Scenario Design Center | Spotlights | NB: Campaign Waterloo

Waterloo... there are only a few battles in history whose names have become so famous as to mean something even to those least interested in military affairs. The epic showdown that ultimately brought down the French empire erected by Napoleon Bonaparte is so well known that it has even entered into common language. Phrases such as "he met his Waterloo" now signify ultimate defeat and the end of all hopes. On 18 June 1815, south of the small Belgian hamlet Waterloo, in what was then the Kingdom of the Netherlands, one of the bloodiest battles of history occurred. Napoleon hoped to destroy the European coalition arrayed against him by means of a quick, decisive victory over one, or preferably both, of his main antagonists. These were the Anglo-Allied army under Field Marshal, The Duke of Wellington, and the Prussian army under Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht Fuerst Bluecher von Wahlstatt. Admittedly, preparations for the campaign took a couple of months and after its conclusion some more weeks were needed to bring the French empire to its knees, and there were other theaters of war besides the one in Belgium. Yet the Waterloo campaign proper, the just four days between the crossing of the Netherlands border by the Armée du Nord on 15 June 1815, and its disastrous defeat at the hands of the combined Anglo-Allied and Prussian armies on 18 June, decided the fate of the Emperor, and by implication, the Empire.


	Click to Enlarge

Historical Scenarios Covering:

Ligny
Quatre Bras
Soleilmont
Waterloo
Wavre
Twin Battles: Ligny & Quatre Bras
Twin Battles: Waterloo & Wavre
Entire Campaign - single scenario


	Click to Enlarge

What If Scenarios Covering:

Braine le Comte
Chatelet
Mons
Nivelles
Plancenoit
The Ridge
Togrinne
...and others.

61 scenarios are included in the main section with another 109 being created for the campaign specific situations.


	Click to Enlarge

Maps:

There is one main map that we created for this campaign, it measures 560 x 400 hexes (that's 224,000 hexes...) and it covers from Charleroi in the South, to Mons in the West, to Gembloux East and finally to the village of Waterloo, just south of Brussels. Almost three times more ground than was historically covered, to allow many what if situations to be explored. From this many sub-maps have been created, and can be created for future use.

Game features introduced in Waterloo:

Weather.
Disordered defenders now defend at 2/3 strength instead of full strength.
Disordered attackers now attack at 1/3 strength instead of 1/2 strength.
Cavalry charge continuation.
Multiple melees on the same unit are now possible, as an optional rule.
Battle termination feature added for those playing a campaign against the AI.
Random scenario selection within the campaign engine.

How the Weather feature works:

Within the game the weather entries display like this in the pdt interface:
Weather Clear (100% at 00:00 06/15/1815)
Visibility: 40
Move Cost: 100%
Attack Mod: 0%
Artillery Mod: 100%
Flags: None

Within the PDT file they look like this:
1 1815 6 15 0 0 100 40 100 100 0 0
Clear 1 = Weather entry
1815 = The Year
6 = The Month
15 = The Day
0 = The Hour
0 = The Minute
100 = The % of probability this entry will take place on the time set.
40 = Visibility 100 = % cost to move, for example in light mud we used a value of 150, or 1.5 times the normal rate.
100 = % modifier on artillery effectiveness, 100 being no adverse effects.
0 = % modifier on assaults, 0 being no adverse effects.
0 = special flags used. (This effects the ability of cavalry to charge or not)
Clear = Text name assigned to the condition, we created 6 for use in the campaign.
Beyond the normal use of this feature to replicate the effects of weather on the terrain and combat I also used it for two other things.
1) To gradually decrease visibility as the major battles progressed. This is to simulate the gathering smoke from the various weapons used.
2) To gradually increase and decrease visibility for dawn and dusk, so that it goes from 1 hex, to 2, then to 3 then 4 and vice versa as the time frame changes.


	Click to Enlarge

Play modes include A/I, Hot Seat, PBEM, LAN & Internet play.

Credits

Scenario Design: Charlie Cutshall & Rich Hamilton
Artist: Joe Amoral
Uniform Research: Mark Adams
Additional Research & Historical Overview: D. S. Walter
Campaign Maps: Mike Avanzini
Cover Painting: Adrian George
Playtesters: D.S. Walter, Steve Cutshall, Ernie Sands, Claes Melbro, James Brammer, Hans Boersma, Garry Cope, & Phil Natta