A deliberately tongue-in-cheek title for a blog dedicated to the Napoleonic era, from the point of view of a Napoleonic history 'buff' and wargamer. "Reddition d'Ulm, 20 octobre 1805" from Wikimedia Commons
Trauma, Stress and Liebertwolkwitz as it couldabeen
[This is a long one, so you may wish to skip the rant and background and go directly to the piccies of the game].
Trauma
There are scenes from that travesty of a fil-um Napoleon on you toobe. After he had suffered through it at the cinema, John said that I'd be traumatised if I saw it. How right that assessment.
Where do you begin with your objections and criticism? I know, from the beginning of each scene until the end.
• N and a few mates marching in a long column.
• Curses! They are cleverly ambushed by some Cossacks with their mortars, doing their best impression of Wes Studi and co. from the 1992 fil-um version of Last of the Mohicans (which messed badly with the book, but is still a most watchable film).
• Naturally you send the heavy cavalry and Guard cav. into the woods to get 'em. It worked for Maximus in Gladiator after all...
• Silly fools, walked straight into a trap and were slaughtered, their bodies strung to the trees, guerrilla war-style; a doff to the Peninsular perhaps?
• Cut to N, in his uniform as a General of the French Republic, leading the famous cavalry charge at Borodino against the Russian guns and infantry (sans redoute).
All completely accurate, sans doute, 'cause Sir Ridley has said it is.
The 600 000-strong French-allied army crossing the Niemen.
Cossacks attack with mortars.
Ambush of Guard and cuirassiers sent to deal with the Cossacks.
Napoleon charging at Borodino. Note sword in left hand.
By contrast, the French-allied army crossing the Niemen, June 1812 from Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace. How good does that look?!
Then, at Waterloo, we begin with some British squares with French cuirassiers swirling around which looks pretty good and a bit of a doffing to Bondarchuk's Waterloo, perhaps? We then see N revving up some line infantry, while the cuirassiers are driven back in disorder to the French lines. The British Guards form a beautiful line, which N directs his infantry to attack while he himself issues the famous order, "Prepare to charge. Charge!" The French infantry line marches towards the aforementioned British before launching into a wild charge, which the British meet with a volley and then counter-charge. Meanwhile N is coming in fast with the cavalry. In response to a request from Uxbridge(?), Wellington issues his famous "Cavalry advance!" order and the Household cavalry walk, then trot, then charge away from the British infantry line on the ridge, behind the redoubt, towards the mêlée. Meanwhile N and his cavalry in the thick of the combat between the French troops and the British guards. Observing N through his telescope, from his position on the ridge, Wellington issues his famous line "No. He can't help himself", before he is alerted by a cry of "Sir! Blucher." Looking to his right he sees a line of Prussian cavalry streaming towards the mêlée and sighs as he says "Thank God." Alarm is sound in the French ranks. N turns, sees the Prussians and then turns his mount to ride off. Fortunately, turning his head just in time to avoid the sniper of the 95th, equipped with telescopic sight, who fires at the defeated Emperor, only to blow a hole in the famous cocked hat. A fellow with side-burns and distinctive Murat looking dark hair issues Ney's line "Come, see how a Marshal of France dies!" The bloody, wild mêlée of infantry and cavalry continues as the Prussian cavalry charge into the French left. The fleeing Napoleon turns his horse and looks towards Wellington, stares for a moment, before saluting him with his sword. "The battle is mine," says the Duke. "There will be an end to the war."
Stills of the scenes from the Waterloo sequence. Note right handed Napoleon.
It gets worse and worse the more pieces of the puzzle that I see.
Telling John about my viewing of the scenes he advised:
I strongly recommend not attempting to view any more scenes unsupervised. Perhaps, someday, we shall fortify our constitutions with a suitable quantity of beverage and approach it as we might a Monty Python film, even though the Python's are far more historically accurate.
Of course a fil-um is art and not meant to be a cinematic version of an historical text.
Bondarchuk's 1970 Waterloo was an anti-war film which left the audience in no doubt, while presenting a watchable version of the Battle of Waterloo, despite (naturally) still being filled with inaccuracies to the eye of the 'specialist' and having a script that comprised of a series of memorable and enjoyable one-liners that may or may not have ever been uttered over the period of 1796–1815.
