Black Powder – a Noob’s Experience

by Troy A. Hill

SciFi/Fantasy and WWII have been gateway games for many gamers, myself included.

The routine seems to be finding a fantasy or SciFi miniatures game. Then moving into historicals through WWII (or WWIII) games. That’s where the time-space vortex opens a rift in the gaming table and sucks a gamer down into the eye of the storm that is historicals.

I’m just one such example. Fantasy in the 28mm scale brought me into the hobby. Then I moved into WWII gaming in both 15mm and 28mm. Now I’m beginning my dive back into the trenches historical gaming scene that doesn’t include tanks nor airplanes. So many games, and so little experience. We’ve got ancients, dark ages, medieval, ACW, ECW, or that little general who conquered most of Europe…

Our local gaming group at has settled on Napoleonic games for our next sojourn. I use the term “settled” very loosely here since we still have many decisions to make. What scale of minis? Twenty-eight mm?

“Too big, don’t have to room to store them and the terrain,” a friend says. “How about 10mm?”

“Ugh… too small,” I think to myself. After years gaming in the WWII space with 15mm figures, I’m comfortable painting in that scale, and I appreciate the smallness of the models on the table while keeping enough detail in the figures that I look forward to spending some time painting the models.

Does this water bottle make my commander look 15mm?

The size of minis to use is still up for debate in our group as of this writing. One player already has some 10mm figures. I’ve ordered my 15mm Russian Campaign army from Old Glory. We may have to play whichever scale we have the most of for a given scenario.

Also unsettled is the question of which set of rules to use; there seem to more rule sets for this period of history than the number of troopers the Grande Armee had in its march to Moscow. I hope to spend some time exploring various Napoleonic rule sets. When I do, I’ll add a story here at NDNG.

Another gaming group at the club is playing in 15mm with a different set of rules. But, we’re the Bolt Action group at the club. Shouldn’t we start by looking at the rules from Bolt Action‘s publisher, Warlord Games?

Rick Priestly, one of the godfathers of table-top miniature games in our era, was a major part of the writing team for both game systems (Bolt Action with Alessio Cavatore, and with Jervis Johnson for Black Powder).

Refighting the American Civil War, one small battle on a 6x 8 table. Since Jacob had the Capt. America shirt, it seemed appropriate for him to command the Union force.

Of course, I asked at my local Historical Minature Gaming Society () what the prevalent Napoleonics rules set was. I expected at least four different answers since there were seven of us gathered. My eyebrows almost cramped as they zoomed upward when everyone at the table said “Black Powder.” Six different historical gamers all agreed on one ruleset? Unheard of. I expected an hour or so of grognarding over our coffee and bacon. Instead, there was a consensus of opinion?

So I arranged a training session at , from one of our HMGS-PSW grognards, British Michael. I coopted NDNG-Jason to head up and learn the game with me. This is one of the few Warlord games he hasn’t played yet.

British Michael brought along American Civil War instead of masses of Russian and French infantry. He explained, however, that the rules are the same, only differing in the various unit special rules and stats. Since this was a training game, we’d be sticking to just the basics. That worked well for me.

Since I’m the rebel of … well… I ended up taking the Confederate side, leaving Jacob to command the Union side. We each used armies from Michael’s collection of 15mm figures, which he had acquired from years of purchasing from sites like eBay. He had rebased the figures to a common theme.

The Philosophy and Orders

Michael explained in his British Accent, over a table full of American Union and Southern figures, that Black Powder was designed as a gentleman’s game, to be played in a spirit of fun and cooperation. To that end, we would need to give our units verbal commands. They should be simple and clear;

Unit A, move toward the gap between the woods and the farmhouse.

or, Unit B, form line and advance to close shooting distance at the enemy directly in your front.

Sounds simple. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. After years of playing games with tight meta, where we get to move and maneuver according to strict rules to get our units into that one position and facing to have the greatest impact, Jacob and I kept trying to complicate our orders.

Unit A, swing around the woods, stop near the farmhouse but leave a gap for the cannon to fire through at the unit of cavalry to your right front.

Or, Unit B, move forward have one move, form line to the left, wheel about 15 degrees and advance, but don’t get into point-blank range.

Unit A, advance to hold the gap between the woods and the fence.

See the difference? Michael explained that as the gaming group plays, we’ll get used to each other’s commands. Just keep them simple and direct. He also showed us through the games that the less we put into each command, the more we can do. Just be sure to include formation changes and basic intent for the unit.

The Rules

Black Powder is a simple Ugo-Igo system. Roll to see which side gets to go first. Command and move all the units. Shoot all the units. Close-combat with all the units as appropriate. Simple.

But it’s not. Like all good wargames, many factors affect the gameplay: die rolls, how a player executes the strategy (stating the commands), and all of the little bits of movement and deployment. Do you want your unit to get into combat in line formation? or as fighting column? or as square?

I still have a lot to learn about the rules. I have even more to learn about formations, strategy and gameplay styles. Below I’ll cover some of the rules, and provide a very basic overview of how the game functions. One day of gaming isn’t enough to fully grasp any system. Our experience showed me the game is simple, yet complex. The rules were loose enough to give the players leeway to get their units where they needed to be – when the dice worked with, and not against us.

Game One

Jacob and I squared off with three brigades of three units each (still not sure what a battalion vs a regiment vs a squad is.) Each had a brigade commander and one cannon. We also had a brigade of mounted cavalry with a commander. Four brigades each in 15mm, on a 6×8 foot table. We set up basic terrain, including woods, some houses, along with farm fences of both wood and rock variety.

A brave cavalry unit charges toward my right flank. If only I knew then how my dice would treat me.

