"Black Powder v Republic to Empire?" Topic

Authentic – Yep they do it for me.Not the first set of musket rules I've played, but they work for me.

You don't like them, fine. Just stop going on about it, we get the picture.

"Authentic" is only one part of good. I would add, amongst others, "Playable", "Easy to follow", "A good following so that I have sufficient opponents"; "Well supported online"; "Good looking" (the game, I mean … though it is a bonus if the rules are, too); and – most importantly for a hobby – "Fun". There is also a rather obtuse thing called "X-factor" – this varies from gamer to gamer, but for me, "Black Powder" oozes with it.

In actual fact, "Authentic" comes well down the list for me. I just need a period flavour, not necessarily period authenticity down to the details. And much of the flavour I want comes from stereotypes in novels and films, not necessarily from real history. This is a hobby pastime for me, not a study project.

Authentic is period flavour…..it isnt detail

Okay Last hussar, you like them, just dont keep going on about them…we get the picture.

BTW, your blog was one of the things that made me investigate black powder to explain some whacky effects in melee. I should thank you for showing me what a waste of time they are.

Let me see, the original question was "Black Powder v Republic to Empire?".

Unless my eyesight has gone completely as I approach my dotage, then Black Powder makes no claim to be exclusively for Napoleonic Wargames just as R2E makes no claim to be other than for Napoleonic warfare.

I quote from Black Powder; "The Black Powder game is first and foremost and most decidedly an entertainment". R2E states; " Republic to Empire is written and presented in a much more prescriptive and detailed manner. Little if anything is left to interpretation by the user."

Those two extracts demonstrate to me at least that these are two distinctly different animals. As I said previously, horses for courses. In that context then there can surely be no satisfactory comparison of any kind between the two sets and while everyone is entitled to their views, preferences and/or opinions, any detailed observations about either set of rules compared to the other is pointless.

Final words. If you don't enjoy them don't play them. If you do enjoy them play them. That applies to either/both sets.

Chad

"Nice attempt to use it prove that cannon balls dont reduce moral though ;) I dont suppose he was to worried about the moral effects of cannonfire, stood behind that ridge"

on the contrary, if you read personal accounts of the battle, the terror effect of being shot at by cannon occurs repeatedly in the various accounts. Yet Adkins demonstrates that very few casualties (comparatively) were inflicted by the French preliminary cannon fire.

Conversely, the attacking French troops were much more dangerous, but nobody seems to have given a second thought about standing up to them. Again, during the French cavalry charges, it was the artillery fire in the interludes that got the squares worried. Rightly so perhaps.