"Help me craft my new rule!" Topic

Wanting to add a new rule for black powder called "The Guard dies.." An Old Guard battalion will not break under any circumstance. Does anyone have any cool ideas for how to work out when everyone is in the battalion is dead and reducing combat ability as more men are KIA. Obviously having to stray from BPs stamina system.

I use my own house rules and most scenarios are custom.

You just give it a very high stamina, though perhaps you penalise it with a -1 to shooting and melee for every 3 or 4 hits. Once down to 0 shooting, it goes.
But remember, "La Garden DID recule!". Actually BP does a good job of having a chance of a unit effectively dying in place: they just have to pass all the tests after reaching their stamina – and there is no carry-over. I'd be wary of making a unit effectively invulnerable ; it would just be used as a battering ram.

My understanding is that the Middle Guard fell back, not the Old Guard. The latter were not involved in the attack. Maybe I am wrong. Wasn't it 3rd and 4th regiments. not 1st or 2nd?

Tom

There used to be this thing called "figure removal". When all the figures have been removed the battalion is annihilated.

@ garryowen

There was no Middle Guard at Waterloo.

We are often told here that the term "Middle Guard" was redundant by 1815. (Sure enough 4th C beat me to it!)

Whatever they were called, it was indeed 3rd and 4th Grenadiers and Chasseurs that actually went up the ridge, with the rest behind in support

"An Old Guard battalion will not break under any circumstance."

Is there some Napoleonic rules set being currently used, where the "Old Guard" EVER breaks? 😂 Used to be a few back in the 70's where that could happen, but have not seen any recently. I mean don't they all have "S" on their Jackets? Is someone using kryptonite?😉

Are you familiar with the Hail Caesar rules Brave and Valiant?

Brave: a shaken unit 12 inches away from enemy units will rally without orders on a roll of 4+. Regaining 1 casualty.

Valiant: once per game, re-roll a break test

4th Cuir is of course correct, all of the Guard regiments in 1815 were simply designated such-and-such Grenadiers, etc. That being said, the 3rd and 4th regiments of Grenadiers and Chasseurs were formed later than the 1st and 2nd; I have read that the criteria for admittance (in terms of years of service/campaigns served) was somewhat lower, and I have also read that they were incompletely uniformed and equipped. It seems at least plausible to me that they would be rated a bit lower on the wargaming table than the 1st and 2nd regiments.

Personally, I don't believe in the die-to-the-last-man battalion (assuming we're not talking about samurai or some such), the penultimate scene in the "Waterloo" movie notwithstanding.

Die to the last man if no means of escape eg Thermopylae, Camerone, or the Alamo. Maybe Isandlwana, if on foot, I guess. But, human nature, if out in the open, any unit will break when things get bad enough.

It should be a rule that only medium cavalry can break the Middle Guard.

@Everyone thank you for the insight and ideas! I'm not saying I believe the story I just wanted to add a fun rule! It's black powder after all :)

"I'd love to know what you mean by "currently being used" 35thOVI. Presumably not CLS3, Napoleon's Battles or Wessencraft's corps level game, which are the last three I've played, and none of which make the Old Guard invincible. And here's Green Cheek saying they're not tough enough in BP either. What ARE these sets in which the Old Guard are supermen? And who plays them?

deadhead, I only so-so agree. I can find you well-documented horse & musket cases of battalion-size units holding to about 50% casualties--at which point there was really no one left in the unit, with men lost in the chaos of war or taking care of wounded buddies. (I usually figure two men missing from a formed unit for every man actually killed or wounded.) And "bad enough" is, shall we say "subjective?" Compare the break points of the Duke of Cumberland's Hussars and the 2nd KGL Lights at Waterloo.

You don't really need a special rule for Old Guard compared to other veteran troops.

Just keep them in reserve and fling them in towards the end of the battle against an already worn-out enemy.

If you need a buff then give them a +2 for initial volleys/melee and then penalise them afterwards with a -1 to their morale if they'd not broken their enemy.

@robert piepenbrink i did not mean it like that. I was saying that BP is already seen a a less serious experience so a fun rule for the old guard that is not necessarily grounded in historical fact wouldn't be a huge deal.

@Stoppage i actually really like that idea. thank you

"It should be a rule that only medium cavalry can break the Middle Guard." got a laugh from me :~)

Of course no unit, even one that never broke, is unbreakable. It just didn't encounter the right pressure.

Cheers,
John

Or my dice rolling their morale.