Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle
Name: Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle
Player: Unic
Scenario: Napoleon Has Humbugged Me!
The Commander of the North Army, Maréchal Michel Ney, looked out over the field. He then looked down at his map again, and considered the possibilities. The Emperor, Napoleon, had charged him with taking three strategic locations in this area - a small village a bit to the north, a crossroads, and a road to the south to block the English from using it. There were reports of an English force, roughly equal in size to Ney's own, approaching with the goal of bringing those strategically important locations under English control.
Blue shows the French forces, red shows the English forces, and the orange crosses mark the three victory point locations.
Pondering over the map, Ney decided to aim for the two locations to the north first - the crossroads, and the village. The crossroads was closest to his troops - General Baron Blancard should be able to reach it quickly with his cavalry brigade, and then hold it until General Baron Aulard and his infantry brigade could reach it and defend the position. Meanwhile, Ney would order General Baron Schmitz and his larger and more experienced infantry brigade to march to the village. Both the village and the crossroads were in rough and defensible terrain, so once the infantry had taken position there, they should be able to defend the locations - and once these two locations were secured, Ney would see what forces were available to send south to take control over the road. There was a hill just this side of the crossroads - that would be a good initial location for his artillery, ready to support the troops trying to take control of the crossroads.
Having formed his plan, Maréchal Ney despatched messengers to his subordinate commanders, and watched his army start moving.
General Baron Blancard's cavalry brigade took control of the crossroads, as planned, while the English sent their cavalry south to take control of the road. Once it became clear that General Baron Aulard's infantry would reach the crossroads before the English infantry, Ney decided to send Blancard's cavalry south, to harass and possibly drive off the English cavalry holding the south road, before English infantry could reach them and reinforce the position. Also, as it seemed like the initial clash of forces would occur at the crossroads, Ney ordered General Baron Schmitz to come and reinforce the crossroads with half his brigade, leaving the other half to defend the village.
Blancard's cavalry succeeded in driving off the English cavalry from the south road, thus securing this location for Napoleon. However, the English had split up their cavalry - they had only sent parts of it down to the south road, while the rest of it charged the infantry defending the crossroads. The English cavalry were however under heavy fire from both Aulard's and Schmitz's infantry, as well as one of the artillery batteries, and though they forced one infantry battalion to fall back and regroup, the French line still held.
Meanwhile, Blancard's cavalry had through repeated charges routed the English cavalry near the south road - the English dogs were slinking away, tails between their legs, abandoning that area to the more experienced French cavalry.
Maréchal Ney worried when he saw the English cavalry near the crossroads change target, and instead of charging the battalion next to them, which had formed a defensive square, they turned around and charged one of Aulard's less experienced battalions which were still in the vulnerable line formation. However, before they reached their target, the fire from the French infantry and artillery became too much for them, and they too routed. Ney smiled - this was looking good - unless something unexpected happened, he believed he would be able to hold all three of the designated locations. Napoleon would be pleased with him.
The battle at the crossroads - the orange circle shows the English cavalry which has just routed.
The English pressed hard towards the crossroads though, and the French line started crumbling - three of the battalions routed, and the situation was no longer looking as good.
However, instead of continuing pressing there, the English turned northwards, towards the village and the fresh French battalions defending it. Perhaps the English commander hoped to rout the whole French line - but alas, it was folly. The battalions by the village had had time to recover from the forced march there, and easily drove off the English attack. While the English wasted time sending forces towards the village, some of the routed French battalions rallied and returned to defend the crossroads. Time was running out for the English commander!
The English didn't manage to gather their forces for a decisive attack - at the end of the battle, Maréchal Michel Ney held all the locations ordered. All glory to the Emperor, Napoleon! The French had lost 937 infantry, 283 cavalry, and 10 artillery. The English had lost 696 infantry, 534 cavalry, and 3 artillery. Although losses on both sides were roughly equal, it was the French which had managed to secure the objectives, and they had also managed to retain a better army morale, thus giving them a tactical victory.
Maréchal Ney was pleased - he had feared things would turn out much worse.
(This was my first experience with a proper scenario in 'Waterloo - Napoleon's Last Battle' - I had only played through the tutorials and read the manual before this - and having read comments in several reviews about how difficult the game was even on the easiest level, I was prepared for a loss. However, despite a bit of a muddle in the middle when most of my troops defending the crossroads routed, I managed to hold on for a tactical victory (tactical is the middle level - other results are draw, marginal victory and decisive victory). I think things would have gone worse if the English had kept pressing the attack on the crossroads though - probably still a victory for me, but only a marginal one then.)