Waterloo Project Update - Mats, Buildings and Basing!

Major basing operations in this project have been completed :-)  I've added 21 infantry units, 12 cavalry units, 5 artillery batteries, 12 commanders, 9 limber teams, ambulance, field forge, staff, 60 casualties, and other odds and ends since September.  All done!

The mats arrived yesterday from the most excellent David Skibicki.  I immediately ran out back and deployed them on my deck to get a picture.  Then I jammed the whole dang thing in my garage!  I put the buildings out to see how everything sized up.  All in all it came out perfect!  All I really have to do is modify the entrance road/area to Hougoumont - which will not be hard at all.

I also got new French hit/morale markers in --- double sided with 1-10 on one side and 11-20 on the other ... whoot!  It is all coming together.

I'm shifting my focus over to the farms now.  I need to do the interior yards for all three.  I also need to cut the foam for the hills. 

The mats are just roughly assembled so I can get an idea of deployments and any minor modifications I have to do ... the detail layers are not done ... so these are WIP pictures ...

The mats assembled on my deck.

Papelotte.

Oooo ... ahhhh.

More work to do on the farms, gates, yards ...

A few hots of completed troops ...

D-Erlon's Corps

French heavy cavalry.

Some of the extras.

Light cavalry for Reille's Corps.

New double-sided markers for tracking
hits, 1-10 and 11-20.

Next I need to get the French and allied forces deployed in their positions.  The Dutch-Belgians are still getting based so I'll have to sub in some units for them for this setup (they'll be done for the convention).  Getting there.

Waterloo Project Update - New Guard Units Completed

The march towards Waterloo continues - with light at the end of the tunnel!  I already had completed units of Young Guard and Old Guard Foot Artillery before heading down this path.  I plan to add a unit of Middle Guard in the future (ordered from Perry, but will not be done in time for DundraCon).

In the mean time, I've taken pictures of the completed units that fill out the "Guard Corps" for Waterloo.  I'm really happy with how these all came out - I've always wanted an excuse to do all the cool looking French guard units, but until now I really couldn't justify the time and effort to do it.

Pictures below ...

Old Guard Chasseur a Pied

Old Guard Chasseur a Pied

Old Guard Grenadiers

Old Guard Grenadiers

Marines of the Guard

Marines of the Guard

Empress Dragoons

Empress Dragoons

Grenadiers a Cheval

Grenadiers a Cheval

Guard Chasseurs a Cheval

Guard Chasseurs a Cheval

Guard Lancers

Guard Lancers

Guard Horse Artillery

Guard Horse Artillery

Guard Horse Artillery

In other news, the talented and most excellent David Skibicki has completed the Waterloo mats and posted a couple of pictures up on his blog (http://spudnick080.blogspot.com).  Re-posted below ... I have to say David really outdid himself on these mats - they look great!  They arrive next Thursday and I'll promptly be getting all the terrain staged on it (everything on the terrain front is complete).

You can see a picture of the scenario map below ... great to see it put into reality.

Scenario map - oriented in line
with the picture below.

Oriented with the map above.  Papelotte
would be int eh rectangular clearing
on the nearest edge.

Looking from the other side.  Hougoumont
would be in the near side clearing.

Steady progress is continuing.  I'm down to just 18 line/light infantry units that are on bases, but still need to be textured, painted and static grass/tufted.  The end is nigh!

Empires at War Napoleonic Rules v3.0

Hey all.  With Waterloo pending I've gotten around to getting all my major updates into the Empires at War (EaW) rules.  I am starting to work on the army lists that go along with this - which will likely lead to the addition of some more special rules.

One major conclusion that I've come to is that the Kings of War morale system - while interesting - just doesn't work well for morale.  It is very static and doesn't account for many situations.  I decided a different approach was needed for morale and leverage the method I've used for issuing orders to units.  I really happy with the updates - especially since a major task was to make it easier to use the quick sheets (e.g. consolidate commonly used info into tables).

If you want to check out the rules you can download them from here.

Waterloo Project - More Battlefield Extras

More progress this week and a quick post to cover it.  I finished all the initial battlefield extras that I wanted to get done for Waterloo.  Now I need to get back to finishing basing infantry and cavalry units.  Pictures below of a few things:  artillery crews working to replace the barrel on a gun chassis (howitzer), an ammunition caisson, and Napoleon's personal staff.

Still waiting on word that the mats have shipped - looks like I'll not have them or the weekend.  I did order 12 additional volley fire lights from Warlord games (I have 16 now ... so this brings me up to 28).  I originally used regular cotton balls for the lights, but pillow cotton is lighter, reflects the lights better, and maintains shape better.  So, I'll try to replace the original lights cotton and get the new lights done.  So ... much ... to ... do!

Anywho ... pictures below.