The Wargaming Column: Waterloo Campaign PBM

The The Wargaming Column:

Waterloo Campaign PBM

by Ian Barstow

Napoleonic Association Play by Mail Game 1996.

"Not A Very Likely Contingency In Belgium."

It was the first of June, 1815. The Duke of Wellington had received information that Napoleon, currently sunning himself in Paris, intended to cause mayhem in Belgium. The duke looked across a dining room table to where his erstwhile ally, Marshal Blucher, was doing his best not to pass wind whilst informing anybody who cared to listen that he was pregnant.

So, dear readers, opened the Napoleonic Association's 1996 play-by-mail campaign based on the events of 1815, which most of you will be passably familiar with. Yours truly, as umpire, had decided to let the 13 players involved have a completely free hand, informed only that in September at some point the rest of Europe was going to arrive and muck in. For both sides this meant rapid activity. For Napoleon, time was precious. His task - to defeat the British and Prussians (plus a few Dutch-Belgians) before the area took on the look of a visiting Barbarians rugby tour. As for the Duke and the pregnant Marshal, each wanted the glory of putting down the Ogre.

Before we go further let me introduce the players. Some will be delighted to be seen in print, for they did well. Others will probably be cringing. A few may be looking up their solicitor in their filofax.

THE FRENCH

THE ALLIES

A motley bunch indeed. These good and true chaps were given a breakdown of their forces, accurate(ish) as they were on that date so long ago. Armed with these and their victory conditions, I let them off the leash. For those of an interest their initial depots were as follows.

INITIAL DEPOTS. French.

Napoleon - Paris; Ney - St. Quentin; Grouchy - Nancy; Vandamme - Charlesville; Gerard - Luxembourg; Lobau - Valenciennes.

INITIAL DEPOTS. Allies. Wellington - Brussels; Orange - Charleroi; Hill - Halle; Frederick - Gent; Blucher - Namur; Ziethen - Wavre; Buelow - Lille

FRENCH OBJECTIVES. 'You must take Brussels at all costs by the 1st of September. Secret negotiations with other Allied powers have bought you time. Unfortunately it will not last. Substantive victories over both Prussians and British are required to put fear into the hearts of the others. It would also be politically disastrous for any major French cities to be occupied. Your information is that the British are relaxing about Brussels whilst Blucher is concentrated at Wavre.'

ALLIED OBJECTIVES. 'By the end of September your allies will be here to help you out. More than enough Russians to put Boney in his place. You must attempt to hold Belgium at all costs and avoid a humiliating defeat in the field. The capture of a French town or two would be nice but should be considered a luxury. All your agents report Napoleon to still be in Paris preparing his troops. This gives you some breathing space to co-ordinate a plan with your allies and deploy your troops.'

Opening Moves

Napoleon opened up by sending frenzied directives to everybody instructing them to force march for the border. Clearly he wanted an early strike. The Prussians, meanwhile, decided that where they were seemed pretty sound, and apart from gingerly sending forward a few scouts, sat back and waited for Napoleon, whilst watching the Duke of Wellington's manoeuvres with varying degrees of interest.

It should be pointed out that the players were allowed unlimited contact with their own side (not in fact knowing who the enemy were) by any chosen means. Clearly Napoleon himself never had access to phone or fax, but being as he had hundreds of staff to help out I figured this evened up. Anyway, the point of the game was to test generalship, and high on that definition list is co-operation.

Indeed, the amount of co-operation, or rather the lack of it, was crucial to the result of the game, but I jump ahead of myself,

It appeared that both the British and the French commands had a rather large interest in the Valenciennes region, and almost at once the Prince of Orange began moving his troops tenderly in that direction, supported rather more vigorously by Hill and Prince Frederick. On the French side, Ney had decided that Napoleon had gone off his trolley and steadfastly refused to force march for no good reason. Instead he began a concentration of his forces which was to have a telling effect. Lobau, himself based at Valenciennes, was having a wail of a time. So good that he was out of touch for 6 days! How the Emperor cursed when it was discovered that a new and demanding mistress was the cause of his absence. Mind you, at least Lobau was doing something. Marshal Grouchy, with Exelmans cavalry corps in tow, proceeded north to Luxembourg and there camped up, also ignoring the Emperor's forced march policy. Actually, Grouchy pretty much began ignoring everything, deciding in his infinite wisdom to get wrecked in Luxembourg and let Ney do the hard work.

