One battle looms larger than any other in the psyche of the wargamer; Waterloo. Over the last 25 years Wargames Illustrated has featured articles on this battle more than any other.
More than any other battle Waterloo seems to fascinate and lure gamers and figure collectors. For some refighting Waterloo in miniature is never more than a pipe dream, but for many that long road from buying their first pack of Napoleonic figures comes to fruition on the tabletop in the form of a skirmish around Hougoumont, a battalion level bash of the last effort of the Old Guard, or sometimes, just sometimes, a grand manner battle representing every unit and every action in glorious (miniature) technicolour.
At Wargames Illustrated we decided that for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, we would compile some of the best articles on the great battle that have been published since WI1 back in September 1987. We had over 74 articles and 300 pages to choose from, and what you have here is an eclectic mix of the long, the short, the old, the new, the highly focused and the grandly ambitious.
Each article has been pulled straight from the archive and is reprinted here without any tweaking or updating. All of the articles are reprints. If you are a long standing WI reader you will have seen some and possibly all before. You will however, we hope, enjoy seeing the articles dusted down and drawn from the archive, to live again in the Waterloo 2015 Wargames Illustrated special.
Content list:
WATERLOO OBSESSION
In our lead article Gary Kitching discusses how he, along with many other wargamers, became obsessed with ‘The Battle’.
WATERLOO 1815
If you were at Salute 2013 you couldn’t fail to notice the Essex Gamesters’ massive Waterloo 1815 game. In this article we take a tour of the table, with the Emperor Napoleon as our guide!
WATERLOO WEEKEND
A weekend of gaming “The Wargamer’s Dream”.
PAINTING WATERLOO
A guide to painting figures for the three main armies at Waterloo, presented by ‘Brushsmith Extraordinaire’ Dave Taylor.
WATERLOO AT BRITCON
How the Mailed Fist club conceived and designed a massive Waterloo game for Britcon 2008 (and who won!).
HOW WARGAMING SOLVED SOME HISTORICAL MYSTERIES FROM WATERLOO
Barry van Danzig uses wargaming to challenge many of the accepted views of the Battle of Waterloo. In this article Barry introduces us to several of his key points and concludes with a wargaming puzzle in which gamers can test out some of his ideas on the tabletop.
NEY’S CAVALRY CHARGES AT WATERLOO
A General de Brigade scenario.
THE WARGAMES HOLIDAY CENTRE UK
As well as introducing us to the new (back then!)Wargames Holiday Centre, owner Mark Freeth runs through one of their inaugural battles. Of course it had to be Waterloo.
THE LITTLE FIGHTING FOURS
His Majesty’s 44th Regiment of Foot, the East Essex Regiment; their illustrious history (focusing on their role in the Napoleonic Wars) and how to get them brushed up for the tabletop.
6mm ARMIES FOR WATERLOO
Few of us tend to take our projects to the level that Stephen St Clair has decided to take his. Stephen is just about to put the finishing touches to a project close to 30 years in the making – 1:1 ratio armies at 6mm scale for Waterloo.
“VORWARTS, MEINE KINDER!”
Building a late Napoleonic Prussian wargames army.
RETREAT TO WATERLOO
The cavalry action at Genappe.
LA BATAILLE DE BELLE-ALLIANCE – PART 1
A photographic account of Napoleon’s victory at Waterloo (yes, victory!)
LA BATAILLE DE BELLE-ALLIANCE – PART 2
The concluding photographic account of Napoleon’s victory at Waterloo.