Given that, what is this film-maker trying to show to the audience? I can only guess, piecing together the 33 minutes that I have now seen—despite John's wise counsel, I watched the scenes incorporating the siege of Toulon, Coronation and Austerlitz—along with the previously viewed trailers and a few summaries and critiques.
Strangely the sniper shot striking N's hat was the best bit of those 33 minutes of my life that I will not get back. I see it as a fine piece of cinematic symbolism. The English fought against the monstrous 'ogre', to maintain the balance of power in Europe, in line with their national interest. They, along with continental allies, illustrated by the inclusion of Austrian, Russian and Prussian armies on fields of battle shown in the film, won. Yet they could not destroy the legacy and legend of *that* hat, despite sniping at it then and ever since...
What of those largely mystifyingly or hysterically inaccurate battle scenes?
I reckon that Scott realised that he did not have the resources (budget, cinematic time and extras) to produce anything close to Bondarchuk's War and Peace or Waterloo, nor did he wish to simply produce a 21st C version of those classic series/films, so he took a completely different approach.
*Different* is an understatement, but bear with me. N is almost universally accepted to be a military 'genius', or at least grand master of the military 'art'. Scott therefore decided to demonstrate this in a series of allegories and to depict Napoleon as a 'warrior', using scenes recognisable to those from various well-known films that have gone before. Hence we have a bit of Gladiator, Last of the Mohicans, Alexander, Braveheart, Gallipoli, El Cid, The Alamo, Glory, and no doubt others. N is demonstrated as a soldier, general and military strategist across time and space.
I may not be 'on the money' with this, but I reckon I am getting close. Else, Scott's intention was to stick up two fingers to the legion of devotees of the period, whether pro-, anti-, neutral or even nuanced towards the central figure.
Either way, it is artistic licence in spades. Anything that we do on the tabletop will be a more accurate representation. Mind you, I am keen to employ the tactic of a line of infantry supported by a cavalry charge. I will make a figure of N charging on horseback for the purpose.
Stress
I look forward to summer all year and love the hot weather, but it has been a particularly warm one this year. This was especially the case in February when we had three weeks with most days above 37ºC, each with three days in a row between 42ºC and around 47ºC.
Bureau of meteorology records for the York weather station for December 2023 to February 2024
Maximum temperature on our verandah on 8th February. We get 1–2 degrees hotter than the Bureau's York weather station.
This was changing at the end of the week/over the weekend and, by the time I reached Albany on Friday, the cool change had come through and I was looking for a third layer of clothing. Once I got back home mid-morning on Sunday it had reached here too, so I was freezing as the metaphoric mercury climbed to a mere 22ºC.
Cold, cold change
A cool week is forecast for this week with temperatures of only 29 to 33ºC. A bit cool for my liking, but the change is nice and it's heaps more comfortable for our animals. In addition, 'twas great to receive 12 mm of gentle, soaking rain, our first for the year (not unusual) and the only rain since a few millimetres in early November and a sharp, sudden end to the season in mid-September 2023.
Liebertwolkwitz as it couldabeen
Albany was the destination for the long-planned game of Liebertwolkwitz with the Serpentine Group. The weather was a large contributing factor to me, yet again, failing to completely finish painting the figures that I had agreed to bring to the game. That, along with working more than expected, 'commitments' to watch several speedway meetings and not switching rapidly enough to simply painting the actual, limited number of figures that I needed to bring to the game. #Sigh#.
When I got there, I 'sheepishly' pulled them out of the box in which I had transported them, but John and Mitch were really happy that I had brought them, along with some commanders. John even said that, "They are a fine looking body of Polish horse", which made me feel so great. Particularly since they pale against the masterpieces that he and Mitch paint. What a wonderful fella he is!
As always, John and Mitch had provided the vast majority of the figures and planned and set up a magnificent looking game. I, along with four others—Steve R, Steve W and Simon (who had been players at the previous games of Quatre Bras and Salamanca) and Rob (returning member to the group)—were able to simply 'waltz in', open a bev'y, assign commands, make our plans and enjoy the game!
Preparing for action.
