas to all.

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A Trial Scenario for Hougoumont

About 3 months ago on the Lasalle Forum, there was a discussion about how to organise a scenario for Hougoumont, Napoleon's left flank at the Battle of Waterloo (or I suppose alternately Wellington's right flank). For some reason, about which I am still unsure, I was quite attracted by the thought of doing this scenario. I had almost enough French battalions and I was in the middle of painting some Hanoverians, so I said why not! I spent quite a lot of time researching the action, a lot of information was out there. I found the internet somewhat contradictory, so I bought a couple of books; first Pagets's monograph on the action and then Adkin's authoritative book on the battle. The latter is really a most excellent book.

A quick inventory of my army showed that I could accurately do the OB with what I had, as well as needing to paint 4 more battalions of légere, a few command figures, some Hanoverian skirmishers and finally a battalion of Nassau. Knowing the importance of the look of the thing, I also knew that I would have to acquire some terrain, namely Hougoumont itself.  I have a 12'x5' table, so I felt a small action like Hougoumont was quite possible. Piece of cake, I said to myself, I can do that all in 3 months, as my plan was to run the scenario in the week before Xmas. Indeed, once I did some measuring I felt I could also run the La Haie Sainte scenario at the same time. Luckily, I controlled myself (the thought of having to paint 3 more battalions of légère also helped), and restricted myself to having to paint around 140 figures and the buildings in less then 3 months. I am going to use the Lasalle Napoleonic rules for my first go at the scenario.


Order of Battle: The OB I am using is pretty accurate, and covers the first 3-4 hours of the action. I have had to make some slight adjustments to the number of men and I also slightly varied the OB for Jamin's brigade. The light German infantry and light companies of the Guards companies are slightly over represented while the remaining number of men in the 2nd battalions of the Coldstream and 3rd Guards are under represented. In respect to Jamin's brigade I have increased the number of ligne and decreased the number of légère, just could not paint any more légère. I have left out the other brigade (Tissot) in Foy's 9th Division and I have not included Bachelu's 5th Division. For my first go, I also left out cannon on both sides and Pire's cavalry brigade. I have used standard Lasalle ratings for all the French, I do not believe the 1,2,4e légère can be rated elite troops. I increased the SK value for the Nassau, I would think that this specific battalion stood above most of the other Nassau.  I have made the light companies of the allies irregular, I believe of course they would have fought as such, and the 1/2e légère are also irregular. They represent all the skirmishers sent forward in Baudin's brigade. The French sub-commander rating have been diced for, I have made MacDonnell a superior commander and Saltoun a good tactician and vigorous commander. Three engineering groups have been attached to the French, maybe a little much, but in this first playtest they have one less infantry brigade, we will see how it goes. Soye's Brigade enters in Attack Column at the southwest corner. The 2/Coldstream Guards enter in March Column at the north corner of the complex.

The Terrain: I have used the Hovels 15mm model to decrease the already too big footprint. I believe the final ground ratio for the model ended up at 5 cm to the metre (I am very poor at these types of calculation, so I am happy to stand corrected). As you can see, this is way out of proportion to my battalion scale (16 cm in line). Thus, I really can not use the concept of Lasalle BUA (1 BUA equals 3 BW) as laid out in the rule book. I looked around for some ideas and found that Barry Hilton in his Republic to Empire rules has a completely different approach to BUA. He essentially ignores the size of the model (the footprint is always going to be too big) and accepts that the important thing to many gamers is the look of the game. I like this! He looks at a BUA as how many models can occupy it and how many models can attack at one time. Using the table from this ruleset, I felt that it was reasonable that the maximum number of models that could occupy the walled Hougoumont complex at one time was essentially no more than a battalion, that 1-2 battalions could occupy the formal gardens and that no more than a brigade could attack at one time. This sounded quite reasonable historically if you think about it. He also imposes a zone of control (area which is barred to non attacking units) around any BUA which in Lasalle speak is going to be approximately 6 BW. So much for that, otherwise I am really going to try to stick to the Lasalle rules as written. The complex and the walls around the formal garden are impassable, but the gates and the walls can be destroyed as noted in the scenario specific rules. The walls are all hard cover. Movement within the complex and the formal garden is unrestricted and all units are in the complex are in the town deployed formation, but in the garden are regular formation. The 2 internal gates within the complex are not impediments. Movement out of the complex and through outer gates is in march formation. Woods around the complex are defined as rough terrain and soft cover.

