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Every game since Karl started keeping the club's records on his computer in January of last year. The earlier ones are in a loose-leaf binder in my basement, and I will type them in one winter. For each battle I give the real date and outcome, then what happened on our table. The big battles took two Saturdays. There was no game in July of 1998, when Barbara and I were at our daughter's in Ohio for the birth of our third grandchild, and the club, to its credit, did not meet without the host's terrain. Each battle is marked [as in history] if the side that won in reality won on our table, [reversed] if the other side won, and [drawn] if neither did. |
| January 10, 1998 | Talavera [as in history] July 27-28, 1809: Wellesley's Anglo-Spanish army held. Our game: The allies held the Cerro de Medellin, as Wellesley did. Robert's French attacked it four times. |
| February 14, 1998 | Ligny [as in history] June 16, 1815: Napoleon beat Blücher. Our game: Gordon's Prussians held the villages until the Guard went in at dusk. History, to the minute. |
| March 14, 1998 | Austerlitz, part one [continued] December 2, 1805: Napoleon beat the Russians and Austrians. Our game: The Allies marched into the trap in the south, slower than they did in 1805. |
| April 11, 1998 | Austerlitz, part two [as in history] Our game: The Pratzen fell to Soult's divisions. A French victory, as it should be. |
| May 9, 1998 | Albuera [reversed] May 16, 1811: Beresford's allies held, at terrible cost. Our game: Reversed. The French took the ridge and held it. Alton, as Beresford, has not forgiven the dice. |
| June 13, 1998 | Marengo [as in history] June 14, 1800: Napoleon won after Desaix arrived. Our game: Desaix arrived on the die at 5 p.m. and the Austrians broke. History repeated. |
| August 8, 1998 | Busaco [as in history] September 27, 1810: Wellington held the ridge. Our game: Masséna's columns could not take the ridge, in 1810 or in my basement. |
| September 12, 1998 | Friedland [reversed] June 14, 1807: Napoleon beat Bennigsen. Our game: Reversed. Bennigsen got back across the river with his army intact, and Robert's Russians lived to fight again. |
| October 10, 1998 | Salamanca [as in history] July 22, 1812: Wellington beat Marmont. Our game: Wellington's attack on the strung-out French went in exactly as it did in 1812. |
| November 14, 1998 | Eylau [drawn] February 7-8, 1807: a bloody draw in the snow. Our game: A draw in the snow. We turned off the basement lights for the snowstorm, which was a mistake. |
| December 12, 1998 | Maida (the Christmas game) [reversed] July 4, 1806: Stuart's British beat Reynier. Our game: Reversed. A small battle for a short day. Reynier won it, and Karl will tell you how. |
| January 9, 1999 | Aspern-Essling [as in history] May 21-22, 1809: Archduke Charles beat Napoleon. Our game: The Danube bridges broke on the die, and Archduke Charles won again. |
| February 13, 1999 | Wagram, part one [continued] July 5-6, 1809: Napoleon beat Archduke Charles. Our game: The first day: the Austrians held along the Russbach. |
| March 13, 1999 | Wagram, part two [as in history] Our game: The second day: the great battery and Macdonald's column did it. A French victory. |
| April 10, 1999 | Vitoria [as in history] June 21, 1813: Wellington beat Joseph Bonaparte. Our game: Joseph's army fell apart, as it did, and left its baggage behind, as it did. |
| May 8, 1999 | Lützen [reversed] May 2, 1813: Napoleon beat the Russians and Prussians. Our game: Reversed. Gordon's Prussians and Robert's Russians beat the Emperor, and they are still talking about it. |
| June 12, 1999 | Waterloo (every June) [as in history] June 18, 1815: Wellington and Blücher beat Napoleon. Our game: Our sixth Waterloo. Wellington held, the Prussians came, and this time La Haye Sainte held out all day, which it did not in 1815. |
| July 10, 1999 | Borodino, part one [continued] September 7, 1812: Napoleon took the field; Kutuzov withdrew. Our game: The first half: the fight for the flèches and the Great Redoubt. |
| August 14, 1999 | Borodino, part two [drawn] Our game: Called at nightfall with the Great Redoubt in French hands and the Russians unbroken. A draw. |
| September 11, 1999 | Quatre Bras [drawn] June 16, 1815: Wellington held the crossroads. Our game: A draw. The allies held the crossroads, d'Erlon cut the Namur road. Full report. |
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The Tally Seventeen battles in twenty Saturdays:
History repeats itself on our table a little more than half the time. I find that reassuring on two counts. It suggests the rules and the research are sound. It also suggests that the men who fought these battles were not simply following a script, and that the outcome could have gone another way more often than the textbooks let on. That was what I tried to teach for thirty-four years, and it is what I still believe. |
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Coming up: Jena and Auerstedt on Saturday, October 9; then, if Maurice finishes his hills, the Pyramids in November, for which Robert has been painting Mamelukes since spring. December is the Christmas game, small and short, and not yet chosen. |
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