Waterloo Campaign 2.0 - continued

I left off the previous posting with the situation at dusk  yet to be related. On the Anglo-Dutch front, the Duke of Wellington, with the Reserve Corps was still engaged with General Reille's II Corps; and the Prince of Orange, with I Corps at Soignes was watching the build up of enemy forced in front of him. Vandamme's III Corps had switched westwards along the road from Seneffe; the campfires were already burning east of the town. Coming up from Binche was Pajol's I Cavalry Corps, still a little distant from Soignes; and, from Mons, Marshal Ney halted the march of d'Erlon's I Corps, still a half-morning march south. Still at Mons, was General Milhaud's IV Cavalry Corps.

Before continuing, I must make certain corrections and mia culpa statements regarding the narrative so far. I really ought to have consulted my notes, which would probably have been helped by a reconciliation between them and the pictures, whilst tapping out the narrative. It turned out that the Duke of Wellington had not been hastened off this mortal coil during the Quatre Bras action of the 16th, but had sustained only a minor injury (or maybe a member of his immediate staff - an aide, perhaps - had been cut short). I simply forgot what rule set I was using.



Now, an excess of sixes in the combat role not only inflicts a loss of an infantry figure, but automatically places the commander (and his staff) at hazard. So the degree of hazard is determined by the roll of a single die for each six in excess. Whatever Wellington rolled on the 16th, it was not a six, or even a five (= POW). So he survived in command until the 17th, the fighting around Quatre Bras yet properly to be decided.

Galvanised by Prince Blucher's charismatic vigour and Gneisenau's meticulous professionalism, The Prussian II Corps arrived east of Fleurus with several hours still to run before sunset. Quickly closing upon Gerard's IV Corps, with Marshal Grouchy commanding the defence, the Prussians routed the French as emphatically as the latter had routed Zieten's Corps in the morning. For no material loss, the Prussians overran foot and guns alike, and threw IV Corps all the way back to Charleroi. Marshal Grouchy was slightly wounded in the action.

The probing actions of the French right wing cavalry also led to a clash at Yvoir. Marching up from Dinant, Thielmann's III Corps met the III Cavalry Corps of general Kellerman the Younger just outside the town. Very much a cavalry action, losses were heavy, with honours even. Both sides lost 2 horse stands, but as this constituted the whole of Milhaud's command, this was something of a strategic defeat for the French. 

Clash at Yvoir: Kellermann's III Cavalry Corps
in a bloody fight with Thielmann's III Corps 
cavalry.

Nightfall 16 June 1815

The reconciliation of losses for 16th June were as follows:
French: 2 horse (out of 5; III Cv Corps disbanded), 2 foot, 2 gunners:
Anglo-Dutch: 2 foot (Reserve Corps)
Prussian: 2 foot (I Corps), 1 horse (III Corps).

17 June 1815.

The Prussians were first up and stirring on the morrow.  I think I stated earlier that all three armies got their own initiative dice. I allowed Napoleon just a slight advantage: he got the benefit of a tied die roll.
The rolls for this morning were Blucher-4; Napoleon-2; Wellington-2. Napoleon having the margin of the tie, he got to move second.

Prussian IV Corps at Huy

The missing corps from both armies arrived at the edges of the map area during the morning of the 17th. Bulow's IV Corps arrived at Huy (having rolled a 5 for arrival); and the Allied II Corps appeared at Alost (having rolled a 6).

Anglo-Dutch II Corps marching through Alost

Blucher victorious at Ligny.

Meanwhile, the campaign along the Belgian frontier developed apace. The morning after his victory over the Ziethen's I Corps, than Marsghal Grouchy found himself under attack by the whole of II Corps, led by Prinz von Blucher himself. The outcome was a shattering defeat for the French. Incurring heavy losses to foot and guns, IV Corps was bundled pell mell back into Charleroi, pursued by the victorious Prussians.

Blucher follows up Grouchy's retreat to Charleroi

The rule set I was using forced the defeated to retreat to the next town, or two grid areas, whichever was the nearer. So Grouchy's Corps found itself back in Charleroi, with Blucher following in pursuit.

General action on the Anglo-Dutch front

Meanwhile great events were developing on the Anglo-Dutch front. Worsted the day before at Quatre Bras, Wellington renewed the fight, probably owing to the roads to the rear being occupied by the column of the Cavalry Corp. That blockage was to prove something of an embarrassment for the Allies. The Cavalry Corps had to intervene to halt the advance up the Nivelles towards Waterloo.