Scenario Specific Rules: As noted above, I really want to play the rules as written. Entry of reinforcements will be turn dependent and the French will not be allowed to attack with more than a brigade at a time as noted above. As far as I can tell now, I will be using the Optional Rules for Officers Tactics and Casualties, Irregular Units (Hanoverian, British elite companies, 1 French légère), Half Battalion Deployed (British Guards), Superior Commander (McDonnell), Irregular Units Recovering and Engineers. The only variation in these Lasalle optional rules is that in the Engineer demolition rule, the walls around Hougoumont and the 3 gates can be demolished. The wooden gates will be treated as the equivalent of a wooden bridge so an engineer may re-roll a failed attempt. The engineering bases are attached to specific units and can only carry out a demolition task. They do not utilise their assault enhancement. They are removed if the infantry unit to which they are attached is destroyed or when they carry out a demolition task. The game will end when one side fails it's Morale test. Well, I hope, I have covered everything, we will just have to see how it goes.

Playing aids, check!

Initial Deployments, as from Adkin.

Looks like we are ready to go.............


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1er Bataillon/13ème Régiment d'Infanterie Légère

The final unit for my Hougoumont scenario, flagged as the 13e, but will do service as the 4e. Beautiful Front Rank figures, but probably a somewhat dated uniform for 1815. Lots of special figures thrown in including a drum major, sappeur, and a brightly coulored musician with a jingling johnny. The 3 carbiniers were painted by someone else, who I have now forgot!

Anyway, the Struggle for Hougoumont will commence within the hour........stayed tuned!


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Hougoumont

Well it took me about 5 weeks, but I finally got the Hougoumont complex completed. When I got tired of painting figures, I found it a nice relief to paint the Hovels 15 mm buildings. It was a pretty simple paint job, but I believe pretty effective. Probably never spent more than 10-12 hours actually working on it. I sprayed the buildings white and then used thinned acrylic paints as a medium wash. Only used 6 colours, all Citadel: Tanned Flesh, Dwarf Flesh, Fenris Grey, Charadon Granite, Knarloc Green and Gryphonne Sepia. The AP Darktone was applied, followed by a dry mat. I did touch up some of the white with a white dry brush. 

The total complex, including the formal gardens is about 63x74 cm. The actual complex with the full size formal garden was around 120x225 metres. I cut the length of the formal garden by half, historically it was more then twice the size of the walled compound. I believe this gives me a ground scale of approximately of 5 cm to 1 metre.

Looking from the southeast, you can see the barricaded south gate, as well as the "killing ground" south of the formal garden wall.

Looking from the northeast at the barricaded north gate. The northern part of the formal garden had an hedge rather than a wall.

Looking from the southwest. The complex itself was surrounded by a small forest that was actually about 3-4 times of the depth of the complex itself. There was also extensive orchards to the west of the formal gardens. These are underrepresented or not represented here. The tree stands are from Architects of War. 

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1/2nd Nassau-Usingen Light Infantry

One of the integral battalions in the defense of Hougoumont was the 1/2 Nassau Light Infantry battalion. I was looking forward to painting this unit for several reasons. First it is always nice to paint a new army and this was the first unit in the Army of the Netherlands that I have got to paint.  The other great thing about the Nassau was that they were a part of the Confederation of the Rhine earlier in the Napoleonic wars, so they can serve on either side depending on the year. Very useful indeed. I also really liked painting the Perry Hanoverian metals, they are beautifully proportioned figures and lend themselves to my technique. I went back and forth between the Front Rank and Perry, and eventually decided to go with Perry and believe I made the right choice. The only really downside was the amount of flash (which is just incredible), you chip it off before priming, and find that there is still multiple pieces to remove. It really was an endless job. Front Rank really are much better in this sense, but I do like the less robust figure.

