Thursday 18 June 2015

Finally Facing My Waterloo


It's quite a momentous day in history today (18 June 2015), as today marks the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, one of the most pivotal battles in European history. Events and re-enactments are set to continue until the 21st.

Waterloo holds a special place in my heart, not least because of the tabletop wargame I wrote back in 2011. Though sadly out of print, to this day it stands as one of the largest and most comprehensive Napoleonic rulebooks published, and I'm very proud of the final product - for its history section, artwork, photography (by Matt Hutson of White Dwarf fame) and intro to the hobby, as much as the rules themselves.

When Warhammer Historical came to an end and the book dropped out of print, a few players were left hanging, as there was a fair amount of promised content that was never forthcoming. I went some way to rectifying this last year with the Russia Army List, and now, finally, I've completed the set, much belatedly. If you're one of the stalwarts who bought and enjoyed the game, and perhaps still does, then I present to you the Austria army list.

Austria Army List Link.

And yes, I'm fully aware that Austria weren't at Waterloo. However, the bicentenary has given me the motivation I needed to finish the job I started back in 2011. My Waterloo.

But that's not all! As this is a celebration, I decided to offer something up a little less conventional, just for fun. If anyone has been following the wonderful BBC drama Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, you'll have seen some pretty inspirational Napoleonic battle scenes, featuring Strange - Wellesley's magician - performing his magic in the peninsula and at Waterloo. The Hougoumont scenes were particularly well done, I thought. And so, I present to you also the rules for fielding Jonathan Strange, England's Second Magician, in your British army. Well, it is a Warhammer Historical book, after all...




12 comments:

  1. Interesting stuff! Let me also take the opportunity to commend you on the Waterloo book. In particular the campaign scenarios were really useful and provides great bits of the Waterloo campaign battles in a very clever format.
    There were some good products lost with Warhammer historical.
    /Mattias

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    1. Thanks Mattias. The campaign section is something I'm particularly proud of, although it took an absolute age finding all the OOBs and transposing them into Waterloo rules formats!

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  2. In our wargaming club we are really happy that there is something happening around Waterloo game. We started it once it appeared (and even sent you some comments to the Russian list ;-) ) and were very sad when GW dropped the historical range and the system disappeared. We "ressurected" The system few months ago and got back to painting napoleonic minis. We are really glad that you got back to working on new army lists. Are you going to include Austrian Landwehr and Hungarian iInsurrection in the Austrian army list?

    Best wishes,
    Jan

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    1. Hi Jan, good to hear from you again! You raise a good point: I should probably have included Landwehr in the line battalion options. I wasn't planning on including the Hungarian Insurrection, but if I get round to making further revisions I'll have a look :)

      My best,

      Mark

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  3. Thanks for the Austrian army list, I am a proud central american owner of the waterloo rules

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    1. You're most welcome. Thanks for stopping by! :)

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  4. thank you kind sir. I am starting Black Powder gaming.

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  6. Your work on Waterloo was outstanding! THANK YOU for the additional lists - especially the Russians! You are only the second author to rate Cossacks properly! Well done, sir!

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    1. I've always liked the Cossacks! Glad you're enjoying the game :)

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  7. Hey Mark. Just came across your blog and this article. Waterloo remains one of the best written rulesets and an absolutely beautiful book. Proud to haven a few photos of my miniatures in it. Looking over your other rulesets now and looking forward to playing them. Thanks and keep up the great work!

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