Battle of Soignes

The big battle, however, was taking place at Soignes. There, the Allied I Corps found itself assailed by the French I Corps, led by Marshal Ney, coming up from Mons, I Cavalry Corps of General Pajol along the Binche road, and General Vandamme's III Corps marching from Seneffe. This was the first really big battle of the campaign. 

Battle of Soignes:
(a)
Allies:
I Corps: 7 Foot, 2 Artillery (figures) => 7(F)+2(H)+2(Arms present) = 11D6
Rolled: 5 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1
French:
I Corps: Marshal Ney, 4 Foot, 1 Horse, 2 artillery => 1(Ney)+4(F)+1(H) +2(G) +3(AP)=11D6
Rolled: 6 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 1

Allied I Corps lose 2 Foot units (figures);
French I Corps lose 2 Horse units.
(b) 
Allies:
I Corps: 5 Foot, 2 Artillery => 5+2+2 = 9D6
Rolled: 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 1 1
French:
III Corps: 5 Foot, 1 Horse, 2 Artillery => 5+1+2+3 = 11D6
Rolled: 6 6 6 5 4 3 3 3 2 1 1 
Allied I Corps lose 3 Foot units (no cavalry because no cavalry to lose; nor Army commander, he being not present)
French III Corps lose 2 Foot units.
(c)
Probably I ought to have left it here, as the Allied Corps had already been defeated...
Allies:
I Corps: 2 Foot, 2 Artillery => 2+2+2 = 6D6
Rolled 6 4 3 3 3 1
French:
I (Light) Cavalry Corps: 2 Horse => 2+1 = 3D6
Rolled: 5 4 1 
Allies lose 1 Foot unit; 
French lose both cavalry units present - they can not lose the third.

Considering the odds, the Allied I Corps had acquitted itself extremely well, both sides losing 6 units overall in the battle. However, in their own turn, what remained of I Corps, 1 infantry and 2 gunners, fell back to Enghien, at which point they hoped to gather in stragglers and patch up some walking wounded to continue the fight.

Battle of Quatre Bras, and, just beyond, of Nivelles

There were two other battles during the same day, on the road between Nivelles and Waterloo the clash of the Allied Cavalry Corps against the leading elements of the Imperial Guard, and the reduced Reserve Corps against Reille's II Corps in the thick country just north of Quatre Bras - really a continuation of that battle. 

Battle of Nivelles:
Allies:

Cavalry Corps (leading elements): 5 Horse => 5+1 = 6D6
Rolled: 6 5 3 2 1 1
Imperial Guard (leading elements): Napoleon, 4 Foot, 2 Horse => 1+4+2+2 = 9D6
Rolled: 6 5 4 3 2 2 1 1 1
Allies lose 1 Horse unit. Having no foot or gunners present, they could lose neither
French lose nothing.

This counted as an Allied defeat, so the Cavalry Corps fell back to the road junction south of Waterloo.

Battle of Quatre Bras (continuing):
Allies: 
Reserve Corps: Duke of Wellington, 4 Foot, 2 Artillery = 1+4+2+2 = 9D6
Rolled: 6 6 5 5 3 3 2 1 1
French II Corps: 5 Foot, 1 Horse, 2 Artillery
Rolled: 6 6 6* 6* 5 4 4 4 4 3 2 
Allies lost all four Foot units, and the Iron Duke had to roll twice for survival. He rolled a 5 and a 6 - and dies on the battlefield
But the Reserve Corps again gave as good as they got: the French losing 1 Foot, 1 Horse and  2 gunners.
But the loss of the Army Commander sent the remnants of the Reserve Corps reeling northwards, through wooded country, where they were to fetch up on the Brussel-Wavre road.

Prussian III Corps south of the Sambre River

As the day wore on, Thielmann's III Corps crossed the Meuse at Yvoir, and marched to Fosse-sur-Sambre. Observing this, General Exelmans led his II (Dragoon) Corps to follow the importunate Prussians, abandoning Namur, which town they briefly occupied and entering Yvoirat the end of the day.

Vengeance at Quatre Bras

Br Cav Corps victorious

There was just one last action at the close of the day (the benefit of moving last). Rebuffed before Nivelles, the Allied Cavalry Corps turned upon the French II Corps at Quatre Bras. The costly success over the Reserve Corps having left II Corps still disordered (casualty returns are made 'overnight') the Cavalry threw the French out of Quatre Bras and back down the road towards Charleroi. 

