Third Time's the Charm

Twice I started to write a post and twice I threw them away because they did not feel right. If you are reading this then the third time's the charm.

Guilford Courthouse

I have played the Guilford Courthouse scenario from the Rebellion supplement of Black Powder twice now and it continues to stymie game play. The victory conditions in that scenario require the British to break more American 'key' brigades than they have by the end of the game. The only key brigades for the Americans are the two Continental brigades (Williams and Huger) – which is appropriate – while the British have three key brigades (i.e. all of the British brigades). What this means in game terms is that the American militia brigades (Eaton, Butler, Lawson, and Stevens) are 'speed bumps'. Any losses on these brigades have no effect on American victory conditions.

Guilford Courthouse map from Rebellion

So the goal of the British is to carve through the first two American lines while taking a minimum of losses.

For the Americans, there are three basic strategies:

1. Let each American line take on the British one at a time, inflicting as much damage as possible, but delaying the collapse of each line as long as possible. (This is what Greene did historically.)
2. Rush the American second line (Lawson and Stevens) to the forward woods line before the first line collapses, denying the British a toehold into the woods before it engages the American second line.
3. Rush the American second and third lines to the woods, ensuring that the American always maintain numerical and firepower superiority at the point of contact.

The first time I played the scenario (as the Americans), I used strategy #1. The result was that Leslie's brigade stalled at the fence line on the right, O'Hara's brigade broke through in the center but stalled at the woodline after destroying Eaton's and Lawson's brigades, and Webster's brigade pushed back the left flank skirmishers (while helping to destroy Eaton's brigade) and made it to the far edge of the woodline when the Continental brigades pounced and destroyed a British regiment, sending them reeling back into the woods. We called the game on time, but the Americans clearly had the upper hand.

There were a number of rules that we got wrong – I still have not completely re-read the Black Powder rules despite playing three games in the last two months – the most prominent being that it is much harder to inflict hits on units in the woods.

The second time we played the scenario the group decided to punish me for the last game so everyone was British, except me. I was the sole American player. This time I wanted to try and bring the game to a conclusion, even if it meant losing. Given that only breaking Huger's or Williams' brigades will risk an American defeat, if you hold them back the entire game, you cannot lose, you can only draw (at worst). This time I went for strategy #3, which would put my precious Continentals at risk, but would bring a large amount of American firepower to bear early in the game.

Leslie's brigade again stalled the entire game, not least because the first order rolled was a 'Blunder', resulting in the Hessian regiment retreating off of the board when Lee's Legion looked at them cross-eyed. (Such are the wildly random results that make up a Black Powder game.) Despite the British Legion cavalry being committed to the right flank to counter Lee's cavalry, Leslie's brigade barely made it to the fenceline by the time we called the game.

O'Hara's brigade deployed to both sides of the road early in the game, unlike the first time, and it looked like sending the Grenadier Guards against Butler's brigade would help rout them early. However, there is a quirk with one scenario rule that I do not think the scenario author anticipated nor intended. The NC militia (Eaton's and Butler's brigades) get to claim the fenceline as a "position" which they defend. There is an obscure rule with regards to brigades breaking and 'defensible positions'. If a brigade breaks from too many units being in Shaken status or being lost, it must automatically retire one move if at the beginning of its turn it finds itself within 12" of an enemy unit. One of the exceptions, however, is if the unit is in a defensible position it is not forced to retire and may stay in place. This means that the NC militia, as long as they stay on the fenceline, they will not retire unless they explicitly fail a Break Test.

So, what is the math behind a Break Test? For infantry, you can pass a Break Test caused from shooting if you roll a '6' or better on 2D6, or a '7' or better on 2D6 if the test was caused from hand-to-hand combat results. There are modifiers, mostly from taking hits or being Disordered, which make the roll much harder. The problem is, that if you make those rolls you can get some pretty spectacular results, like your NC militia brigade routing the British Guard Grenadiers after fighting them to a standstill for three turns in hand-to-hand combat! (The British players at that point were threatening to beat me up and melt my dice because of all my hot rolling.)

By rushing forward both the second and third lines the Americans were able to bring their massive firepower into play, such that Huger's brigade was almost to the fenceline by game's end and Williams' brigade was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a weakened Guard regiment from O'Hara's brigade in the center.

Again, technically a draw, but clearly had we kept playing the Americans would likely have won a victory.

So what went wrong? Were the stats for the American troops too high in quality? Is the scenario poorly written? Actually, the American troop quality is pretty poor, more than I would have inflicted upon them. Further, the British are practically Supermen, in terms of Black Powder. They are Elite, so they can shake off disorder without losing a turn. They are Steady so they automatically pass the first Break Test. They have a higher than average Stamina, so they last longer before they even need to take a Break Test. They are Ferocious, so they get to reroll their hand-to-hand combat rolls that miss. They are practically 'Gods of War'. The only thing the two Continental Veteran regiments are better at are shooting, and that is only marginally so. The main issue is that the British infantry save from a hit on a 3+ on 1D6, 2+ if they are in woods. So it is very hard to inflict hits on the British. Combine that with an increased number of hits required before it must take a Break Test and it automatically passing the first such Break Test and you have a game where the British do not actually have to roll until you are deep into a game. Conversely, most American units count as Wavering, which means they must roll for a Break Test every time they take a hit.

As for the scenario victory conditions, are think they are actually well thought out. The Americans did not care about militia losses, so allowing the Americans to ignore those brigades breaking is something that many rules fail to recognize (hint: this is an issue with the Guilford Courthouse scenario in Clash for a Continent and Hold the Line). If there is an issue it is that there is one British brigade, Leslie's, that is particularly vulnerable. But that was historical.

The only other issue is the scenario special rule for the NC militia, indicated above. We have decided that if we ever play this scenario again – and I think most people are frustrated by this scenario – we will probably not allow the fences to be considered a 'defensible position' for purposes of the Brigade Break rule. It makes the NC militia way too hard. Without that rule, unless a NC militia regiment, unless locked into hand-to-hand combat, it will automatically retire one move each turn if it is within 12" of an enemy unit. Given that visibility in the woods (most of the board) is 12", this essentially means the NC militia will no longer be in the firefight once their brigade breaks, unless the British charge them.

But these issues were not what made the scenario break. Quite simply, the core command and control mechanics of the Black Powder rules favor a static defense. It is way too easy to flub a command roll and have it throw off your well-laid plans. Now before you go saying "but isn't that historical?" we are not talking about whether chaos exists in a battle, but whether these rules have the appropriate probabilities assigned to account for that chaos. I say "no".