Here is a nice print from Knötel, which well illustrates both the centre and flank company figures. I found the green a little unbelievable though (I find it hard to believe that 19th century dyes gave bright colours or were very colourfast), so I kept on looking.

I found this image in the NYPL digital gallery and it just seems more real to me, so I just to emulate this shade.

The 1/2nd Nassau was in the Netherlands order of battle in the 2nd Netherlands Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade under Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The Nassau battalions were all quite large and the 1/2nd had 889 men all told. This makes it a large Lasalle unit, requiring 6 bases. The Nassau battalions had 6 companies, 4 centre and 2 flank. The centre companies were distinguished by their shako pompon colour: Yellow, white, blue, black, numbered 1 through 4. An excellent resource is the St Jean Cent Jours website for all things Waterloo.


I decided to go with the usual white primer, followed by a thin wash of GW Catachan Green, then a drybrush (yes I do occasionally drybrush) of GW Camo Green. I did not want to go too yellow with the leather so used Vallejo Sand Yellow and used Vallejo Flat Yellow as the facing colour. A Maverick Flag linen was used for the colours, but this was heavily retouched with a bright yellow wash. I apologize for the quality of the photos, I did not use accessory lighting, so I really had to rely on photoshop to lighten up the images.

Flank companies.

Here is the command stand, I decided use a busby on Captain Büsgen, the mounted figure represents Colonel F.W. van Goedececke, chef de corps.

Well just one more battalion to paint and I am ready to run the Hougoumont scenario!!

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30,000 visits

Missed it, too intent on Hougoumont,I suppose. Almost there......24 more figures to paint!

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2ème Régiment d'Infanterie Légère

The 2ème was the largest French regiment at the Battle of Waterloo and comprised 4 battalions of 2294 men and officers. This unit and the 1ème légère made up Bauduin's brigade in Prince Jérome Bonaparte's 6th division. As we all know by now, Bauduin's brigade was the initial unit sent to attack Hougoumont. I know little of their history, their only battle honour was Friedland.

This is one of the biggest single unit painting projects that I have taken on. I only had 6 of these figures on hand when I started, and my plan required 96 figures. I have been at it, off and on for about 6 weeks. I actually timed myself and it took a little over 15 minutes to paint each figure. Each battalion is comprised of 24 figures and aside from the 1e battalion are based in close order. The 1e battalion is in skirmish order as an adjunct to the planned Hougoumont scenario. The units are based for Lasalle, but as the figure ratio is approximately 1:20, I can also use the unit for Republic to Empire.

Aside from 6 of the Voltiguers in the 1e battalion, one of the engineers and the Colonel de Régiment ( Victrix) and 1 officer (Elite) all the figures are from Perry. I decided to go with just the elites from the plastic boxes as I like the look of epaulettes. I read somewhere recently that the men in the légère battalions when getting their new uniforms, ripped the epaulettes off their old uniforms and attached them to their new ones. The regimental stand is from the Perry metal range.

I tried to be correct in my painting and aside from the drummers (should have green coatees), I believe I have been fairly accurate. Usual white base coat, with GW blue ink for the basic uniform, GW midnight Blue for the officer's uniforms and GW Fenris Grey for the overcoats. I used the AP black pigment polyurethane, applied very sparingly followed by Dullcote Matt spray.

The 4 battalions in line.

