Back to Black Powder

Once again, it's been way too long since I posted anything. With the Baron stomping around England to rub elbows with the Lead Adventure chaps, I decided to invite some of the fellas up to my place for some Black powder ACW fun. Being extremely busy with life lately, I only had time to throw something simple and easy together, so with a table void of a lot of terrain, we got after it with a couple of small divisions duking it out. The Rebs would go to battle with two large brigades, a pair of artillery pieces, and two small cavalry regiments. The Yanks would have three brigades of infantry and a few artillery batteries.

Opposing armies for the most part use brigade orders to get into the fight quickly.

Heavy fighting breaks out on the Confederate left as two units of Virginia cavalry try to push back the  14th Brooklyn.

The Iron Brigade has the US left flank.

Rebel artillery unlimbers for action...

Only to take a pounding.

"On to Washington!"

Some fine rolling on the Union side and lousy rolling all night for the Confederate would prove disastrous for the CSA this night.  All in all it was a fun night; I got to dust off some of the old 28s and play my passion: American Civil War with a nice set of rules.

It's Been Too Long

Work, attention to family and friends, and life in general can overwhelm our time...and that's not all bad. Lately a spate of life things has kept us from our weekly gatherings. It was good to get together last night for a game of Black Powder and just have a good time. I was not able to make it out to Recruits in Lee's Summit, Mo this year, so it was good to hear some stories and all about the growing success of the Fistful of Lead and Wiley Games.  Thanks to Brett, Doug, Jaye, Marshall, and Scott for making the trip last night.

Thanksgiving Greetings

Last night Brett and the Baron made it over for an ACW clash using our Black Powder rules (Jaye's Glory Hallelujah supplement has gone missing, so we couldn't use some of those rules).  I had anticipated a small showing with Thanksgiving the next day, but we decided to throw a lot of troops on the table anyway. The Union side would get the advantage of two gun batteries while the Confederates would benefit from a small cavalry regiment.

With the opening move going to the Yankees, Brett and I got the center and left flank moving, however the right flank (held by five regiments of the Irish Brigade) would not get in the fight until the third turn.

The Iron Brigade would enjoy some successful volleys thrown at the a pair of Georgian units during the first turn, but the CSA middle would rally with some help from its left to blow a hole in the Union center.

Finally the Union right would spring into action and begin shifting units left to cover the center. On the left, Brett would begin to hook around the CSA right flank.

Prior to being run off, the Iron Brigade would inflict enough damage, while Brett would begin to pour into the CSA right that two shaken Rebel brigades would result in a Union victory. This game turned on a dime enough so that we may institute a new house rule - over half (rather than half) of an army's units will need to be eliminated before a victory is declared.  All in all it was a fun night and as early as the game ended, there was plenty of time for a few beers, Dr Peppers, and some good discussion. Happy Thanksgiving.

Black Powder ACW Fight

It has been a while since I have had a chance to drag out a bunch of my ACW collection, so Thursday night I accepted an invitation to the Baron's to dust them off and throw them into battle. Black Powder has more or less become our default ruleset for ACW and now that we have Warlord's Glory Hallelujah supplement, we have enjoyed the game all the more. Since we had a few guys that were fairly new to the BP rules, Jaye decided to evenly match the two armies (equally matched regiment sizes, weapons, and leadership). Now that most of the group has had enough experience with the rules, I think our next game we run with them will be a historical scenario (I have had my eyes on a McPherson's Ridge scenario from the Regimental Fire & Fury Scenario Book Vol. 2). These rules are relatively simple and allow for a game that flows pretty quickly. The evening would end with a Confederate victory beginning with the Iron Brigade taking a beating in the middle of the field with things to unravel for the yankees soon thereafter.

Black Powder ACW Clash

My opportunities to get to the Baron's have been spotty lately, so with an afternoon to kill, I made my way across town for a Black Powder matchup between the blue and the gray. This is the fourth or fifth time we've used BP for our ACW games and I'm beginning to feel they will be the house rules for the period. The mechanics are very clean - subsequently the games are running pretty quickly (when the room isn't distracted by an exciting KC Royals game). I decided to bring a light number of troops, however I wish I'd brought more because the table could have used more regiments and I don't believe the extra units would have slowed things down too much. All in all it was a fun match up.