3rd game of Black Powder.

[ashmie]

Right, clear head on. Stress of daily life out the window thanks to tea, trains and buttered crumpets (where can buy crumpets?).
Shall we have a pow wow about this weekends game. I like both ideas suggested in the event thread but perhaps we have time to flesh out the scenario a bit more here. No GM this time?

[job]

I have an idea. We could maybe ask the esteemed Piker of Toyohashi to give us a hand. He's definitely steeped in history of the Napoleonic era, has a game under his belt and I believe a copy of Black Powder along with an extensive library of other war games. Maybe we could approach him and ask him to think up of a scenario given the forces we explain we bring. (This has the added benefit of allowing for 'surprises' as Mike can keep the details to himself until the day and maybe PM or email the details shortly before.)

Of course it is entirely likely he will be too busy or find it too difficult to arrange, so we might also expect we have to plan the scenario.

A few other ideas:

• Maybe we should post the forces we are bringing. While this is a game of throwing down figures and enjoying 'the fortunes of war', our forces are still very inherently unbalanced. Balance is certainly not the aim but I think we should avoid nasty surprises.

-I'll be bringing a general, cuirassier regiment, 2-3 regiments of fusiliers, a small regiment of light and a 6 lb. gun. (Unfortunately two of the regiments will probably not get painted some I'm particularly on the fence about fielding one of the fusiliers.)

• Because we don't play BP, how about we make a rule 'No commanders below a rating of 7'. This is to avoid someone having their rare BP day be completely humbugged by an incompetent at the helm. While I think it would be great fun and challenge to have a nincompoop for a commander sometime, it seems kind of rough to ask anyone to play with a commander so low at this time. (Maybe we should make a rule for anyone starting the game to always have at least a default '8'-commander?)

• I think we should play with the recommended national rules. It seems like a great deal of fun. Though, the Prussians are a little hamstrung by this I fear. How about letting our protege of Blucher, if he excepts troops from the landswehr, to nominate a Guard or Veteran unit(s) that he can upgrade with a couple of special rules of his choice. Or numerical advantage if he can field it.

Anyway, my ideas are just to keep the game from slipping into something rough for anyone. We've been planning this for awhile. The trip to Tsu is pretty long. We've been painting up stuff. Then we'll haul it all down. I want it to be an action packed game for us all! (Even if I hope Victory is only graced on the French. )

[Primarch]

Oh, I already had something written up based on the suggestion in the Tsu thread. I will send it to all concerned after I get home tonight.

Command 8 was what we had been using in all our previous games and it seems about right for this level of play.

As for the national rules, it's fine for French and Brits, but not so good for the Prussians as they should get a points break for Landwehr which isn't possible with our current, limited collections.

[job]

I look forward to reading the scenario.

How about for the Prussians replacing the suggested national rule with something we think suitable for the Prussians? After all it is a matter of what we think represents the historic nature of the Prussian army. The Landwehr only appeared in the Prussian army until the very late Napoleonic era (1812-15), so if wanted to represent them otherwise, there is a lot of history for them to highly disciplined infantry in the legacy of Fredrick the Great!

[ashmie]

Great, well done Prim for preparing something. I don't mind having the national rule for Prussians. Unreliable or whatever it was. We used it last time and it added to the fun of what might happen so I'm happy to keep it. I have 1 unit of Line Infantry that won't be effected by this rule as they are not Landwehr and I have two big units plus skirmishers.

Prussians: 1 big unit of skirmishers, 2 standard units of Landwehr (Silesia yellow and green Westphalia born and raised) . 1 large unit of East Prussian (red) landwehr pike and musket. 1 large unit of mixed formation line infantry with Jagers.
2 Command. Commander Von Laycock and Sergent Heinrich Gruber.

Looking forward to it. We will use my Mordheim board with and extension to make it just over 6 by 4. We will half movement rates to compensate. We should be able to make it look Napoleonic enough.

Top dog and 2nd in command what are the relevant titles do you think for Prussians?

[Primarch]

Here we go gents.