The one issue that I also don't like about the Black Powder rules is that I believe their hit and save probabilities are wrong. The basic chance to inflict a hit with shooting is 50%. You generally roll 3D6 with a standard unit and hit on a 4+. It is very common for that chance to be reduced to a 5+ (33%) and the best you can do is a 3+ (67%). The chance to save from that hit for a standard unit, however, is 50%. That chance rarely goes down, except when hit by artillery fire, but often goes up, such as when the unit is in cover. Further, elite units often have a better save. In the Guilford Courthouse scenario it was very common to require a 4+ or 5+ to hit, but to save the hit the rolls would often be 2+. There is just something fundamentally wrong with your game system when the chance to save from a hit is frequently twice the chance to inflict the hit in the first place. This makes for grueling, frustrating games in which you are essentially looking for a '6' on a hit to stand some chance of actually causing some sort of effect on the enemy that you might exploit. It is this math, which is part of the core mechanics, which make this scenario especially problematic. This scenario is rated for 24 turns, which is unusually long for Black Powder games. For example, in the two scenarios we played, which lasted four hours each, we got maybe 7-10 turns in. This scenario is meant to be played slowly and really requires that you keep the game setup, which is highly ironic given that the historical battle lasted 90 minutes.

So, why do I play Black Powder when I think it is flawed mathematically? Because other people are playing it...

By the way, if you want to see the pictures of the game, both times put on by Leo Barron, you can see them on the Facebook group "Awi Historicals". Sorry, but you have to be a member of Facebook to see them and you have to join the group as it is private. It is a good group though. 

Group

Battle Report #1

Battle Report #2 Leo's Photo Album of Battle #2

Arcadia Quest

One of the Kickstarters that I got into, that I really did not talk about much, was the Arcadia Quest (AQ)campaign by Cool Minis or Not (CMON). You can find AQ all over the place now, with items for sale on eBay, in hobby shops, and on Amazon.

I bought this game, some extra characters, the extra campaign (Beyond the Grave) and yet never played it. Cool minis in the Chibi style though.

I read the rules and although they looked interesting, they did not really stick in my head. For one reason or another, every time I sat down to give them a try I had to re-read the rules and something happened that stopped me from being able to give them a try.

Well, then out came the Kickstarter campaign for Arcadia Quest – Inferno. I had a feeling I would like AQ once I tried it, so I could not let that campaign slip away, so I bought that too.

That came in and hell, I did not even crack the plastic until a few days ago. More cool minis.

Finally, there was a Kickstarter campaign for Arcadia Quest – Masmorra, which has the same sort of cool minis.

I have cracked the plastic, but when I realized the rules were not the same as the other two – it turns out that it is a dice-driven, dungeon explorer game – I set the game aside. I still had AQ to learn!

Well, in one of those rare moments, my wife offered to play me in a game again. I thought, why not try this (finally)? It might be more up her alley than a military wargame (although she has never complained about them, nor really even cared about the subject matter).

I decided to learn the rules for a third time and actually play out a game solo before playing it with her. That way only one of us would be wondering what the hell was going on.

The backstory for AQ is that humans came along and disrupted the world for the elves and the orcs. After building a great city, Arcadia, the people created and joined adventuring guilds in search of glory and gold. The orcs, led by a vampire, decided to lure the guilds away from Arcadia by filling dungeons full of goodies (sounds like a future expansion...), and once they succeeded they sprung their trap, and attacked and conquered Arcadia. The game is all about the guild members returning to the monster-infested city in an attempt to retake the city while gaining glory and gold for their guilds. The only problem is that the guilds are not completely cooperative.

Each boxed set is an entire campaign with a full narrative. You need AQ as it contains the core rules, but the expansions have new characters, monsters, rules, boards, and scenarios. The idea is to select your characters (three heroes), equip them, and play the scenarios in sequence, collecting gold and treasure, upgrading your heroes and their equipment while rising in level, penetrating deeping into the core of the city.

The board setup is pretty involved, but pretty straightforward. There are plenty of tokens in play, so organizing your table is necessary. You are not going to play this on a 3' square space.

Like most board games distances are regulated by a grid, a square grid in this case. Players reference cards for each of their heroes, each of which list all of the critical stats and special rules. There are also reference cards for each of the monsters.

Basically each hero and monster has a movement speed, hit points, and defense. Monsters have an attack rating also while heroes' attack ratings are defined by equipment, spells, and weapons, which can also modify their defense rating.

Attacks are conducted by rolling the black dice. Each black die has two faces with a Sword, one face with a Bow, one face with a Critical, and two faces that are blank. Your attack rating determines the number of black dice you roll and whether you are looking for Swords or Bows as hits. (Swords are for melee, which means you are in the same or adjacent square to the target, while Bows have unlimited range, but are restricted by line of sight.) Criticals not only provide a hit for either melee or ranged combat, but they further allow you to roll an additional die. If that die gets a Critical it allows an additional die, and so on, i.e. it is an 'exploding die' mechanism.

The defender, in turn, rolls one white die equal to their defense rating. There is one Shield face, one Critical face, and four blank faces. The Shields each cancel one hit. The Criticals also cancel a hit, but like the Critical on the black die, it is an exploding die, so you get to roll an additional die for each Critical.

Very basic and easy to play. All of the combat results are in the dice (love it!) and all of the special rules are on the reference cards in front of you.

Victory conditions are defined in the scenario and generally indicate a number of quests that need to be completed by a player before they can claim victory. Typical quests are to obtain a token on the map (usually guard by a monster), kill X number of monsters, and kill a hero from another guild (another player's hero). So the game is both Player versus Environment (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP).

After the first player achieves victory, the scenario is over. At that point you turn in the treasure tokens you collected and spend the gold coins you received for killing monsters and completing quests. There is a system of dealing out reward cards that allow you to purchase new upgrades and equipment so that the next scenario you play, you will have more options available to you.

The rules require a little bit of rules reference, at least until you get a little more familiar with the tokens and what they mean, but combat is quickly picked up and completely heads up, i.e. your nose is not stuck in the rules. You will definitely be reading through the between-scenario rules unless you play a lot and frequently. But if you are like me, playing maybe once every one or two weeks, you will likely need a refresher on that section of the rules after each game.

Because this is basically played as a campaign, and not as single, unconnected games, you start to build a narrative with the game, which is the whole point. My goal is to work through all of the scenarios from all of the expansions with the wife. I anticipate that it will be great fun.

