Well the French have won, the Allied centre had broken, Picton was looking to withdraw and save his precious elite troops, while the British Guard looks to cover the retreat.
La Haye Sainte is always a key area of the battle field and even though the Dutch Belgium troops fought valiently they couldn’t in he end stop the French
The French plan to screen Hougomont, while the small Brunswick corps operated ineffectively within it’s gounds, proved a winner. Sure there was a fight but the veteran French light infantry proved more than a match for the inexperienced Germans. The resulting break of the Brunswickers and the pressure on the far right of the British lines proved too much. The timing of Durutte breaking the unfortunate Dutch divisions coinciding with the collapse of the right of the Allied line.
The rest of the Allied line remained static after initial success in repelling the attack of Lobau on Papelotte. The arrival of the Prussian masses proved enough to push the French through Plancenoit, however the stalwart stand of Donzelot, the position of the French Guard cavalry holding up half of the Prussian advance, all proved to be just enough time wise.
This is a great shot of the Scots trading volleys with the French, even though the right flank had gone the French still couldn’t move forward in the centre against the British volley fire.
In the end all the allied commanders agreed, enough was enough. They would plan to withdraw to the port of Ostend link up with the forces from Halle and possibly wait to link up with the Prussians again.
I’m not sure Napoleon would have given them time though! The French cavalry would have harried them, although that said there would have been plenty of Allied cavalry to delay the pursuit, given a lot of the British Cavalry had actually been held in reserve. Still this is a game for another weekend. A “what if” scenario.
The view from the British lines as the French move ever forward.
After 20 turns of action, we had reached a conclusion, everyone had a blast and three bookings were made for the next game…
Thanks for looking, we hope you enjoyed it.