Before I move to my report of the game, what was the Battle of Liebertwolkwitz? The entry from David Chandler's Dictionary of The Napoleonic Wars provides a simple, clear summary as he was so adept at doing:
Liebertwolkwitz, action of, 14 October 1813. As the Allied forces converged upon Leipzig, Murat, commanding 32 400 infantry, 9 800 cavalry, and 156 guns (the II, V and VIII Corps and two cavalry corps) engaged the advance guard of the Army of Bohemia to the south of the city. The morning passed in a fluctuating cavalry fight around Wachau and Markleeberg, but at 2:00 P.M. General Klenau attacked Liebertwolkwitz and captured the whole town save the church. That night the Allies evacuated the town. The action thus ended inconclusively, but it is regarded as the greatest cavalry contest of the campaign.
And, indeed of the Napoleonic Wars.
Liebertwolkwitz – Situation at 1130 Hours: October 14, 1813
The version of battle for the game was taken directly from the Age of Eagles scenario book and is a 'what if' in which all the available troops from both sides take part. Rob, Simon and I were the French-allied side, while John, Steve W. and Steve R. took the Allies. Mitch umpired and enjoyed the 'show'.
The French-allied set-up was largely determined, although we could re-arrange units and occupy the near-by towns.
Right of the French-Allied line, Victor's corps deployed (he is just visible near top left). Cröbern in foreground. Poniatowski's Poles are out of picture further to the left (north-west).
French-Allied right showing Pajol's V Cavalry Corps with Wachau at top left of picture.
The left flank of the lead elements of the Allied army that have moved to the table's edge (Cröbern in foreground). The area of the scenario map represented on the table had needed to be reduced to account for the larger scale of the game/figures.
Two close-ups of the Allied army showing Mitch's Prussian cuirassiers (3D prints and Minifigs) with John's Allied high command behind (above) and Klux's Prussian infantry of Kleist's II Corps (below) that had taken losses from defensive fire.
Close-up of French-Allied left with infantry occupying Liebertwolkwitz just visible at the centre-right. Murat (a figure that I painted in the early '80s) can just be discerned near the top left of the photo. I was just a bit excited to see him on a table again.
Overview of the table from the east. Note the wooded area in the distance occupying most of the western edge. We were concerned as it presented excellent terrain for those Cossack mortars.
Same view taken from behind the French-Allied left rear.
Overview of the French-allied line from the west. Markkleeberg in foreground.
The great cavalry battle begins. It was first blood to the Peninsular veterans.
Defeated Prussian dragoons just visible in the distance.
A breakthrough onto the Russian hussars,
...saw Milhaud's men driven back without significant loss. This was to be the order of the game. With a set of rules in which the random factor dominates, Rob's generally good rolling was matched by Steve W's poor die rolls so that the French cavalry were able to gain good victories and limited defeats.
The Prince Eugen's Russians attacked Brun's brigade of Dubreton's 4th Division of Victor's Corps in Wachau,
...but were driven back with some loss.
The great cavalry battle continued.
Rudiger's Prussian heavies headed straight for Albert's artillery of Lauriston's V Corps,
...the latter being fortunate, limbering and retiring behind infantry support (retire result in the mêlée).
Meanwhile, Milhaud's dragoons were taking on all-comers.
At the western end of the table, Steve advanced Kleist's corps steadily,
...while I occupied Markkleeberg with Poniatowski's Poles. Poniatowski had acceded to Murat's request for reinforcements and sent off Krutowski's brigade of uhlans.
Another attack on Wachau was similarly repulsed.
Milhaud's dragoons faced a brigade of Duka's Russian cuirassiers,
... coming off pretty even in the fight.
Artillery fire did what the infantry attacks had not achieved, forcing Brun's brigade out of Wachau.
But, having the initiative, the French were able to re-occupy it.
It was not Cossacks with mortars in the western woods, but a heap of Prussians, in the form of Ziethen's 11th Division.
French reinforcements had arrived as well. Augereau's infantry were sent to support the left (eastern flank), while Pacthod's Young Guard division supported Victor's troops.
Milhaud's dragoons continued on their merry romp.
Surbervie's chasseurs joined in.
Lauriston's artillery finished off Gudowich's cuirassiers.
[We can have explosions from cannon balls, just like the fil-ums.]
Perhaps the tide was turning, as Eugen's men took half of Wachau.
Only to be ejected by a French counter-attack.
Those dragoons were getting bolder and bolder (they were eventually to go too far and be broken by artillery fire).
Surbervie's men got a bit carried away,
...and were lucky to come off with a draw.
