"Messing about with Black Powder." Topic

We had an ACW game at the club the other night using dice to determine which command took its turn, one dice per Brigade and one for the c-in-C. This was an idea nicked from a thread on the BP forum and amended slightly. If the C-in-C comes out early in the go he can be held back and used at the end of any subsequent command move to exploit opportunities that might arrise.

It seemed to work ok but i plan to do a quick Napoleonic game tomorrow to try out a similar system but without different die for each Brigade. The c-in-c will choose which unit goes first but he will still have a separate die for himself that can again be held back.

A report on the first game can be found on my sons Blog here-

Link

I will put a report on the Napoleonic game on this Blog in a couple of days.

Thanks for the report; I definitely like the differently-colored dice idea.

Ron

P.S. The title you chose for this topic is somewhat alarming.

Stop it and play properly!

P.S. The title you chose for this topic is somewhat alarming.

Not to me.

Stop it and play properly!

I guess we're currently lacking the moral guidance of a wise old rules Guru on club nights these days!

I'm sorry I don't understand. Whats to stop the CinC intervening anyway?

Using the normal rules he can only go during his own sides phase. Here he can take a turn after an opponent has moved a brigade and before any more dice are drawn. He can therefore take advantage of any errors made by the opponent or exploit advantages gained by his own side, for example by exploiting combat won by one of his own brigades he can intervene immediately instead of hoping one of his other dice comes out of the pot next. Of course it can also be used to plug any gaps if a combat is lost.

I have only tried this once so its early days yet.

I see, thanks. Interesting idea, but whilst I can see that the Bolt Action idea is great for WW2 skirmish games where 'fire and manoeuvre' is important and not knowing who goes next encourages bounding overwatch, I can't see that Horse and Musket games simulating entire armies needs this…happy to be proven wrong though!

Interesting concept…looking forward to a few more AARs using the BDE chits/die

SFC REtired

Thanks for the comments.

Today's Napoleonic report is now on the Blog. At a critical part of this game my c-in-c came out first and fearing a British dice might be next out and deny me the chance of a nice tempting flank attack on an exposed enemy unit i used him straight away with disastrous consequences!

" I can't see that Horse and Musket games simulating entire armies needs this…happy to be proven wrong though!"

The ACW boardgame 'Across Five Aprils' used a similar system to run brigade-level battles – each division had a counter in a cup, and moved when it was drawn.

It's no less artificial or illogical than one side moving (or attempting to move) all of its units and then the other.

That said, how do firing and melee work with a randomised sequence?

Firing and melee are worked out for each brigade at a time, firing being the last thing before drawing the next dice. The method seems to work ok but whether or not its better than the normal rules version i'm still undecided about.

There is also a thread on the Warlord games BP forum which is where i nicked this from anyway.

Sounds like a great idea to me…think I'll incorporate it into our brutal home-brewed fast play rules.