"Black Powder Bunker Hill Battle Report" Topic

Introduction
This was our first actual game of Black Powder, although; we had played a smaller game to familiarize ourselves with the basics before this. I am the only one that had read the rules and most certainly made mistakes during the game. As mentioned in the title, we played the Bunker Hill scenario from the Rebellion! supplement. We had three players one playing the Rebels, another playing Howe and his forces minus the 12-pound gun as I didn't have any more artillery models. I played Pigot and his forces.

Setup
The table was an 8'x4' table however only about 7 feet of long edge was used as the wool blanket I used to create the field only stretched so far. We also halved all distances from those listed in Black Powder. Additionally, units consisted of 40mm square stands with 1 stand being a Tiny Unit, 2 stands being a Small Unit, 3 stands being a normal sized unit, and 4 stands being a Large Unit.

While I planned on taking more photos, ultimately I forgot as I tried to get the rules correct. Also, I didn't think the table was all that interesting to look at since I don't have any AWI style terrain and my miniatures are very much still works in progress. Especially the British which I have spent the last month building and getting a quick coat of paint to get them to my personal minimum painting standard.

Early Game
Both British players mostly issued Brigade Orders to either quick march (two moves) or double time (three moves) up Breed's hill. The Rebel player held fast with his units and never managed to bring in any Reserves the entire game. I also want to mention that Clinton and his forces also never say the table. Though, this was more of a matter of them being unnecessary.

Howe kept his forces tight and in perfect line as they advanced up the hill. Pigot, on the other hand, began to dog leg (or stair step, if you prefer) his forces as they approached Charlestown. Note: I forgot that when moving laterally, the 1/3 movement loss was not in play and could have formed up my units better. Additionally, we forgot about a failed ordered ending your Command Phase the entire game. The Rebel militia detachment remained in Charlestown hidden from the forces of the Crown. I wasn't sure if the rebels could fight from Charlestown, so we went with the idea that the British forces could not attack the militia detachments while they remained in Charlestown, but neither could those detachment fight from there either.

Mid-Game
Having spend some turns moving into range, the British players never felt the effect of the Rebel 4-pounder. Howe continued to have a very tight formation with two units forming his frontage directly supported by the Grenadiers behind them. The Light Bobs covered the Crown right flank in case the Rebel militia behind the fences on the side of the hill attempted to enfilade.

Some shooting ensued with the early volley's being fairly ineffective. It should be noted that the Rebel player never made use of Sharpshooter as per the scenario. He was informed at the start of the game, but I forgotten to remind him. Toward the end of the game all players agreed to make up for this oversight to give 2 re-rolls (which was also forgotten). Pigot's Flank Battalion took the brunt of the shooting as they were positioned on Pigot's left flank but formed more of the center of the British battle line. The 38th Foot blundered and charged forward placing themselves between Charlestown and Breed's Hill almost setup to enfilade the Rebel right flank.

Late-Game
Despite being having the high ground behind a redoubt, the Rebel forces seemed to be taking more casualties than those of the Crown though not by much more. It was the militia units' Large size and increased Stamina the gave them a little more breathing room compared to the British attackers. However, one such militia unit did have to make a break test even before the British Forces launched their massive charge. The Charlestown militia detachment harassed the couple of Pigot's flanking forces, but even with Enfilade, didn't put more than a causality marker on either.

Having finally covered the distance, both British players charged the rebels in Hand-to-Hand combat. The Rebel Closing Fire was largely unimpressive but did managed to repel Pigot's Flank Battalion before they could get stuck in. Unfortunately, for the Rebels without bayonets and proper military training, two of the large militia units on top of Breed's Hill broke and ran away. Another 2 of the Charlestown Detachments did the same. With their Sweeping Advance, the British leap into the Redoubt to mop up the remaining forces.

We decided to call the game there as the Rebels only had one unit and their artillery left in the Redoubt with little chance even force a Break Test on the forces of the Crown that had forced their way in. The Remaining Militia detachment was as good as routed as they had to contend with two British Foot units. None of the Militia Company had shown up yet, and with the British now controlling the redoubt with several units, it seemed they would be unable to affect anything as they tricked in one at time (if they showed at all).

