Saturday, June 8, 2013

Black Powder Test Game

 My son and I had a test game last night using my newly painted ACW figs and the Black Powder ruleset.  This was less a play test of the scenario for Historicon and more just a refresh on the rules.  Sorry for the sparse scenery on the table I need to make a lot of 28mm ACW themed terrain by July!

 The focal point of the battle was a major hill that was held by the Union - some of you may remember this Hill from my Lundys Lane game at Fall In 2012.  It's served as a focal point for many a Warof 1812 battle and I suspect it will serve that role again this summer.

 Here's a shot of two confederate regiments sneaking up on the small dismounted Union cavalry regiment that's was screening the hill' far right flank.

 Some reb cavalry creeping up from the rear


 A Union regiment and gun rushing to reinforce their right flank
 More reinforcements being shifter to the threatened flank
 A view of the confederate attack - all full brigade of infantry ply two calvary regiments.
Lastly a view down the center of the Union - they've got a lot of troops.

The game played well and served to knock a lot of my Black Powder cobwebs out.  I also just wanted to see how the new troops looked on the table and was pleased with the look.

As I indicated before, I need to make a lot of terrain by mid july to flesh out the battlefield - more woods, a few houses fences and some better hills.  At least since both my games at Historicon (F-295 and S-296 in the PEL) are sponsored by Architects of War, I'll have access to some high quality stuff.

There are still one or two spots open on the games so if you're interested signup now.

9 comments:

James Brewerton said...

great looking game Miles sometimes you do not need a full table it helps the figures show up very well and you have done a fine job on those rebs been nice to see them build and now seeing them in action
Peace James

john de terre neuve said...

I will look forward to seeing your terrain, but it looks pretty good now.

John

Pete W said...

Great stuff and both the table and models are looking really nice.

How do you find the Black Powder rules for ACW? I'm thinking of getting some 6mm figures to have a go at ACW or maybe Napoleonic and wondered if Black Powder is a good ruleset.

All the best

Pete

jmilesr said...

Black Powder is a great ruleset for ACW but it does focus on ease of play / fun rather than details. I find it to be a great ruleset for con games as it can quickly be taught and lends itself to GM moderation (the same holds for the ancients version "Hail Caesar")

I do make a few changes to the rules for ACW.
(1) reduce infantry movement from12" to 8" and cav fro 18 to 12". I use this to simulate the longer ranges of rifled guns

(2) Rather then 3 wounds per unit I increase it to 4 of 5 to provide a bit more "staying power"

My first go with BP was in 6mm and the only changes I made was to measure replace inches with centimeters - rather than move 12 inches, infantry move 12 cm's. I also based regiments on single stands (28 figs on a 60x30mm base). The rules work even better with small scale as a very large battle can be easily managed.

Phyllion said...

Really nice looking game, despite the sparse terrain!

Monty said...

Very nice, Miles - the units look great!

DeanM said...

Great looking figures, and your terrain as is still looks good too. Best, Dean

Pete W said...

Thanks for the feedback on the rules. I'm definitely interested in trying both Black Powder and Hail Caesar. While I'd love to do things in 28mm I'm weighing up the options as far as cost and painting time goes and I think 6mm might be a better choice. I'm a big fan of playing with bigger models but I know I'll end up with loads of unpainted models for too long and it will be uninspiring.

Thank you for the advice on rules modifications. I'll definitely keep it in mind when I get to play.

All the best

Pete :-)

Unknown said...

Looks amazing!