Black Powder 2 - Initial Thoughts

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Black Powder 2 - Initial Thoughts

Post by Primarch » Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:51 am

Black Powder 2 is out in the wild and I have had a chance to leaf through my copy to see what's what.

As you'd expect, the book is crammed from cover to cover with lavish pictures of minis from a range of makers. Warlord of course, Perrys, 1st Corps and a few others. IMHO the only let down is the (obvious from a business point of view) effort made to put "Warlord's" products centre stage. Now, some of Warlord's Napoleonics are hardly the most awe inspiring, but they look ok. It's the inclusion of the ex-Wargame's Factory stuff that puts me off. Their wooden, unnatural poses really clash with the much better sculpted minis on display. Thankfully, there are plenty of nice pictures from talented sculptors to distract from these eyesores.

There is a variety of scenarios in the book, covering some of the major conflicts such as ACW and Naps, as well as some less mainstream ideas such as a Pony Wars scenario and one for a battle between the East India Company and their Dutch rivals. The scenarios seem a little more fleshed out than the last edition, but the 'How it played' section has been removed.

As for the actual rules themselves...
This isn't a 2nd edition so much as a 1.1 tidy up and amendment. Warlord stated that the new book wouldn't invalidate any of the supplements, and they have held true to their word. Changes are pretty minimal as far as I can see. Of the two I have spotted so far, one relates to Generals - They now grant a re-roll to one brigade commander, but can no longer issue orders of their own. So, your army could be commanded by Napoleon or by Elphinstone and it won't make a lick of difference.
The other change I noticed is to Evading charges. This doesn't happen a lot with the ordered lines of Napoleonics, but it will impact the irregular cavalry units of colonial actions. Evading a charge now requires an order roll. The evaders then move an appropriate number of times, but get one free move even if they fail. In 1st edition, an evading unit was uncatchable, but now, if the charging unit has the movement, they CAN catch the target unit and, should they do so, the unit is wiped out. Nasty.

For example. A unit of French Line Infantry is 3" from a troop of British Rifles. The French declare a charge, the Rifles declare an evade. The French take their order test and get 3 moves (36").
In 1st Edition - The French move 3" into contact. The Rifles then move 12" away. No combat occurs.
In 2nd Edition - The Rifles take an order test and move. If they roll 2 moves, they fall back 24". The French, with their 36" move easily catch and overrun the Rifles. If they roll 3 moves, or the French started from further away they would be safe.


There are a few typos in the book, the most glaring of which is the table for morale save modifiers. It has been partially copied from the order test modifiers table and is clearly very wrong. Luckily the table on the QRS is (presumably) correct.

Overall, it looks pretty, all the good parts of BP1 are still there and some odd bits and pieces have been revamped.

Now, should I get an army of AWI Rebels or ACW Unionists? :lol:
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450

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job
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Re: Black Powder 2 - Initial Thoughts

Post by job » Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:13 am

How serious do you feel about AWI? The Perry plastic kits for the Tories and the Rebels are just gorgeous. I’m interested in painting a bit of each.

This is a historical battle I’d be keen on: Battle of Guilford Courthouse
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_ ... ourt_House

Order of Battle isn’t too extreme either. Especially is we use 12 or 18 figure units. Any interest?
Models Painted, 2020
70 28mm miniatureS

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Re: Black Powder 2 - Initial Thoughts

Post by Primarch » Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:11 am

job wrote:How serious do you feel about AWI? The Perry plastic kits for the Tories and the Rebels are just gorgeous. I’m interested in painting a bit of each.

This is a historical battle I’d be keen on: Battle of Guilford Courthouse
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_ ... ourt_House

Order of Battle isn’t too extreme either. Especially is we use 12 or 18 figure units. Any interest?
PM sent!

What do you think of the new BP book?
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450

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job
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Re: Black Powder 2 - Initial Thoughts

Post by job » Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:32 pm

Thanks for the PM response. I’ll put down my thoughts once I get a day off. About to begin Day 7!
Models Painted, 2020
70 28mm miniatureS

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