So matters stood at nightfall of the 17th June. 

Br II Corps exiting Ninove

Br I Corps, defeated heavily at Soignes, falls back to Enghien.

Napoleon about to engage the Br Cav Corps with 
his Imperial Guard

General view looking west from Huy.

The remnants of AD Reserve Corps, without 
Wellington, retreats to the Wavre-Brussels road.

Night: 17-18 June.

After all the action of the day, and the reorganising and rallying of strays and stragglers, the armies stood thus:

French:

I Corps: Marshal Ney, 4 Foot, 2 Artillery - At Soignes
II Corps: 4 Foot, 1 Horse, 1 Artillery - Near Charleroi
III Corps: East of Soignes
IV Corps: Marshal Grouchy, 3 Foot, 1 Horse, 2 Artillery - At Charleroi
VI Corps: 4 Foot, 2 Artillery - At Philippeville
I Cavalry Corps - merged into I Corps
II Cavalry Corps: 2 Horse - At Yvoir
III Cavalry Corps: - disbanded
IV Cavalry Corps: 2 Horse - near Binche
Imperial Guard:
(a) Napoleon, 4 Foot, 2 Horse - At Nivelles
(b) 2 Foot, 1 Sapper, 3 Horse, 2 Artillery - at Seneffe
(c) 2 Artillery - south of Seneffe on the Binche road.

Total: 44 Strength Points

Prussian:

I Corps: 3 Foot, 1 Horse, 1 Artillery - At Gembloux
II Corps: 

(a) Prinz von Blucher, 4 Foot, 1 Artillery south of Fleurus/Ligny on Charleroi road.

(b) 2 Foot, 2 Horse, 1 Artillery At Fleurus/Ligny
III Corps: 4 Foot, 2 Artillery at Fosse-sur-Sambre
IV Corps: 5 Foot, 3 Horse, 2 Artillery - At Huy

Total: 33 Strength Points

Anglo-Dutch:

I Corps: 3 Foot, 2 Artillery - At Enghien
II Corps: 7 Foot, 2 Artillery - exiting Ninove
Reserve Corps: 3 Foot, 2 Artillery - West of Wavre on Brussels road
Cavalry Corps: 6 Horse, 2 Artillery - on road South of Waterloo.

Total: 26 Strength points

The Anglo-Dutch Allies have certainly been knocked about, but so far they have given as good as they have been taking, apart from the loss of their Army Commander. It seems that the Earl of Uxbridge has taken over command, but for game purposes he is no Wellington. Despite at the end of the day forcing Reille to retreat, the Allies ar under heavy pressure from the forces under Ney's command, and the Imperial Guard.

Meanwhile, sinister activity is developing along the line of the Sambre. Blucher stands before Charleroi seemingly determined to attack the place. Thielman's III Corps has insinuated itself south of the river, seizing the town of Fosse. Marshal Grouchy is in a bit of a dilemma, possibly somewhat eased by the presence nearby of the recently defeated II Corps, and VI Corps marching up from Philippeville. Beyond Thielmann's Corps, General Exelmann's dragoons bid fair to cut the Prussians off from their LOC to Namur.

Waterloo Campaign 2.0 - First days

 

Early morning: Armies about to lurch into motion...

Early on 15th June 1815, the signal to advance rippled up and down Napoleon's columns and they began the campaign that would restore or bring down Napoleon's imperium. 

Overall situation, dawn 15 June 1815: Who, what and where

Unsure of Napoleon's plans, the Allies had rather scattered themselves along the Belgium-France frontier. The Anglo-Dutch were at Alost (I Corps), Ghent (II Corps, off table), Brussels (Reserve, with Wellington) and Ninove (Cavalry Corps). The Prussians were dispersed thus: Fleurus Ligny (I Corps), Namur (II Corps, with Generalfeldmarschall Graf Blucher), Ciney (III Corps) and Liege (IV Corps, off table).

Napoleon's plan seemed to involve a northward thrust aimed directly at Brussels. Somehow, the Duke of Wellington conceived a notion that Napoleon might try to insert his army between his own and the North Sea ports, an apprehension that lead to the scattering of his command. Instead, Napoleon had disposed of his army in a species of his customary bataillon carré.

