Last question, Issue #6 by Tom Devoe on the movie Waterloo...I have seen the movie Waterloo once and to me it's pure horse manure (I was going to use an other word). It is a shame to spend 25 million dollars and come up with such an abortion of the reality! Tom listed a long list of things that were not right. They are not the only ones unfortunately. One of the most flagrant and unacceptable mistakes is on artillery fire. Every time a cannon fires you ear the noise and the shell bursting. We all know that only howitzer shells were exploding in the Napoleonic period with quite a few duds on top of that! So to me the impression given is just a complete misrepresentation of the facts. However, few things are right...The British have red coats, the Scotch Greys white horses, the French blue coats and tricolor flags. So what more do you want? We all know that facts are constantly distorted in history books etc, so why not in a movie? Furthermore, I don't think that the majority of the people are interested in the truth anyway. The Hollywood "Dream Factory Concept" is far from dead, and I think the people like to be fed with what they are accustomed to. Napoleon is represented as a sick neurotic man in the movie. He was not sick, was cleanly shaved, had breakfast with his staff before the battle and was well rested. He was perfectly conscious of what was going on. So, it is another misrepresentation. I am not aware of squadrons being broken up at Waterloo or any other battles just to furnish Couriers etc. Usually A.D.C. were used for that purpose. They wore very fancy uniforms (see the Funkens books on that matter). That could explain why the movie shows carabiniers, chasseurs a cheval de la Gard used as couriers etc. In my opinion it is only one more distortion of the truth. 2nd Question. On the Value of Cannoniers Garde Cotes, Cannoniers Sedentaires All the above were part of the French artillery. On the top of that they were also trained as infantry since their duty was also to man and defend the coastal batteries. They were also trained to operate in single autonomeous companies. We should give them the light infantry rating for morale which is a basic 6 (same as artillery). The purchasing value should be 1.5 points perman. A company of 6 men wouod have a value of 9 points. The melee value should be also 1.2 points identical to the light infantry. Another possibility would be to rate them as grenadiers with a purchasing value of 1.75 points and a melee value of 1.5 points but, I think that is pushing a little too far. Anyhow the same value should be applied also to the Artillerists of the Navy Regiments of 1814 which had the same training and possibilities. To be complete all the above men can man guns and howitzers. Important. The above suggested purchasing and melee values are for gunless companies purchased separately. If purchased with guns they follow the purchasing values of Rule 1.10. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 7 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Jean Lochet This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com