Gerard opened with a monumental list of instructions more familiar to D-Day veterans, and set his troops on the move. Then for some unknown reason he decided that enough was enough and pulled up to a halt. The only French troops actually fully obeying orders were the guard, who had little option, being as they were under Napoleon's eye. They set of towards Valenciennes from Paris at high speed, and within days the Young Guard were reporting their biggest straggling losses since Russia. Napoleon was unmoved.

This is a Campaign?

I must confess that I had envisaged a far different campaign, and initially had thrown a few spanners in the works for good measure. A rumour was spread amongst the French that Lobau had actually deserted. This got to Prussian ears and they actually began attempts to bring him across, so to speak. Also coming to Prussian ears was news that two dukes had fallen out big time. Namely, Wellington and Brunswick. The latter, clearly an early relative of Peter Hofschroer had decided that he wasn't going to take any nonsense from a bloody Englishman. The Prussians decided that he too could be offered a home. Brunswick misread Blucher's offer to be an attempt by Prussia to seize his beloved duchy, and he threatened to head for home forthwith. The only person not to make overtures to Brunswick was Napoleon, who was too busy sending out force march reminders to his negligent subordinates. His order to Grouchy being different: namely, to remain at Sedan!

Finally on the 6th of June, Lobau got out of bed and decided to march north from Valenciennes. His mistress was heartbroken, and promptly promised to write every day. If she'd seen the state of his greatcoat she might not have bothered.

Prussian Subordinates

The Prussians meanwhile were having slight difficulties with subordinates. It seemed that unless they were all asked nicely, they wouldn't do anything. When suggestions were made that the Brigade structure be amended, with ideas like artillery directly attached to Infantry Brigades, there was practically industrial action. Threats of letters to the king and not speaking at dinner were too much for Blucher, who had himself arrested and then released on bail to cool things off. He then effected a few troop movements, to keep everybody alert. Having decided to all apparently rotate positions, the Prussian corps began field manoeuvres, apparently unconcerned about Grouchy. Obviously they had spies in Luxembourg. A letter to Wellington from Blucher dated 11th June was more interesting. I quote: 'We have a problem. The Duke of Brunswick seems to be thinking of defecting to the French...I find this hard to comprehend...I leave it to you to deal with him.'

Wellington and his subordinates were all far too busy. Gordon's Horse, a brigade created from amongst the cavalry reserve, was at one stage theoretically commanded by all three corps! The effect being that Colonel Alexander Gordon galloped around the Brussels area like some sort of Victorian Musical Ride. Frederick took the time to write to Brunswick: 'I beg you not to let the brash attitude of this upstart Englishman distract you from....our cause. We can settle with Wellington [later].'

Daddy Hill seemed to be the only allied general keen on getting stuck in. He ordered a full advance on Valenciennes, and on June 12th during a foggy night passed Lobau going the other way.

By the 15th, Ney had concentrated at St Quentin, and apart from Lobau he had the whole left wing with him. He decided to advance on Valenciennes. In that town, General Hill had been met warmly by the mayor, and coldly by the mayor's wife. Yes, you guessed it. She promptly sent a hurried letter, written on a pair of her unwashed silk drawers, warning Lobau that the enemy were in his rear. The mayor did mention to Hill that there had been Frenchies in the town, but that they had now gone.

Closing Letter...and Battle

What follows is an abridgement of the closing letter which the players received at the end of the campaign.

