Game Reports

Battle of Quatre Bras 2005

Posted by Cryns on 27 Feb 2016, 12:17

On special request of Thomas Mischak:

Some 11 year old pics of a two days lasting game for 5 players using the WRG gaming rules set, representing the Battle of Quatre Bras, taking place in Amsterdam in 2005, occupying our living room for many days with my wifes furniture stored under the battlefield :shock: since I have no garage like mr. Dodson, no attick like Emperor and no hotel available like Wolfgang. :(

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Only historic starting positions and march directions were used. After starting the game, every player was free to do what seemed best for his army corps in trying to occupy or defend the crossroads.

Dutch, Belgian and Nassau:

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Armies are painted by four different gamers in a period between 1984 and 2005. Most are Airfix, Esci and Hat plastics, some are metal figures.

The French:

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We used batallions of 48 to 60 men each because the usual 16 men batallions look silly, even for a gaming-setting like this. This means an infantry base contains 12 men in stead of the usual 4 and tirailleurs have 3 on a base.

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We tried to stay as close as possible to the historical army composition and numbers and types of batallions, cavalry regiments and batteries present in this battle. Using batallions of approx. 50 men each this makes a ratio of 1:10.

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The gentle slopes and valleys of the Quatre Bras landscape were imitated by placing hundreds of foam blocks, books and paperboxes under the tablecloth.

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Buildings are partly the usual Airfix conversions and partly scratch build.

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The buildings making the 105 degrees angle corner that is so typical for this crossroad were especially built for this wargame, based on some internet pictures, though in fact those buildings may be build many decades after the battle took place.

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The 'chopped off' rooftop-angles of the large barns and stables are typical for the local rural architecture.

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These buildings are made of brick-textured plastic and rubber sheets and plastic rooftile and slate roof texture card.

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A scratch build model of La Belle Alliance is used here too.

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The typical Belgian slate tiles on this roof are handcut heavy paper so that is why they are so large.

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Ferme de Gemioncourt has, by my own mistake, the main living house on the northern corner of the complex in stead of the south-eastern wing where it is actually situated today. I never visited this battlefield myself, and when building this model there was poor visual information available on the internet.

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Bois du Bossu

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Thomas I found your post about plans to demolish some of the historic Quatre Bras buildings. I also have seen Benno’s pictures of your great, colorfull Waterloo diorama. Does it still excist?

And the main question to you: are you working on a large Quatre Bras diorama?
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by Kekso on 27 Feb 2016, 14:06

Second photo reminds me of Seinfeld episode when they played pool in George Costanza's parent's house. Room was so small :D If you don't know what I'm talking about here's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCTJeaDHaB8

Great photos Mr.Cryns, thanks for posting :thumbup:
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by Emperor on 27 Feb 2016, 15:09

I have also a garage and a room for washing machine...Anyway great pictures, tell us about making of game board a little...What material did you used for terrain and so on...
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Posted by Bramble15 on 27 Feb 2016, 15:19

@KEKSO - great call on the Seinfeld reference! All time favorite.

I am always amazed when posts like this are presented. So much detail and effort placed into everything from the figures to the landscape. Soooo many figures. Well done. Thanks for sharing this!
Bramble15  United States of America
 
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Posted by Cryns on 27 Feb 2016, 18:26

Kekso wrote: Seinfeld episode when they played pool in George Costanza's parent's house.


Kekso :o :-) :-D :P thanks for sending Seinfeld! In my house it was worse. Those pool playing guys have still their sofa available to sit on. Mine was under the table being part of the construction. The walkway around the landscape was so narrow we could not pass each other. So first someone had to step out onto the balcony before the other player could pass. :drool: Sitting was only possible in another room: the kitchen.

Emperor wrote:tell us about making of game board a little...What material did you used for terrain and so on...


Emperor, this is a lightweight gaming table construction. :-D
In our 50m2 Amsterdam city center house (17th century standards for living space!) we have no place for storing decent tables. :(
Basic construction is our dining table and a double seated sofa.
On top of these a loose frame of 10 lightweight 3cm x 2cm pinewood beams of 2 m length each..
On top of that 10 lightweight 8mm sound and shock-absorbing floor panels (the green pulp stuff used under carpets)
On top of that lots of boxes containing the plastic figures I will never get to paint in the rest of my life :xd: and my 1984 polystyrene hills, now too ugly to face the daylight :oops: , all of this for creating valleys and hills.
On top of that 2 canvasses fastened temporarily together with pins.
I made these canvases in 1985 when I was 15 years old.
One side of each of them is desert.
The other sides are green pasture.
Both sides carry lots of gouache and acrylic paint, wallpaper adhesive, white glue, birdcage sand, fine gravel, synthetic grass fibre and colored sawdust. Stuff from the eighties and recent stuff all mingled into a lively field.
Especially all that glue on both sides makes the canvasses heavy and stiff. But still soft enough to get into shape with the slopes under them.
So I have one set of canvasses for both the Middle East (Ancient) and Northern Europe (Ancient and Napoleonic).
The roads are grey sawdust powder applied for this event only which is removed after the game.
These canvasses are stored being rolled up around a huge 2m carton poster roll I found between the trash on the street.