Jacob was hot on his die rolls and managed to advance all of his units on turn one. Well, one did get a set of boxcars (double sixes). That’s a Blunder. One of the rules I really appreciate from Rick Priestly has alway been his double sixes equals something bad or silly about to happen…

Another roll to get the Blunder result and his unit stayed put instead of moving. Other potential effects include moving in an unintended direction, including both Charge! and Rapid Retreat options.

I borrowed some of Michael’s dice (British Desert Rat WWII dice). I needed to roll eight or less on 2d6 for each brigade order I gave. I’ve never seen so many fours, fives, and sixes in any of my rolls. I ended up with one brigade charging off on its own on the right flank, and the cavalry charging off on a suicide mission on my left flank. The rest of the units must have still been around the fire enjoying their good southern rations (mmmm… Southern BBQ). They didn’t move at all.

Movement

This is one of the areas that I enjoy about the Black Powder game. In a nutshell, every time you roll a command check (2d6) for a unit (or a full brigade) to move, you compare the result to your Commander’s Staff Rating (usually an eight, occasionally a nine or a seven). Don’t roll boxcars… though that did help me once when a failure would have left my unit parked in a useless position. They ended up advancing forward one move.

If you match or beat (lower than) the Staff Rating by one (in our case, a roll of seven or eight), you’d move one move with that unit. Beat the Staff Rating by two, and get two moves (up to 24 inches/centimeters depending on scale). Beat the rating by three and get three moves with that unit. A single “move” can be used to change formation.

Jacob’s dice. ONE of the FEW times he failed a Command check…

For example. Jacob rolled for a unit with an order to advance toward my brigade that was stationed behind a wood fence. He rolled a three (2 and 1) on two dice. He beat the Staff Rating of eight by more than three. His unit could now move (one move = 12 cm for our game) three times or 36 cm toward the fence. Had he ordered them to form into column instead of a line, then advance toward the fence, they would have used 12 cm to change formation, then had 24 cm to move toward the fence.

Here’s the actual text of the rule

When a unit moves, the individual models or bases are free to move in any direction or orientation, so long as the unit retains the same formation as a whole and … no models move further than the distance allowed.

There are rules for types of formations, changing formations (that takes one “move” action), as well as moving through friendly units (you may just don’t end up there.

In another fun moment reading the rulebook about movement,  I found this little gem from Priestly:

This rather free and easy method of moving is quite different to many sets of gaming rules, and take some getting useed to – it’s a ‘no nonsense, just get on with it’ method that gets the game moving along at a good lick!

Jacob approached my battle line with all of his troops again and opened fire on my two daring (and slightly suicidal) units. Hits were scored, and I retired the Desert Rat dice for more generic ones from Michael’s collection. These would surely roll better. They did… If I were rolling command checks. Instead, these were wound saves. I needed 4+ to succeed. That was when I rolled ones and twos. With rolls like that, they’ll work well in my command phase.

Michael’s retired dice, and my new dice (still in box)…

The dice gods laughed at me. Even the generic dice rolled fours and higher in my command phase (four and five make nine, a failure on command checks for me). I excused myself and went to have a chat with the dice god. That was Robert, the clerk running the store. A fifteen dollar purchase later, and I had a nice new set of purple and green Chessex dice I could call my own. That way, if I had the urge to send the dice off to the hell-fires that bad dice deserve, I’d only be harming my own dice.

Again, I rolled ones and twos for my wound saves. A couple of units became shaken, and a few others were disordered by Jacob’s sharpshooting.

Oops! Casualties accrued. Time to pull a stand. What? No?

When taking casualties, units in this game remain whole, and markers are employed instead of removing models. Units remain at full strength in appearances but suffer negative effects. We must remember that in games such as Black Powder, the scale of the game is not one model per one trooper in the field. Instead, a stand of models could represent either a squad, a battalion or even a full brigade. The scale of the battle is whatever the players agree. But fielding 30,000 troops at once on even an 8×12 table is daunting.

Shaken and Disordered

In Black Powder, a shooting roll of a six is an excellent shot and moves the target unit into a disordered status. This we marked with a white chit (labeled with a D). Disordered units are unable to act on commands, cannot shoot or make a normal move in their turn.

Casualty marker on the right end. Michael made these by placing a wounded/dead model on the base. The Union unit has one casualty (single stand). The Confederate unit has two (Casualty, plus one skull bead on the post)

Each unit in the game has a stamina rating. Most artillery has a stamina of two, while most infantry has a stamina of three. Receiving wounds equal to this rating puts the unit in shaken status.

Shaken Units are not as bad off as their disordered compatriots. They do, however, suffer a penalty of 1 to both shooting and hand-to-hand combat rolls. Nor may they charge or counter-charge.

Disordered is a temporary effect, while Shaken remains on the unit until a commander issues a rally order to shed a “wound.”

Michael in action. Unfortunately, in game two, he used the dice I had cursed earlier.

Winning

Again, Black Powder isn’t a rule set with tight definitives. Instead, Priestly and Johson leave the rules for victory open per scenario.

Our usual practice is to play until half the brigades in one or the other army have been ‘broken’ …

We adopted this set of conditions for our games. Some scenarios, especially those with objectives to capture, hold or destroy, could easily use other conditions.

Jacob, thanks in large part to my less-than-awesome dice rolling early on, was able to break my brigades to win the pitched battle of the wheat fields. The next time, though, I shall have full use of my new purple/green dice. If only the dice gods favour my army, I might achieve a victory.

Probably not. I’ll still have fun, however, issuing orders, and cursing my commanders when the dice fail me again.