Replayability is pretty high because not only do you have a lot of heroes to try (each player only uses three heroes throughout the campaign), but there are multiple scenario paths during the campaign. Add to that there is the randomness of reward card draws, curses from dying, and so on, resulting in a lot of game play before this looks tiring.

I look forward to playing the campaigns and hopefully I can convince the wife to paint the miniatures with me.

More Reflections on Neil Thomas and a Black Powder Game

For complex rules tend to suffer from conceptual flaws. The chief of these is what can be referred to as 'double jeopardy', or to be specific, accounting twice for a contingency that should only be considered once. For example, units which are behind cover frequently enjoy a morale bonus in complex rulesets: however, this fails to account for the fact that the role of cover has already been accounted for, given that the unit within would suffer fewer casualties than its more exposed comrades. If the unit behind cover is still suffering sufficient casualties to endure a morale test, then it is clear that the cover is no longer doing its job – and should not therefore confer any morale bonus. Similarly, there is no reason to give special fighting abilities to elite units and penalties for unenthusiastic levies; these should have already been accounted for in the morale rules, which allow quality troops to carry on fighting for longer than a barely trained rabble (and inevitably inflicting more damage in the process).

– Neil Thomas, "Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe: 1815-1878"

The above was probably the most profound design concept I had read from Neil Thomas and upon reflecting upon it, could find numerous examples in rules that I had been playing for years. In that paragraph he highlights two, but I have seen plenty of others:

• Cover: providing a negative modifier to being hit (a smaller area of the target is exposed), while also providing a bonus to saving from the hit. If the positive to the save represents the chance of the shot striking cover, why would you reduce the chance to hit when you have already accounted for the chance a shot will hit cover?
• Concealment: again, providing a negative modifier to being hit, while also providing a bonus to saving from the hit. Some rules blur the lines between cover and concealment. In this case the shot should be harder as you are aiming at a target with less exposure (granting a negative modifier), but because the shot may still strike an unexposed location, no save should be granted.
• Elites and Movement: using a command and control system that confers a greater chance for an elite unit to move than less trained ones while also granting elite units longer moves or faster formation changes than less trained units. The first rules grants more opportunities to maneuver in the first place, so granting bonuses when they do maneuver is applying the bonus twice.

Now some of you may be thinking about a special case, such as trying to fire through the slit of a castle and strike an enemy archer, or some such. Why shouldn't you get a huge negative to hit because you are trying to place an arrow through such a small space? In the end, it doesn't really matter whether you apply a negative to the hit or a positive to the save, the point is not to apply it twice.

How many 'double jeopardy' rules can you find in your current favorite set.

All this came to mind because I had already been thinking about Neil Thomas' game design principles when I got a chance to participate in an American Civil War game using the Black Powder rules. Black Powder can be fun, but boy is it the King of Double Jeopardy Rules!

Gettysburg, Day 1 – The Destruction of 1st Division, I Corps

This happened to be Scenario 5 from the Black Powder ACW supplement, Hallelujah! It represents the start of the Battle of Gettysburg where the Union is trying to stop the advance of Heth's Division, but after the initial skirmish with Buford's cavalry.

Here are the initial dispositions, and a high-level view of the terrain.

We were deployed along the short edge of an 8' long by 5' wide board. The smaller square represent 1/2 a Brigade, while the larger squares are full Brigades. The Confederates have two infantry Brigades on the board at the start, along with an artillery Battalion (four batteries of four guns) while the Union had two, one of which was the Iron Brigade (and its crap-ton of special rules). The Confederates would get two additional infantry Brigades, but they would not move on until turn 2.

The victory conditions were that the Union had to break three Brigades (50%) while the Confederates only had to break two (100%) ... in seven turns. Six feet of board to cross, check. Half of the Union is Elite, check. Half of the Confederate forces don't come on at the start and when they do come on, they are on the baseline, check. There is really only enough room to deploy three Brigades across the board, so that 2-1 numeric superiority is really more like 3-2. And the Confederates are not Elite. Check! (Oh, by the way, if you have not figured it out already, I was playing Confederates!)

From a terrain perspective there was a lot more than is shown here. Key points are that the road (brown rectangle) is lined on both sides with sawtooth fences. So there is a double obstacle to movement for traversing laterally across the board and shooting across is penalized. Both the wheat field (left yellow rectangle) and the corn field (right yellow rectangle) were surrounded by stone walls, so again a double obstacle to movement and penalty to shooting, plus a cover save! The ridge line and the infamous "cuts" along the railroad tracks (gray rectangle) played no part in the game so don't warrant mention of all of their special rules. Overall, the field had an very "American" feel. It was cluttered with obstacles to armies and we felt pain for every inch traversed.

There were two special rules that came into significant play: "The Charge" and "Fire Fights".

The Charge is a rule that essentially says that units are at a -2 to Command if they are ordered to charge an enemy unit and your unit is in their frontal arc. Basically it is a rule to discourage charges and hand-to-hand combat. One person attempted to charge during the game and it resulted in a failure. Perhaps if the rule applied the -2 for determining success, but a failure did not occur if you still rolled your unmodified  Command value. In essence the failure to charge meant your Brigade was not getting any more orders from that Commander, so you weren't just gambling with that unit moving; you were gambling with your Brigade's remaining orders.

The Fire Fights rule I liked, but it favors the defender, especially one performing a fighting withdrawal as we were doing here. The rule states that if your unit performs two or three orders you cannot fire that turn. Only units performing no or one order can fire. This rule especially hurt the Brigades coming on the board from the baseline (one of which was mine), as you had to make up for lost ground, so you needed as many movement orders as possible, so you were unlikely to be able to fire. In fact, I did not get to fire until turn six and was unable to fire on turn seven.

The Union commander actually made a blunder (no, not the Black Powder kind) by advancing 1/2 of his lesser Brigade (i.e. not the Iron Brigade) into the center where a fire trap formed. Four units from the on-board Brigades, plus the artillery were able to focus fire on the skirmishers, driving them off of the board on turn one. Further, fire from turn two badly hurt the next unit behind, as the Union commander was scrambling to pull his units back out of the trap. A blunder (the Black Powder kind) by a head strong Confederate commander saved him from early destruction, as the infantry on the left pulled back two moves. (Green arrows are moves, red arrows are musketry fire, and yellow arrows are retreats.)

The Union Brigade had incredibly bad luck as only one unit was able to force its way through the woods, while the remainder were bottled up behind the woods.

