Way back in 2013 a gang of wargamer mates in the West Country decided we would stage parts of Waterloo in the 200th anniversary year in a different way to the usual, and so the madness of the 1:3 scale refight was born. No not a skirmish game but a conventional style game with battalions and squadrons and each one ranging from 50 to 200 men per unit. Obviously we could not do the whole thing so we settled on the immediate areas round La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont on separate weekends and specially customised terrains about 12 feet by 8 feet. We used about 4500 figures over both games, many figures were used in both but an awful lot were unique.
It seems like history now. I think I collected from scratch about 600-700 of the figures and the rest came from the wonderful collections of Kevin East of Bristol, Paul Davis of Cheltenham, Paul Hollands of Stroud , James Fergusson of Aldershot and Richard Newcombe of Aylesbury. It took over my wargaming life for two years and the follow up - Quatre Bras, another two. I gradually sold off my part of the effort and made way for more 18th century figures. But a few units - prized for their nostalgia, sat on the top shelf awaiting a new life one day, and hopefully now is the time. (see below)
For those who want a bit of a wallow, or for newcomers to the blog, here are a few gratuitous photos of the fantastic 3-day weekend of La Haye Sainte played out in July 2015.
If you want more photos, including close-ups, please take a look at the dedicated "Page" linked from the top of the right hand column of this blog.
Apart from the need to show again one of our greatest achievements this post is an unashamed plug to get you to look at my figures for sale on Ebay. These final ones are several companies of the 95th Rifles, including some rare Alban Miniatures designed by the late, great, Richard Ansell. So if you still have gaps for Riflemen in your Waterloo or Peninsular armies now is the chance to buy a little bit of our West Country wargaming history.
Lot 2 - Perry Miniatures and similar
Lot 3 - 30 figure unit on close order bases
Lot 4 - Rifles mounted officer and other foot command figures
Stunning photos of your massive collection.
ReplyDeleteSuperb collection Chris
ReplyDeleteWow, most beautiful and spectacular pictures!!
ReplyDeleteSuch a spectacular looking game!
ReplyDeleteThanks all. Once I started looking back to help my Ebay adverts I could not resist reviving them for blog fans.
ReplyDeleteLovely to see these pictures again Chris - my favourites are the massed squares and massed cuirassiers (spell check want to turn them into classifiers though!) Best wishes for the sale
ReplyDeleteYes my favourites too, I loved the nostalgic look back on a great event. Not many watchers on the Ebay sales which surprises me, maybe the 95th Rifles are losing their appeal........Oh I see there is a new Sharpe novel out - "Sharpe's Assassin"!
DeleteWonderfully impressive event! Those masses of troops really give do an impression of the real thing, as we imagine it might have been. No piddling little units there... ;-)
ReplyDeleteYes indeed! Once we realised we could supplement our existing collections with two years concentrated work we got there (I did have one 40-50 figure squadron of cuirassiers not done by he event though....were they missed I wonder?)
DeleteThat was a huge amount of work - but obviously worth it. :-) Good luck with the sale.
DeleteCan't ever have too many photos of your wonderful, wonderful 1:3 Waterloo campaign games Chris!
ReplyDeleteI was saddened to see the title of the post, but they will get to fight another day with now owner(s), so that is grand.
Regards, James
Thanks James for your continued support for my blog, and for that project at the time. Don't be sad at the sale as it is just making more room on my shelves for something else-18mm Napoleonics is the current interest. BUT, I might have to put them in boxes as I haven't sold them yet; some lots have been relisted at bargain prices for example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125024542298
DeleteYou, Kevin 'the Pauls' and James gave us such great viewing pleasure; and inspiration.
DeleteI am so pleased that you are not getting out of Napoleonics. I can cancel the ambulance!!
Being 28 mm, the figures are not for me, but I have alerted a friend here, in case he's not seen your post, so you never know...
I'm sure that such lovely figures as these will be snapped up. As with everything, just need the correct buyer to see them!
All the best, James
That's good of you thank you. If that ambulance was for me they'd be lucky to find my out-of-the-way Cotswold idyll we have to steer most newcomers here by phone! But Napoleonics is in the blood - it is how I started proper wargaming and probably how I will die with it too! - clutching my Marshal's baton hopefully......
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