General view looking north from behind Beaumont

The right wing, under command of Marshal Grouchy, comprised IV Army Corps and II and III Cavalry Corps. On the left, Marshal Ney commanded I Army Corps with I and IV Cavalry Corps. The main centre column comprised II, III, la Garde, and VI Army Corps. Napoleon himself could have been found accompanying his Guard.

General view at nightfall, 15 June. First battle
between Prussian I Corps against French IV Corps
(led by Marshal Grouchy)

General view, looking NW. Battle of Charleroi

As Marshall Grouchy led the IV Corps into Charleroi, they came under attack from the Prussian I Corps - or at least most of it. Meanwhile, II and III Cavalry Corps were passing through Fosse to cover the army's right flank against possible incursion by the Thielmann's III Corps. To the left of Charleroi, Reille's II Corps swung right at Binche in order to support Grouchy, and/or to take the road to Quatre Bras. Vandamme's III Corps continued up the north road to Seneffe, leading the Imperial Guard and VI Corps following on. Meanwhile d'Erlon's I Corps reaches Mons at nightfall.

The bellicose Graf von Zieten immediately engaged Grouchy's wing at Charleroi. Not all of Zieten's Corps was up, however, elements of horse, foot and guns not advancing beyond Fleurus. 

In this rule set, an attack from one hex into an adjacent counts as a hex move, even though the attacker doesn't fully enter the 'battlefield hex'. My procedure is to nudge some of the attacker's figures just over or on the battlefield hex edge. That way, at any time we know who the attackers and defenders are. Now, movement along a road is two hexes for foot troops. Although the laggards could have reached the hex adjacent to Charleroi, they could not have engaged in the battle. Zieten could have simply waited for the following day to engage in battle with his whole force, but I made Zieten a bellicose type not overburdened with patience. A bit like Blucher himself, come to think on it. I found it simplest to leave the stragglers back in Fleurus.

II and III Cavalry Corps passing through Fosse,
whilst several kilometres away, the Battle of Charleroi 
rages

Allied Cavalry Corps reaches Hal

Reille's II Corps passes close by Charleroi, as 
Vandamme leads the main column towards Seneffe

Will Reille join the action at Charleroi...
or march on Quatre Bras (the road leading off to 
the bottom right of the picture)?

Battle of Charleroi, first day. X marks the dice that cancel
each other out; R the dice that are redundant for lack of the 
enemy type to eliminate. Although the Prussians weren't too
outnumbered, the result is a heavy defeat.

Zieten's bellicosity failed to pay off. Leaving some elements out of the battle is not totally downside, as they can not be lost, and there is a chance of wasted dice. But this battle was a heavy defeat for the Prussians, losing 4 foot and a horse to a single horse element from IV Corps. 

Battle of Charleroi. The French don't have 4 horse to lose;
The Prussian have only 4 foot... So three threes and 
one five have no effect.

One 'foot' hot on the French side was superfluous - redundant, and on the Prussian side, three dice went to waste. Napoleon's campaign had opened with a great victory at Charleroi. Zieten's command fell back upon Fleurus, where they joined the three figures left behind. As this was the only battle of the 15th June, it was a simple matter to rally the stragglers - half of the losses by each arm, foot rounded up, others rounded down. So IV Corps lost its cavalry, as did the Prussians, but they got back two of the four infantry figures.

Battle of Fleurus. Following up the repulse at 
Charleroi, Grouchy scores a second victory at Fleurus

16th June:

Of course, Marshal Grouchy simply had to follow up the repulse of the night before, and at once launched an attack upon Fleurus. This fight should have been more even Zieten has lost 5 elements  from the battle, recovered 2 and was joined by the 3 left out. So once again had 10 dice to roll. The French seems to have been allocated 8 only, though there ought to have been at least one more. Nevertheless, this was a signal victory for the French Corps, which inflicted the loss of 2 infantry, one horse and a gunner upon the Prussians, for the loss of one infantry.

Reeling from the blow, Zieten fell back upon Gembloux whilst Grouchy occupied Fleurus.

Battle of Quatre Bras - and a disaster for the Allies!

Reille had meanwhile passed by Charleroi and pushed on until reaching Quatre Bras in the afternoon of the 16th. There they encountered the Duke of Wellington, leading in person, the Allied Reserve Corps. The French having slightly the superior strength, they again prevailed, though only after a stiff and costly fight. Destroying three foot elements, II Corps might have destroyed a horse, had any Allied horse been present. In return, the Allies did eliminate a horse unit, and a gunner as well. But three elements eliminated for two was another French victory.