The Young Guard (heavily disguised as Middle) were ejected from Wachau.
Considering attack the best form of defence, I sent in Uminski and Tolinski's brigades against Ziethen's troops.
Tolinski's 1st Chasseurs and 3rd Uhlans, with Krutowski's brigade in the distance (fortunately it had been recently returned by the King of Naples).
Uminski's men came off decidedly second best,
...retreating to the rear with half of their saddles emptied.
Krutowski was far more successful,
...forming a guard of the right flank.
Seeing his opportunity, Pirch attacked and took Markkleeberg, eliminating Gabrowski's infantry.
Breaking through and pushing back Malachow's infantry.
Steve's best turn of the game (and his only bit of reasonable die rolls) had the French-allied left looking a bit ordinary.
It did not last. A follow-up attack against Malachow was defeated. The attempted charge by the landwehr against those limbered guns at the bottom right of the photo failed due to a poor manoeuvre roll.
Then, this attack on the Vistula legion was blown away, thanks to a timely '10' for the die roll for defensive fire.
Taking advantage, Tolinski and Krutowski's brigades charged.
Both victorious this time.
Tolinski's men breaking through and finishing off the Silesian uhlans.
Back in the centre, the great cavalry battle had petered out.
Help was arriving for the Allies in the form of Klenau's IV Corps.
Back in the west, the guns that had been largely ineffective to date, suddenly had some deadly effect (mainly in favour of the Poles).
Malachow's infantry was reduced to 'spent' in one whiff of cannon and musketry.
The 9th Landwehr paid dearly for failing to move as ordered.
The 7th Reserve suffered from effective fire as well.
As did Pirch's artillery.
The French allied troops launched general attacks around and west of Wachau, with great success.
Their successful attack (breaking two units of landwehr) leaving their flank 'hanging in the air', the Vistula Legion were fortunate to escape from subsequent artillery fire with only one base lost.
Eugen's Russians had withdrawn south of Wachau and were forced back further.
A counter-attack by one of the Russian's fresh brigades forced back Bertrand's brigade, with little loss to either side.
By now, the great cavalry battle had ceased.
Only Klenau's Austrians remained for the Allies as an effective (and completely fresh) attacking force.
This brought us to the end of eight lively turns (particularly turns 2–8) and of the game since four of the six players had to leave. We remaining two were too fatigued to pick up from the others, even to purely play out the eastern section, which would have involved switching over to someone else's command. Always a tricky thing in my experience.
While borne of necessity, stopping at this point made a lot of sense (to me at least, as a French-allied player!). The Allied forces were too worn to continue their attacks in the centre and west. Naturally, Klenau's fresh Austrians could have tried to force the issue and may likely have taken Liebertwolkwitz, although the French-allied forces had the advantages of a prepared defensive line and the cover of the town. With the power of the one who writes the history, I am happy to formulate the story that the Austrians did not have the ticker to "lose one battle in the morning and win it again in the afternoon". It makes complete sense to me that they would retire from a French-allied army that was in no state to pursue, regroup and prepare for the Battle of the Nations that was to come.
Result
We toted up the victory points for each side which comprised objectives held and losses inflicted.
Allies
Towns (Cröbern and Markkleeberg)
4 points
French-allied bases lost or damaged (2 worn x 1, 4 spent x 2, 2 eliminated x 4, 4 wrecked batteries x 1)
22 points
Total 26 points
French-Allied
Towns (Wachau and Liebertwolkwitz)
15 points
Allied bases lost or damaged (10 worn x 1, 4 spent x 2, 6 eliminated x 4, 0 wrecked batteries)
42 points
Total 57 points
Reads as a pretty clear French-Allied scenario victory to me.
HUGE thanks again to Mitch and John for organising and setting up the game. Thanks to Mitch and Gwen for hosting us and for their hospitality. Thank you to the other players who made it an enjoyable game and get together—especially to Steve R and Steve W who took so well their repeated poor die rolls and pressed on regardless.
Rules, scale and figures
Age of Eagles 2nd Edition
Figure scale 1:80–90, each stand equivalent to 320 - 360 infantry, 160 - 180 cavalry, a single battery of artillery
Ground scale 1 inch equals 60 yards (double original to allow for 1/72 figures)
Time scale 30 minutes per turn.
