Battle Report - Waterloo - Command & Colors

It was decided that I would play the French commander and victory could be achieved by winning eight victory points, by either capturing key terrain features and or eliminating allied units. 

Action starts with the French artillery bombarding the allied forward units, forcing a Dutch unit to retreat. The French cards favour an assault in the centre, although probes on the right and left allow the French to push forward on the flanks. The French guard artillery moves forward to get in range.

French advances on the right, in attempt to capture Papelotte are beaten off by Belgian Jaegers in the buildings:

 and French infantry are forced into squares by Belgian cavalry. 

The Belgian cavalry are eventually chased off, then destroyed by French guard cavalry; but Beating off the cavalry has used up all of the French action cards for that flank.

An attack builds around Hougoumont and the allies move some Dutch jaegers forward to engage French horse artillery and voltigeurs that are supporting the infantry assault - the voltigeurs are destroyed. 

The French light infantry, however, had caused casualties amongst the British defenders of the chateau and a French infantry assault finishes the job and sees Hougoumont falling into French hands, giving a total of two victory points.

Meanwhile the allies hold their ground using cards to activate the three artillery units, which cause damage to several French units.

This is followed by an allied counter attack around Hougoumont, which sees the destruction of the voltigeurs by the Dutch Jaegers and a combined assault by Brunswickers, supported by British guards puts Hougoumont back in allied hands and sees the destruction of a second French unit.

Attacks on both flanks have been thwarted and with a strong hand of cards, action in the centre is the best hope for the French. It is clear that assaulting the fortified farms is very costly, the French strategy switches to causing attrition amongst the allies – a massive assault builds in the centre.

French infantry, supported by cavalry, storm the allied centre, destroying a dutch unit and the 92^nd Highlanders, while forcing another Dutch unit to retire.

The battle ebbs and flows in the centre, and apart from a brisk cavalry action on the right, which forces a French battery to retreat, the main event stays in the centre along the allied ridge. By now the score is 6 - 4 to the French

A British counter attack, using the heavy cavalry, forces the French into squares, but fail to break the French infantry.   

Eventually the allied cavalry are beaten off and one by one the French destroy the remaining allied infantry and artillery in the centre. 

The ridge is in French hands and the demise of the last Dutch unit in the centre gives the French their 8^th victory point – enough to snatch victory. The situation at the end and the final score is 8 - 4 to the French:

Overall this was an exciting game that could have gone either way. The failure of the allied attempt to fight off the attack in the centre saw a huge hole develop in the allied line, which the French exploited.