"Powder&Bayonet. Big, no nonsense skirmish rules" Topic

I am pleased to announce the availability of Powder & Bayonet, the no nonsense skirmish rules for black powder gaming.

Using the same core mechanic as the other "Living" titles recently produced, notably Blast Pistol and Last Era, the game lets you play 20-40 individually based figures on the table to play out a big skirmish battle with lots of character and minimal difficulty.

The rules are intentionally kept straight-forward: Alternating activations, a D10 roll to hit and a quick morale system.
Troops with breech-loading arms have a significant benefit over their muzzle-loading cousins and hand-to-hand fighting, while less deadly, can still make or break a battle at bayonet-point.

The rules include options for fielding a cannon (a significant addition at the skirmish scale), heroic swashbucklers and random terrain setup and battlefield conditions.

A simple experience point system has been provided as well, for players who'd like to keep the same troops from game to game.

Lastly, you get profiles (and the odd special rules) for 15 types of foot soldiers (ranging from different quality grades of soldier to militia rabble to furious tribesmen and fanatic revolutionaries) and 6 types of personality to lead them into battle, each with an associated benefit to their men.

Powder&Bayonet is designed to be:

A: An ongoing living system. This means that additional battle types, options and rules will be added to the game over time.

B: Very player friendly: You only need a few ten sided dice to play, one type of marker (for morale purposes and you'll never need more than one per section of troops) and the rules are intentionally kept print-friendly.

As the rules will be updated frequently, the "Living Game" series omits cluttering up the pages with illustrations that you'd end up having to print out multiple times.

The concise design means the game clocks in at 17 pages all features included.

link

And to answer a few questions:

*It's not era-specific. The aim was games roughly from the American revolution through to the Franco-Prussian war but you can push it beyond those two points a bit.

*Figures are intended to be based individually. On the table, they'll operate in groups of 6-12.
You could use figures based 2-4 to a stand and keep the rules the same. The game will look a bit more dramatic this way.

*Use whatever figure scale you like. I had 15mm in mind, which typically means every other scale won't look too out of place.
Weapon ranges are kept a bit short (smoothbore muskets fire to 12") in the larger scales but its manageable.

*Yes, 4.99 is a touch more than I typically charge for a short game, but in this case, its also factoring in future additions and updates.
If you don't feel comfortable with that, I don't blame you of course. I'd like to think my track record with publishing material and updating old games will reassure people :)

*Will there be more variants of this system?
Yes, there will be one (WW1/RCW/Balkan troubles) for sure, because I really really want to write it.
A pulp one with nazis and lizard people is possible. Others are doubtful.

I did :) But it got buried a bit in the wall of text:

Individual figures (though you could squeeze in from 2-4 if you wanted it to look like a big battle).

Intended for the era from the American revolution through to Franco-Prussian war.

You bastard, right after I sell you all those Naps! ;)

Very interesting; I like the idea of a bigger skirmish game that still moves quickly ("no nonsense"). Of course, I'll have to modify it for WWII or Vietnam ;)

V/R,
Jack

There will be a WW1 version for 100% sure, I probably won't do ww2 since I think people who want this type of system will just play Bolt Action instead.

I like the idea of rabble etc for my European revolutions 1848

Thanks :) Yeah, I thought for skirmishing, a lot of the revolutions could make good gaming and you could have anything from battle-hardened soldiers to true believers to angry mobs.

I keep thinking of Russian Civil War, using Pendraken guys individually based, in caps with bolt-action rifles, maybe a single machine gun or field piece on the table.

Keep looking at Pendraken AWI too…

V/R,
Jack

I'm thinking Garibaldi…

Just Jack –

RCW is the best period to game.

You can do street fights, big battles, everything inbetween.

Adventurers and eccentrics looking for Imperial gold.
Bolshies and imperialists.
Nationalists and anarchists.
Czechs trying to get home, Latvian riflemen, Polish army in the Ukraine, Finnish whites and reds, German Freikorps.
Expeditionary troops from France, the Commonwealth, the US.
Italians and Turks.
Japanese and Americans eyeing each other in the far east.
Bandits and brigands.

The AFSR drive on Tsaritsyn, the battles for "Red Verdun", the retreat and last stand as the remaining white armies are evacuated.
Kolchak and cossack armies in Siberia. Yudenich and his drive on Petrograd.
Makhno's anarchists battling both sides.

And the list goes on.

Bought.

Looks OK at first glance for a simple game.

Appreciate the support.

The aim is indeed for a simple pick-up game with minimal difficulty.

"Neil Thomas meets Warzone" isn't the worst way to put it.
Let me know how it goes with toys :) (and especially as far as unit profiles goes)

I've just got these -I'm going for FPW with bases of two or three in place of singles – as that's how mine are already based.

Thanks for buying!

With team bases, you'll have a pretty decent company-sized battle. I've tried it for the scifi version and it worked great.

By the by, go redownload your files and you'll find two additional "missions", different ways to set up your game.

good stuff -glad to know the base thing will work!!!
Thanks Ivan

link

If you want more ideas, go grab the first expansion here.

It covers: Unreliable troops, gatling guns, duels of wits, 1 new mission and 2 new battle conditions.
All for the price of a candy bar (depending on local sales taxes anyways)

If you aren't familiar with the Living Games approach (which Powder&Bayonet is part of), these games are intended to receive frequent free updates (the first of which hit this past weekend) as well as frequent mini-expansion packs that will be incorporated into the core rules with time.

As an FYI, courtesy of my friend Nate, a French Foreign Legion in Africa supplement is forthcoming, hopefully today :-)