Figures 1/72 soft plastic figures from various manufacturers, with a few, true 25 mm Minifigs and Hinchliffe metal figures.
Reference and reading
Chandler, DG (1979) Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars. MacMillan Publishing Co., New York. p. 249.
Wow, that was certainly an epic game, James - well worth the "Directors Cut" version presented! I am unsurprised you are not a fan of the filum - I thought it was OK but I wasn't expecting much and ignored the few parts I recognised as being inaccurate - particularly Waterloo (which, to be honest, I mostly know about from the earlier film, rather than any in depth reading about it!)
Aa Keith mentioned, epic game. I will take the advice of the, multiple reviews and skip the film... having seen the earlier version. I enjoyed the AAR, the battle is often done but not so well as you and your group have managed.
Naturally, the majority of the kudos goes to Mitch and John for staging such a great game. Of course, a game does not happen without the players and multi-player games over two days require commitment from all if they are to work. So, a bit of 'team effort' too, I guess?!
Wow! That's an epic game (and post!) James. Those temperatures - phew! Unlivable unless you're indoors with AC, surely. The figures looked splendid. Takes me back 40-odd years to a club game of Libertwolkwitz. I think I was part of Klenau's force, or Klenau maybe. On a massive table with about 14 players. I remember chomping at the bit to attack, but being under strict instructions to hold. If it taught me one thing it's that war can involve a LOT of waiting and be very boring :-D
It was a bit like that in the game, as Simon has pointed out in his comment/summary below, since the greatest areas of action on the table moved from east to west as the game/battle progressed.
I would love to, one day,. try out Age of Eagles. those are some nice labels as well. Of course, the whole game look amazing too, and it's great to just show up and play every now and then. and looks like you have some nice friends that forgive you not bringing the required bases. 😁
I read the rant on the film, just because I thought it was funny. I haven't seen it.
I am pleased that you had a laugh. Consider it a very small repayment for all those that you have given me in your posts! (I look forward to more when catching up on your posts that I have missed in my recent little period off the blogs). To be fair (to me) I did bring the required bases (and a few more), it's 'just' that they were lacking some painting of the detail. That said, they did d@mned well for new wargame units. Perhaps the new units always being eliminated/routed superstition does not apply to figures in their undress uniform?!
That looks like a great game, and one I would have thoroughly enjoyed, especially as I am coming to the end of Michael Leggiere's two volume work on the campaign in Germany so 1813 is very much top of mind for me at the moment.
I think you are being a bit kind to Ridley Scott. If he really wanted to cut down on his budget he could have done away with the trenches at Waterloo. Why waste money on creating something that was so historically inaccurate, and why not simply reverse the film to have the Prussians arrive from the correct direction? I thought his 'were you there?' response to all the criticisms was quite facile, when the obvious answer is 'no, but thousands were, many of whom wrote memoirs which are in broad agreement as to what happened'.
I have Michael Leggiere's books amongst the unread in my collection. That must be rectified soon-ish!
I did not mean to be kind to Msr Scott. As I have seen in comments from others, I wondered what the point of making such a monumentally farcical representation could have been.
Another option, of course, is that it is just one big laugh. Similar to the song "Someone left the cake out in the rain". If you have a bit of a name, you can make any cr@p and people will pay to see it despite (perhaps because) of apoplectic critique from those who have dedicated time to researching, studying and/or reading about the period. The appalling interview with that TV 'historian' could have been in the same category. "You pretend to be really serious in saying how impressive and accurate the scenes were and I'll talk about how it was all done carefully, meticulously and without CGI..."
As someone with close involvement with the French effort in the centre + in particular the control of Wachau, events appeared to proceed at great pace on the French left flank first, followed by the right flank - fortunes fluctuated a bit like a see saw with early breakthroughs + exloitations by the French cavalry on the left matched by similar advances by the Allies on the Allied left flank (French right) - meanwhile the Allied centre established a "de facto" Grand Battery (not formalised) that put down withering + damaging barrages against French infantry in + around Wachau, + against French supporting artillery - the Allied artillery had to be silenced + this objective was finally achieved through a combination of threats from French cavalry advancing into Allies' centre-right area + French artillery softening up Allied units attacking Wachau from SE, enabling a mini-breakthrough by a French brigade that disrupted the Allied artillery "Grand Battery" - the repossession of Wachau by Pachtod's Young Guard was achieved, thereby consolidating the French centre - the see saw had tipped again with the Polish brigades dominating the Allies on the French right flank + the French left flank regrouping after suffering cavalry action reversals + reorganising infantry divisions to defend against the advancing Austrians."
