"Black Powder Road to Waterloo at Cold Wars" Topic

Well it took me longer than I thought it would to crop and reduce the following photos from the games I ran at Cold Wars last weekend. The game scenarios were fictional matching roughly a French Corp (-) against a disparate Allied Force circa 16 JUN 1815. The thought was to put on a game that had the French attacking near Nivelles – West of Quatre Bras in an attempt to knock the British out first while hopefully keeping the Prussians at bay to the East. The games were set for 8 players however the best we got were 6 each session.

The game was my dry run on my new Terrain Cloth – the layout is for D'Erlon's I Corps Attack against Picton at Waterloo. I am still working on coloring and shaving some areas but at the Cold Wars scenarios it served well.

So roll the 'Eye Candy'

I have never seen that sort of terrain mat but it is a pretty cool idea.

Is there an AAR on this battle. How was the black powder rules accepted at CWs? Those rules are successful overseas but i have not heard much here in the US.
Love the grassy look! Where can one find this fabric?
MG

The formations are all wrong for the French. They were in line formation placed one behind the other to make a large column. Also the British, or should I say the Anglo Allies were in column to protect themselves from cavalry.

The battlefield mats are excellent so are you going to let us know what you used.

The mat is a Teddy Bear fur mat that was shaved and colored with paints for the different fields. This was my first try at it – plenty of details tutorials on the web though. For the mat my key lessons learned were that it takes a really good electric pet trimmer to cut through the stuff and that you have to get messy with diluted paint and gloves to work the paint into the fabric to have it look right.

As far as the formations go – the game was not D'Erlon's attack at Waterloo – this one was fictional. What the players did not know is that the terrain they were on was designed FOR Waterloo. It was essentially the same with the exception of La Haye Saint.

The orders of battle as well are not the same as Waterloo…thus the fictional scenario and the fact that you see Brunswick troops in an 18th Century farm house.

The games themselves went well. Had some players with experience and that helped out a lot. I modified the sequence and some other items per the Blackpowder forums collection of 'best tweaks' to the game engine.

Hope to do bigger / better next time around.

3 days and no stifles – well done Don.

I am interested in trying Black Powder for Napoleonics, but I want regiments as the m tactical units.

Are you using battalions as the units?

How many units (either battalions or regiments) did a player command?

Did your game reach a conclusion?

How long did it take to play?

Thanks for your help.

By the way, your figures and table look great. I was there, but was so tied up, I missed a lot, including yours.

Tom

nice figures and terrain.

That first British picture looks so life like. Great photo!

Each game was 4 hours long and each player had about 6-8 'things' to maneuver. For the most part we kept the rules simple – basically using the stats from the core rule book and not adding anything from the Albion Triumphant release. I did let each regular BN contribute one CO to a light skirmish screen per Albion however I capped the size at 'small' to prevent the French from steam rolling the allied forces.

The game was supposed to run in the main room down stairs…can't remember the name of it …but got shuffled into one of the smaller rooms near the resteraunt. There were two other games going at the same time and it did get a bit warm in there after a while.

Each BN sized unit was 24 men – which was the standard…there were no 'small' sized units in the game. The Cavalry were regiments and 12 strong each.

The first game went to the French as the Allies were flanked and defeated – their goal was to prevent a non-shaken INF BN at the cross roads they were guarding by the 4 hour mark. The position of the cross roads (near the farm) meant that the Allies had to be pummeled to death in a head on attack or out flanked – which the left French 'wing' did just that. It was the better of the two games.

The second game was set up a bit differently however the Allies triumphed in the end as we ran down the clock and the French were still trying to break down the Brunswick DIV that held up one of the French players.

We did not use blunders – on purpose – as I did not want to make things even more complex on folks new to the system.

I really like Black Poweder as a rule set> I think it runs best if everyone has a basic understanding of the rules and use minimal special attributes – at least early on when people are just learning it.

>> Der Alte Fritz thanks for the kudos….I used my wife's camera (which is way better than my point and click pocket cam)

Thanks for the detailed answers to my questions.

Tom

Mpanko

Love the terrain cloth. Did you make it? This looks like the kinda game I'd love to be involved with

Ferg

Yes I made it…took a couple of evenings. I am still adding on to it for the next go around. Thanks

Working at bite size chunks of the battle as we approach the 200th Anniversary in two years.

Mike

really loved the pictures, give you a real feeling for the game. also the teddy bear fur looks so real its as if the wind is blowing thro a corn fields. looking forward to seeing more in the future.

Impressive …

Looks like a fun game !!

cheers
Francisco