Did it strike anyone else odd that there is no named Waterloo spot on the board, yet Quatre Bras is named?

It appears that the field of Waterloo is distinguished by green coloration and by the fact that it is the final defensive position before Brussels can be occupied--just as Ligny is depicted as the approach to Namur.

Since Waterloo represented Wellington's final stand before Brussels, this makes sense, particularly since Napoleon's strategic goal was not clear at the outset of the campaign. It might be inferred that a key aspect of the game involved capture of either Namur or Brussels, using a French axis of advance that could go either way but hinged on capture of the key crossroads of Quatre Bras in the center of the board.

I wonder if the names provided on the board are to indicate the locations the designer most wanted to emphasize in carrying out his design goals.

It would be fascinating to unearth more about this game; it seems like the grandfather of Tom Dalgliesh's "Napoleon."

Mind sharing with with us how/where/when you obtained these early games?

I was just lucky, I didn't know what I had when I found the board for Kriegspiel Junior and it clued me in to the presence of other old games.

I found it on eBay listed as a board for an old game... When I received it in the mail I realized how old it was and noticed the notation on the bottom of the map. Doing some research I found that there were quite a few war/strategy games by PB and MB during the late 1800s and early 1900s but I didn't know what they looked like, no pictures anywhere.

When I saw the Waterloo map at auction I almost had a cow! I really didn't know that PB had done other similar games. This board was in better shape but obviously earlier since it didn't have any notations except for a "Pat. Pending" note at the bottom. When I got it in the mail I was amazed to find a full box with the map as the top of the box. It even has a slot for game pieces. Great stuff.

Remarkably beautiful. Thanks.

And Parker Brothers no less!

So one could infer they use the same ruleset and format. Imagine the pieces are similar too.

Wow, that is an absolutely amazing find. I wonder if there is anyone in Germany who could provide information on the development of German popular-market wargames from this era.

Such information would be from an academic point of view most certainly, as most germans try not to get associated with being interested in this particular period of our history... And those who are have probably other motives then just playing games, if I might add.

Anyway, maybe there is somewhere a paper on this on some obscure university's home page! :-)
However I would guess that most of the games (if there have been any) have been destroyed either in war or post war due to "Entnazifizierungs" activities.

I remember an article in the Spielbox magazine about war games from the early 20th century. But I think i threw that away the last time we moved apartments. Maybe I can check and tell you more later.

Edit: Yeah, I remembered correctly. In Spielbox 1 and Spielbox 2 from 2005 there was an article about WWI / WWII games. You can still order them, but - of course - it is in German.