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Painting and Play Testing Now that I have a break from soccer season (which lasted 10 months), I'm getting a little more painting done. Here's a quick rundown: Uh-oh. Are those Borogravians in 28mm? A Dystopian Wars Prussian Battleship, some 6mm SciFi troops for Robofire!, and a 15mm Bugbear Chieftain. ECW Pikestand. I know, always with the pikes. Where's the musket love?
As you can see I have trouble focusing.
Also play tested Black Powder last night. One the Basement Generals, Bill, is building a 28mm SYW Prussian Army and thought Black Powder would fit our group for rules.
The rules call for a much larger table, so we played at 2/3 scale and only 12 units a side divided amongst 3 players. We only had 2 painted "real" units so it was time to dig out the foamcore armies. Not pretty and totally against everything the writers of Black Powder are for: big, pretty armies. But it allowed us to try the rules, so there.
As a first game, of course we did things wrong. The biggest was brigade morale. The sides were battling to a standstill til we caught that. The game would have gone even quicker than it did. First impressions? I really like these rules. Accomplishes everything I want in ruleset. Quick, with a feel for the period. Everyone's engaged and they accomodate large forces, even if my table doesn't. However, these aren't going to be for everyone. They are wargamer rules written for wargamers. Beginners, rules lawyers and people who like finding loopholes will hate them. With the right group, which I think we have< they are a blast.
Can't wait to try with pike and shot. I ordered Hail Caesar!, by the same folks for ancients to medieval.

More news: Had a chance Saturday to watch another BP game. Somehow I became the expert  after the game Thursday. This was a 15mm ACW game. I think everyone involved was used to Fire and Fury and wasn't quite ready for some of BP's differences. I'm pretty sure they all liked the game, and were amazed how quickly it was over. The brigade break points had a few already talking about  modifying things (mostly the losers), until I pointed out scale. Most of us play F&F and are used to the operating scale as brigades with each player having a division. Those 8 stands of figs we push around are brigades with each stand or two a regiment. They take a couple of rounds of beating for they blow up. With BP you have to zoom down to that 8 stands. Now those individual stands are now our BP block of stands and you're handling a brigade. Those regiments you're pushing around are a lot more fragile. Lose half and your brigade is done.
This is going to require more careful management of your units, keep those flanks secure!
Posted by BaronVonJ at 7:56 AM Labels: play test 
what a random selection of stuff on the paint table.

I really enjoyed the rules.

May have to use 15's for our smaller tables. Not everyone can have a 20x6 table!

June 10, 2011 at 10:54 AM BaronVonJ said...

What can I say? That's just how I roll.

June 10, 2011 at 2:19 PM James Brewerton said...

been playing SYW with black powder with my Dad and I agree they are the best set if you have the right group.
Peace James

June 10, 2011 at 7:19 PM Essjam said...

Man, you have been busy! I too liked the Black Powder rules. Black Powder is going to be an interesting set after we play a couple more times and get used to the subtlety.

Looking forward to seeing the Hail Caesar rules too.

June 10, 2011 at 10:36 PM 
The game isn't really that complicated. I think that an experienced player might be able to handle a couple of brigades when we get used to the rules.
You are right about taking into account the size of the force we are commanding. We also need to look at the size of the brigades and make them more historical. (I went with fewer units for the first game, just to make things simpler)

June 13, 2011 at 10:05 AM 
Didn't say the rules were harder, but are going to have to make some players do a change in how they think. There was a couple of cases where players Saturday forgot how fast troops could deploy and got left with "flanks in the air" and were brutally punished.This set would be great for Marlburian era. Historically they deployed in long lines, but had several lines of reserves behind them to feed in as brigades broke. Perfect for BP.

June 13, 2011 at 10:10 AM 
Yes. May be time for a 10mm OG Army order for Marlburough.

Always wanted to do it. At taht scale, I can fudge a bunch of detail and get them to the table quick.

June 14, 2011 at 12:03 PM Lifetime doodler, drawer and designer of things.
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