'Obviously you are all eager to know what has happened. What turned out to be the only battle of this strange campaign occurred at Valenciennes on June 16th. Lord Hill's British II Corps, having seized the town and undoubtedly expecting reinforcements in the shape of the Prince of Orange were attacked by the entire French left wing commanded in person by Marshal Ney. Lord Hill, realising his impending problems decided to immediately withdraw back towards the Prince of Orange. However, instead of that Prince he inadvertently found another, namely Prince Frederick, riding ahead of his corps with de Collaert's Dutch-Belgian Cavalry Division, in the belief that there were no French troops in the vicinity.

Made aware of the enemy, the two commanders continued their withdrawal, only to find that Lobau's Corps had crossed their lines of communication. They were obliged to turn and fight.

Sadly they would have been better remaining at Valenciennes and defending the town, for the terrain three miles down the road was flat and not suitable for defence against superior numbers.

Lord Hill assumed command of the Allied forces, and Prince Frederick agreed to personally command the cavalry. The Allied troops numbered 14000 infantry and 4000 cavalry, together with 32 guns. Against this force Ney commanded 38000 infantry, 12000 cavalry and 120 guns. In addition coming against the Allied rear was Lobau's 9000 men and 32 guns.

Flat Terrain

Seeing the relatively flat terrain Ney proceeded to form a huge grand battery which first wrecked the Allied guns and then mercilessly fired on the exposed British infantry. These troops held superbly until the arrival of Lobau's columns, when Halkett's Hanoverians promptly threw down their weapons and surrendered.

At this moment Ney chose to throw in his main infantry assault. As the columns rumbled forward Lord Hill was brought the terrible news that Prince Frederick had been killed leading his cavalry against the grand battery in a bold attempt to silence it. Caught in the flank by Milhaud's cuirassiers the Dutch-Belgian horsemen were shattered, leaving de Collaert a prisoner and his prince dead.

The first French columns from d'Erlon's I Corps received rough treatment at first from Clinton and Colville, but the deployment of Kellerman's horse artillery began to play havoc on the redcoats, and when Kellerman brought up his cavalry they were obliged to form square. Surrounded, and with no hope of escape, Lord Hill was obliged to surrender.

When the news of Valenciennes reached Wellington it was bad enough, but worse was in its wake. Riding to the sound of the guns of Valenciennes, the dilatory Prince of Orange blundered into Lobau's troops and was captured without a shot being fired. His advanced troops, being Dutch-Belgians, promptly shouted 'Vive l'Empereur!' and changed sides. This news forced the British contingent of I Corps to withdraw at once for Hal.

Wellington was surrounded by problems. He had, from the first, been beset by difficulties with the Duke of Brunswick, who had been convinced by French agents that the British intended to sell him out to the Prussians. The subsequent fiasco had left the Duke (innocent, history should remember) wondering who he could trust. Finally, hearing that the Prussians had suggested that he might be arrested, Brunswick left his camp fires burning the night after Valenciennes and marched for home.

On June 19th Wellington was formally asked to leave Brussels in particular and Belgium in general forthwith. The Dutch-Belgian royal family put the blame for the effective annihilation of a whole generation firmly on Wellington's head, and the country itself had no stomach to face Napoleon. With 12000 British infantry lost, his best corps commander and Brunswick deserted, he had little option. Co-operation between himself and Blucher had been minimal from the beginning and he was unable to rely on the Prussians coming to his aid. Furthermore, the news that Austria had signed an independent peace with Napoleon following the capitulation of the Dutch-Belgians. This in turn slowed up the Russians who decided to open up communications with the French. Blucher in turn, realising that Gneisenau had been right all along about the British made for home, swearing to defend the borders of the Fatherland should ANYBODY come near them. Hearing of this threat, the Russian army nearing Berlin turned about and headed for Tilsit.

War Over

The war was over. Napoleon had returned...

So there you have it. Nothing went as I had planned, and the game took on a life of its own which I was unable to influence. No blame will be cast by the umpire. I leave you readers to do that!

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