Waking Up to Black Powder Cavalry - a Revelation

[Unlucky General]

Comrades,

This is likely best considered by Black Powder gamers amongst you. I have been playing Napoleonics for years and years and took up Black Powder rules in coming across from In the Grand Manner. The people I have gamed with all play with 28mm figures at a 1:20 representative figure ratio - so very much in the Big Battalions school.

Until now, I have been playing my cavalry in whole regiments (I play almost exclusively British) with 24 figure units. But I have been doing it wrong. I have for so very long failed to see what Black Powder has been trying to tell me and that has been - squadrons are the tactical unit for cavalry.

The unit size numbers in the rules suggest as much but Black Powder rule sets do not discuss this at all. I admit here and now that on the subject I have been extremely dim. Now I realize that my friends and I should have been fielding smaller formations (squadrons and demi-squadrons) which support one another. There are a couple of considerations which I think do need elaboration and we are designing some simple House Rules to clarify.

Let me state that if someone is building a Black Powder army this will likely not apply. That is, if you are building to the rules rather than using the rules to play a pre-existing army.

In Black Powder, the biggest unit size is 'Large' (stamina 4) at 18 figures. Any more miniatures in a unit over 18 have no additional effect.

We are at this time advocating deploying a regiment as a flexible swarm of squadrons if you will, capable of independent operation or co-operative action as the owning player sees fit. My 6 figure squadrons rate as Small units in Black Powder (Stamina 2) which, whilst fragile, are still viable if handled with care. Two combine as a Standard unit (Stamina 3) and three squadrons make for 18 figures - the maximum effectiveness. With my 24 figure regiment, this suggests that I should hold back at least one squadron in reserve as support - which I can do if we play the squadron as the unit.

We are proposing that all formations (let's say all four squadrons) can field independently and respond to a regimental order rather like a 'brigade order' provided they stay within support range of each other (6") - otherwise they require a separate command roll which they would also require if they wanted to act independently.

We are also proposing that the owning player may reorganize their formations (taking a move) at any time during their turn in the game; dividing or uniting squadrons provided any losses to Stamina are carried over. If, for example, you wish to send forward the best part of a damaged whole regiment to press the enemy, you might elect to leave behind the mauled part and hive off a squadron to the rear who takes two Stamina losses (now shaken) with them. Whether uniting or dividing under such circumstances requires careful consideration.

This means that a cavalry Brigade strength is not measured by regiments but by squadrons when it comes to calculating if a brigade is broken.

I can't help but think this is how they should always have been played but the rules do not explain it. The tables do suggest it though. I feel like I've been playing like a cave-man.

How do you play these rules? How do other rule sets use cavalry? I'm in lock down with the better part of Australia right now but I can't wait to try this lot out. I'd love to know what you think. Are we right, wrong, stupid or crazy?

[Hitman]

I am painting cavalry at the moment for Black Powder and see the wisdom in your thought. While painting units of 12, some of the Perry boxes come in 13 so I was thinking about a main officer separately then a seconday officer, standard and buglar plus 3 horsemen for a 6 figure squadron and another secondary officer plus 5 horsemen for the second squadron. The main officer then has the ability to rally and support units damaged, etc.

So please share more on this idea. It makes sense to me as well and provides more flexibility using the cavalry.
Regards,
Hitman
😎

[Unlucky General]

Thanks Hitman,

When you look at doctrine for British cavalry (I'm insufficiently read up on other nations) and when you look at what Wellesley (Wellington) advocated in his orders and correspondence on the subject, regiments best deployed in two lines for the attack. The second line (I tend to refer to these lines as demi-squadrons) supports the first as an active and forward reserve. That's just one formation example.

Inexperienced cavalry commanders seem to have sent in the lot at times with random consequences - particularly given their habit of following on and failing to regroup or rein-in. So fighting as a whole regiment on the table-top, whilst also less effective is not always a-historical.

When you look at the unit numbers on page 10 and the notes in Appendix 1 (page 172) the unit sizes correspond with actual historical strengths at 1:20 representative scale most of the time. As a side note, I don't know why they don't explain this up front but the authors play unit sizes including figure numbers up to the next category - so cavalry Standard size is from 12 to 17 figures (18 being the bottom number for Large) Actually, it might have been more helpful for Large to be labelled 18+ becasue there's no 'Huge' category. I have to state here that I don't own the second edition so perhaps much of this has been considered already.

As a comparison, the infantry numbers in the unit size table are generally spot on and therefore we are accepting the rules unit sizes for cavalry as correct for 1:20. If this is accepted, then the Small unit size of 6-8 figures screams squadron size. Given what we are proposing, it's been staring us in the face.

If you look at the actual orders of battle for the Busaco campaign (1810) for example, my army's regiments (4th Dragoons, 3rd Dragoon Guards and 13th Light Dragoons) fielded 21, 20 and 21 figures in 1:20 which is damn close to my 24 figure regiments which I built to a paper-strength.

Again, if you follow the logic, then they are all carrying useless sabres becasue in Black Powder terms, the biggest unit I can have for maximum effectiveness without unnecessary miniatures is 18.

We believe that the rules are suggestive of and support squadron based tactical deployments. Perhaps it's obvious if you come at it from a deep historical appreciation of how cavalry fought. We think we've missed the subtle hint because we came at it from a different rule set and understanding - In the Grand Manner is old-school where figures count against tables but Black Powder is a unit based game.

If you want to put in an effective charge with a cavalry regiment, we are suggesting one of the better options in accepting our squadron theory is to send in a demi-squadron to get a unit into contact with Stamina 3 and fighting with 6 dice (for light cavalry) and have the other two squadrons supporting them on the flank and rear (for example). They can be ordered collectively provided all squadrons are within support range (6") of at least one other squadron in the regiment. This example may maximize your options in game terms but is also likely more historical.

It's also likely to prolong the effectiveness of your cavalry. Theoretically, you may be able to fight a regiment down to it's last separate squadron provided that the cavalry brigade it belongs to retains above 50% of it's total squadrons.

It should prevent what we've been doing for years - big dumb blocks of regimental cavalry formations colliding about the place with reduced effect and running each other off the table all too rapidly. This interpretation allows for vedettes for example and a more dynamic use of cavalry which should elevate them tactically.

As I say, we haven't tested this yet but it feels like a real option.

[Hitman]

Fascinating information Unlucky General. As I continue to paint my cavalry please keep me posted on how well your suggestions work. I will check out the 2nd edition and see what it states as you have provided the info from the first edition and let you know if the info has been changed or updated.
Regards,
Hitman
😎

[sultanbev]

If you have 40-50 figure cavalry regiments, for example, representing some of the Ottoman, Austrian Russian, and French Guard 800-1000 man cavalry regiments, how do the rules cope then?