Monday, April 20, 2015

100 Days Campaign Action at Placenoit

Here's few pictures from our game on April 17th.  This is the Blucher system with each card (3*1.5") representing a brigade.  A British reinforced division was based in Placenoit with Prussian corps to their left and right, and a French force entering from the south at Genappe.  I am assuming most readers have access to a Waterloo map and some knowledge of the terrain, but Mt St Jean is to the North behind the British position.

The action takes place late in the day on June 16th, 1815.  In history, June 16th saw Ney attack Wellington at Quatre Bras (off table to the south) and Napoleon beat Blucher at Ligney (well to the south east).

Initial Deployment from the French (south) side.  Back of cards show facing and nationality, faces show unit and attributes.


Here we see French forces advancing.  Units are revealed when they move, fire, suffer from fire or get close enough the enemies.  
The Martian tripod lander is Curt's iPhone allowing Napoleon (based 600km east in Winterpeg) to view the action.  This is approaching the limit on maximum geekiness!


Here we see another Prussian Corp advancing on table.  Gamers (l to r), Dan, Curt, Sylvain, fat dude who needs to bike more.
Action towards the end of the day.  French attack on our left has petered out, although it never really took off.  British hold the centre, while Prussians decide to launch a counter attack on the right.
I came back from a bathroom break to find that my Prussian allies and decided that "Let's hold this position and stall for time" meant "Let's launch a counteract and leave our self open to getting swept off table".  The sight prompted the classic British question to continental allies "What the hell do you think you're doing?".

5 comments:

  1. Very interesting, thank you. While I've heard about this particular gaming system, I've never seen any photos of it in use. Is it possible to replace the cards with actual figures? My guess is one could.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. Stokes
      Absolutely! Curt has some starter armies using 6mm troops and even some with 3mm figures. But any figure scale can be used. All movements and ranges are in base widths, which is 3" with the cards. If you gave the room there is no reason why you couldn't use 25s or 30s on 6-12" bases.

      Typically, I am not a big fan of the micro scales. However when used to represent brigade formations the effect is absolutely stunning.

      I give any of Sam Mustafa's products a big two thumbs up! You might want to have a look at "Maurice" for imaginations gaming.
      Cheers,
      PD

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    2. As Napoleon said, it's better to fight against allies than to fight with them. I think your last comment in this post proves that. :)
      I've just started a game of Blucher using 6mm figures - it's interesting to see the difference in layout between cards and figures: http://madpadrewargames.blogspot.ca/2015/04/first-game-of-blucher-setting-up.html
      I had to laugh at your third caption, since I acquired a "thesis profile" this winter and am anxiously trying to work it off. I think it's a losing battle as middle age consolidates its beachhead and moves out.
      Cheers,
      Michael

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  2. Nice summary Peter. Now, on to the next battle...

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