Brave Men, Badly Led: 1846 - Now Available!

[Doc Twilight]

I am pleased to tell everyone that the first Black Army miniature set, the project that was the original inspiration for starting the company, which has been in development for... far too many years, is -finally- seeing the light of day, thanks to Lulu.

Because I'm a bit tired at the moment, I hope you'll forgive me for cutting and pasting the description from the back of the book.

"The BRAVE MEN, BADLY LED series of miniatures rules was designed to provide fast playing, fun, and accurate games, covering the forgotten wars of the age of rifle and musket, when linear combat was the standard battlefield practice, and war was still considered a "glorious" thing by the men who fought it.

All the traditional elements of the age of linear warfare are included, but so too are less tangible elements - the chaos of warfare, the inability of officers to act decisively at critical moments, the less than arbitrary nature of movement for any unit of men operating in battlefield formation.  Using the BMBL rules and the revolutionary "Event Deck", you will deal not only with failed offensive pushes, but sudden rainstorms, drunken generals, overcharged cannon, and the acts of God and Nature that made battles in this era anything but a SURE thing.

All of this, and all but the largest battles can be resolved in four hours or less!

Our first volume, 1846 - Napoleon of the West, explores the bloody experience of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, when North America's two largest military powers attempted to settle the matter of continental supremacy once and for all. Command American and Mexican forces in the war that effectively shaped the coming centuries on the American continent.

Play in the miniatures scale of your choice, using simple formations based upon three stand battalions, and comfortably command up to a division per player with relatively small armies, no unusual dice or measurement mechanisms, and absolutely no rebasing required.

Polish your cuirass, sharpen your saber, hang your flags high. The time for war is now!"

The rules are available in print or PDF format (both at what I think are pretty good prices, less than twenty bucks for the print version) at Lulu.com. Because I have -just- finished formatting the files, etc.. the book doesn't yet appear in the search engine at Lulu. However, you can find it by going directly to my  Lulu storefront here:

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fStoreID=2764266

I will update the Black Army Website soon as well with the relevant link information.

The print version, for those interested, is approximately sixty two pages, spiral bound, with historical illustrations throughout, a FAQ, and general background information on the war. In addition, as per request of several playtesters who want to game the war but are unfamiliar with armies of the period, I've included a -very- basic set of guidelines for building tabletop armies. It isn't perfect, but it will make building armies a lot easier than it might otherwise be, since orders of battle for this period are... very frustrating to mine through... to put it mildly.

I am in the process of working on a scenario book, as well as special rules for the Texas War of Independence, the Pastry War, and other interesting wars of the period. When I get around to covering the Maximillian Adventure, it will be handled by its own book, event deck, etc.

Anyway, I hope some of you will favor me by taking a look, and maybe picking up a copy. This is a labor of love, and though there are, I'm sure, still typos here and there, I am thrilled to see this thing in print (even if it's through an "ego press") after seven years of work.

Next war to be covered by BMBL? A member of our local group is working on a Russo-Turkish module. There are two other conflicts - the Spanish American War and the Anglo-Egyptian War, which I did produce playtest versions of the early draft BMBL rules for, and these will likely be cleaned up to "Current standards" soon. However, the first "new" project for BMBL on my part will be The War of 1812.

Thanks for your time and continued support,

Doc

[Gluteus Maximus]

Well, Doc, I for one am very tempted. I have 15mm Mex-Am War armies (somewhere) and have had fun using "Principles Of War" and "Santa Anna Rules". Guess what? They are already in 3-base units for POW 

Are there any solo mechanisms? Not really a problem if there aren't, as I can use my usual methods 

One more set can't hurt, surely? Also, who can resist drunken Generals? 

Good luck!

[former user]

Congratulations DOC!

I hope it gives You the great satisfaction I expect it does, after so many Years 
I will certainly have a peek

[Doc Twilight]

Well, Doc, I for one am very tempted. I have 15mm Mex-Am War armies (somewhere) and have had fun using "Principles Of War" and "Santa Anna Rules". Guess what? They are already in 3-base units for POW 

Are there any solo mechanisms? Not really a problem if there aren't, as I can use my usual methods 

One more set can't hurt, surely? Also, who can resist drunken Generals? 

Good luck!

Gluteus -

A fan of POW as well, eh? Me too:) I use them for a number of conflicts, although most often for one of my favorite "forgotten" European conflicts - the Seven Weeks War. Good set of rules, although I do find his insistence upon using "different terminology" (instead of column, line, etc.) to be frustrating and amusing depending upon the people I'm playing with;) "Wait a minute - what does 'Formed' mean?"

No official solo mechanisms in BMBL, though I have played them solo myself several times without incident.

