Piecepack at Waterloo
An historical battle game using the Piecepack game system.
One piecepack set
Four small coins
Using the lined side of the tiles, set up a rectangular grid of 4 by 5 tiles creating a battle map of 8 x 10 squares. The Allied player will sit at one wide end, the French player at the other. Consider the map’s as being labeled from A to H starting at the Allied player’s side. Consider the rows as being labeled from 1 to 10, starting from the Allied player’s right. So the rightmost square on the Allied side of the map is A-1 and the rightmost square on the French side is H-10.
Place a coin, heads side up in Square A-3, this represents the village of Mont St. Jean and is a French objective. Place a second coin, heads side up, in square G-7. This represents the village of Plancenoit, and is the Allied objective.
Place a coin, tails side up, in square E-4. This represents the fortified chateau of Hougoumont and is also a French objective. Place the fourth coin, tails side up, in square G-3. This represents the walled farm of La Haye Saint, also a French objective.
Set aside the following pieces as the order of battle
Allied armies (12 pieces)
Red Pawn: Wellington
Red Star 5: British 1st & 3rd divisions (Cooke and Alten)
Red Star 4: British 5th & 6th divisions (Picton)
Red Star 3: Britsh 2nd & 4th divisions (Clinton)
Red Star 2: Dutch-Belgians and other allies
Red Star blank: Cavalry Reserve (Uxbridge)
Red Star symbol: Hougoumont garrison
Black pawn: Blucher
Black Moon 5: IV Prussian Corps (Bulow)
Black Moon 4: II Prussian Corps: (Pirch)
Black Moon 2: I Prussian Corps (-) (Steinmetz)
Black Moon blank: Prussian cavalry
French Army (11 pieces)
Green Pawn: Napoleon
Blue Pawn: Ney
Green crown 5: Old Guard
Green crown 4: Young Guard
Green crown 2: Guard cavalry
Green crown symbol: Guard artillery
Blue fleur 5: I Corps (D’Erlon)
Blue fleur 4: VI Corps (Lobau)
Blue fleur 3: II Corps (-) (Reille)
Blue fleur 2: II Corps
Blue fleur blank: III & IV Cavalry corps
How to win:
The French with by capturing all three objectives.
The Allies with by capturing their objective, eliminating Napoleon or if the French fail to capture all their objectives in 10 turns.
Allies deploy first.
Set aside the five black pieces, they arrive later as reinforcements.
Place the Red star symbol in Hougoumont. Place the other six red pieces on or next to Hougoumont and La Haye Saint within stacking limits.
French deploy second, within two squares of Plancenoit, but NOT next to any Allied piece.
Sequence of Play:
Advance turn marker
Place an unused marker in square G-1 and advance along the G row. The game ends when the marker moves off the map.
Leaders (pawns) and cavalry units (French green crown 2, all others blank pieces) can move two squares per turn. All other pieces move 1 square. Pieces can move through friendly pieces but must stop when moving next to enemy pieces. Pieces (except leader pawns) that begin a turn next to an enemy piece cannot move. Leader pawns can move their full allowance even when starting next to an enemy piece and need not stop when moving next to one. They cannot move through an enemy piece’s square.
Pieces are kept symbol side up (number side down) at all times except during combat. Players can examine their own pieces at any time, but can only examine enemy pieces during combat.
Normal stacking is one piece per square. Leader pawns can stack with any non-leader piece, but there can be just one leader per square. Symbol pieces (Hougoumont garrison and French Guard artillery) don’t count for stacking. Therefore the maximum number of pieces in a square is three: One regular piece, one symbol piece and one leader pawn.
The player who just moved should designate all attacks by pointing the line on each piece at the target enemy piece. Every piece that starts a combat phase next to an enemy piece must take part in a combat against one of those pieces. More than one piece may attack a single defending piece.
After all attacks have been designated, the attacker may resolve the attacks in any order. To resolve an attack turn over the defending piece and all attacking pieces and add up the respective numerical values. Symbol and blanks are considered “0” at this point.
Roll one combat die plus additional dice as listed below and add those values to the total for the respective side in the combat. Any blanks rolled are considered “0” while each symbol roll allows one numerical result (either a piece value or another die roll at the player’s option) to count double. No numerical result can be more than doubled and excess doubles are lost.
In addition to the base combat roll, a side can roll an additional die for each of the following that applies:
One per eligible leader (Napoleon, Blucher or Ney) taking part in the combat.
One per symbol piece taking part in the combat
One per eligible leader (Napoleon or Wellington) taking part in the combat
One per symbol piece taking part in the combat
One per friendly piece not being attacked by any enemy piece that is next to an attacking piece involved in the combat.
One if the defending piece is in Hougoumont or La Haye Saint.
Napoleon, the Old Guard and Guard artillery in one square and Ney and the cavalry in a second square are attacking Hougoumnt, which has the garrison, the Dutch-Belgians and Wellington. Next to Ney but not being attacked, is the British Cavalry.
The French combat value is “5” (Old Guard) plus the value of three dice (Napoleon, Ney & Guard artillery).
The Allied combat value is “2” (DB) plus the value of four dice (Wellington, Hougoumont garrison, Hougoumont chateau and the unattacked British cavalry next to Ney)
Total the respective numbers, making note of the highest single undoubled numerical result. The higher number wins. Each piece on the losing side is retreated two squares in any direction by the victor, but cannot retreat next to an enemy piece (except for a lone leader). If there is no possible retreat path that does not pass next to an enemy piece other than a lone leader then the retreating piece is eliminated. If the winning side is the attacker then one attacking piece can enter the defending piece’s square. The winning side is entitled to eliminate one enemy piece on the losing side whose numerical value is equal to or less than the highest number rolled among the winning dice. If the results are exactly tied, after all modifiers, then the battle is a stalemate and there is no result.
Combat example continued.
Napoleon and his crew roll a “4,” a “2” and a symbol on their three dice. The French use the symbol to double the French Guard’s “5” so the French total is “16” (French Guard, Guard doubled, the 4 and the 2).
Wellington’s defenders roll symbol, symbol, symbol and 5. They use one symbol to double the 5 and the other to double the 2. The third symbol is wasted) The Allied total is a “14” so they lose. If they had won they could have eliminated either the French Guard or the cavalry because they 5 is equal to or higher than both French pieces. But they lost, so instead the French can eliminate the DB @ and force Wellington and the Hougoumont garrison to retreat two squares.