"How many units is Black Powder played with in 28mm?" Topic

Hi,

I am thinking of starting a Napoleonic British army and whilst I am mainly a collector (for now anyway), I enjoy collecting towards a playable army list in a popular rule set like Black Powder.

Anyway, I want to ask, how many units is Black Powder usually played with in 28mm? How many units per side would constitute a typical "large" battle? Do people usually play with points?

TMLF,

Well I can tell you how I play with my mates. I play Peninsular British (mostly) against the French and we field most times a supported division – so 9-12 battalions of infantry, a couple of batteries of artillery, a brigade of cavalry (2-4 regiments) per side. We can play a game through in six hours without eating, chatting or side-tracking ourselves so we take 8.

I'm sure Black Powder would just as effectively handle a corps or a supported brigade action – depending on your time-frame.

We don't use points but there wouldn't be a great deal between our armies is my guess. I hope this helps.

We just did a four player SYW game with each side having about 7 – 8 infantry units, three batteries and 4 – 6 cavalry regiments, so the two sides had 15 – 16 infantry units, 10 or so cavalry regiments and six batteries

Played well – we did use points from the Sport of Kings supplement

As many units as you want.

We do ACW with BP Glory Hallelujah. Big battles 2 brigades per player so 6 to 10 units plus arty. We've had upwards of 50-60 units. It's a lot to handle.

How big is your gaming table and how much time do you want to spend?

I've ran demo games with both sides using 2x standard foot units, 1 small cavalry unit and a cannon. Even played a couple of games at conventions after hours with some friends.

Then there were club games with 4 guys to a side filling up a 16' wide table. Not sure about how many units to a command. Black Powder scales up very well. In my opinion it's a very good ruleset for a gaming club.

I suggest you make some paper templates for how much space your standard size infantry unit takes up to get an idea for how many units you feel like takes up a nice amount of space. Don't forget to allow ample room to maneuver.

As people have said how big do you want to go, we've played the Battle of Talavera using BP so several Divisions each side. Most club night games though are considerably smaller, around a division or less per side. It mostly comes down to space.

Our armies are based for a different rule set (Shako) so a standard infantry battalion only has 18 figures, this allows either more manoeuvre room or more units in the same space, plus you get more units for your money from plastic box sets etc.

I have a few scenarios and after action reports on my blog at jabbaswargaming.blogspot.com they include army lists that you can download.

Thanks everybody for your input.

I would eventually like to do battles with around 25 units a side at 28mm, so I think Black Powder is the perfect ruleset. Can battles of this size usually be done in maybe 4-5 hours?

I'm not a big fan of fighting battles smaller than that for Napoleonics. For smaller engagements, I prefer playing things like Bolt Action. But that's just me.

I always tend to think a reinforced division operating on a part of a bigger battle. So 3-4 infantry brigades defending with 2-4 batteries and 2-3 cavalry regiments versus 4-5 infantry brigades attacking with 3-5 batteries and 3-4 cavalry r3giments. This always seemed to work for me for the Civil War, and the Peninsula War, other Napoleonic theaters and European 18th century, I'd add more cavalry. (Except AWI).

>>so I think Black Powder is the perfect ruleset.

I've not found perfection unless some issues are sorted out. And how fast doesn't make for a good game; you have conflicting criteria but apparently not the experience of use.

I'd be recommending to build up an army, or use someone elses for a few games, before determining 'perfect' rules. Most of us go through a series of rules unless we're completely static or isolated.

Actual scaling, ratios and conversion from reality don't mean anything unless you can make the rules work for you.
cheers d