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Please Note: This blog contains poorly painted toy soldiers that may offend those of an aesthetically sensitive disposition.

Monday, 7 July 2025

General Wells - An early defeat

 

The General, from H G Well's Little Wars, has been my Army Blue Leader for some years. Here follows a brief description of an early battle from his illustrious career in which he was defeated - it has to be brief as the General doesn't like to dwell on it.

Battlefield promotion to the first reader to spot the actual field of battle

Army Blue arrived from the South; their objective, to push through the defending Army Red (advance 4 units across Red's baseline). Red has reinforcements arriving (on a die roll) between turns 7 and 9; Blue has an additional unit arriving on turn 7 and another on turn 8.

Red established his defence on a ridge

Red's Light Infantry hold the LH BUA and hold out for a LONG time

Blue manages to get a unit across Red's line (top left) but otherwise is struggling

Red is reinforced on turn 7 by 3 regiments from Army Black (top right)

Blue is unable to break through despite his own reinforcements

A few holes have appeared in Red's line but Blue is unable to capitalize on them
General Wells admits defeat and withdraws.

A nice scenario and a tough nut to crack for Blue - thanks to Old Trousers for the inspiration regarding turning this battlefield into a grid. David Crook has also played this battle on a grid and you can find details on his blog.

13 comments:

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    1. Fantastic observation from the recently promoted Major Dury of the West Midland Fusiliers

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  2. I had the same thought when I saw those black dudes wafting onto the board. Waterloo seems to come in all sorts of sizes...
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Cheers Ion! This was my first ever try at Waterloo; I'd been put off before by the scale of the thing

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  3. I love the simplicity of this game; PW rules and Risk miniatures. A really neat setup. Great battle report too.

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    1. Thanks Roger - it's somewhere between a Tabletop game and a Boardgame!

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  4. Another great report there, MJT 🙂👍🏼. I assume General Wells is currently boarding a ship for St. Helena?

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    1. Cheers Martin! I'm sure General Wells will bounce back

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  5. Surprised to find General Wells commanding the French forces! Or did he have delusions of grandeur and dreamed of being the Napoleon of Notting Hill?

    But a very entertaining battle report in which you demonstrate - once again! - that, contrary to what some wargamers would have us believe, it is not necessary to have elaborately painted figures and diorama standard terrain to enjoy a great battle game. Bravo!

    I wonder how this would play out using the original Little Wars rules? Would a massed battery of Britains 4.7 inch guns opposite the enemy centre be an effective tactic?

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    1. Thank you Arthur, and that really would be a Grande Batterie!!
      I do imagine General Wells as a bit of a tyrant, though loved (and feared) by his men.. Any resemblance to Old Boney's downfall, however, is purely intentional.

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  6. Nice take on Waterloo. I try do do something every year to commemorate the great battle. This year was a pike and shot battle using the Dominion rules.
    As for general Wells, it is often said we learn more from our mistakes and failures...

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    1. Cheers Mark. This was my first try at Waterloo as a tabletop game - I had the Palitoy 1975 Battle of Waterloo boardgame which I played many times solo - the French always won!!
      Very true about learning from our mistakes, I'm still learning every day!

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  7. I’m not so sure about the Abba song, I was thinking more Talking Heads. My (patently deficient) eyesight initially thought the line of unpainted MDF squares at the top of the grid looked like a “Road to Nowhere”. That confused the heck out of me, until I read further down and realised it actually represented a ridge line. D’oh 😉
    I’m sure General Wells can console himself that even the Corsican Ogre didn’t managed to achieve victory here.
    Cheers,
    Geoff

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