WSS Black powder.

Tims Bavarian Troops advancing up the table.

Yesterday at the club I had a game of "Black Powder" with Tim and Against Peter and Scott. It was mostly an exercise in learning the rules and reinforcing how we thought they worked as none of us had played it very much at all. Tim gave me his French while he took the Bavarians while Scott and Peter controlled the British. Peter played opposite me while Tim played against Scott. As we were playing with 15mm figures we played in CM and not inches.

My remaining Brigade advance and secure the ridge,

Not quite the first dice roll of the game, but within my first command phase I rolled a double 6 and had a command blunder and about 1/2 my force left the table backing off my table edge. They were reluctant to return but did arrive back on turn 4, just in the nick of time!

My troops secure the ridge and take up position to fight against the 3 British Brigades which were approaching. But there is a big hole in the French Centre because half my infantry had already left the table due to my command blunder.

Seeing this hole Peter send 1 of his three brigades as far forward as he can. They ran out of steam a mere 18cm from my table edge. But still left two of His Brigades to assault the ridge I was holding.



Tim on the left tries to plug the gap left by my
 brigade which had retreated off of the table.

Just in time I manage to get my wandering away Brigade back on the table. My two guns were able to pepper Peters Brigade with canister and yet failed to cause any casualties. But my infantry were now here so I could (and did) withdraw the guns.

Peters Brigade close to my table edge.

Knowing the English with their "Volley Fire" could out shoot me. I could either stand still and take it like a man or risk it and charge. I charged and Peter got off his closing fire and my guys went in. It was carnage for both sides. I did come off slightly better than I deserved (all praise the dice gods) and managed to take Peters centre to Battalions out. While he managed to beat me on the wings.  As luck would have it I passed more morale checks than Sir Peter and his Brigade was at half strength and with one battalion falling back.

I also had lost half my Brigade, but my guys had two artillery pieces to aid them and the threat of Tims cavalry taking them in the Flank. Unfortunately Tim Could not motivate his cavalry and rather than closing at the gallop they just milled about looked threatening.



After the battle at the base line.

Meanwhile Back on the ridge. 2 English Brigades took on my single Brigade.  Due to being out numbered and bad initiative making me move first when I really needed to move second and get out of the line of Fire. Peter was able to concentrate fire power on one of my Battalions. This hurt as he was able to enfilade them and thus get double dice. Well they survived one round fairly well taking casualties but refusing to give ground. I was able to concentrate on one of Peters Battalions and force them to retreat with a bad morale check. I was also able to move my horse all the way to Peters base line. Scot sent his horse towards them and turned his guns to face them before they swept into the rear elements of the British army.

The Battle on the ridge.

I was able to turn my brigade on the ridge to stop being enfiladed but Peter was able to charge home and the badly mauled Battalion disintegrated.  Woops!

My Horse Hit the retreating British of Peter who were able to form square, but it did them no good what so ever and my horse rolled a stupidly large number of melee dice and got nothing less than a 3. So his retreating battalion evaporated and my horse were able to do a sweeping advance into another battalions rear. While this worked it was not quite as effective. But they did their job and those infantry also gave up the fight.



Tim Gets involved.

Scot got his cavalry to charge and with a failed command roll mine could not move at all and as a consequence were  both hit in the flank. And that was the end of my horse!

Peter and myself had fought each other to a standstill neither of us was in a position to press any very marginal victories and we had run out of time.

Meanwhile at the other end of the battle field Tim and Scott had not really engaged in the fight. One officer was never able to get control of his spare brigade and as  such they pretty much failed to move all game. While the British were reluctant to push forward and even get in shooting range. But in the last turn they did get involved and Tim was able to charge the British line. It was messy and very bloody and did seem to end in a draw with each force loosing 1/2 a brigade due to morale failures.



Goodies from Tim.

And this is where we ran out of time and needed to pack away. At this stage it was so even it really was anyones game. But at least we learnt a few more of the rules. And a good time was had by all.

I also managed to pick up a few more goodies for the Arab Revolt game, from Tim who owns IT miniatures. Expect them painted next week. Yes two more camels but only 2 more in this batch to replace the two I used for Laurence and the Banner bearer.


Thanks for reading. Hope you had a great weekend and got a shed load of painting done. All the best Clint