But it got better. The two extra sixes put the Iron Duke at hazard. What happened to him? In such instances we roll two D6 dice. Double-six inflicts a mortal wound; six-five an incapacitating one. In some circumstances, e.g. a lost battle, a score of 10 might indicate the commander taken prisoner.

So, what was the roll? Double-six. The Duke of Wellington was no more. The Allied Reserve Corps straggled back to Waterloo.

Note (13 May 2026: It turned out that Wellington's demise had been somewhat exaggerated. I really ought to have referred to the notes I took during the campaign. Although the Reserve Corps had been defeated, and the Duke had indeed received a knock, the injury was only minor. He remained in command ... for the time being. The next posting will reveal more...

The Allied Reserve Corps has no cavalry to lose, 
but they do lose 3 foot - though the French don't 
come off unscathed. Those two sixes, though...!

Such was not to the end of the tale of French victories, though they would have to await the morrow. 

Namur having been vacated by Blucher and II Corps
Exelmans's dragoons seize and occupy the town!

So would Blucher's vengeance for Zieten's defeat. As I Corps retreated upon Gembloux, Blucher led II Corps up to Fleurus. Marshal Grouchy would soon find himself in yet another battle. But behind Blucher a minor setback ensued, as General Exelmans' led his corps of dragoons into the town. What might that portend for the whole Prussian army?

I Corps on the left, with I Cav Corps and III Corps
converge upon Allied I Corps at Soignes

Far off to the west, Marshal Ney's wing took longer to see action. Nightfall of 16th June found his I Corps still well short of Soignes, where awaited the Allied I Corps. Nearer at hand was General Vandamme's III Corps, which formation had veered off the Brussels road and closed upon Soignes. To add to the tale of menace, the light I Cavalry Corps was also moving up from Binche. The Prince of Orange would find the Seventeenth a very warm June day...

General view, late afternoon 16 June.

The battlefield losses for the day were:
French: 1 foot, 1 horse, 1 gunner
Prussian: 2 foot, 1 horse, 1 gunner
Anglo-Dutch: 3 foot and the Duke of Wellington.

Overnight the half the losses are returned - stragglers or lightly scratched returning to the colours
Foot are rounded up; specialists rounded down. However, for rounding purposes specialists - horse and foot may be grouped together. So the returns are:

French get back: 1 foot and 1 horse or gunner:
Prussians get back: 1 foot and 1 horse or gunner
Anglo-Dutch get back: 2 foot.
The Duke of Wellington is not replaced.  Somebody takes over the command - probably the Prince of Orange - but, without Wellington's battlefield presence, the extra combat die is no longer available. This might prove decisive! (See Note above. Wellington was still in command, though having been injured.)

Despite three signal French victories, the Allies' losses don't amount to so very much. Attrition is by no means a factor yet! 

Waterloo Campaign 2.0 - Beginnings

 This was my introduction to my first attempt at a one-table 'Hundred Days' campaign, about 3 years ago: I called it the 'Hundred Minutes Campaign':
A misnomer, as it took a whole lot more than 100 minutes just to prepare, but this is, as the title might lead you to guess, a cut down, laid back, bathtub in a shoebox version of the Hundred Days' Campaign. On one table. The whole thing. There was even a 'Battle of Quatre Bras' and  'Battle of Waterloo'. But there were a fair few other combats besides. This was another indulgence of an idea that has been with me now for several years.  

This time round I put a little more thought into the army composition and the rule set. 

The theatre - looking SW along the line of the 
Meuse and Sambre Rivers

Map and Table Set-up:

The table was set up on the basis of this hex-map.  There were some changes, mostly simplifications of road and river networks.  This time, not only the Meuse and Sambre Rivers appeared on the table, but also the Dyle, Dendre and Heure rivers. That still left a number of streams I might have added, had I enough river!

My table map.

The Armies:

In terms of figures, I had the idea of much larger army corps in terms of figures than I eventually ended up with.  But 9-12 infantry, 2 cavalry and 2 gunners for a 'standard' French Army Corps, though it could just 'fit' a hex grid area, was really too large, especially as the Allied formations (my thinking ran) would have to be larger.  There is another problem with this concept using figures: even at maybe half a dozen figures and a model cannon, the battles would be really be single army corps facing off.  But what that led to was plenty of action!