Eventually the Confederates were able to force the Union back, but without destroying a Brigade. They were never able to fully deploy and use their superior numbers to effect. The turn limit had come up just as the Confederates were starting to drive a wedge between the two halves of the crippled Brigade on their right. The Union Brigade was essentially unscratched. The game was declared a draw despite the Confederate performance being better than what happened historically.

So, where did the Confederates fail? I hang my head in shame as I have to admit: it was my fault. I had Pettigrew's Brigade and it was the largest and potentially the strongest of the Confederate Brigades. It had the highest Command rating (9) and it had a special rule that gave it a greater chance to charge the enemy (-1 instead of -2, so charging on a modified 8 or less). I started moving on the board in line formation, rather than columns, thus denying me the +1 to Command for orders. On two occasions I rolled an '8', which if I had been in column would have granted me two moves rather than one. That extra 24" of movement over the space of turn two and four would have put me into play on turn five with the full brigade, rather than just getting into play on the last turn. Without being able to achieve local firepower superiority in the center, we never cracked open the nut so we could flank the Union Brigade. Without being able to dig them out of their corner, we stood no chance of winning the scenario as we needed to break 100% of the Union command.

My only other regret is that all of my pictures turned out horrible. They were good enough to refresh my memory on unit positions at various turns, but not good enough to post. Also, I forgot to take close-ups of the figures. They were 28mm Perry plastics and very well based. The terrain was professionally made. [sigh]

Final Thoughts

Don't get me wrong, the griping I am about to unleash is in no way indicative of me not having a good time. My friend brought Jonny Cakes and ham and bean soup for period refreshments, there were no arguments, and the conversation was interesting and fun. That said, Black Powder takes a special kind of person to like the rules.

There are special, sometimes unit-specific rules out the kazoo! Each unit has its own profile, which can be quite different from every other unit you have. Line infantry is not line infantry. Some of those stats are pretty basic too, like whether you roll 3 or 4 dice for shooting, whether you save on a 3+ or a 4+, whether you take three hits or four before a break test, etc. These are modifiers of core rule mechanics.

Then there are the 'double jeopardy' rules, the most egregious of which is that cover provide a penalty to be hit and a benefit to morale, and that Elite units hit harder in addition to lasting longer in combat, allowing them to hit harder still over the course of the battle. The very quote from Neil Thomas that I started this post with is the cornerstone of the Black Powder rules.

Is it bad enough to drive me away? Not at all. I have vowed to never again let the desire to win get in the way of spending a pleasant afternoon with other people pushing pretty lead (or plastic) around on a nicely dressed table having interesting conversations about how the rules suck and the scenario is stacked against us! If Black Powder is what people are playing, count me in. Doesn't mean I am going to get caught up in the next Flavor of the Month – I have had enough of the Warhammer 40K, Warmachine, Flames of War, etc. treadmill – but it does mean that I will play and enjoy these types of games when I cannot convince others to try something I might find a bit more reasonable. And when they aren't gaming, I can always game solo with my strange, off-brand, low commercial titles.

Our AWI Black Powder Game

Blog entry number 201, the first of 2012, and I want to welcome new readers Lee Hadley and Itinerant! I hope you enjoy the blog.

As I previously threatened, our club was going to play a fictional American War of Independence (AWI) battle using the rules Black Powder. I had playtested the scenario and come up with a few adjustments. That said, I was a bit shocked when I got to Orbital Games and found out my terrain did not fit. The boards were 8' by 4', but apparently my board at home is not 6' by 4', but 6' by 5'! So I had to do some quick adjustments, but in the end I do not think it really mattered.

The Scenario

This is a fictional battle taking place in 1781 in South Carolina, probably while Cornwallis is racing Greene to the Dan River and definitely before Guilford Courthouse. The Patriots (Rebels, if you prefer) have made a stand at a plantation (given the animosity, probably a Loyalist plantation that they have sacked) and the Crown forces are closing in. The left side of the picture is where the Patriots will deploy; they right where the Crown forces will deploy.

The road (with ahistorical tank treads) runs between the two forces. A few crop fields and a small woods are on the side of the road where the Crown forces will enter. On the opposite side is a plantation surrounded by hedges. Inside are two orchards, a few crop fields, and two freshly plowed fields. Also on the opposite side of the road, and to the right of the plantation, are several small woods and more hedges and crop fields.

The Crown is attacking in three "columns". On the left (at the bottom right of the screen), a column of Loyalist Provincials (four battalions) are marching up the road. They are to attack the left side of the plantation defenses. The suspect Rebel forces in the woods, but are unsure how many their are. One unit starts on-board in March Column on the road while the remainder start off-board and can start marching on turn one.

On the right flank an Elite column – consisting of a British Grenadier battalion, a British Light Infantry battalion, and a small detachment of British Light Dragoons – is to attack from that direction. These troops start off-board but can march on turn one.

In the center are four British Foot battalions off-board led by the Commander-in-Chief. They can start marching on turn two.

The Patriot forces have three commands. On their right, facing the Loyalist column, is one militia rifleman unit, one militia line unit, one South Carolina Rifle battalion, and a small detachment of the Philadelphia Light Horse. (Okay, so the Philadelphia Light Horse did not serve in South Carolina. They should have been Continental Light Dragoons, but that unit is not based and this unit is painted as the PLH! So I can be ahistorical on which unit it is or on its uniform.) Their orders are to stop the Loyalist attack, cutting them off from the British.

Inside the plantation in the front hedge section are two small militia rifle detachments and two militia line regiments. Their orders are to wear down the British and fall back before they are overcome by British cold steel.

The third command, under the commander-in-chief, consists of three Continental battalions: the North Carolina Continentals, the Massachusetts Continentals, and Hall's Delaware Blues. They are the reserve of the Patriot command and are to advance to slug it out toe-to-toe with the British that make it through the militia, and give them some cold steel if necessary!

Terrain Definitions

Crop Fields: No effect on movement and does not block line of sight. However, if a Crop Field is between the firer and its target, or either is in it, the shot is not clear.

Plowed Fields: As Rough Ground in the book.

Woods: As per the book. Unit must be in Skirmish formation to move through, and then it does so at 1/2 movement rate.

Orchards: As Rough Ground in the book for movement. Does not block line of sight, but if an Orchard is between the firer and its target, or either is in it, the shot is not clear.

Hedges: As a Linear Obstacle per the book.

Road: As per the book.

