The Loose Association of Wargamers

David and I had a game of BP on Wednesday. We used my 18mm figures so a few battle-virgin units had their chance to do the Game 1 Rout. Unfortunately I had most of them. It was a small game- six battalions, six cavalry regiments and two guns each using basic units with no elites or poor troops- and was designed to introduce me to the system.

I had a Brit-Hannover-Prussian force, of which only the Prussian horse had been used in battle before. David had a French-Austrian-Reichsarmee force with four French - two of them battle virgins- a Bavarian and a Württembergisches battalion, three untried French cavalry and three Austrian cavalry with two untried French guns.

Unwisely (and against David's advice) my infantry advanced 12" in column while my cavalry formed line- having also failed activation. David managed to activate his two infantry brigades and got three actions for each and for the Austrian cavalry brigade, but the French cavalry, remembering Minden, didn't cooperate. His infantry advanced up, changed formation into line and proceeded to blow away my columns. The cavalry melee was more equal, but after two turns the Prussians and 15LD dispersed when I threw a 4 for KR9's morale. I was able to get my infantry in line and exchanged fire with the enemy, causing two battalions to withdraw. The 23RWF did well, holding the line while the Queen's and Cheshires cowered behind them. On the other side the Hannoverians (Saxe-Gotha and Chausses) and and Herefords were getting the better of the fight.

Then the French cavalry (Colonel-General and Maestre de Camp Chev-Leg. with Austrian Saxe-Gotha dragoons) must have had some liquid courage, as they charged into my cavalry (Black Horse and Inniskillings) and smashed them. End of game.

It's an interesting system and David loaned me the rules book to read. It was good to have my figures used in a game again. And now those British and Hannoverian troops are blooded they will do much better in the next game. (If they know what is good for them they will...)

That looks good, its always great to get newly painted figures on the table.
I've only ever played Black Powder in huge multi-player refights and felt that though it worked reasonably well and more importantly played quickly I hated the idea that a general could lead a pile of troops the width of the table and crash into some poor hapless defenders whose only ability seemed to be to stand still and do sod all!

That was my first game and it's an interesting system, but I agree with what you said. It makes for a short, sharp game but that's not always a good thing.

Had that exact same thing done to me at Partizan a few years back (didn't help that it was my first ever game using BP). My immediate opponent in a multi-player game, got a triple move on Turn 1, skipped all the way across the table and blasted me out of the game - I didn't even last long enough to shoot back. Still, it gave me the rest of the day to do shopping and talk to folk on other tables - I seem to recall I played in 3 or 4 other games over the course of the day, so I suppose in that respect it did me a favour.

That said, Mr Spanner, your game looks like it had the right number of troops for a table that size, which you don't often get in H&M games - it's normally wall-to-wall infantry with no room for manoeuvre (other than running away).

it's normally wall-to-wall infantry with no room for manoeuvre (other than running away).

Sounds like Ayton, until we shifted to skirmish games.

Thanks, Your Baronness. David told me that that could happen, but I wanted to see what the effects were in using the standard SYW approach in column. Answer = "Nasty". We have another go on Thursday and I'll have a better idea of how the game plays (and I'll blood the other battle virgins- 8 battalions and a couple of cavalry regiments). As I said, it's an interesting system, but in trying to cover the whole H&M period it has a very "vanilla flavour" to it.

by MarshalNey » 01 Jul 2023 20:14
Sounds like Ayton, until we shifted to skirmish games.

I thought it wasn't a real game unless the weight of the figures exceeded the load-bearing rating of the table?

I thought it wasn't a real game unless the weight of the figures exceeded the load-bearing rating of the table?

Probably, theres some equation for that...

BaronVonWreckedoften wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 6:40 am with no room for manoeuvre (other than running away).

You mean there is another kind of manoeuvre possible?

There's also the flank march. Where you start on one flank and spend the game marching to the other flank...

by MarshalNey » 01 Jul 2023 21:12

Probably, theres some equation for that.

There is. F1+F2+WT= Oops
Where F1 = Floor
F2= Figures
WT= Weak Table

by Count Belisarius » 02 Jul 2023 07:00

There's also the flank march. Where you start on one flank and spend the game marching to the other flank...

You were in that Empire game too?