Napoleon Returns 1815 Scenario Supplement

Corrections and Supporting Information from posts by Frank Chadwick to the Volley & Bayonet Mailing List.

Uniforms and Units

Q. Which British regts are Fuzileers? I only see the 23rd Foot (Royal Welch) in 4th Brigade. Did the Fuzileers wear the fur cap in this campaign?

A. That's the only Fuzileer regiment I know of there as well. Nope; shakos like everyone else.

Q. Many artillery btns in the Allied and French armies have both a foot and horse battery present. Should players treat all artillery btns that have a foot element as foot artillery for game purposes, and only 'pure' horse artillery btns count as horse artillery in the game?

A. Correct.

Q. In the French Imperial Guard each of the infantry divisions mentions 'auxiliary line 6pdr foot btys' as part of their organisation. Is this a game compromise, or were these really line units attached to the Guard formations?

A. These are real units of (presumably exceptional) gunners drafted from various line artillery regiments to stretch out the Guard artillery. Since some of the Guard units hadn't received decent uniforms by this time, I'm sure these people are still uniformed as line artillery.

Q. 6th British brigade (4th Division) is given a morale rating of 4. Is this correct? Did it perform sufficiently badly to warrant this?

A. There is no performance to measure, and for a very good reason. These troops are a substantially different lot than Wellington's penninsular veterans. No experience, insufficient training, and then parked in Belgium in for a long time where their morale apparently deteriorated fairly noticably. Wellington is criticized for leaving a large flank detachment at Hal, but if you look at it he has left troops there which he considers the least reliable and brought over the best troops to Waterloo. He even breaks division integrity to do so. I don't think that it's a coincidence that he pulls the penninsular veteran brigade (the 4th) out of the 4th Division and brings it over to Waterloo while leaving the rest of the division (including the 6th Brigade) at Hal. The 6th is the only British brigade which Wellington does not want at Waterloo with him.

Q. Von Wacholtz is given as the Brunswick DC on page 51. On page 22 it's v.Heinemann (that's explained by the Quatre Bras notes at the top of the page) while on page 59 no DC is mentioned, only Duke of Brunswick himself. What's going on here? Is v.Heinemann the startup Brunswick DC for campaign purposes or was he a field promotion just before Quatre Bras?

A. Actually the Duke pretty much commands the whole thing until he gets killed. After he is killed von Wacholtz assumes command. (Some sources lists v.Heinemann and I'm afraid that his name crept into the manuscript by error). So there shouldn't be a division commander at all as long as the Duke is alive. If he is killed von Wacholtz replaces him the next turn. This is also noted on page 22. I thought I had deleted all references to von Heinemann, but obviously one slipped through.

Q. In the intro to the main Anglo-Allied OB on page 49 it says the Hal Contingent is listed in italics. It isn't. Which units make up the Hal Contingent?

A. The following units were at Hal:

From II Corps:

  • 4th Allied Division (except for 4th British Brigade)
  • The Corps of Prince Frederick of the Netherlands
  • From the Reserve Corps
  • Reserve Heavy Artillery Battalion (actually at Brussels)
  • Of the Detached Garrisons
  • Hanoverian Reserve Corps
  • From the Cavalry Corps
  • 1st Hanoverian Brigade (except for the Cumberland Hussars)
Q. I couldn't find deployments or a reinforcement schedule for the Netherland troops under Prince William. Since they were in the OB, is there any option where they will take part?

A. These were at Hal the entire time. I included them (along with a number of other Anglo-Allied units which never got into the actual battle) in case folks wanted to do a what-if. Also I had originally envisioned doing a larger campaign which would include all of the feints and maneuvers to the west which caused Wellington to put so many of his troops there. I ended up not doing so because all results were less interesting and more lop-sided than the historical battle.

Q. The Netherlands Indian Contingent (page 59) gives no morale rating for the three skirmish stands. Are they 5’s?

A. Correct.

Q. What should "Mxd" in the Prussian OB read as?

A. Mixed Cav brigade (lights and mediums). Treat as heavier than enemy if fighting enemy light cav but lighter if fighting med cav. Obviously same weight if fighting an enemy mxd brigade. Mixed falls between light and medium in weight.

 

The Map

Q. The maps show all hills as having two contour shadings. Do they really have two? I'd have thought they were all actually one contour.

A. No, they are all one contour. The graphic artist did that because he thought that it looked good (which it does), not realizing that there were multiple contour hills in the game.

Q. Which settlements on the map are towns and which are villages?

A. The following settlements are represented by:

  • Single village block: Balatre, Bas Wavre, La Bavette, Bierges, Boignee, Cabaret, Gemioncourt, La Haye Saint, Limale, Limalette, Maransart, Melery, Merbraine, Mont. St. Jean, Ohain, Papelotte, Piermont, Pierrepont, Pont du Jour, Quatre Bras, Rossome, Thile, Tilly, Wagnelee, Wagnee, Waterloo.
  • Two town blocks: Ligny.
  • Three town blocks: Wavre, Gosselies, Fleurus.
  • All other settlements are represented by one town block.
Q. Where are the sunken roads at Waterloo and Quatre Bras?

A. There are two sunken roads which were omitted from the maps. The first one is the Quatre Bras-Thile road, which is sunken from Quatre Bras southeast to the stream. The second one is the Braine l'Alleud-Geneval road which is sunken for the stretch immediately north of La Haye Saint. It is sunken west to the first crossroads (just north of Hougoumont) and east to the first fork in the road (NW of Papelotte).

 

Ligny Specific Issues

Q. The Prussian set up at Ligny does not follow a source I have. Is there an error?

A. All of the troop symbols are in the correct places but five of them are incorrectly identified:

  • The two infantry stands in Ligny are from the 4th Brigade (not the 1st).
  • The three infantry stands at the crossroads north of Brye are from the 5th Brigade (not the 3rd).
Q. The Battle of Ligny map and reinforcement schedule doesn't seem to show deployment or mention reinforcement of the Guard.

A. A problem resulting (I think) from trimming the south edge of the map. The French Guard (and Milhaud's IV Reserve Cavalry Corps) are just off the south edge of the map and may enter the first turn.

 

Wavre Specific Questions

Q. The French 11th division is shown as having 4 stands of infantry on the map, but 2 in the OOB.

A. The two stands closest to the Dyle river (those on the left) are actually the 14th Infantry Division.

Q. The 3rd French Cavalry division doesn't appear on the map.

A. This is the division identified as the 9th.

Q. The French 14th infantry division doesn't seem to be on the map.

A. See above.

Q. The map shows the French 9th cavalry division (which is at Waterloo) with a cavalry brigade from the 10th div next to it attached. What formation is this?

A. See above. Ignore the extra cavalry brigade.

Q. There are a total of nine French artillery stands on the map, but seven in the OOB.

A. Ignore the artillery unit in front of the 3rd Cavalry division and one of those in front of the 8th & 11th infantry divisions.

Q. In the Wavre scenario the initial layout of the Prussian troops is confusing. Some are labeled II for Second Corps but no II Corps troops are mentioned in the OB. And the OB lists 9 brigades when the map shows only 8. Where is the other one deployed?

A. Treat all II's as III's. The actual brigade line-up is as follows: The three infantry stands west of Wavre are Stulpnagel's 12th Brigade. The stands in and immediately behind northern Wavre are Kampfen's 11th Brigade. The stand south of the river and the stand on the far east are Luck's 10th Brigade. I omitted the starting position of the 30th Infantry, which should be deployed southwest of La Bavette. Limale is very weakly held. Some sources say that Stengel's detachment was not supposed to be there at all.

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