The above, totally myopic of course from the perspective of a French "troopie" of Pachtod's Division.
My thanks also to Mitch + John for such high quality "hardware" + the other players for displaying the full range of human qualities.
Great summary Simon. It was wonderful to play alongside you. We co-ordinated pretty well most of the time—with the notable exception of when we got out of sync and nearly created a gaping hole in our line. We sorted it though. Your defence and recapture of Wachau was beaut to watch and it was cool to join you in a general attack at the end.
I was the umpire for the battle. The rules, 'Age of Eagles' were relatively simple & the players quickly worked them out, making my job easy.
The main feature of these rules seems to be the randomness of results. When you roll a D10 & the modifiers generally are in the range of plus or minus 1 to 3 you get a wide variety of results. This has good & bad effects. It encourages players to 'have a go', because any match-up is rarely hopeless. But the randomness can give you a nasty surprise when your brigades of Elite Cuirassiers loose consistently to lesser cavalry. This is what happened in the wargame. The unexpectedly poor performance of the Russian cavalry Corps was probably the decisive factor in the battle. It allowed the French the focus on the Prussians & rout their promising looking flanking movement (more bad dice luck for the Prussians didn't help) & be ready for the Austrian reinforcements when they arrived.
Many like this unpredictability & I suppose it suits the 'high level command' that this game is designed around. As the commanders would not have the fine appreciation of the situation on the ground that the wargamer has.
It was a fun game & we plan to play out the Austrian attack. I will let James know the outcome & may even send him some pics, so he can amend the blog.
Thanks Mitch. Great news that you are gonna play out Klenau's attack. I think that will be tonight, so I had better hurry with this—I have a wager: Klenau will make some progress, but will run out of puff and will not take and hold Liebertwolkwitz.
The game reinforced my expectations of Age of Eagles. Being derived from Fire and Fury it has all the elements of that set that I do not enjoy (and I know that I am in a minority in my opinions): no orders, die rolls for movement each turn, large impact of the random factor and the simplified, three-level approach to casualties. That said, Age of Eagles is not simply Fire and Fury with American Civil War crossed out and Napoleonic inserted. I appreciated the great efforts that Wilbur Gray went to add distinctively Napoleonic aspects to the framework of Fire and Fury. For mine, your Empire and Fury do a better job of the combination. I still enjoyed the gathering and the game immensely and would gladly come to another using Age of Eagles. However, they will not be making it into my own rules backpack.
Epic game and epic post. I expected little from the film and was not disappointed, which meant that I actually found it quite enjoyable. Not that I will ever watch it again. Smashing game and report James.
Hi James, the game looks great, sadly the above mentioned 'filum' is such a waste of talent. After seeing the trailers I cannot briing myself to watch it. BTW it seems both sides of this great continent have suffered this summer!
Thanks Chris. I have not wasted my time and money on the full catastrophe. Like you, the trailers (plus reviews by people who know a bit about the period) were enough to warn me off. I watched these excerpts on You Tube to see how bad they were: even worse than expected! Yeah, my bro' is in Brizzie too, so I know about your high heat and humidity. That combo is far more draining than our (general) dry heat. Still, all that pales compared with those who have suffered the brunt of floods or been in the path of fires. I am pleased that you have kept painting and posting results of those excellent completed units. Regards, James
Awesome looking game, a great mass of figures! It sounds epic! I had low expectations of the film and like Keith enjoyed it because of that, I guess he did a button counting correct Napoleonic film in the Duellists so didn't need to do it again!? Best Iain caveadsum1471
A reasonably accurate account of proceedings, although not referencing the military genius of the King of Naples is an issue. Great fun guys
ReplyDeleteHis finest hour, for sure. Bold handling of the cavalry was rewarded in spades!
DeleteI have a poor record with cavalry mostly indecisively sitting around getting crap shot out of them, so yep was good to get some elan going
DeleteWow, that was certainly an epic game, James - well worth the "Directors Cut" version presented!
