During the Napoleonic Wars one of the historic developments was the invention of the Impulse System. The French were the masters of the system that led to historic victories against the Prussians and Austrians in the 1805 and 1806 campaigns.

The first 6mm Valmy Battle...Cool Stuff!

The Impulse System allows the divisions and corps to fight in more than one direction, deploy columns of waiting, deceive their opponents with deployed formations and then easily redeploy out of them into columns and move to another position. These are the finer points that From Valmy to Waterloo bring to the Napoleonic wargamer.

At the November Game Day we played a Valmy game pitting the British against the French in 1815. The troops used were 6mm. The battle required the British, consisting of a Guard, Highlander, and regular division supported by some Hanoverians, to defend five objectives for 12 turns.

The French attack consisted of 2 infantry divisions and a cavalry division. The Brits decided to set up covering only 3 of the objectives. Caesar's Guard division held the first objective, Ray's division defended the middle covering the bridge, and John Burke deployed holding the town and facing a hill.

The French decided to pin the Guard division with an infantry division. One brigade of French cavalry went North to attack the British artillery, which had been deployed with insufficient support. The main French attack was towards the bridge, supported by the rest of the cavalry and a 12 # battery. On turn one the French cavalry went into skirmish and charged the two British artillery batteries facing the attack. In the North Phil succeeded in eliminating the battery, opening the door for John Lesko's assault on the Guard. In the South Charlie chased off the artillery then was lucky enough to catch a British battalion that failed to go into square.

The next three turns the infantry raced to close with the enemy. The French gleefully deployed their 12-pounder battery near the bridge and began tearing up John's defenders. By turn seven the battle between John Lesko and Caesar was a static fight. Phil's cavalry was neutralized by the presence of the Guard Division. The battle for the bridge was very bloody. Acting on orders from he Prince of Orange (Matt), John Burke charged into the flank of Robbie's French division, forcing him to re-deploy. Rob sent a brigade to face John while a second attacked Ray. On turn eight John's British division began to break up and a turn later it was in a headlong flight to the rear. The French managed to seize 4 objectives, a clear victory.