 Colonel Maigros and the regimental colours

 4e, 2e and 3e battalions

 Regimental square, if there is such a thing

Bauduin's brigade with the smaller 1er Régiment d'Infanterie Légère, also in regimental square. All Foundry figures here, previously flagged as the 25e. Represents 1852 men under colonel Amédée Louis de Cubières. If one looks carefully, Général de Brigade Bauduin (Front Rank) and can be seen taking refuge in the larger square. 

Just the 2/4e légère and the 1/2nd Nassau left........


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Progress of sorts

It has been a while since I posted, but I have been quite busy with my Hougoumont project. All the buildings and figures have been bought and are in the process of being painted. I thought I would post a few snaps of my progress.

Still playing with the OB, certainly on the French side, I will have the 6th Infantry Division (7900 men) under Prince Jerome, this is pretty well completed except for the 4e régiment de lègére, whose bases need to be terrained. I suspect, I will also use Jamin's brigade in the Foy's 9th Infantry Division (2700 men). I have these painted except the 2/4e lègére and I will have to substitute régiments étrangers (1e bat, la légion hanoverienne)  for the 3/4e. Getting a little tired of painting blue. No cavalry or artillery will be used for my first go. These will be all 24 figure units (4 base), although one of the french lègére battalions will be based in skirmish order.

The Allied forces are pretty well done, aside from the 1/2 Nassau. There will be 2 battalions of British guards (2000 men) and 1 battalion of Nassau (1000 men), these will be 34-36 figures in size. There will also be Hanoverian Light (Lueneberg) and some Kielmansegge's Jagers in skirmish order (400 men).

So 10,600 versus 3400, should be fun. Still planning to use Lasalle rules for the first run through, but also looking at the Republic to Empire rules for a second run through. With this much work, I will be doing I suspect, endless variations of the scenario with La Haie Sainte thrown in for future fun. I find the RtE rules a little tedious, but I really like the approach to skirmishers and BUA. I suspect they are the best rules to run an asymmetric battle.

Here we have the half painted Hougoumont, I decided to shorten the eastern wall. Still a bit of terraining to do, but minor stuff with the orchard and the ground within the compound.

Here are the 6th Division, minus 2 bases of the 4/2e. Their fannion is waiting to be picked up. The 1/2e are in skirmish order.

The 36 figure 1/2nd Nassau are next up.

 

Still have 8 infantry colonels to paint!

Here we have the missing figures from the 4/2e waiting for their Army Painter as well as the great barn.

Thanks for looking.


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Hovels

Second in my "plug" blogposts is my latest acquisition from Hovels in the UK. My latest project is a combined Hougoumont/La Haie Sainte scenario and for this I needed Hougoumont. I ordered it Nov 1 and received it by Airpost on November 8, 2010, which is quite good service. From the postage stamp, I could see it was sent the day after I ordered it. I had been emailing back and forth with Carol at Hovels about some details in respect to size and she was quite prompt and helpful in her responses. I do wish they had more details about size on their website, but Carol was quite helpful in providing the information. As you can see each piece comes packaged in their own little labelled bag. I have done some rooting here, but I can say that the pieces were well and safely packed. All pieces ordered were there. I had ordered extra to make up for the long wall running to the east which enclosed the orchard.

I game in 28mm, but the foot print of the 28mm Hovels version is 136x102cm (4.5x3.3ft), there is just no way I could do this on a 12x5' table except as a skirmish game, which I am not interested. I decided to go with the 15 mm version which is 54x36cm (1.8x1.2ft)

As you can see it all fits together nicely. The vertical scale is quite off, but really I think it will work nicely for my game. As you can see the model is quite detailed, there is hardly any flash, and is paintable from the box.

Time to get painting. I will use a white prime, followed by a Citadel Dwarf Flesh medium wash over the brick parts, and GW Fenris Grey medium wash over the non brick roofs, pick out the details around windows and doors using a light grey. The bases of the walls will be painted green to match the terrain. The whole complex will then get an application of the the black pigment (Darktone) AP. I am hoping it will not take too long. Colour scheme is as below (from Hovels site)

Rating: Recommend without reservation

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