Plantation: As a Building per the book. The Crown forces are attempting to drive the Patriot forces from controlling the Plantation.


Other Rule Changes
As we are using 15mm figures with four 40mm wide stands for a normal-sized unit, all measurements are scaled to 2/3rds those listed in the book (e.g. 8" move instead of 12", 4" Close range instead of 6", etc.).

For units marching on the board, if two or more units march on in the same space, the first unit loses no actions, the second unit loses one action, the third units two actions, etc. Put another way, the units coming on are in successive lines (or columns) and they are zero, one, or two moves back from that point. This stops an unrealistic event where four units come on at the exact same point and all move full moves as if they were all stacked on top of one another.

All units are considered capable of using Skirmish formation in order to move through terrain requiring it (Woods, in this scenario). However, unless the unit has the Skirmish special ability listed, they cannot fire while in skirmish formation and must reform into a legal formation as soon as they leave the terrain requiring they be in skirmish formation.

I added a new special ability called Always Skirmish, which requires a unit with this to always be in skirmish formation; it can assume no other formation. I use this largely to represent troops that are based on skirmisher bases for other game systems!

Crown Order of Battle

Unit (Number)	Type	Arms	HTH	Sh	Morale	St	Special Rules
British Grenadiers (1)	Infantry	Musket	7	3	4+	3	First Fire, Crack, Steady
British Lights (1)	Infantry	Musket	6	3	4+	3	First Fire, Crack, Steady, Skirmish
British Foot (4)	Infantry	Musket	6	3	4+	3	First Fire, Steady
Provincial Foot (3)	Infantry	Musket	6	3	4+	3	First Fire
Large Provincial Foot (1)	Infantry	Musket	8	4	4+	4	First Fire, Large
British Light Dragoons (1)	Cavalry	Carbine, Sabres	4	1	4+	2	Marauders, Skirmish, Small

Patriot Order of Battle

Unit (Number)	Type	Arms	HTH	Sh	Morale	St	Special Rules
Continentals (2)	Infantry	Musket	6	3	4+	3	First Fire, Steady
Delawares (1)	Infantry	Musket	7	3	4+	3	First Fire, Steady, Crack
Small Militia Rifles (2)	Infantry	Rifle	3	2	5+	2	Unreliable, Sharpshooter, Skirmish, Always Skirmish, Small
Militia Rifles (1)	Infantry	Rifle	5	3	5+	3	Unreliable, Sharpshooter, Skirmish, Always Skirmish
SC Rifles (1)	Infantry	Rifle	5	3	4+	3	Steady, Sharpshooter, Skirmish, Always Skirmish, Marauders
Militia Line (3)	Infantry	Musket	5	3	5+	3	Unreliable
Phil. Lt. Horse (1)	Cavalry	Sabres	4	-	4+	3	Marauders, Skirmish, Small

Early Game

The early game saw the British march the Light Infantry on their right flank and get into a position to fire down the militia rifle line.

In hindsight, this was probably not possible to make this flanking move due to the Proximity of the Enemy rule. We pretty much caught all those situations later, however.

On the left flank the Provincials got their first battalion (the large unit) into the pass into line, and reinforced it with a second line. A third battalion then positioned itself to refuse the left flank of the advance, expecting a possible attack from the Patriots.

The center brigade marches onto the baseline.

Up until this point the Patriot response has been rather tepid; only the small militia rifle unit on the left has engaged any British. However, with the Provincials now bunched up in the "pass" the militia units spring out of their hiding in the woods and lay fire into the lead Provincial battalion. Under the concentrated fire from three units, it cannot stand the pressure and casualties quickly mount. It fails its first and only break test and routs off of the table.

Meanwhile the British advance forward in splendid lines and the entire Patriot line erupts in fire, causing very little damage. With the Light Battalion flanking the position, however, the Massachusetts Continentals advance to fire on the flanking Lights. Casualties start to mount.

With the loss of the first Loyalist Provincial battalion, the remaining two (the last has still not entered the board) attempt to form a line, but continue to fail in the confusion. The longer range of the rifles starts to tell as the Patriots start working on the second Loyalist battalion.

On the British left flank the Lights start moving over the hedges. The Patriot militia rifles decide that they have fired enough rounds for the day and retire from the field. The Massachusetts Continentals advance to plug the gap by charging the Lights while the British Grenadiers attempt to sweep further around the flank. This forces the Patriot commander-in-chief to commit the Delaware Continentals to face off against the British Grenadiers. The best of the Continentals against the best of the British Army!

Back on the right flank the militia is fully engaging, giving the Loyalist Provincials a target. The final Loyalist battalion in the brigade comes on and immediately refuses the left flank, again guarding against a Patriot flank attack.

In the smoke and noise of the center, the British commander-in-chief calls for the British line to advance to the hedges, give fire to the damned Rebels, and give them the cold steel already. Only one unit complies. Firing continues unabated all along the line, the Patriots firing from behind every bush and hedge.

While the Delaware Continentals continue to exchange vollies with the British Grenadiers, the Massachusetts Continentals win their desperate struggle with the British Lights, who rout off of the table.

I believe this is where I made the first mistake with the Steady special ability. I am unsure if I had taken a break test with the British Lights up to this point; if they had then they would have automatically passed it rather than having to roll, but it would have "burned" that one-use ability. However, if the British Lights had not taken a break test up to that point, they would not have had to take the break test from the defeat in hand-to-hand combat, and would have still been in the game. Unless they had taken two break tests (one for defeat and one for casualties)... Basically, I forgot about the Steady special ability for all units in this entire battle. Even worse, I confused it with the Crack special ability for the British Foot regiments. Ah well! I am still learning; next game.

Slowly the Light Dragoons march up the British right flank, attempting to sweep around the Rebel line. An advance by the British 24th Foot (okay, so the 24th did not serve in SC, as it was in prison camps after it surrendered at Saratoga...) up to the hedge line, and subsequent volley into the already-shaken Massachusetts Continentals sent them retiring. This gave the commander-in-chief the chance to start rallying the boys.

The other British regiment at the hedge, however, attempted a bayonet charge over the top against the Rebels hiding behind but the fire coming in was tremendous (they were disordered on closing fire time and again). Meanwhile the Patriot Brigadier desperately tries to rally the right militia regiment, but each volley from the British simply disorders them again, while more run to the rear.

