Friday, June 19, 2015

15mm Napoleonic Black Powder game (in honor of Waterloo)

With the 200th anniversary of Waterloo yesterday, we just had to run a Nappy's game. Armed with but a fraction of Lead Addict's enormous Napoleonic collection we staged a Black Powder game using some of the house rules generated over the years on the BP forum.

A combined British-Prussian force had to stop a French force from combining with it's parent army off table. The British had 5, let's call them brigades, of 3-4 units plus cannon, while the French had 4 brigades of 4.
Both sides had all their cavalry massed on one flank. And that is where the initial clash happened. In a fast and furious battle the British Horse were shattered and left as a broken brigade, but the French fared little better. One more unit disabled and they too would join the British as combat ineffective.
On the other flank, a Blunder roll had the French charging into the Prussian and British line. Due to some terrible British combat rolls, it actually worked out for the French.
But in the center, the French couldn't seem to get moving. Their attack Columns saved them from failed maneuver rolls, but they only got sluggish moves.



It finally ended with a bit of an anti-climax. Much like last week's game, commanders were intent on their own section of the battle and failed to realize the bigger picture. If you use the "real" rules where a brigade is broken at half casualties then it was a draw. If you use most people's house rule of over half, then it was a slight victory for the French. Both armies would, in reality, be of little use later.
An 8 player game with thousands of minis on the table over in 2 hours. A good game.

5 comments:

Essjam said...

Excellent game last night Baron. Really starting to enjoy the Black Powder rules. Big thank you to Lead Addict for the terrific figures.

AdamC1776 said...

nice looking game.

Weasel said...

Nice looking game and looks like a close battle :-)
I like the idea of "blunder" rolls. What kind of results can they generate?

Phil said...

Nice looking game, beautiful armies!

BaronVonJ said...

Ivan, Anything from charging the enemy to retreating.