Hougomont in Napoleon at War

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a Waterloo refight at Haven Gaming in Salem. Well, due to some confusion in the arrangements, it turned out to be separate refights of Hougomont and Ney's cavalry charge on separate tables. I took command of the French light infantry assaulting the British position at Hougomont.

The game was Napoleon At War, my first time playing it, and this scenario was drawn from the Hundred Days supplement. We used plastic 1/72 figures from several manufacturers, I think. (I painted one battalion for the organizers, and my take away is that I'm fine with the scale but detest the soft plastic material.)

French light infantry deployed in attack column in the foreground.

We deployed as we chose, French first. The British deployed with one battalion holding the farmhouse, the Nassau battalion holding the wall, and another battalion to their left in the woods. (The treeline in the photo above represents the edge of the woods, which extend back to the British table edge.) I deployed my six battalions with three in attack column to move up to the Hougomont, two on the right flank in line to prevent any outflanking, and one just behind in attack column to act as a reserve.

French advance. Leftmost battalion has taken the house.

The first two turns went swimmingly for the French; the leftmost battalion performed valiantly and stormed the farmhouse, destroying the occupying British battalion. In the center, I advanced more cautiously; on the right, advanced to exchange fire with the Allied troops in the woods.

Same table state as above, different view.

British reserves trickled on throughout the game, but did not get into action until turn five and six.

Turn four...

By turn four, the French light infantry had two battalions, one at full strength, occupying the farmhouse. An initial assault on the Nassau troops behind the wall had failed, but they now faced three battalions in attack column. Meanwhile, the battalion on the right had inflicted a nasty blow to their opponents, who had fallen back in good order, and took up position behind the wall.

Battle's end.

At last the line infantry came up from the French reserve. The three battalions opposing the Nassau troops assaulted, but the Nassau troops held the wall and nearly destroyed their attackers. In the farm compound, one Landwehr battalion was able to move into position to assault the French defenders... but they got cold feet at the last moment and the assault faltered.

The final result: a reversal of history, as the French gained a foothold in Hougomont from which they could not be dislodged.

As to the game, I found it rather nice. It played quickly; with both the French and British commanders completely new to the rules, we finished the game in about two hours (with considerable help from two experienced players acting as referees). It's been said that Napoleon at War is "Flames of War: Napoleonics" and that really rings true. It plays faster than FoW, though, and seems less fiddly. I liked it, though I thought the basing was maybe not to my taste.

Congrats and thanks to Oliver and the Wargames Oregon crew for setting this up and running it, and thanks to Haven Games for hosting it.