"My first ACW Black Powder Game" Topic

After deciding to take the plunge into both Black Powder and 10mm ACW, I decided to take a break from painting and give my new units a test drive. I played a solo game between two Brigades in 1862 to get a feel for the Black powder rules. For a solo game, it kept me guessing until the end. I was also happy with how fast Black Powder played, and the bits I thought I might get annoyed with (the command rolls, the jaw-droppingly unrealistic way in which linear formations move) turned out not to have bothered me in the slightest.

The setup: link

The game: link

Welcome to the fold, Brother. :-)

I find the command rolls really reflect the chaotic nature and blatant incompetance of ACW commanders at all levels. Makes for a tense game and doesn't get in the way at all.

Yeah, one of the things I liked about Johnny Reb was the way that anything could happen at any time. I learned through that game never to assume any outcome was inevitable. Black Powder gives the same nail-biting uncertainty. I find it fun, but I can see where a certain type of wargamer would hate it (I'm looking at YOU, DBA crowd!). My reservations with he command system had to do with the fact that the results of command rolls had an unusual distribution that favored the extremes rther than the middle. But what looked like a problem on paper didn't feel like a problem at all in play.

Looking good and a nice report…… are they really 10mm figures? Look very nice.

I have to say the Black Powder/Hail Caesar/Pike and Shotttte mechanism could have been designed for solo play. I ran through a solo test the day after I got BP and was able to play a real game next day against a real opponent satisfied I had the rules mainly under my hat.

Pat

Looking good and a nice report…… are they really 10mm figures? Look very nice.

I have to say the Black Powder/Hail Caesar/Pike and Shotttte mechanism could have been designed for solo play. I ran through a solo test the day after I got BP and was able to play a real game next day against a real opponent satisfied I had the rules mainly under my hat.

Pat

How did you handle the differences in weapon ranges? The ranges listed in the book are a bit silly, to be honest. Is there an accepted BP standard for ACW small arms and artillery?

For the smaller scale, I converted inches to centimeters.

The range differences between muskets and rifles is not great in game terms. Rifles only have a 33% greater range than muskets, which does not square with my understanding of the actual effective ranges. I was surprised that the difference did in fact come into play to the detriment of a musket-armed unit (quite by accident, though if I were more serious, I would take deliberate advantage of the ranges when I could).

However, I've been reading a lot of journals, and I was struck by how rarely soldiers commented on the musket/rifle difference. For instance, Elijah Hunt Rhodes remerked that the 1st RI, on having their enlistments expire, offered their rifles to the 2nd RI, which gratefully accepted them, but there was little sense that the 2nd RI had been at a tactical disadvantage before that. Certainly there was nothing like Rhodes' gloating when his regiment acquires some repeating rifles. Then, he makes a bog deal out of the technological advantage the new weapons gave him. So I'll stick with the given ranges for now. If I find myself unhappy, I can always shorten musket ranges ('cause I like to see troops get all 'in your face').

Artillery ranges do seem short (although rifled guns shoot 60", which is pretty good and 2.5x maximum rifled range). It would be hard to park guns on a hilltop and expect them to dominate a battle by themselves, especially when a unit with good command rolls can close to melee range in a turn or two. The artillery in my game was pretty ineffective, but that's because of weak shooting rolls and good morale rolls. The union guns on the hill proved very effective at causing one of the Confederate regiments to break, since artillery hits cause a penalty to break tests. Again, I'll play a few more games with the ranges as written, and if I feel that the rules are forcing my artillery into a role that I feel is counter to what I feel its historical role was, I'll tweak the ranges.

Great stuff! I love BP and have found the few ACW games I have played with it to be very exciting!

Great report! I recently picked up Black Powder for use with 10mm ACW, nice to see it worked so well.

I think that the reason that smoothbore armed units didn't suffer as much in the ACW was for a few of reasons:

1) Due to the wooded and hilly nature of many of the battlegrounds in Virginia and Tennessee, opposing units didn't often come into contact at ranges outside one hundred yards or so (sometimes much less).

2) Early in the war, many units on both sides were similarly armed.

3) Unit commanders were fairly aggressive in moving to contact, and thus closing the range quickly.

Nice reports, the miniatures and table top terrain look great.
We have played 10mm Franco Prussian War with Black Powder and really enjoyed it.
Thanks for sharing;
Joe

It took specialist troops (Berdan's Rifles, etc.) to get the full range of Minie rifles. Ordinary troops who were not trained to estimate ranges got an incremental increase in range rather than a huge advantage.

I'm reading the "Bloody crucible of courage" in this book there are quotes in there that suggest once at close range the musket is at little disadvantage in duels.