ReplyDeleteI am unsurprised you are not a fan of the filum - I thought it was OK but I wasn't expecting much and ignored the few parts I recognised as being inaccurate - particularly Waterloo (which, to be honest, I mostly know about from the earlier film, rather than any in depth reading about it!)
Thank you Keith. I am impressed that you read or skimmed the whole thing—ever the stalwart! :)
DeleteRegards, James
Aa Keith mentioned, epic game. I will take the advice of the, multiple reviews and skip the film... having seen the earlier version.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the AAR, the battle is often done but not so well as you and your group have managed.
Naturally, the majority of the kudos goes to Mitch and John for staging such a great game. Of course, a game does not happen without the players and multi-player games over two days require commitment from all if they are to work. So, a bit of 'team effort' too, I guess?!
DeleteWow! That's an epic game (and post!) James. Those temperatures - phew! Unlivable unless you're indoors with AC, surely.
ReplyDeleteThe figures looked splendid. Takes me back 40-odd years to a club game of Libertwolkwitz. I think I was part of Klenau's force, or Klenau maybe. On a massive table with about 14 players. I remember chomping at the bit to attack, but being under strict instructions to hold. If it taught me one thing it's that war can involve a LOT of waiting and be very boring :-D
It was a bit like that in the game, as Simon has pointed out in his comment/summary below, since the greatest areas of action on the table moved from east to west as the game/battle progressed.
DeleteI would love to, one day,. try out Age of Eagles. those are some nice labels as well. Of course, the whole game look amazing too, and it's great to just show up and play every now and then. and looks like you have some nice friends that forgive you not bringing the required bases. 😁
ReplyDeleteI read the rant on the film, just because I thought it was funny. I haven't seen it.
I am pleased that you had a laugh. Consider it a very small repayment for all those that you have given me in your posts! (I look forward to more when catching up on your posts that I have missed in my recent little period off the blogs).
DeleteTo be fair (to me) I did bring the required bases (and a few more), it's 'just' that they were lacking some painting of the detail. That said, they did d@mned well for new wargame units. Perhaps the new units always being eliminated/routed superstition does not apply to figures in their undress uniform?!
That looks like a great game, and one I would have thoroughly enjoyed, especially as I am coming to the end of Michael Leggiere's two volume work on the campaign in Germany so 1813 is very much top of mind for me at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI think you are being a bit kind to Ridley Scott. If he really wanted to cut down on his budget he could have done away with the trenches at Waterloo. Why waste money on creating something that was so historically inaccurate, and why not simply reverse the film to have the Prussians arrive from the correct direction? I thought his 'were you there?' response to all the criticisms was quite facile, when the obvious answer is 'no, but thousands were, many of whom wrote memoirs which are in broad agreement as to what happened'.
I have Michael Leggiere's books amongst the unread in my collection. That must be rectified soon-ish!
DeleteI did not mean to be kind to Msr Scott.
As I have seen in comments from others, I wondered what the point of making such a monumentally farcical representation could have been.
Another option, of course, is that it is just one big laugh. Similar to the song "Someone left the cake out in the rain". If you have a bit of a name, you can make any cr@p and people will pay to see it despite (perhaps because) of apoplectic critique from those who have dedicated time to researching, studying and/or reading about the period. The appalling interview with that TV 'historian' could have been in the same category. "You pretend to be really serious in saying how impressive and accurate the scenes were and I'll talk about how it was all done carefully, meticulously and without CGI..."
As someone with close involvement with the French effort in the centre + in particular the control of Wachau, events appeared to proceed at great pace on the French left flank first, followed by the right flank - fortunes fluctuated a bit like a see saw with early breakthroughs + exloitations by the French cavalry on the left matched by similar advances by the Allies on the Allied left flank (French right) - meanwhile the Allied centre established a "de facto" Grand Battery (not formalised) that put down withering + damaging barrages against French infantry in + around Wachau, + against French supporting artillery - the Allied artillery had to be silenced + this objective was finally achieved through a combination of threats from French cavalry advancing into Allies' centre-right area + French artillery softening up Allied units attacking Wachau from SE, enabling a mini-breakthrough by a French brigade that disrupted the Allied artillery "Grand Battery" - the repossession of Wachau by Pachtod's Young Guard was achieved, thereby consolidating the French centre - the see saw had tipped again with the Polish brigades dominating the Allies on the French right flank + the French left flank regrouping after suffering cavalry action reversals + reorganising infantry divisions to defend against the advancing Austrians."
