40th Anniversary Column Line and Square Game

The local Friday Night Hordes of the Thing Group wanted to try something else and thought Waterloo would be a good idea.  I volunteered to set it up with Column Line and Square and a few thousand French and British 25mm troops that I have.  To get in the mood, I have added the game report below to BLOG.  It was the last CLS game I have done.

My 40th anniversary "Column, Line., and Square game at Historicon, 2007

My game to celebrate my 40^th anniversary in the hobby went very well.  In 1967, I met Bob Cory in a hobby shop in Chicago.  He was telling people there about a big Napoleonic wargame his  group had done.  He had pictures.  All my life I had been playing with toy soldiers but had never seen anything like this. 

 He invited me to his house to see his figures and to learn how to play.  I got a copy of the rules  but left Chicago area for Boston a couple of months later.  So, I never got into a real game until I met  Dick Bryant in the fall of 1968.  I taught him to play and the rest is history :)

 At Historicon, I was put into the Showroom but on a table that had some light over it so that 

was ok. Still a pain, literally, carrying 15 boxes of figures and wooden table tops up those stairs.

We had 12 players, 6 per side. 8 have played much, 2 played only a little, and 2

not at all. Dick Bryant commanded the Allies and Richard Borg took the French.

Richard also was introduced to CLS by Bob Cory, about 2 years after me.  Each commander

 has played CLS for some 39 years. Richard starting as a college freshman, Dick as a 34 year old.  They are a bit older now!

I told the story of how I started playing and then served cake.

Here is the Troop Roster for both sides. About 2300 figures in total

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~abeattie/dbasum2005/hcongame/clstrooproster.htm

The game was on a 6 foot by 12 foot plain green table like a ping pong table. Limited terrain. Most from 35-40 years ago. The figures are 90% MiniFig with a few Scruby, Warrior and Hinchliffe mixed in. I like the toy soldier quality of the MiniFig. Half were from the 1970's and the rest from eBay in the past few years. I have about half again as many and hope to get them all on the table at home (maybe two tables like Fred did).

French start, this is one brigade of 4 on the table.

Allied set on

CLS gamers cannot keep impedimenta off the table :) Bottom, the allied left, is Austrian, middle, Prussian, top is Russia.

Close-up of Prussians in the center. 5 columns screened by 2 battalions of fusiliers. The grenadiers have a prolong gun. Lancers and horse artillery at the top. Foot gun at bottom.

Fuzzy pic of French Brigade: 3 Battalions of foot, screened by Leger Battalion.  Horse and foot guns, and Hussar regiment at bottom.

Middle game. Troops advancing on the cross roads, Austrian grenadiers arrive on right. Jaegers occupy house. Chasseur a Cheval regiment arrives at bottom left, to protect the hill.  View from French right.

Here is the whole Chasseur regiment -- 4 ½ squadrons of 10 figures per squadron.

Close up of the cross roads. The house with gables was made by Ted Haskill, who did the drawings in the Second Edition. The other house is card, both from 1970.

Dick brings on the British Rockets on the Allied left. I had just made this, and it was appearing in a game for the first time.  I had never  used or seen a Rocket in action in all my years of play, and so was looking forward to seeing it used in the hands of the Master.   

First shot is an exploding battery!! This is a picture of the battery after he threw snake eyes!  It came on right in front of the Chasseur a Cheval regiment  in picture above and might have done serious damage.  Dick took the  remains away burning his fingers in the process :)

Late in the game, the French are taking the cross roads.

The Allies were having some success on the Austrian side, a regiment of Cuirassiers cut through the French Chasseurs and broke through up on the hill. French support coming -- Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard and Mamelukes and a infantry battalion in square.

In the end, the French got the Crossroads. There British reserves were closing in but darkness fell.  View from French left flank.

All in all a good game.  As always, we needed another hour for completion. I loved the look of the game. This is the biggest 25mm game I have ever done, or seen -- 4,000 figures.  I forgot to get the CE count for victory  but call it a minor French victory with an orderly withdrawal for the allies.