For example, I gamed the Anglo-Egyptian war variant solo a few years ago when testing a Tel El-Kebir scenario, and actually had a great time despite playing strictly to test the scenario for holes. Played the Egyptian event cards blind, which made things very interesting. The cards are different for each war, so it can be quite amusing at times. Arabs ran off with the Egyptian ammunition reserves, and a sudden storm illuminated the sky, negating the benefit of night time advance for the Queen's men, among other things. I seem to recall Tewfik Pasha stumbling drunk around the Egyptian camp at some point, too;)

When we were running the game at Kublacon earlier this year, there were no drunken generals, but "Montezuma's Revenge" and political infighting were certainly major factors. We did Molino Del Rey, which would be fairly easily gamed solo, since the Mexicans are defending prepared positions, and most of the troops arrive at set times and set points. One of the players said, and I agree, that you could probably do something like the Alamo solo as well, which would make life interesting as Santa Anna.


former user -

It does give me satisfaction, yes. I tried for the last year to publish them through a normal venue, but I kept running into ridiculous prices, or presses unwilling to do "hobby projects" because of the economy, so Lulu gave me an opportunity where there wasn't one before. I suppose now I can publish my epic rules for the great Bavarian invasion of Mexico, complete with His Bavarian Majesty's "Little" Grenadier Guard, comprised entirely of little people;)


Thank you both for the support:).

-Doc

[former user]

I know a bit about selling print even if You do the hardware by Yourself and was pleasantly surprised about LuLu
good Luck

everyone who works hard on his plans deserves success

[Hauptgefreiter]

I suppose now I can publish my epic rules for the great Bavarian invasion of Mexico, complete with His Bavarian Majesty's "Little" Grenadier Guard, comprised entirely of little people;)

Halleluja sog I!  

[Gluteus Maximus]

Gluteus -

A fan of POW as well, eh? Me too:) I use them for a number of conflicts, although most often for one of my favorite "forgotten" European conflicts - the Seven Weeks War. Good set of rules, although I do find his insistence upon using "different terminology" (instead of column, line, etc.) to be frustrating and amusing depending upon the people I'm playing with;) "Wait a minute - what does 'Formed' mean?"

Yes, they are a little eccentric in places, not only the terminology you mention, but also eg moving in inches and base size in metric 

They do work very well though and I have to admit to being in the same club as Tom and helping play-test the Naps variant, so maybe it was easier for me to know where he was coming from.

No official solo mechanisms in BMBL, though I have played them solo myself several times without incident.

For example, I gamed the Anglo-Egyptian war variant solo a few years ago when testing a Tel El-Kebir scenario, and actually had a great time despite playing strictly to test the scenario for holes. Played the Egyptian event cards blind, which made things very interesting. The cards are different for each war, so it can be quite amusing at times. Arabs ran off with the Egyptian ammunition reserves, and a sudden storm illuminated the sky, negating the benefit of night time advance for the Queen's men, among other things. I seem to recall Tewfik Pasha stumbling drunk around the Egyptian camp at some point, too;)

When we were running the game at Kublacon earlier this year, there were no drunken generals, but "Montezuma's Revenge" and political infighting were certainly major factors. We did Molino Del Rey, which would be fairly easily gamed solo, since the Mexicans are defending prepared positions, and most of the troops arrive at set times and set points. One of the players said, and I agree, that you could probably do something like the Alamo solo as well, which would make life interesting as Santa Anna.

The Mex-Am War was attractive to me partially from the fact that the US forces appear to be generally small, good quality, well-led and dynamic whereas the Mexicans are quite poorly-led and slow to react which gives good solo potential. There were also quite a few siege/set-piece type games which are good for soloing as you mentioned and most of the battles are easily attainable in 15mm.

Well, I've downloaded your rules and will have a look-through sometime this week. Sorry it's only a few dollars, but with the current exchange rate, shipping from the US-UK is pretty punitive at present. Maybe I'll be able to order a proper hard copy soon 

Looking forward to getting back into the period again!

[elysium64]

Looking forwars to seeing the Russo-Turkish rules as this has long been a period I have been tempted by, and I only need a little push to start collecting the figures (Outpost and Askari).

[Helen]

Just purchased the download version. It will be a nice pressie for someone I know.

Helen

[Doc Twilight]

Gluteus - No need to apologize! If I was in this for money, I'd be... well... I wouldn't be in it:) You're very kind to give them a look.
Of course, I've already noticed a handful of typos... but if the overall effect of the game is to be readable and playable, so much the better:)

Elysium - Duely noted! I'll get on my friend to have him increase the tempo!

Helen - My kind regards and thanks for your order!

Questions, comments, etc.. are welcome. I have noticed the occasional "mash up" of words (the result of too many edits), so for that I do apologize. If there are any typos that affect your understanding of gameplay, do let me know and I'll draw up some errata, soon enough.

-Doc

[elysium64]

Any updates on forthcoming supplements/modules, Russo Turkish War

[Doc Twilight]

No word yet on the Russo-Turkish supplement.  The author hasn't responded to my attempts to contact him, recently.

We've sold more than few copies of 1846, but I've heard nothing from the players. I can only assume that's a good sign.

The next volume likely to be completed in the near future will be the 1866 supplement. That may change, as things progress.

Still attempting to drum up interest in the system, and the rules, but hopefully the word will spread.

-Doc