After Actions
I think with the Rebel player did forget to make use of Sharpshooter while shooting downhill, and as I think about it, I think he was only rolling 3 dice for Shooting for his Large units may have been part of the reason this game was such a blow out. Especially, coupled with with less than average rolling.

Just the same, we agreed that perhaps the British Hand-to-Hand for their non-elite, Foot units should have only been a 5 since the British outnumbered the Rebels in decent fighting units (read: not Tiny or Small units). It was also agreed that the Rebel 4-pounder should have had additional range from being on the hill. Which to be fair, may be in the rules already and I missed them. I also felt that the Charlestown militia detachments shouldn't have counted toward the Rebel's losing conditions since they were so easy to destroy. Instead, they should have been treated like semi-skirmishing units to slow the Brits further to give the Rebels more opportunities to get their reinforcements in.

I think the biggest issue this scenario is the Rebel reserves roll is just too high. As mentioned, the Rebel player never made that 10+ roll. We felt that perhaps the roll should be an 8 or even a 9 for one company, 10 for two companies, and 11-12 for 3 companies until all made it onto the table.

Final Remarks
All players agreed we had a good time with this game, although; I don't think the Rebel player was as engaged as the British players as they didn't seem to care to remember the rules. The other British felt that Black Powder is a good platform to work from to create a game more suited to his tastes. He wanted to introduce an additional Break Test result that reduced the unit size by one category that could only occur once per unit per game. We agreed that this small removal of models would be a decent compromise of the spectacle of lots of miniatures on the table and games that have more ablative units as they take casualties.

I don't know when I will get in another game, but until then, I still have a lot of painting to do. I also probably need to buy more units for both sides as this scenario just about stretched my collection to the limit and appears to be one of the smaller scenarios.

Thanks, I have just bought the Rebellion booklet and enjoyed reading the scenario and comparing with your AAR.

I am not familiar with the Black Powder rules, but this AAR – and thank you for it! – is not a positive endorsement of the rules. With the British basically being required to follow the historical scenario and make a frontal assault, they should take serious casualties even if they ultimately prevail.

One issue may be that in the AWI the raw quality of the militia varied significantly. The New England militia repeatedly showed themselves to be measurably better than the Southern or Middle States militia. Many of the rebels at Bunker / Breed's Hill went on to form the core of the New England Continentals.

If possible, in a scenario like this can Black Powder accommodate different ratings for Fire versus Melee?

The biggest issue I am having with Black Powder at the moment is I am the only player who has a rule book and read it. I am also completely new to the era so I don't have any frame of reference to how musket and bayonet battles worked. I don't know what it is about the Black Powder rules book, but I constantly find myself making mistakes with it.

What surprised me in our game was the lack of British causalities. My understanding of the battle was the British won but at quite a loss of men doing so. I was expecting this scenario to give the same pyrrhic victory if the British won at all. It is a game after all, and I think both sides should have even chances of achieving the objective.

Now some of this can be explained away as the Continental player was only rolling 3 Shooting dice instead of 4 and they should have had a re-roll from the scenario shooting down hill. I also think I short changed the Americans in Hand-to-Hand as it looks like they may of had an attack bonus (as well as the Morale bonus) from fighting behind a redoubt. I'm still not sure as it seems to me charging into the fray doesn't really favor the attacker at all even if they are the better melee unit.

For one, the target of the charge gets Closing Fire being 3-4 dice is enough to Shake (read: stop and potentially route) even a fresh unit, though; it is unlikely. The actual Hand-to-Hand dice pool is typically double that of Shooting, so 6-8 dice) with several modifiers (at least I think they are modifiers and not extra dice) which can stack to basically automatic hits. It also looks like both sides roll their Hand-to-Hand dice pools.

If I am reading the rules correctly, this means that a unit charging in close combat basically is subject to the same if not 50% more attacks (due to closing fire). The attacking units biggest benefit being a bonus to hit.

