A small divertimento: Le Bois de Paris

During my research for the Plancenoit Scenario (remember: If you copy from one author, it's plagiarism. If you copy from two, it's research!) I found buried in a sub-sub-sub...sub-folder a little gem. It is an old article written by Rich Barbuto and published in the Lone Warrior #147 and #148 issues, that I downloaded in 2004 from the now defunct Magweb site: Waterloo: The Paris Woods Scenario Parts 1 and 2.

In the author's own words:

"... After the Prussians had managed to escape the Ligny battlefield and consolidate in and around the town of Wavre, Blucher made the most important decision of the Waterloo campaign: to send two corps, up to half of his army, to reinforce Wellington if the British would stand and fight. The Prussian Fourth Corps, under General Friederich Wilhelm von Bulow, had not fought at Ligny and was relatively fresh. Although this body of troops was furthest from the British, Blucher nonetheless ordered it to move first. At 4 a.m. on the morning of June 18th, Bulow started his troops toward their British and Dutch Allies. The men slowly moved through the Second Prussian Corps and through the narrow streets of Wavre where a fire broke out. Moving along a single road, the boots of the soldiers and the hooves of their horses churned the roadbed to viscous goo. Struggling slowly forward, the Fourth Corps kept the other three Prussian corps locked in position as Grouchy eventually approached Wavre ...

... This solo battle is a “what if” scenario. What if the Prussians had started toward Plancenoit a few hours early and what if Napoleon had sent forces to dispute the Prussian advance east of Plancenoit. The fight would be between well concealed French forces firing out of woods against the heads of thin columns of slow-moving infantry...

... Marshal Grouchy's lack of energy and muddled judgment contributed to Napoleon's defeat. But the Emperor himself shared much of the blame. What if Napoleon had been quicker to see the threat posed by Blucher and quicker to parry it? This scenario plays with that possibility. In this solo game, I hoped to simulate a situation in which Napoleon reached out to stop Blucher's Prussians from drawing close to Plancenoit and Napoleon's very vulnerable rear area. Instead of meeting Blucher's piecemeal attacks on Plancenoit, I wanted to see if I could prevent the Prussians from ever reaching the main French forces. Could Napoleon perhaps have done this by blocking Blucher as the Prussians worked their way through and around the Bois de Paris?...

... To do this I would need terrain that represented the low ridges, gentle valleys, small villages, and narrow paths through tracts of forest that marked the route from St. Lambert toward Plancenoit. I would also have to come up with rules to cover fighting along narrow roads through forested terrain. More on that later. First, I took stock of my figures to see what I could muster for this experiment...

... I played the Prussians while automating the French. Each turn I rolled to see if a French force would enter the board. If so, I rolled to see the size and composition of the force and the location. If the location (I call them check points) had previously been cleared by the Prussians, then the French could not enter there but would enter in the vicinity of Plancenoit. The faster the Prussians could move, the earlier they would clear checkpoints, and the French would enter in less advantageous positions. This was really a new concept of a game for me and, as it turned out, a pretty rousing and surprising endeavor all the way around. Now, back to the corps commander’s orders group...

... To do this I would need terrain that represented the low ridges, gentle valleys, small villages, and narrow paths through tracts of forest that marked the route from St. Lambert toward Plancenoit. I would also have to come up with rules to cover fighting along narrow roads through forested terrain. More on that later. First, I took stock of my figures to see what I could muster for this experiment...."

All the article is here

I'm thinking to play this little game using Lasalle, but before some slight modifications must be made. It sounds very interesting isn't it?

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