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Waterloo – The name is synonymous with utter and total defeat, due to what can arguably be the biggest event of 1815. Without going into too much historical background, this was the site of Napoleon Bonaparte’s last battle against the combined might of the Anglo-Allied forces arrayed against France. Even to this day, the subject of Waterloo provides great fodder for debate, especially between historians who like discussing “what if?” scenarios. Could the French have actually won Waterloo if certain variables were different? What would have happened if the Prussians had arrived earlier to help the British forces? What would have happened if Napoleon hadn’t hesitated in his initial attack? Wargamers who have wondered about these things now have a chance to test their theories in Breakaway Games’ latest wargame called Waterloo (surprise surprise!).

Waterloo can best be described as a real-time tactical wargame on a grand scale, similar to Sid Meier’s Gettysburg of a few years ago. In fact, one of the reasons why Waterloo has more than a passing resemblance to Gettysburg is because they are both made by the same developer and in light of this, it comes to no surprise that another reason why they look and play so similar is because Waterloo utilizes an updated Gettysburg engine. Offering over 30 speculative and historical scenarios in sizes ranging from small to massive, Waterloo should give anyone that picks it up quite a bang for the buck. Should you tire of the premade scenarios however, a limited battle generator is provided for your use. I say limited because it doesn’t let you place your men where you want them (only the battlefield), and it’s actually quite hard to use. Thus, while the battle generator is great for making a few quick battles to play, don’t expect to be able to make large detailed scenarios.

Assuming control of either side of the conflict in each scenario, players command units that are historically appropriate for the time. This actually provides a nice change of pace and atmosphere from the usual unit-churning, click-fest games that have flooded the market these days. No more space marines, aliens, and the high tech weapons that almost invariably accompany these usual suspects. What you have instead are massive columns of soldiers that line up and fire against each other at short ranges, devastating cavalry charges where these soldiers were cut down in droves by horsemen wielding wicked swords, and bombardment from inaccurate artillery that caused as much psychological as physical damage when it did hit its mark. Thus, in order to conduct this in-your-face type of combat, players are given the various types of infantry, cavalry and artillery that were at a commander’s disposal at around the time of Waterloo.

For starters, the backbone of any army in those days was by far the infantryman. These soldiers could be and were often organized into different kinds of units for different roles on the battlefield. On one extreme were “light” infantry units (sometimes referred to as “skirmishers”). Sometimes these units were armed with rifles, which had more accuracy and a longer range than the standard musket but took longer to load. In addition, these units were not required to adhere to any rigid formation and thus were able to spread out and take cover. For these reasons, “light” infantry units were well suited for hit and run purposes as well as for softening up enemy formations at long range before the “regular” or “line” infantry units arrived to finish the job. These “line” infantry units were so-called because they stood around in line-abreast formation when deployed, and were the brave souls who provided most of the manpower for any army. At the other extreme were the “heavy” infantry units or “grenadiers.” These acted as shock troopers that were often first on the battlefield. To supplement the infantry, cavalry units were deployed. Like the infantry, there were several types of cavalry. Light cavalry was used to conduct skirmish actions, harass the enemy in general, or to chase routed units. Charging the enemy however, was usually relegated to heavy cavalry. These heavier units relied on their weight and momentum to disrupt enemy formations. Finally, artillery was used to support the troops in battle. These also came in several different types that either fired in trajectories or were direct fire. The types of ammunition that these artillery units used also came in different flavours as well. These ranged from the standard round shot that did its damage by ricocheting everywhere (killing whoever got in its way), to the shorter ranged cannister shots that sent musket bullets everywhere in a shotgun-like effect.

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