@Rawdon
Indeed Black Powder has a separation of Fire (Shooting) and Melee (Hand-to-Hand) among the few stats that compose a unit. The other big two are: Morale which is basically a saving throw vs. any damage taken, and Stamina which is the number of hits a unit can take before it has to take a Break Test. A Break Test determines if a unit holds its ground, retreats, or break completely. After completing a Break Test, the number of hits is reset back to its Stamina.

For the Bunker Hill Scenario, the Continental Militia atop the hill were Large units (4 stands of models for the game opposed to 3 normally). Their stats were basically: Shooting: 4 dice
Hand-to-Hand: 4 dice
Morale: 5+ (because of the Redoubt 3+)
Stamina 4 hits

Opposed to the British regular of:
Shooting: 3 dice
Hand-to-Hand 6 dice
Morale 4+
Stamina 3 hits

The British also had some elite units (Grenadiers, Light Bobs, and Flank unit) which had the same stats but had a chance to be unshake themselves before being giving orders. The British had more units if you don't count reserves and those rather worthless militia detachments around 1.5 to 1.

I really want to give this scenario another go as the more I think about it, the more I think it is better balanced than I initially gave it credit. I don't know if the lack of that extra Shooting die and re-roll would have made that big of difference or if it was a combination of that and poor luck on the Continentals side. I still think the reserves should be a bit easier to enter, and I could go either way on slightly increasing the militia's cannon range due being on top of a hill (though as only a 4-pounder that may have already been considered).

As for the Black Powder rules themselves, there is a lot to like for someone new to this style of game. They aren't overly complicated which I like. I also like the fact that the default appears to be multi-player. Not exclusive to Black Powder, but it is the first miniatures war game (with the Rebellion! supplement anyways) I have played that gives you a set force to work with and even fully set up table and deployment locations. I find myself less interested in building an army list and more interested in both sides having their force predetermined. And I have always felt my deployment skills were less than par.

I do want to play more games of Black Powder to get a better feel for the rules. However, one of the aspects I like most about historical war gaming is that I am hardly bound to one rules set. At the point, I have no issue using my miniatures with any rules set so long as I 1) don't have to spend money on it or 2) can get someone to teach/play it.

Interesting write up and comments; I've not used BP for AWI battles, and those I know who have, have had very mixed views on their efficacy for this particular period (though generally OK for other H&M conflicts, to be fair).

I've played Bunker Hill twice using the British Grenadier rules (1st Edn), and as the British player both times. The first time, the British simply ran out of viable units (due mainly to very good enemy shooting dice) and failed, without causing the Rebels too many problems. Interestingly, most BG scenarios I've heard about have ended in a British loss, whilst the few victories have been hard-fought.

The second time we reduced (increased?) the figure:man ratio from 1:20 to 1:10, allowing the British the correct number of units*, rather than combining some battalions as in the scenario orbat. With this greater tactical flexibility, the British won – despite my dice causing me to fail all 11 (yes eleven!) attempts at charges/bayonet charges, eventually having to settle for out-shooting the Rebels.

[* Eight to start with (G, L, 5th, 52nd, 38th, 43rd, 47th, 1st M) plus artillery, then three more reinforcements (small G/L, 2nd M, 63rd). ]

I saw your point about counting the militia units in Charlestown as "lost". In future, perhaps simply count them as negated, as I don't think they were captured historically, just forced to move out by the fires caused by the naval bombardment.

As mentioned Black Powder is my first foray into horse and musket gaming. I am mostly a pulp/cinematic World/Weird War II wargamer via Dust Warfare and Bolt Action. So not very historical at all really. I am actually relatively new at miniature wargaming as well with only a few years of experience.

