It is June 16, 1815. Marshall Ney attacks at:
Quatre Bras
This battle report was written by Jay Stribling. John Murdaugh was the game-master for the game. We used The Sound of the Guns Napoleonic rules, adapted from Larry Brom's "Standard Rules." The troops are older "true 25mm" soldiers and they belong to Jay Stribling, Robert Whitfield, and Jim Pitts.
Photo by Ed Sansing
The initial French line of battle. The cavalry in the foreground. Ed Sansing's 9th division next, then Robert' Whitfield's division. Phil's unit is hard to see in the background.
Photo by John Murdaugh
The French commanders at the start of the game. Left to right: Ed Sansing General Foy, Jay Stribling Marshal Ney (the French Commander), Robert Whitfield Count Reille, Phil Young - Jerome Bonaparte.Still Cheerful! Marshal Ney - pointing at the battlefield - is making some trivial point.
Photo by Ed Sansing
The Dutch-Belgians as set up in the center of the table, awaiting the massive French attack.
Photo by Ed Sansing
Robert Whitfield's infantry division moving forward toward the Belgians. He had to maneuver to avoid the ponds to his right front.
Photo by Ed Sansing
The French advance from the Belgian prospective. We really did not have any Dutch-Belgian troops so we used various Prussian, Russian and even a few French to "play their parts."
Photo by Ed Sansing
General Foy's (Ed Sansing) first advance after having no movement because of poor command response on turn 1. On the second turn his units moved cautiously (with a total distance of 4 inches rolled on 3 dice). On the third turn Ed began to move up the slope and began taking THAT penalty.
However, Not all of General Foy's moves were slow. At the end of turn three, two of his units decided to fall back, and moved out smartly, about 12 inches to the rear!
Photo by Ed Sansing
The Count Reille's (Robert Whitfield) advance in the center moves more quickly.
Photo by Ed Sansing
The British reinforcements start arriving. The Highlanders and Rifles move through the village at the crossroads.
Photo by Ed Sansing
The cavalry fight on the French right flank (Jay's French cavalry and John Stangle's British). French light regiments (10th Chasseurs and 6th lancers) are on the right of the photo, two "Dutch-Belgian" regiments are on the left, shielding the broken remnants of two DB infantry battalions from the French charge.
Photo by Ed Sansing
Jim Pitts deploys the British reinforcements in the center. They have cleared the crossroads.. In the background additional troops are moving to to the British right, led by Mark Gilbert.
Photo by Ed Sansing
Some of the French cavalry reinforcements (Kellerman's III Cavalry corps) move toward the center of the French line, to back up Robert Whitfield's advance.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE REAL BATTLE?
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The battle of Quatre Bras took place during Napoleon's "Hundred Days" on June 16, 1815. After the Emperor Napoleon returned from exile on Elba, and resumed his place as leader of the French government, he led the revived French armies against the allied powers. In the spring of 1815, he struck northward into Belgium. His objective was to interpose his army be-tween the Prussian army of Field Marshal Gen. Gebhard von Blucher on the right (east) and the Anglo-Dutch army of the Duke of Wellington on the left (west). While Napoleon himself attacked Blucher at Ligny, Marshal Michael Ney led the French left wing up the Brussels road toward Quatre Bras on June 16. Ney, with 25,000 troops, drove the Anglo-Dutch army of Prince William of Orange back into the town early in the afternoon. But just when the French seemed on the verge of sweeping aside the 36,000 enemy troops, Wellington rushed up the English division of Gen. Sir Thomas Picton. The allied line stiffened. Ney, through a misunderstanding with Napoleon, failed to use the French 1st Corps on his right and thus threw away his chance of winning a decisive victory. Darkness halted the fighting with the French suf-fering 4,300 casualties, the allies 4,700. On the next morning (June 17, 1815) Wellington pulled back his army toward Waterloo, where, on June 18th, the climactic battle of the campaign was fought. |
Photo by Ed Sansing
Some of those heavy regiments move to join in the fight on the French right. In the background you can see the newly formed British line.
Photo by Ed Sansing
A better view of that British line.
Photo by Ed Sansing
French cavalry hits the British center.
Photo by Ed Sansing
Ed Sansing's division finally gets into the action.
Photo by Ed Sansing
The remnants of the French cavalry on the right. After chasing off the British cavalry it attacked the infantry squares. It should not have done this - but Ney insisted personally. Foolish man!
You can see the left flank of the British line, at the top of the photo, anchored "on the edge of the world."
Photo by John Murdaugh
The French commander Marshall Ney (Jay Stribling), later in the game - Despondent! He is worried at having to explain his actions to the Emperor. Ed Sansing (standing) tries to cheer Ney on.
SO - WHO WON THE BATTLE?
The Allies won the battle. The French commander, Ney (Jay Stribling) complained repeatedly that his French were losing and why didn't the game-master just call the game. At about 3pm, when John Murdaugh did just that, Ney was amazed to find that he had more "victory dice" than the allies did, even though the French had not been able to take Quatre Bras village itself.
But then the dreaded "Stribling Luck" came into play, and in spite of having more dice, when they were rolled, "Ney" had less victory points! Cest la Guerre!
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