Last year I covered the green pasture side of both canvasses with a dense new layer of micro fibre. It looks much better now than during Quatre Bras.
You can see this result (same table, same room, same canvasses) at the page 1 bottom of my Ancient German River Fleet topic from 17 november 2015. (I don't know how to make a fast link, can anybody tell me?) Here you can see the floor panels too creating the table surface.
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by Emperor on 27 Feb 2016, 18:50

Great diorama... :-D
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Posted by Peter on 27 Feb 2016, 19:00

Thanks for sharing! Looks fantastic! And it's a funny report.

Just copy and paste the internet adress on top.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18180

bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18180 (here I took away the http:// part, so you can see what I mean ;-) )
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by C M Dodson on 28 Feb 2016, 09:42

Thank you for posting these pictures. This is an impressive effort especially with the limited space available. And I thought my wife was understanding !
C M Dodson  United Kingdom
 
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Posted by Thomas Mischak on 28 Feb 2016, 12:26

Dear Mr. Cryns,

thank you for the pictures.
A lot of work and very impressive - for "only" a Wargaming Szenario...

I am sorry but I have not the time for a "Quatre Bras Project".

My "small diorama" needs a lot of time - new figures, rebuilding figures, rebuilding the landscape
and many more...

Here are two "articles" about the diorama:

http://www.nw.de/lokal/bielefeld/mitte/ ... -nach.html

http://www.nw.de/fotos/bielefeld/204856 ... -nach.html

Sorry - only in German...

And I have my own figures (Dutch Wounded, French Sugeons and ADC´s) at "HAGEN-MINIATUREN":

http://www.hagen-miniatures.de/index.php/en/

If you want more pictures (informations) - please send me a mail:

thomar@01019freenet.de

Greetings
Thomas
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Thomas Mischak  Germany
 
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Posted by Beano Boy on 28 Feb 2016, 12:33

Massed Formations! Splendid Play! BB
Beano Boy  England
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Posted by Cryns on 01 Mar 2016, 12:19

Thomas I read your articles, German is no problem for me at all, the pictures are fantastic. The text is good for the audience of readers but has not much new information for specialists like us. Most remarkable is you are renting a basement for your hobby! Is your house too small or is your family tired of battling? :-D

Two things got my special attention when watching the pics:
The joyful, bright colors of figures and landscape as a whole. Looks beautiful. Almost too beautiful for a grim event like a battle. But I love it a lot anyway.
The other thing is your buildings: you paid very much attention to it. Hougomont, la Haye Sainte, La Belle Alliance, it all looks great. Are these prefab or scratch build houses? Close to the real measurements of what these buildings are like in reality, they are pretty large and occupy much of your battlefield.

Interesting for mister Dodson too, to see how little space is left between La Haye Sainte and Hougomont. So the French heavy cavalry had little space to deploy before they ended up at their recent position in front of the carrees. Dodson is starting a discussion in the other section of this forum about this kind of questions and I think that would be very interesting for you too.

So it looks like you need a bigger battlefield! Is there more space in that basement?

Thomas Mischak wrote:
My "small diorama" needs a lot of time - new figures, rebuilding figures, rebuilding the landscape


What are you planning to rebuild?

And are you open to hear some more suggestions and critics?

Kindest regards,

Mr. Cryns
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by Thomas Mischak on 01 Mar 2016, 17:01

Hello Mr. Cryns,

thank you for answer.

At my home I have the other figures (FIRST LEGION, DEL PRADO and more) - no place
for the small soldiers.

The buildings are the first buildings from Mr. Najewitz. They are to small - not size 1:72 -
please look here - the right size:

http://www.lasermodellbau.de/index.php/ ... iew/56/691

Only "Papelotte" is "scratch build" from me and a friend of mine.

The "battlefield" has 24 square-metres - it´s enough for one old man.

I want the rebuild some landscape and old troops - other (better) paintings or
new figures. My next - and last big project is "the 5th British Division (Picton,Kempt,Pack,Vincke).

My landscape is a "compromise" because the troops are better standing in this way...

Please tell me your suggestions and critics...

Bye
Thomas
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Thomas Mischak  Germany
 
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