The way the Rebellion! supplement laid out the forces was like this:

**British**
Maj-Gen Howe as Command-in-Charge, his forces included:
2 elite infantry (Grenadiers, Light)
2 regular infantry (5th, 52nd)
2 artillery (12-pounder, Howitzer) our game only had the howitzer
Brig-Gen Pigot and his forces:
4 regular infantry (38th, 43rd, 47th, 1st Marine)
1 Elite (Flank Batt)
Maj-Gen Clinton commanded the reserves of 2 regular infantry which come in if the British are having trouble. They didn't show for our game as they were unnecessary.

**Continentals**
Only had Col Prescott as Commander-in-Charge, his forces:
4 large militia atop Breed's Hill, 3 in the redoubt, 1 behind a fence
1 artillery (4-pounder) Which functioned identically to the British 12-pounder stats wise.
5 Militia companies (small unit) which are I guess are supposed to trickle in as reserves (never showed in our game)
3 Militia Detachments (tiny unit) in Charlestown

So the main action of the game was the Crown's 3 elite infantry units and 6 regular units vs. the Rebel 4 large Militia units. I should mention that two of Pigot's units were waylaid temporarily by the Charlestown militia detachments and a distracted commander (me). The rebel player was afforded at least half a dozen opportunities to bring in reserves before the Crown's forces were near the top of the hill. That player just couldn't roll a 10+ on 2d6 at any point. Which even before the game started seemed a little harsh to me.

I think the British would have had a tougher time if the rebels had been shooting with the correct number of dice and using their rerolls for shooting downhill. with BP, four dice + re-roll is a very different prospect to 3 dice straight.

Not only more casualties but also more disorder, which given the very limited command ratings for the British would normally break up the attack or slow it down a lot!

That said, there's little to be done about really bad dice rolls :-)

Whichever rules you use, it is worth remembering that it is very, very difficult to think of occasions where exactly the same troops came back THREE times to assault the same defences – particularly given the losses in the first two attempts. It is difficult to give the British a fighting chance in a standard set of rules, without "tweaking" them to a very fine degree and, at the same time, still leave a Rebel win as a distinct possibility.

That said, there's little to be done about really bad dice rolls :-)

Testify, brother……

Amen SM.

When I was putting together the scenarios for Rebellion I was tempted to leave this battle out altogether for this very reason. However I wanted one early war battle to demonstrate how the rules cope with less flexible command and because it is pretty iconic.

I did toy with a rule for this scenario and Guilford CH of allowing routed units of some types to return to the fray but reduced one level of "size", so a routed standard unit would come back as a small one, and so on.

In the end I didn't as it was difficult to word unambiguously and was a step too far for me away from the core rules. I was fairly strict with myself at sticking closely to the main rule book and resisting the urge to tweak.

When playtesting, the scenario went both ways. BP is a system that is quite open to luck however, so can give the occasional unexpected outcome.

@Gnu2000

I think that the Bunker Hill Scenario is a good addition to the Rebellion! supplement. I am glad it was included. I think it works pretty well as an introduction to Black Powder, and as one of the earliest most iconic battles, a good introduction to the American Revolution.

I think our mistake of having the Continentals only rolling 3 dice without the re-roll definitely affected the outcome. I also think the poor luck of the rebels and better than average luck of the British was a big factor. I completely agree that Black Powder's relatively small dice pools and small distribution curves can lead to swingy results. Which I am fine with as I don't exactly want a bucket 'o dice game.

It is strange you mentioned the unit size reduction rule, as my group wants to add it to the BreakTtest table as standard for our games of Black Powder. I totally understand why you didn't include it as it would be an significance addition to the rules, tough to word, and somewhat goes against the idea of putting lots of models on the table (even if the alternative is the whole unit comes off).

The biggest issue I had with the Bunker Hill scenario was the chance of militia reverses coming in was only about 17%. I think increasing it to 1 in 4 would be better as the Continentals have limited time and are very unlikely to get all five before being locked in melee with the British. In fact, I think the next time I play it, in addition to 9+ for reserves, a roll of a 12 nets two militia companies.

You could do that or maybe have a cumulative dice score, rolling one die each turn and adding a reinforcement unit each time you get to a total of, say, 10.

Don't blame me if you roll a '1' every time though!
:-)