Stripped Down for Parts: Hougoumont: Key to Waterloo, 18 June 1815

 

 

I haven’t been playing much lately, but that hasn’t stopped me thinking about (or ordering some) games. I recently grabbed a couple of titles from the good folks at The War Library, one of which was a very small footprint Napoleonic game from Decision, Hougoumont: Key to Waterloo (Decision Games, 2021). Decision produces a swarth cheaper, smaller map games in two standardised sizes, the Folio Series of games in the industry standard (roughly 8 1/2” by 11”), and the Mini Game Series, which come half that size again. Both series come in zip-loc bags to keep the cost down.

The tag-line for Decision’s Mini Game Series is: “Minutes to learn. Quick to play. Historically accurate.” Opinions vary on the veracity of these claims from game to game. Even though they are relatively cheap (about US$15.00 each from the publisher, but often cheaper in multi-buys), you should always do your due diligence before committing to buying a new game.

I’d been wavering on getting Hougoumont for a while; what sold me was Matt White’s review of the game on his YouTube channel. As well as being a game designer himself, Matt presents excellent reviews and play-throughs (with a focus on solo playability). I’d recommend everyone go watch this for a look at how the game plays out.

It's in the bag. (Note the colour of the cover cardis misrepresented here;
 it's is actually much closer to a mauve in hue.

The cover panel for the game is in the standard trade dress for Decision’s Mini Game series. The background colour denotes the historical era the game in question: purple for Napoleonic, Blue for American Civil War, A lighter blue for Modern era theatres, grey for WWI, khaki green for WWII. This simple colour recognition system is also used for this also used in Decision’s Folio series of Ziploc bagged games.

The cover panel also features the quite recognisable painting, Defence of the Chateau de Hougoumont by the British artist, Denis Dighton (1792 - 1827). There is no mistaking what you’re getting yourself into with the presentation.

Back cover. These are loose card sheets but actually help to
protect the contents from undue folding or scrunching.

The Back cover offers a paragraph on the historical situation, then explains the mechanical scope of the game – an addition to the Musket & Sabre series – and goes on to offer some insight into the importance of combined arms and situational awareness for both sides. The information panel tells us that it is indeed a two-player game (though it’s rated Medium for solitaire suitability). As for the scale of the game, the hexes are 176 yards across, and the units are battalion to brigade in size, and the game should run between sixty and ninety minutes in length.

Series rules (six pages).

The Musket & Sabre come in at just six pages, albeit in quite small font – I had to resort to a trusty magnifying glass on a couple of occasions. Font-size aside, the rules are easy enough to read and digest (no pun intended). The rules come folded in half, as does the sheet of scenario rules. They’re fine out of the bag, but I suspect repeated folding may leave a hard-to-read crease through the middle of each page. It may be worth storing the game and rules in its own full-sized zip-loc bag with the handful of magazine games I already own.

Scenario rules.

The scenario rules come to just a single, double-sided sheet. Nothing too difficult jumped out at me with a quick read-through, though that may change when I actually get to pushing counters around.

Hougoumont counters. Due to the bad lighting, the colours are a little washed-out
 again. The British unit at the bottom are more of a peach hue IRL.

True to its status as a mini-game, Hougoumont has only 40 counters. These are half-inch die-cut counters on a four-row deep slither of white-core card-stock. The counters are a little on the thin side (I can already hear the complaints) but I think this was in consideration of shipping and not having the whole pack bulge to much as it was about keeping production costs down. I have other games (even boxed games) with thinner counters like this, and the only problem I’ve had is with stacking, which shouldn’t be an issue here.

Orders of Battle.

The units represented are a mix of Line infantry, cavalry and an assortment of artillery on the French side, and an assortment of German and British units garrisoned in the chateau, with British and some representation of the King’s German League Brigade in Reserve. For a small game, the attention to this detail is encouraging.

The map. Small, even for a small map.

The map (by veteran artist, Joe Youst) is physically small (just 10” by 16”) but the play area at eleven columns, eight hexes deep, is positively tiny; apart from a couple of games with hex-grid battle-maps, this would undoubtedly be the smallest game map I’ve seen. But the action of the successive attacks on Hougoument by the French during the battle of Waterloo were close-fought situation with no quarter offered or given. The size for the map is right for the scale of the situation. Many fell on both sides of the engagement, and by the end they’d fallen three- or four-deep in some places. Keeping the play area small will also force the players, especially the French, to put thought into how best to manoeuvre and place their forces for best effect.

The rest of the map area is given over to a turn track (45-minute turns, which feels about right for the situation and scale), a terrain legend, and holding boxes for the Coalition and French Reserve and Eliminated units.

So, that’s everything that comes in the bag. I haven’t got to playing Hougoumont yet, but on the strength o this, I’m emboldened to try other games from the series.