Monday 27 January 2014

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










25 comments:

  1. I've player 3 or 4 games of Black Powder and I find I've got most of the important stuff memorised. It'll go much more easily on your next game(s) :-) .

    One thing: you referred to cavalry charging a square? I thought that this was prohibited in B.P. - the cavalry had to hold or fall back as soon as the infantry went into square. I might be remembering this wrong, though. In any case, did WSS troops ever form square? That's more a Napoleonic thing, isn't it?

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    1. I haven't read the rules yet so I can't say if going into square is allowed from WSS period or later, They were not square when I charged them but formed a hasty one. These are the kind of thing we will need to check of course but in this instance I totally trashed the formed unit so I am not too bothered. Playing any set of rules the first few times we are bound to make mistakes though so if we did it wrong we'll get it right the next time.

      Thank you Colgar it is important to get these things right in future games and we'll try to get it right next time.

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  2. Nice game Clint, nice to see a WSS game on blog. Shame about that double 6 though!!!!

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    1. Yeah you roll high for a change and it back fires. More WSS games to come I think as we have 3 players with forces now (or will have when I paint mine.) Thank you Ray.

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  3. A cracking game and more camels - sounds like a good night to me!

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    1. Sent some more camel Pics to Curt already. So more to come soon.
      It really was a see-saw of a game for me. Great fun. Thank you Michael.

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  4. Nice looking game Clint. Tried playing Black Powder a few times, mostly for English Civil War. Just cant get on with it, cant put my finger on it but the rules dont work for me.

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    1. Rules are a very personal choice. What suits some people does not suit others. Thank you Carl.

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  5. I did like the rules and will happily play it again. I shall even start painting my army now. Just got to get a few started things out of the way. Thank you Loki.

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  6. Nice AAR, Clint. Muskets and Mohawks will be played on my table soon, but Blackpowder does have my curiosity peaked as it covers a broad spectrum of conflicts. I'm still tempted with LoB too, how is that ruleset working for you?

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    1. I have tentative plans for WSS, but most revolve arround foppish commanders, marines, dragoons, and swasbucklers. In 28's but possibly 15mm, I haven't decided fully on skirmish or full on pagentry of banners and blocks of uniform colors!

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    2. I have to say I like the simplicity of BP. It's quite instinctive and flows very well as a game. Still getting to grips with some of the rules as I have not as yet read them and only understand them from playing a game so too early to say really. But so far so good.

      WSS is a popular period at present and there is much to recommend it. 28mm Plastics would look really good for skirmish and then expand up to big battles if you sink yourself into it. Many of the uniforms were grey or white though so for some forces not all that colourful.

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  7. Nice game report. Not a period I really now a great deal about but I must admit the ranked up forces look great and the reports I've read are interesting with the tactics used and formations that the units move into.

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    1. So many periods I know little about. If there has been a film I know a period a little better, but not a lot of films for this period. A good fun game and I can see so much potential. Thank you Simon

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  8. Good to see you had time to spend gaming over the weekend. While I don't always understand everything you boys do, I understand the historical gaming better than the fantasy games. The fantasy games make absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.

    More camels!!!!! I like them and it would be nice if one of you boys could do a post with all of your camel pics together on one page.

    Oh and I'm getting more spam from your email.

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    1. Sorry about the Spam Anne I truly am.

      I will do a Camel post when I have finished them all. So expect one before the end of the painting challenge.

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  9. I say what a game of Black Powder there Clint and it looks like a great, fun game.

    When do you get a Phil Silvers figure, in a French uniform trying to sell all the camels?

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    1. No Phil Silvers figure at all, but I understand the image. I have a few civilians to paint up though so I am sure we can have something similar.
      Thank you Pete.
      I am Still considering a VBCW in the sands! A few repaints on the vehicles and it could be a quick fix game.

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  10. Replies
    1. If you want a simple big battle set of rules you could do a lot worse. I prefer it to Shako or Fire and fury for example. It's all personal choice of course.
      Thank you John.

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  11. BP does seem to be the flavour of the month but having read a good few aar's that used BP, I can't say I'm completely convinced by the rules although those using them always seem to enjoy them as you obviously did.

    Good to see the hero camels are now in the pipeline.

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    1. THERE ARE NO HERO CAMELS!

      Hee hee. Yes I did like the rules and it was a good game and I am thinking ahead for other things to use them for other than WSS. No rule set will please everyone For many these rules will not be period specific enough. But I was happy with them.
      Cheers Joe.

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  12. Sounds like a great game, Clint. Nice to see BP played in various scales - shows the adaptibility of theses rules. Dean

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