ReplyDeleteThe above, totally myopic of course from the perspective of a French "troopie" of Pachtod's Division.
My thanks also to Mitch + John for such high quality "hardware" + the other players for displaying the full range of human qualities.
Great summary Simon. It was wonderful to play alongside you. We co-ordinated pretty well most of the time—with the notable exception of when we got out of sync and nearly created a gaping hole in our line. We sorted it though. Your defence and recapture of Wachau was beaut to watch and it was cool to join you in a general attack at the end.
DeleteI was the umpire for the battle. The rules, 'Age of Eagles' were relatively simple & the players quickly worked them out, making my job easy.
ReplyDeleteThe main feature of these rules seems to be the randomness of results. When you roll a D10 & the modifiers generally are in the range of plus or minus 1 to 3 you get a wide variety of results.
This has good & bad effects.
It encourages players to 'have a go', because any match-up is rarely hopeless.
But the randomness can give you a nasty surprise
when your brigades of Elite Cuirassiers loose consistently to lesser cavalry.
This is what happened in the wargame. The unexpectedly poor performance of the Russian cavalry Corps was probably the decisive factor in the battle.
It allowed the French the focus on the Prussians & rout their promising looking flanking movement (more bad dice luck for the Prussians didn't help) & be ready for the Austrian reinforcements when they arrived.
Many like this unpredictability & I suppose it suits the 'high level command' that this game is designed around. As the commanders would not have the fine appreciation of the situation on the ground that the wargamer has.
It was a fun game & we plan to play out the Austrian attack. I will let James know the outcome & may even send him some pics, so he can amend the blog.
Cheers
Mitch...
Thanks Mitch.
DeleteGreat news that you are gonna play out Klenau's attack. I think that will be tonight, so I had better hurry with this—I have a wager:
Klenau will make some progress, but will run out of puff and will not take and hold Liebertwolkwitz.
The game reinforced my expectations of Age of Eagles. Being derived from Fire and Fury it has all the elements of that set that I do not enjoy (and I know that I am in a minority in my opinions): no orders, die rolls for movement each turn, large impact of the random factor and the simplified, three-level approach to casualties. That said, Age of Eagles is not simply Fire and Fury with American Civil War crossed out and Napoleonic inserted. I appreciated the great efforts that Wilbur Gray went to add distinctively Napoleonic aspects to the framework of Fire and Fury. For mine, your Empire and Fury do a better job of the combination.
I still enjoyed the gathering and the game immensely and would gladly come to another using Age of Eagles. However, they will not be making it into my own rules backpack.
Epic game and epic post. I expected little from the film and was not disappointed, which meant that I actually found it quite enjoyable. Not that I will ever watch it again.
ReplyDeleteSmashing game and report James.
Thanks so much Richard. High praise indeed, given the sensational games that your group stage!
DeleteI am glad you survived the trauma! Some movies can be like that. Too bad though.
ReplyDeleteClaus, from the Linear-A forum
Thanks very much for dropping by and leaving a comment Claus. The 'trauma' was limited by limited exposure, haha!!
DeleteHi James, the game looks great, sadly the above mentioned 'filum' is such a waste of talent. After seeing the trailers I cannot briing myself to watch it. BTW it seems both sides of this great continent have suffered this summer!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. I have not wasted my time and money on the full catastrophe. Like you, the trailers (plus reviews by people who know a bit about the period) were enough to warn me off. I watched these excerpts on You Tube to see how bad they were: even worse than expected!
DeleteYeah, my bro' is in Brizzie too, so I know about your high heat and humidity. That combo is far more draining than our (general) dry heat. Still, all that pales compared with those who have suffered the brunt of floods or been in the path of fires.
I am pleased that you have kept painting and posting results of those excellent completed units.
Regards, James
Awesome looking game, a great mass of figures! It sounds epic! I had low expectations of the film and like Keith enjoyed it because of that, I guess he did a button counting correct Napoleonic film in the Duellists so didn't need to do it again!?
ReplyDeleteBest Iain caveadsum1471
Oh man. Let's focus on the game. That looked good, was enjoyable, well put together, interactive and time well-spent!!!
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