Back on the right flank, the militia rifles continue to pour fire into the end Loyalist battalion, but it shrugs off the fire with ease. The last battalion in the column sweeps left around the militia line and starts to pour fire into it. It now looks like fire is being concentrated on the forward Patriot line. With it wavering (Shaken status), the Loyalists prepare to charge...

The Patriot Brigadier, desperate to extract the militia line from its precarious position, orders a retreat. In the smoke and confusion, however, the unit moves out in the wrong direction and as they exit the smoke they find themselves closer to the Loyalist line! (They rolled a Blunder for their orders.) They quickly volley for all they are worth and shatter the Loyalist battalion, who routs from the field! (Damn, what luck both sides had – Patriot good and Loyalist bad!) The Loyalists flanking the position and charge in, but in all the smoke, confusion, and cheering Patriot militia, their attack is ineffective (the hand-to-hand combat is a draw).

Unfortunately, I was so busy on the opposite flank that I missed the next picture in the sequence, so I made one up from the other photos.

The Philadelphia Light Horse charge onto the flank of the engaged Loyalists – who are still entangled with the militia line that miraculously survived last turn – and cut through the Loyalists. They cannot handle the pressure any more and they rout. The Loyalists have now had three battalions rout on break tests, so Shawn has now secured the spot for Worst Luck in the Game.

At this point we quietly draw a curtain on the Colonial right/Crown left flank. Don continues to hammer away at the remaining Loyalist battalion and never succeeds in denting it.

Meanwhile, back in the center, the British finally advance with the remaining Foot battalions, hammering the militia on the right and forcing the rout of the small rifle detachment at the end of the line. With the right militia line constantly being disordered by fire, the Patriot Brigadier cannot rally the troops. It is only a matter of time... Time to start pulling back.

But it is too late. The militia line pull back from the hedges, but a charge from British eventually pushes the militia over the brink and they rout, carrying the Brigadier with them, but not before one of the British units is shot down by the SC Rifles!

As we draw a curtain to a close on the center, one British Foot regiment remains standing.

Here is where I made the worst error, which was confusing the special ability Steady with Crack. I gave all of the British infantry Steady, but I thought that was the ability to have a morale save re-roll, when it is actually that they automatically pass their first break test. In the future I will either give late war British the Crack special ability, or change the Steady special ability to apply only to the first break test caused by shooting.

Also, I played Crack wrong, as it only applies if the unit has no casualties, whereas I gave them the save throughout the battle. This lessens the ability significantly and makes early rally actions more important.

Finally, on the Colonial right/Crown left flank the commander-in-chief rallied the Massachusetts Continentals while the Delaware Continentals hammered away at the British Grenadiers. Slowly the British Light Dragoons worked its way around the left flank of the Delaware troops.

The British Light Dragoons charge the end of the Delaware Continentals – I have to read the section on charges again, as I think I got this wrong – and drew the combat. The Massachusetts Continentals then charge into the Light Dragoons and drive them off at the point of a bayonet.

At this point the curtain draws a close on the battle. The British players declare that the Patriots have bloodied the British sufficiently and driven them off.

Although there were very few losses on the Patriot right flank, the center had completely collapsed. On the Crown side the Loyalists were badly beaten and the British center did not fare much better.

All in all, however, everyone enjoyed the game, the scenario, and the rules. Even the two WW II fanatics in the group, who play a lot of Flames of War, said they would play this again. So from the club perspective, it was a great success.

Analysis


What did I get wrong with the rules? Let me count the ways:

1. The commander-in-chief does not command units, so I was down one Brigadier for each side.
2. The commander-in-chief, if giving orders, does not have to be the last commander to do so. (However, if he blunders, no other generals can give orders. So in effect he should go last, but it is not a rule that he must.)
3. The Crack special ability only lasts while the unit has no casualties. That lessens it effect considerably.
4. The Steady special ability was not used at all, so I have to remember when it triggers. In a way it is sort of a bookkeeping issue too, as you have to remember which unit has used this one-use ability and which has not. Same as with First Fire. Maybe a token that goes with each unit, or a card in the commander's hand, and when it used, the token or card is discarded.
5. I probably got the charge with the British Light Dragoons into the Delaware Continentals wrong, allowing a corner-to-corner contact. I think no contact should have been allowed as the charge was not coming from the flank, and therefore side contact would not have been allowed. Front contact would not have been allowed either, as the British Grenadiers were too close to allow the Light Dragoons to fit. I will have to ask on the forum.
6. I will also have to check what happens when both sides are touching the hedge. I suspect that it should not be allowed, unless the attacker has declared a charge. This would get rid of the issue of whether one or both sides get the cover benefit.

What should I have changed with the scenario?

1. There was too much firepower on the Patriot right flank. There was no easy way for the Loyalists to break through and even attempt an attack on the flank. I thought that having a Large unit in the lead would have allowed it to absorb the firepower, but I was wrong. Combined with the Patriots using rifles with two of their three infantry units and there was little way for the Loyalists to penetrate that wall of fire.
2. Each side needs an additional Brigadier General – to command the Continental reserve, for the Patriots, and to command the center, for the British.
3. The woods separating the Loyalist and British center commands should be removed. This caused a bottle-neck which did not allow the Loyalists to bring more units to bear on the Patriot rifles.
4. I had an 8' wide board available, but only used 6' of it; I should have used all 8'. This would have allowed the British Light Dragoons to sweep around the flank and not get 'pinned' by the Enemy in Close Proximity rule. On the opposite flank, it might have encouraged the Loyalists to sweep left and flank the Patriot position, reducing their firepower dominance.

Some of the mistakes in game play that I noted:

1. The Loyalists should have swept left much earlier than they did in order to put the militia off balance and to gain the hedges as cover for their own troops. (Sounds cowardly, I know.)
2. The British center was not aggressive enough and held back in a long-range firefight, without clear shots, against a target in cover. Because they stopped to fire, units were disordered turn after turn and it was hard to get the advance going again. That last part felt very 'realistic', I might add.
3. The North Carolina Continentals did absolutely nothing all game, constantly failing to get anywhere. They should have started towards the left flank much earlier than they tried to.

All in all the rules exceeded my expectations. The refinements to the basic Warmaster rules have made the game better. The one area where I am not sure I think the effect is right is with Disorder. As it stands now, a unit is disordered by fire, but there is no way to exploit that. it seems like it would be the moment to execute a charge, but the enemy gets to remove disorder before you have a chance to charge, due to the turn sequence. Perhaps I am reading something in the rules wrong, so it definitely needs more exploring. Try as I might, I really don't want to alter the core mechanics of the rules.

