Battle for the Farm House - La Haye Sainte - Black Powder

Finally got to game the La Haye Sainte Black Powder game today. Used a mix of the mid-size and larger game scenarios that came with the Warlord Games set. I wanted to add a few more supporting units, to include some cavalry. Here's the set up prior to the game - with a bit of inspiration watching the old Waterloo movie with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer. 

EDIT: A little more details of the game - the French had two brigades of three infantry battalions each; a cavalry brigade of one Cuirassier and two Lancer units; two horse artillery batteries and several small detachments, including an Engineer/Pioneer unit.

The British, besides several small detachments of KGL Lights and Nassauers in and around the farmhouse had two brigades of two line infantry each, two RHA batteries, small detachments of 95th Rifles and a unit of Scots Greys.

The French started the game as attackers and almost all of the units were successful activating and moving towards the farmhouse. The British in their turn attempted to move along the flanks of the farmhouse towards the French. One brigade of French infantry managed to get through the orchard and up against the southside of the farmhouse in turn 2. While the other French infantry brigade moved into assault against the KGL unit guarding the barn door on the western side of the farmhouse. The French cavalry moved up to the KGL Line on the western side of the battlefield and forced them to get into square. The British Line on the eastern side of the road slowly moved up to support KGL inside the farmhouse. In turn 3, the French stormed into the farmhouse and took on the small detachment of KGL Lights inside. A fire was also started on the roof of the stables which the KGL were not able to put out. The game was called when an overwhelming number of French were inside of the farmhouse and courtyard.

We played four turns, with the French having four battalions assaulting into the farmhouse. Now this probably stretches the basic rules with the amount of units allowed in a building/structure, but we went ahead with it.

The scenario booklet actually has smaller units in and assaulting the farmhouse - companies and such. The stables on the western side did catch fire in turn 3 and was not able to be put out successfully by the occupying KGL.

The French had a Cuirassier and two Lancer (Polish & Dutch) units. They destroyed the one British cavalry unit - Scots Greys. The French cavalry also held off two KGL line battalions by having them stay in square for most of the game.

Here's where things got out of control - that is the number of French units in the farmhouse. The French had actually gone into skirmish formation, but we left them on the movement trays for ease of handling. One thing that was evident was the break test results for skirmishers. We thought it was way too advantages especially when resolving combat with heavy cavalry.  We plan to use the artillery break test results for small/tiny infantry units in the future. Thinking of giving infantry skirmishers vs. medium/heavy cavalry the same results as artillery during break tests. Basically anything 4 or less is destroyed.

With a few tweaks, like the one mentioned for small/tiny unit break test - and limiting the amount of units in the farmhouse, I plan to host this at our next Enfilade convention. Granted it's a ways out, but a few more playtests will be needed.

Anyway, I was glad to have finally gotten this game in, having finished the farmhouse over a year ago. It was good to flesh out the scenario and use the special rules like the French Engineers breaking down doors, setting buildings afire and also scaling walls.

Thanks for stopping by and wishing you all the best.