Allied Cavalry Corps marching through Ninove

Anglo-Dutch:
General Officer Commanding (GOC): Duke of Wellington

I Army Corps (at Enghien): 7 infantry, 1cannon, 2 gunners
II Army Corps (off map, at Ghent): 7 infantry, 1 cannon, 2 gunner
Reserve Corps (at Brussels): Duke of Wellington, 5 infantry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
Cavalry Corps (at Ninove): 7 cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunner

Anglo-Dutch Totals:
19 infantry, 7 cavalry, 4 cannon, 8 gunners, plus the Iron Duke in person.

Blucher surveying his II Army Corps marching 
through Namur

Prussian:
General Officer Commanding: General-Feldmarschall Prinz Blucher
I Army Corps (at Fleurus/Ligny): 5 infantry, 3 cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
II Army Corps (at Namur): Blucher, 6 infantry, 3 cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
III Army Corps (1 hex south of Ciney): 4 infantry, 2 cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
IV Army Corps (off map, at Liege): 5 infantry, 3 cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners...

Prussian Totals:
20 infantry, 11 cavalry, 4 cannon, 8 gunners, plus Marschall Vorwaerts himself

Allied Totals:
37 Infantry, 18 Cavalry, 8 cannon with 16 gunners. 
Leaders: Duke of Wellington and Generalfeldmarschall von Blucher.

The Imperial Guard, marching through Beaumont.
Ahead of them, II and III Corps. Off to the west, Marshal Ney, 
I Corps and IV Cavalry Corps. I Cav Corps heads towards
Soire-sur-Sambre

French Army:
In Command: Emperor Napoleon

Le Tondu

I Army Corps (at Mauberge): Marshal Ney, 5 infantry, 1 light cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
II Army Corps (north of Beaumont): 5 infantry, 1 light cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
III Army Corps (at Beaumont): 5 infantry, 1 light cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
IV Army Corps (at Laneffe): Marshal Grouchy, 5 infantry, 1 light cavalry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
VI Army Corps (entering table on road south of Beaumont): 4 infantry, 1 cannon, 2 gunners
Imperial Guard (on road just south of Beaumont): Emperor Napoleon, 6 infantry, 2 light cavalry, 2 heavy cavalry, 2 cannon, 4 gunners
I Cavalry Corps: 2 light cavalry (lancers)
II Cavalry Corps: 2 medium cavalry (dragoons)
III Cavalry Corps: 2 heavy cavalry (cuirassiers)
IV Cavalry Corps: 2 heavy cavalry (cuirassiers)

French Totals: 

30 infantry, 16 cavalry, 7 cannon, 14 gunners, plus, of course, Le Tondu.

Last time the Prussians were woefully underrepresented. This effort attempted to redress that issue, but it raised another. Those Allied Army Corps - Prussian and Anglo-Dutch - were rather bigger than the French, apart from the Imperial Guard. The Anglo-Dutch Horse were massed into the one cavalry corps; and I continued to field 2 figures in each of the four French cavalry corps.

Figure scaling to real numbers.
This looks very inconsistent, not to say weird, but it seemed to work with the rule set I adopted/ devised for this exercise:
Foot: 1 figure to 4000 men
Horse: 1 figure to 1500 men
Artillery: 1 figure represented about 20-25 guns, or maybe 500 gunners; 1 cannon to about 40-50 pieces.

Note that, although I mention light and heavy cavalry, and the Imperial Guard, I make no qualitative distinction in the allocation of combat dice. One might be tempted to add 1 extra combat dice for the Imperial Guard corps, and perhaps to subtract 1 from, say, the Prussian III and IV Corps, as having a goodish proportion of landwehr. I chose not to do so on this occasion, but it might be worth looking into some time.

Army Corps on the march occupied 2 or 3 road hexes. It was often the case - especially among the Prussians - that not the whole army corps might be involved in a given battle. This had an upside, even though it might not fully offset the downside. The downside was, of course, the absent figures that might have made up the numbers. The upside was that (a) losses were accrued only to the forces present, and (b) you still had the 'reserves' to fall back on or use later. That the losses were accrued only to the forces present meant that if you had but one cavalryman present, then, however many 'hits on cavalry' the enemy scored, one cavalryman was all that was lost.

On occasion I left off one each of horse, foot and guns with the effect that after battle, the formation still had all three arms available. 

French forces crossing the Sambre. First contact at
Charleroi (in the pic just beyond the orange roofed 
village of Fosse, where II Cavalry Corps has entered)

Battle of Charleroi: Lead elements of Prussian I Corps
clash with French IV Corps, led by Marshal Grouchy,
emerging from Charleroi.