In conclusion ... Black Powder will definitely be on the play list in the future. I have my 15mm AWI that are based sufficiently for this system (and the always favorite Sixty-One Sixty-Five) and I am working on some 6mm Franco-Prussian War troops that will be based for this and To The Last Gaiter Button (which I am looking forward to trying out and reviewing).

AWI using Black Powder

My 200th post (on this particular blog)! Not bad, even if I did get a slow start, almost five years ago. I hope you have enjoyed it, and will continue to do so.

I purchased the rules  Black Powder some time again, mostly because of all of the buzz when it first came out. As I am not  a fan of the Warmaster-style command and control system, and I like my rules "tournament tight", I did not think I would like these. So, why am I playing a test game and doing a battle report and review? Shawn, at our club, purchased the ancients equivalent to these rules Hail Caesar, and he wants to try them once he gets enough figures painted. He is also curious about the horse and musket period, so one way to scratch both itches is for me to pull out my AWI and give Black Powder a go. As I really don't like playing a big game when I am 'iffy' on the rules, I decided to set up a table at home and give it a go.

The Scenario

The scenario is a fictional one; something I can learn with and use some of the terrain I have been collecting and working on. I definitely wanted to use all of the hedges I have purchased (actually, bocage for 15mm Flames of War, so it is probably a bit too high for the size of hedge I want to represent in this scenario). Also, a road would look nice (even if they do have tank tread marks in them because they are also for Flames of War). So I decide to make this an attack on a plantation.

The British and Loyalists will be attacking from the South (bottom of the picture), while the Patriots will be defending the plantation.

The battle plan was relatively simple. The British would enter the board in three separate columns: left, center, and right. The left column, composed of Loyalists Provincials, would lead by marching down the road. Unbeknownst to them, the Patriots were aware of this approach and had hidden some militia and cavalry of their own in and behind the woods. Their job would be to flank the left column's attack.

The right column, composed of a converged Light Infantry battalion, a small Light Dragoon contingent, and a British Foot battalion, would approach through the woods (barely seen in the picture above) and the crops, then spring their attack as a spoiler to any attacks on the British center.

The center column, composed of British Line troops and a few small Loyalist militia units, was off of the board and unable to enter on turn one. The Commander-in-Chief figure (out of the picture) would mark where the column's center would enter, but the General would not actually be present until turn two.

Click on any pictures to enlarge.

Order of Battle

The British have three British Foot battalions, one British Light Infantry battalion, one British Light Dragoon regiment, four Loyalist Provincial battalions, and two Loyalist militia commands.

The Patriots have three militia commands, three militia rifle skirmish groups, one State rifle battalion, two Continental battalions, Hall's Delaware Blues (Continental battalion), and the Philadelphia Light Horse.

British Turn 1 - I decide to order the first Loyalist unit in the road column to advance (I indicated a spot on the table that was one move away), and change into line facing the corner of the hedges. So, with a Staff rating of '8', +2 for being in March Column on the Road, I need a '10' or less to succeed.

Great way to start and a perfect reminder about why I do not like Warmaster-style command and control systems. That, and I should not use "pink bubblegum" colored dice.

So, because the unit is in march column, it must make one move (as a free move) as that is compatible with the orders I had issued. Also, that Brigadier is now finished giving orders for the turn. Hmmm, someone must have interpreted the orders as having the first unit scout ahead!

On the opposite flank the Light Infantry are ordered forward through the woods and into the crop field in front of it. The unit is not to expose itself on the forward side of the field, but to remain hidden. I roll a '10', again barely failing. It moves forward one move and that Brigadier is finished with orders too.

As the General's figure is only on the board as a marker where the center brigade will appear, and not really on the board (he enters next turn with the last brigade), the turn is over.

Patriot Turn 1 - I just looked at the ranges again. Wow! 18" for muskets. I should probably be cutting everything down here, inches to centimeters or something, but I will go with this for the whole game. I hate changing rules before I really see their effects. As it stands, however, my unit frontages are about 2/3rds of what they suggest in the book.

I decide that I want to move my rifle unit in my right brigade out of cover into a position where it can shoot at the Loyalist militia on the road. The unit is in skirmish order, so it is really a single move to get some of the figures in a new skirmish line, and two moves to get them all sorted out (I have to move through the woods). Staff of '8' and I roll a '2'; three moves.

The militia rifles on my right (of the right brigade) also moves out, but only gets one move. I decide not to move any more of the brigade, nor any of the other brigades. Here is the situation on the Patriot right, at the end of movement.

Fire from my two units was pretty devastating. I scored four hits, none of which were saved (hard given they were caught in march column) and I rolled a '6' on hits, meaning the unit is also disordered (which is not a surprise).

Given that I inflicted exactly four hits, and no excess (this unit is a large unit), there was no Break test. Still, they are in a pretty bad way. Maybe I should have moved the Philadelphia Light Horse into position to charge after all.

A this point the Man Cave is getting too cold and it is obvious to me that I need to read the rules a little more, as I am flipping around too much looking for the answers to what I feel are basic questions. But at least I have a better idea what to look for and expect.

British Turn 2 - The first problem is the Loyalist infantry stuck on the road. As they are disordered, there is nothing I can really do (they cannot move). They will remove the disorder marker at the end of the British turn. The second Loyalist unit decides to march over the hedges and flank the right of the skirmish line. They get three orders and ... well this is why you need to measure out your moves before hand. Because I stated a long order, and got three orders, the ended up in a vulnerable position where they were still in march column, but did not have another order to change formation. This is going to hurt... The third unit in the brigade failed the roll, so that is all of the Loyalist column's movement.

The Light column started by having the Light Infantry form a line, then wheel forward to the hedge and deliver a volley into the militia. Meanwhile, the Foot Regiment continued to march in column to get around the flank. The cavalry was able to get past the hedges and execute a left face, ready to ride down the militia behind the first set of hedges. (However, they now notice the second line of militia in addition to the third line, composed of Continentals. Maybe better to wait...)

The Center column got an astounding three orders for the entire brigade, allowing them to march on all the way to the hedge line and form line of battle. The British are here!

Now it was time to fire. The British, from behind the hedges, fire at the Patriot skirmishers hiding behind their hedges. The British Foot on the left scores only one hit, but it is not saved. On the right, the British Foot and the Light Battalion fire on a single Patriot unit and score five hits, but they score an amazing four saves!