Black Powder – Tsu

Forces/Special Rules.
All infantry has the 'Must Form Square' rule.
All infantry have Smoothbore Muskets unless stated otherwise.
All infantry units have the option of Mixed Formation.
All commanders have a command rating of 8.

British
Line Infantry get First Fire.
Riflemen get Skirmish, Sharpshooters and Rifles
Hussars get Marauders

French
Line Infantry get Reliable Attack Column
Voltigeurs get Skirmish and Sharpshooters
Cuirassiers get Reliable and Heavy Cavalry D3

Prussians
Landwehr get Unreliable
Line Infantry get Reliable and Elite 4+
Jagers get Skirmish and Sharpshooters

Each player will have 1 commander for their brigade.
Each team will have 1 additional commander who acts as a general and may give orders to units in either brigade.

Scenario.
Set up the table with a hill/town in the centre as the objective.
Teams roll off for attacker/defender, highest scoring team may choose their role.
The attacking team nominates a short table edge.
1 player from the defending team deploys their entire brigade within 6” (or as close as possible) to the centre of the objective.
The attacking team deploys all of their forces within 12” of their table edge. Dedicated skirmish units (Riflemen, Voltigeurs, Jagers) may be deployed within 18” of the table edge.
The attacking team has the first turn.
The second defending player begins with his forces off the table and must give his units orders to enter. The general begins with the second defending player's forces.

Finishing the scenario.
The scenario finishes when either of 3 things happen.
1. Both of the brigades on one team are broken. A brigade is broken once half of the units (rounding up and not counting artillery) are removed from the table or shaken.
2. One team decides to give up.
3. 8 turns are played.
In the event of results 1 and 2 the winner should be clear. The winner of result 3 will be determined by counting which team has the most unbroken/not disordered units within 6” of the objective at the end of the game.

[job]

I like the scenario overall.

Just a few things:

• I like the national rules. The only thing is Lovejoy wrote something about "Imperial Guard", so I'm not sure if he has the mind to field some Veteran or Guard infantry.

• I think we should agree on some kind of good position for the Defender in this scenario. I'm not sure how much terrain is good, but too little and it seems the Defender's forces will be overwhelmed before being reinforced and too much they'll be exceedingly difficult to drive out.

• Also I think it might make sense to add a "round about" objective rather then a strict count of broken units to replace objective #3. Counting broken units sounds a little like 40k and I'm eager to separate the experience of BP from 40k and enjoy something more gentlemanly. That is, I hope if the game is good and tight, goes on until the end of 8th turn, how about we just decide based on our opinion of the matter?
Most likely by the end of the 8th some team will have gained an advantage. But if it is not that clear, why spoil a good game by having to determine a black-and-white Winner-Loser?
Why not just say the side that more or less controls the center of the board and the most defensible/reinforceable position is the winner?

[ashmie]

Good work, scenario sounds fine to me. Middling defenses then opposed to fortress or straw huts.
For me there is no worries about having a clear winner but I'm hoping it will appear obvious. If not we can go to the scenario 3 options for a clear win. All in favour say aye.
Lets keep it simple as this is our first big game with 4 players.

[Primarch]

Most likely by the end of the 8th some team will have gained an advantage. But if it is not that clear, why spoil a good game by having to determine a black-and-white Winner-Loser?

Fair enough, nothing is set in stone.

If LJ has Elite troops then we can certainly add that in, the rules are in the book after all. (The rules for the Prussian Line troops make them a 'guard' level battalion, just to balance out the rest of the Prussian forces).

I will be brining some terrain with me as well, so we can work something out.

[Lovejoy]

Hello all,

Here's update on what it looks like I'll be bringing-

1 Unit of Imperial Guard (count them as regular infantry if you like)
2 Units Line infantry (Fusiliers)
6 pounder cannon
Command stand

Oh, and I have the BP rulebook, so will bring my copy.

The guard unit and cannon look passable, but the others may look a bit ropey! Time-poor these days, and need devlan mud.
Each infantry unit consists of 6 stands of 4 men each, 40mm square bases (the victrix ones), I gathered that these 24 man units were what people were going for.