Friday, March 13, 2015

Young Generals Have At It

My military history class has moved on from the American War for Independence to the wars of Napoleon. The way I structure our case studies, I show the students a period film (in this case, Waterloo), we do secondary readings (some of them excerpts from Atkins' Waterloo Companion), then we play a simulation game while the students write a mini-research essay critiquing some aspect of the film.  Today, we began our scaled down version of Waterloo with my 28's.  The buildings may look like Spanish, but don't be fooled. I razed Le Haye Sainte and Hougumont, as I don't want to have to deal with fortification rules with novice players.  The rules themselves are a slightly modified Black Powder.  Since they are the same rules as we used for the AWI, the kids were ready to run once they learned how to form square.

Team France. Or "Team Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" if you prefer

Team Sharpe Britain. No Brunswickers of Dutch-Belgians in sight, and heavens knows when the Prussians will arrive.
The ritual smack-talking
Riding through fur is fun!
"Sir, we're the Old Guard! Should we be leading the attack?"
"Silence, Private. We're a diversion. Or something."  
Heavy cavalry apparently prefer the just-out-of-focus look.
The column prepares to move. Let's blame the soft focus on battlefield haze and artillery smoke.
"Hold the line, you blackguards! You scum! you villains!...Oh, I say! Did my top hat always have a hole just there?"

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