At this point it might be helpful to those that have never played Black Powder to understand how ranged combat works. Each unit has a number of dice for shooting, generally three, and to hit a 4+ is needed. There are some modifiers, both to the number of dice for firing, plus the number needed to hit. For example, the British have the First Fire ability, which grants them +1 to hit the first time the unit fires. A target in cover, or skirmishing, reduces the chance to be hit by -1. If a natural '6' is rolled, the target is disordered by the fire, even if no hits are inflicted (see morale saves below).

The target gets to attempt a save for each hit received based on the morale of the target unit. Generally the chance to save is 4+, but formation and cover can modify the chance. Being in March Column means your chance to save is worse (increasing the save number by 2 to a 6+), while being in cover decreases the save number by 1.

Once a unit equals its Stamina (generally a 3) in hits, it becomes Shaken. Once it has exceeded that value in hits it starts taking Break Tests.

Disorder is removed at the end of your player turn. Its primary penalty is that you cannot be given orders or act on initiative; you are frozen. Shaken units are penalized a die in shooting and in hand-to-hand combat.

So, with the British center engaged, we now start to see some real action.

Patriot Turn 2 - The first order on the Patriot right has got to be an attempt by the Philadelphia Light Horse to charge the Loyalists that attempted a flanking march and got stuck in March Column. I roll a '4' and ... three orders, allowing them to change formation and charge two moves! Just what I needed (two orders would have fallen short, so I was gambling)!

The skirmishing riflemen the cavalry charged through must have been surprised, as they failed their chance to receive orders.

In the left-center, the militia eye the British cavalry on the flank. They are ordered to wheel left and man the hedges to the left, giving them fire, but they think that is a damn fool idea. (They did not pass their order check)

The Continentals, meanwhile, stand pat.

As the Loyalists are in March Column, they get no Closing Fire on the charging cavalry. Meanwhile the rifle and musket fire on the right tear into the Loyalist column on the road, inflicting seven hits, of which three save. Fortunately for the Loyalists, none of the fire disordered them. Nonetheless, this causes four excess hits to be counted against their Break Test.

The chance to hit with the riflemen is a 3+, as they have +1 for being in skirmish order. Further, the rifle units are Sharpshooters so they can re-roll one miss each. With the Loyalists in March Column, they only receive a save on a '6', so they are in a bad way...

In the center, the riflemen behind the hedges open fire. The unit to the right inflicts one hit, which is not saved. The unit on the left inflicts two hits, both of which are saved. This is going to be a long firefight.

The basic odds here are that the riflemen score hits on a 3+, but can re-roll one miss each. The British, as long as they are behind the hedges, save on a 3+. If they are Crack, like the Light Battalion, they further get to re-roll failed morale saves from shooting.

With no real effect (no '6' rolled for causing Disorder), there will be no Break Tests in the center.

So now, to make the Break Test for the Loyalist unit in the center. They roll a '9', subtract -4 for the excess casualties for a total of 5. (If they had been disordered this turn they would have had an additional -1.) As they got a better than average roll, the unit was not automatically destroyed (had they rolled an '8' however...). The unit retires one move to their rear and is disordered. As they are in March Column, they automatically form into Line.

Finally, time to learn about hand-to-hand combat!

Hand-to-hand combat is much like shooting. Each unit gets a number of dice to roll, looking for a 4+ to hit. Both the number of dice and the die roll can be modified. Once the number of hits are established, morale saves are taken, except that the benefits of cover can be nullified.

In this battle the cavalry gets four dice in combat (it is a small unit), but gets +1 for charging. The infantry get six dice, but because they were caught in March Column, they only get to roll one!

The cavalry inflict three hits of which one is saved. The infantry do not inflict any hits. As the result is two hits to zero, the infantry is defeated. This forces a Break Test on the infantry, who rolls a '3' and is destroyed!

At this point the winning unit can do nothing, change formation, fall back, or make a sweeping advance, as all enemy have retired or been broken. Cavalry making a sweeping advance can charge another unit within one move (18") if they are within their front arc (45).

Unfortunately, the Loyalists that just retired in disorder is not within the front arc of the cavalry, otherwise I would push it. Also, given the Proximity of Enemy rule, any move has to be directly towards or directly away from them, which is outside of my arc. Thus, I decide to change formation to single line while also (barely) putting them in my front arc.

The turn comes to a close, but unfortunately, so does the game, as I have to pick up all the terrain and figures for my game tomorrow. This was a test of the rules and the scenario, plus getting me familiar enough to teach everyone else.

Summary

One thing I learned is that I cannot use the measurements out of the book. My units are 2/3rds the frontage of the 28mm Black Powder units, so 12" needs to be cut down to 8". This will make a 6' by 4' board feel like 9' by 6', which is a good thing.

Getting caught in March Column is deadly, which is as it should be. (I usually try out a March Column move close to the front line to test out just how bad it can be, ever since a fateful game of Napoleon's Battles.) Although the units were apart while in March Column, it is not indicative of the rules of a whole. In fact, turns seem to go in slower motion than I expected, given quick, decisive movement and long firing ranges. Unless I am doing something wrong, the basic formula is that a unit rolls three dice, needing a 4+ to inflict a hit. The enemy unit rolls to save against those hits by rolling a 4+. Three dice * 50% hit * 50% save equals about 0.75 hits a turn. With a stamina of 3, it will take about four turns of firing to match the stamina and five turns to exceed it, forcing the first break test. If the unit is Steady, it is even worse. If the unit is Crack, it is far worse. Rolling a '6' and inflicting disorder on your opponent suddenly becomes the critical tie-breaker.

Given that hand-to-hand combat has you throwing more dice, and the side that wins forces a break test regardless of how many hits have been inflicted, clearly hand-to-hand combat is the game winner. I strongly suspect that cavalry charging straight into a line is going to find the closing fire unpleasant.

I'll be honest, I was not expecting much from the rules. I figured that it would be Warmaster lightly warmed over, with a dash of Horse and Musket flavor. I think the larger distances and ranges, additional actions, and less fiddly movement rules were all refinements that appear subtle, but actually have a greater effect than you imagine when you simply read the rules. I still think their might be a problem in multi-player games, given that a bad roll early into the command phase stops you dead, so a player, regardless of the number of units he has, might be stuck doing nothing is his luck runs bad. (Again, I hearken back to a past game of Fast Play Grande Armee where I was stuck doing nothing for almost two hours. But hey, I met Justo at that game, so it was not all bad.)

I am definitely looking forward to replaying this scenario – with some appropriate changes – tomorrow.