Saturday saw a fine game of Black Powder played between myself, Roly, Brett and Reg.
Again I was unable to provide any figures of my own as yet, though was able to provide the venue and table and terrain ;-) And my good lady offered snacks and refreshments so hopefully that counts for something!
Roly and I teamed up and played against Brett and Reg.
There was no particular theme to the game again, call it imaginations if you wish.
Again for simplicity we did take very similar forces, each player commanding two infantry brigades of three battalions each, and a cavalry brigade of three units; two lights and a heavy.
One general commanded each army and each brigade had a brigade commander for which we rolled off for aggression, decisiveness and independence. All of these factors could affect how well our brigadiers would give commands through the game.
All units were considered standard size.
One of the things I rather like about this period are that there are no, or at least few, skirmishers to worry about, nor are there form-square rules to concern ourselves with.
Here's a few pics from the game:
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| Initial deployments - Brett is checking out Rolys troops. The large hill we played as a 'crested hill', not a plateau, so you had to be beyond halfway acros to see the other side, in both orientations. |
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| Roly and I advance our forces on the first turn as Reg and Brett look on. |
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| Snacks and refreshments consumed - an army marches on its stomach after all! |
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| Rolys cavalry advance on our right flank |
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| The Duchess leads Bretts forces against Roly |
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| Bretts "HQ" - a fine place to watch the spectacle and enjoy a cup of tea... perhaps a little too 'early' for our period, but it looked too cool to leave out! |
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| Meanwhile the kids had their 40k game in the family room... |
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| ...old school orks vs space marines... I believe the orks won! The orks are mine from 20-odd years ago, played by my son Chris. The marines are Bretts son's; Rhys's. |
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| Reg and Brett advance their forces |
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| The first engagements, both shooting and melee |
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| Cavalry set to it on our left flank |
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| Brett advances his infantry boldly presenting my infantry with an enfilade shot! |
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| Cavalry fight and retire as is the way with Black Powder |
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| Rolys fine horse... |
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| ...drive back Bretts cavalry - the Duchess is not amused! |
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| Things really hot up in the centre. |
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| Roly sees his error, two fine moves from one command allow him to advance rapidly to meet Bretts line, but then cant fire! And they then face a close range first fire volley backed up by 2 battalion guns - it wasn't pretty! |
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| Can our artillery save the day in the centre? Boom! |
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| Brett throws his cavalry forth again only to see them rout the field |
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| More cavalry shenanigans on the left flank |
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| One of my infantry battalions breaks |
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| ...and a cavalry one too! |
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| Final positions |
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| Roly has won the right flank but lost the centre and I have held the left flank... net result, we called it a very enjoyable draw, as we had set no objectives at the start of the game. |
A thoroughly enjoyable afternoons gaming. Fine fellows, fine food and drink, fine weather, and fine gaming :-)
