 | |
| Designers | Thomas Shaw |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Avalon Hill |
| Publication | 1962 |
| Genres | Napoleonic board wargame |
Waterloo is a Napoleonic board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1963 that simulates the Battle of Waterloo. It was one of the first board wargames produced and despite its lack of historicity and complexity, it still received positive comments more than twenty years later as a fun and playable game, and remained in Avalon Hill's catalogue until 1990.
When Napoleon returned from 11 months of exile on Elba in 1815, the powers that had defeated him the previous year quickly formed the Seventh Coalition and mobilized large armies to march on Paris. Napoleon believed his only hope of success was to quickly take on each opposing army individually and defeat them piecemeal. As the first step, Napoleon marched into Belgium, hoping to defeat the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Dutch force before it could rendezvous with the Prussian army under Marshal Blucher. [1]
Waterloo is a two-player wargame in which one player takes the role of Napoleon, and the other controls the Allied forces. The game is played on a mounted hex grid map of the Belgian countryside.
The game begins as Napoleon crosses over into Belgium at 7:00 a.m. on 16 June 1815, and simulates the skirmishes and battles over the next five days, culminating in the Battle of Waterloo. At the start of the game, the French have a larger army, but will receive no reinforcements. The smaller Allied armies will receive significant reinforcements later in the game. Players are allowed to stack infantry units in one hex up to 15 combat factors. Game designer Frank Chadwick noted that the stacking rules "Though primitive by today's standards, are nevertheless revolutionary in that they provide the first use of stacking points [in board wargaming] that I have been able to discover." [2]
The simple game mechanics use a standard "I Go, You Go" format, where the French player moves and then attacks, followed by the Allies, completing one game turn, which represents two hours of the battle. The game ends after 30 turns. Although leaders are represented by individual counters, they have no effect on play. [3]
If a French unit moves off the north edge of the board towards Brussels, the Allied player must remove one Allied unit from the board in a process known as "defection." [4]
The 30-turn campaign is the only game provided, although Avalon Hill published a number of alternate scenarios in various issues of their house magazine, The General . [4]
The French player wins by eliminating all Allied units either through combat or defection before the end of the last turn. The Allied player wins by either preventing the French victory conditions, or by eliminating all French units.
After Charles S. Roberts incorporated The Avalon Hill Games Company in 1958, he hired Thomas Shaw to design games. One of Shaw's first wargames was Waterloo, published in 1962. Some players complained the game was unbalanced and some rules were ambiguous, and to address these concerns, a second edition was designed by Lindsey Schultz and released in 1978. Although the game was never a bestseller like other "classic" Avalon Hill games such as Gettysburg and Afrika Korps , [5] Avalon Hill continued to sell Waterloo until 1990. [6]
In a 1976 poll conducted by SPI to determine the most popular board wargames in North America, Waterloo only placed 136th out of 202 games. [7] In a poll conducted the same year by Avalon Hill to determine the popularity of their own products, Waterloo placed 19th out of 25 Avalon Hill products. [7]
In the 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming , Nicky Palmer thought the game offered "plenty of excitement and action as usual" and noted that the second edition would "eliminate some of the oddities" of the first edition rules. However, Palmer found the game "weak on realism, especially with the absence of a special role for artillery." [7]
In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames , game designer Jon Freeman commented "Waterloo is the spiritual progenitor of all the operational Napoleonic-era simulations. It is first and foremost a game, and French combat factors were modified for play balance." Freeman concluded by giving the game an Overall Evaluation of Good, saying, "While it is seriously lacking in realism, the game captures something of the feel of the period and remains fun to play." [4]
In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion commented "Among avid players of wargames, Waterloo is known as a 'classic', which means that it has little claim to historical accuracy but that it is old and fun to play." [8]
In a retrospective reviews in Issue 52 of the wargaming magazine Moves (August–September 1980), Ian Chadwick noted that the 18-year-old game "is a far cry from state-of-the-art ... As with many early wargames, the map leaves much to be desired." Chadwick also believed "There is little historical accuracy in either map set-up or counters ... this was the first of many Waterloo games in which opposing armies formed more or less solid fronts across the board, quite unlike the real battle and more WW2 than Napoleonic." Despite these problems, Chadwick concluded "Despite the lack of realism, the boring graphics, and the distance the game is removed from reality, it is still playable, balanced game. It is hard to be seriously angry at one of the grandfathers of modern wargames." Chadwick awarded grades of B- for playability, C for historical accuracy, and D for component quality. [3]
In Issue 7 of the French games magazine Casus Belli , Henri Gregoire wrote a retrospective review twenty years after the game's original publication and admitted "It is a classic and is of interest only to the collector. The map, which is far from perfect as in most old games, and a very 'approximately' historical simulation, are the main criticisms." Despite this, Gregoire concluded, "But it is a well-balanced game, pleasant to play." [9]
Henry Lowood, writing in Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming, noted that for its early games, Avalon Hill did not develop a house set of rules to be used and reused in different games. On the contrary, Waterloo and other early Avalon Hill games "stood alone, covering a single conflict situation with a bespoke system, components and rules. They were fixed on a single topic." [10]
A copy of Waterloo is held in the collection of the Strong National Museum of Play (object 112.6921). [11]
Napoleon, subtitled "The Waterloo Campaign, 1815", is a strategic-level block wargame published by Gamma Two Games in 1974 that simulates the Battle of Waterloo. A number of versions of the game have been produced by Avalon Hill and Columbia Games.
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Napoleon's Last Battles is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications in 1976 that simulates the last four battles fought by Napoleon. It was one of SPI's most popular games, and also received many positive reviews.
Wellington's Victory: Battle of Waterloo – 18 June 1815 is a board wargame simulation of the Battle of Waterloo, originally published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1976.
Arcola, The Battle for Italy 1796 is a board wargame published by Operational Studies Group (OSG) in 1979 and republished by Avalon Hill in 1983 that is a simulation of the Battle of Arcola between French and Austrian forces in 1796. The game was designed to tempt players to purchase OSG's previously published and larger wargame Napoleon in Italy.
Napoleon at Bay, subtitled "Prelude to Waterloo: The Campaign in France, 1814", is a board wargame published by Tactical Studies Group/Operational Studies Group in 1978 that is a simulation of Napoleon's attempts to keep the Allies out of Paris in the early months of 1814.
La Grande Armée, subtitled "The Campaigns of Napoleon in Central Europe", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1972 that simulates three campaigns of Napoleon.
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Napoleon at Waterloo is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1971 that simulates the Battle of Waterloo. The game, which features simple rules, was designed as an introduction to board wargaming, and was given as a free gift with each subscription to SPI's Strategy & Tactics magazine.
La Belle Alliance: The Battle of Waterloo is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1976 that simulates the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. It was one of four games that were published as part of the "quadrigame" titled Napoleon's Last Battles, but was also released as an individual "folio game", packaged in a shrinkwrapped cardboard folio.
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Quatre Bras: Stalemate on the Brussels Road is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1976 that simulates the Battle of Quatre Bras, one of the engagements leading to the Battle of Waterloo. Quatre Bras was originally published as one of four games in the popular collection Napoleon's Last Battles, but was also released as an individual game.
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Napoleon's Art of War is a collection of two board wargames published in 1979 by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) that simulate Napoleonic battles.
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