Monday 11 June 2018

Black Powder 6 Weeks war

This weekend I managed to convince my son to try a game of Black Powder. We used my 6mm APW figures. These are based on 60x45 bases with a mixture of formed infantry with a skirmisher screen. We counted each base as a "standard" unit with each Prussian brigade having 4 bases of line with a jaeger and artillery base attached. The cavalry was in a seperate brigade.
On the Austrian side, each brigade was of 4 bases with attached artillery. There was also a seperate artillery reserve as well as a large cavalry brigade. The scenario was of the prussians advancing to try and command a road junction with the Austrians rushing to prevent it.
I wasn't sure that BP would deal with the age of rifles, but it worked really well. The nature of the rules allows for tinkering so I made the prussian rifles have an extra dice when firing at less than half range to represent the breech loading rifles. The Austrians got an extra dice for every 4 cannon they fire at the same target to represent their preference for massed artillery.
The game flew along and we were able to play 8 brigades a side to a conclusion in 3 hours. The Austrians managed to break 3 prussian brigades through a combination of massed cannon and a well timed cavalry charge.
A really good game.