The rule set I used for this campaign was one I have used before to test the idea of 'map war gaming' with figures.  Its inspiration of course comes from the Command and Colours/ Memoir '44 types of games.  Here's the link to that article - Sluggard Valley campaign - but as I have made a few small adjustments to the rules - most notably the inclusion of Army Commanders, I'll revisit them here.

Hundred Minute Campaign Rule Set:

1. Movement IGoUGo but each turn, dice for who goes first. Optional. For the first 'Hundred Minute' Campaign I made it simple IGoUGo, the French beginning. This time, the French moved first at Turn One; thereafter I diced for all three armies: French - white; Anglo-Dutch - red; Prussian - green. So it's more like IGoUGoEGo...

I leave it open whether one moves and fights each formation in turn, or moves them all before fighting the battles. Both have their points - to the extent that I do not believe I used the one or other system consistently throughout.  Your choice.

2. The 'Napoleon Rule' 

In the event of the French initiative roll tying with an Allied one, the French went ahead of that ally. Three times in this game, the French got tied scores. Two gave them 'first turn', the other kept them from going last. Any army commanded by Napoleon must have some kind of edge... 

2. Army Corps moved a maximum of 2 hexes along a road (1 hex cross country if forced to do so). Cavalry Corps move a maximum of 3 hexes along a road, including the artillery attached to the Anglo-Dutch Cavalry Corps. On road march a corps may occupy 2 or more road hexes. The Division-sized (2 -figure) French cavalry corps occupied just one hex even on the march.

3. Combat is joined by opposing forces in adjacent hexes.

4. Engaging or attacking the enemy counts as a 1-grid area move, as one side 'moves' into an enemy occupied grid area. The 'move' is notional, the attacking side remaining in the grid area it occupies at the outset of the battle, but with  the leading edge of some of the attacking elements pushed slightly over the hex-side into the battle hex.

Note that if an army corps was stretched along 2 road hexes, it may be only the lead half of the formation may engage in battle - attacking 'off the march', or being attacked on the march. Instead a corps might advance just one space, allowing the rear of the column, moving 2 spaces, to catch up. Then the whole might advance 1 hex and enter the enemy occupied hex to engage in battle.

5. So if an army corps moves 2 hexes to a point adjacent to an enemy held hex, there is no battle. With a 3-hex road move a cavalry corps could move two hexes then battle.

6. Battles between opposing forces in adjacent hexes are not compulsory. Nor is there a 'zone of control' to prevent movement from one adjacent hex-side to another. Recall that the playing area is very compressed from the 'real geography'.

7. Each side rolls one die per figure, plus one for each arm represented. If an army commander is present, add one further die to the combat allocation. Note that the Allied Armies each receive one army commander, the Duke of Wellington and Generalfeldmarschall von Blucher. The French army is commanded by the Emperor Napoleon, seconded by two wing commanders, Marshals Ney and Grouchy.

    Examples:
(i) An army corps of 4 infantry, 1 cavalry and 1 cannon (with gunner) rolls 9 dice: 1 for each of the 6 figures, plus 3 for the 3 separate arms represented.  
(ii) A French cavalry corps of 2 mounted figures rolls 3 dice: 1 for each of the mounted figures, plus 1 for the cavalry arm represented.
(iii) Generalfeldmarschall von Blucher, accompanying II Corps, engages the enemy. II Corps then receives 6 (infantry) + 3 (cavalry) + 2 (gunners) + 3 (3 arms represented) + 1 (Blucher) = 15 combat dice.

8. An army attempting to force a river crossing halves its standard allocation of combat dice (rounded up).  For this campaign, there was no bonus for defending or penalty for attacking a 'town' grid area. (I did consider that perhaps some such rule might have applied to attacking Mons, Charleroi, Namur and Brussels, but decided that the battles would take place, as it were, in the fields outside of town. As it was there was considerable action around Charleroi.)

9. Combat
Combats are competitive; both sides roll -

A roll of '1' = enemy artillery hit
A roll of '2' = enemy cavalry hit

A roll of '3' = enemy cavalry hit
A roll of '4' = enemy infantry hit
A roll of '5' = enemy infantry hit
A roll of '6' = enemy infantry hit and 
hazard to army or wing commander if present.

