Rules Suggestions Wanted

[vtsaogames]

I have played two games of Black Powder. I don't mind the activation mechanism though others do. My main beef is that sometimes melees go on over several turns. If I was running the game, the house rule would be all melees be resolved in a single turn. Last game I played saw several brigades held up for turns by small cavalry units that were not beaten.

I cannot think of a close combat in this period that went on for more than 5 minutes, other than Spotsylvania which was an unusual case.

Your mileage may vary.

[Argonor]

Hmmm... may have to give BP a try... Doesn't seem to have expansions covering the campaigns against Austria and Russia?

[scooba]

+1 for Black Powder.

If you find you don't like some aspect then just change the rules to suit your purpose.

The unit characteristcs seem to me to do a good job of bringing national and/or period quirks to life , especially once you start digging into the supplements. Eg Albion Triumphant suggests rules that favour British lines vs French attack columns.

I like to add scenario rules that encourage French player to keep guards in reserve.

[scooba]

... and with 1/72 you can safely go to making all distance measures 3/4 of what's in the rulebook.

[Argonor]

Eg Albion Triumphant suggests rules that favour British lines vs French attack columns.

I am not all that convinced by that often quoted maxim. For instance, at Salamanca, a column-deployed division (Thomières) repulsed an attack by a British line (was then routed by a bayonet attack, but still). At Waterloo, d'Erlon's infantry corps was deployed in two large columns with each battalion in 3-deep lines, ie two battalions in line wide, which doesn't prevent all muskets to bear on the enemy.

I think the real advantage was in taking a defensive stance combined with high morale, as it is easier to stand still, fire and reload, than it is to maintain morale while advancing under fire, and seeing your mates getting killed and wounded around you.

The French army in Spain had a lot of conscripts (not to mention other nationalities, perhaps not all that keen on serving in a distant country and dying for a foreign cause), suffered from constant attacks and harassment (some of which was quite abhorrent) by local partizans, while the British consisted mainly of professional troops and were considered friendly by most of the locals, while their allies were locals, for a large part driven by hatred to the French occupying their homeland.

[fred]

I'm not a huge fan of BP ( but I have played loads of Hail Caesar, its Ancients cousin).

Movement distances in BP are huge (its easy enough to change them). Also command rolls influence movement very heavily (no move, single move, double move, triple move). Which combined with big movement distances really means some troops sprint forward. But other units can stand around for turns. Its a bit too random for me. I like some kind of activation system, but the chances are results for BP don't really work for me.

Also we found the shooting really quite ineffectual, with lots of dice rolling, and melee could be dramatic, with very few dice rolls (again just a bit too random).

What is great about BP is the presentation - it makes you want to play games. But probably with a different rule set ;-)

[armchairgeneral]

Another vote for Black Powder though I would reduce the movement especially if you are using 1:72 scale.

The movement resulting from the command rolls is often criticised but you are supposed to say what you troops will do before rolling. So you shouldn't be able to opportunistically leap across the table (if you get three moves) if you haven't said that's what you were going to do.

Also once the enemy are within charge range you get free moves in any case.

A popular house rule is one of the "moves" generated by the command role must be spent on firing, if you intend to fire.