Between Campaigns

 

There is always a lot of admin to be completed at the end of one campaign phase and the start of the next.   None of this work can be done until the final battle has been decided, which means that there is always a long gap between wargames at this stage.   For someone who is used to having a game in play all of the time, this can be frustrating.

It is all the more so this time because we are in the middle of a heat wave here in Spain, and we have very little energy for anything, let alone a lot of paperwork to prepare the next campaign phase.  In addition we have my son’s family with us for their annual three week holiday.   It is lovely to have them here, and having visited for 18 of the previous 20 years (thanks to covid) they are very little trouble.   But our normally quiet house catering for just two of us is suddenly required to cater for 7.   Our tranquil self centred routine is replaced by bedlam.   I hide in my office, but it is really difficult, if not impossible, to concentrate on anything as complicated as organising a campaign.

In the week before they arrived I decided to try a one off game to fill the time.  This would be the first non campaign game I have played in about 15 years.   I settled on Waterloo, but not the Waterloo that the world knows so well.   This one would have to fit into my campaign orders of battle and my rules.   They are finely developed to deliver the type of games we like to play, with a strict 12 move game to meet the 12 hour day in the campaign.   The result is the table you see above.

My first attempt included the ridge on the allied side and high ground on the French right.  It also included a woods in front of Hougoumont and no terrain features on the allied left.   The objective would be the cross roads and the road running left to right.   However just four moves made it clear that my rules would not allow a historical refight.   Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte quickly fell to French artillery and infantry.   The table was set up once more as shown above.   The game objective would be Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte and the woods on the right.   All three objectives were placed much closer to the road where the allied army was deployed, this would make it easier for them to support the objectives.

Not at all sure how it is going to work out, but already regretting that I did not just do the hard work of setting up the next campaign and setting up the first  campaign battle.