Having rolled the dice, each die pip score is cancelled by a same pip score by the other, until only the unmatched scores remain. The remaining hits then result in figures being removed. A roll of '4' is not cancelled by a '5' roll, and both sides stand to lose an infantryman.

Note that the cavalry corps can be hurt only by rolls of 2 or 3 on the dice, and 1s if they have artillery present. That is why the tiny French cavalry corps are far from mere pinpricks; and also why the Anglo-Dutch cavalry corps is such a formidable formation!

Dice rolls for IV Corps vs (most of) I Corps (green dice).
Prussia has 4F, 2H and 1G present. 7 plus all three arms = 10 dice
France has 5F, 1H and 2G plus Grouchy = 9, plus 3 for 
all arms present = 12 dice. 

9A. Any excess 6s (i.e. not cancelled by an opposing 6) counts as a hit upon the commander and/or his staff. Roll a separate die. 
1 = commander unharmed (Staff officer gravely wounded beside him. 'By God, Sir! I've lost a leg!' 'By God, Sir! So you have!')
2 = commander unharmed (Hat acquires a musket bullet hole, becomes conversation piece for future family generations)
3 = commander unharmed (Spent musket ball raps harmlessly upon his sword hilt. Spannnnggg!)
4 = commander has horse killed under him, but otherwise unharmed (This twice happened to Blucher in this game. Narratively, it had to mean something!)
5 = commander receives an incapacitating or mortal wound and/or is captured
6 = commander is killed in action.

10.  Units that receive more losses than they inflict in terms of numbers of units, must retreat two grid areas or to a town, whichever is nearest. The reason for this is to allow defeated units to break clear of the victorious enemy, which, following up (a voluntary option), can reach the adjacent grid area, but not bring on an immediate battle.  See Rule 4.

11. Attrition.
At the end of each move, or perhaps a fixed number of moves (IGoUGoEGo triples), the losses are totted up on both sides, and each receives back, for each arm, half their overall losses.  Exact halves are rounded up for the infantry; down for the other arms. However the other arms my be grouped together for rounding purposes.
Example:
During the course of the day's fighting, the Prussian army loses 9 infantry, 3 cavalry and 3 gunners.
At nightfall, the Prussians receive back -
-  5 infantry (half rounded up)
+  1 cavalry
+ 1 gunner
+ the choice of 1 gunner or 1 cavalry.

Had Prussia lost 4 cavalry (instead of just the 3) then it would get back 2 cavalry, and 1 gunner (half of 3, rounded down).

This system seemed to work quite well, and something of an improvement over the system I used for Eckmuhl at the end of 2023. The campaign was well advanced before formations began to show serious signs of wear and tear. 

12. Loss of Commanders
Lost commanders are lost for good. That simply means that the extra die for battles at which they were present are no longer is available.

During the course of this campaign, the only commander who was never 'at hazard' was Napoleon himself. Of the other four, two were still in action at its end...

14. There will be occasions in which two (or more) separate formations will attack a single enemy formation. These battles are resolved severally. However the losses incurred in the first action will be removed before the second takes place.

15. Annihilation of formations
Late in the campaign a battle might result in the elimination of a whole formation (or what has been left of it). The figure losses are returned, but, instead of reconstituting the vanished formation, accrue to the nearest formation of the appropriate army as stragglers. The receiving formation becomes a consolidated corps.

This happened more than once, very late in the campaign.

16. Depleted formations may be combined/ consolidated with other (depleted) formations to for a single formation. The French Cavalry Corps may be so combined with each other, or with other corps. As this campaign neared its close this happened with more frequency.

17. Victory Conditions -
Not as simple as one might suppose. If the French capture Brussels and/or forces one or both Allied armies from the theatre map area, that would count strongly towards the victory. But the French must be able to trace a Line of Communications southward over the line of the Sambre River back into France. In this game, there was a large scale battle for Sambre river line that had a considerable impact upon the overall outcome.

The dice scores pared down. Three of the 3s
and one of the 5/6 rolls were redundant.
losses 5 to 1 - a  significant French victory!

The picture tells the story of the first action, at the end of 15th June, 1815. As there was but one French cavalry figure present, that was their sole loss. The Prussians also lose a cavalry figure, and all four infantry - the fifth 5 or 6 score being discarded. Five elements lost against one is a very considerable French victory. That Blucher was not present means the pair of sixes have no other significance.

To be continued...

About the little cartoons. I've copied them here from last time. I quite liked how the Duke of Wellington looks, considering that I have never mastered the art of caricature.