Black Powder House Rules for Napoleonics
Black Powder House Rules by UnluckyGeneral
A few thoughts Grant and I had on how Black Powder rules applied to the way we enjoy our Napoleonic wargames. As you will see if you read the House Rules amendments, we felt that heavy artillery was insufficiently represented and the horse artillery rules governing movement were too fluid; allowing them to magically appear and disappear about the table-top without the practical need for a limber model.
We preferred to limit interpenetration and also felt that units were too easily paralyzed through the disorder rule so introduced a chance of saving against it.
Most rules allow for forming square as a reaction to charge but we enjoyed the old Grand Manner requirement to form square only in your own move - being a matter of judgement. Not abandoning it entirely, we are providing for a last minute attempt all the same but at a risk of potential disaster. This certainly reflects battlefield events such as those which took place at battles such as Quatre Bras.
Finally, the only provision for Napoleonic battalions deploying skirmishers is the 'mixed order' ability in Black Powder. We felt it ignored the particular capabilities of specially trained and experienced Light Battalions so we are experimenting with transfer of the whole battalion fire rating to its skirmish line. For us, only sufficient figures representing the light companies of any line battalion are ever deployed in the 'mixed order' but will opt for 'up to a third' in the case of light battalions in keeping with Black Powder recommendations.
A few thoughts Grant and I had on how Black Powder rules applied to the way we enjoy our Napoleonic wargames. As you will see if you read the House Rules amendments, we felt that heavy artillery was insufficiently represented and the horse artillery rules governing movement were too fluid; allowing them to magically appear and disappear about the table-top without the practical need for a limber model.
We preferred to limit interpenetration and also felt that units were too easily paralyzed through the disorder rule so introduced a chance of saving against it.
Most rules allow for forming square as a reaction to charge but we enjoyed the old Grand Manner requirement to form square only in your own move - being a matter of judgement. Not abandoning it entirely, we are providing for a last minute attempt all the same but at a risk of potential disaster. This certainly reflects battlefield events such as those which took place at battles such as Quatre Bras.
Finally, the only provision for Napoleonic battalions deploying skirmishers is the 'mixed order' ability in Black Powder. We felt it ignored the particular capabilities of specially trained and experienced Light Battalions so we are experimenting with transfer of the whole battalion fire rating to its skirmish line. For us, only sufficient figures representing the light companies of any line battalion are ever deployed in the 'mixed order' but will opt for 'up to a third' in the case of light battalions in keeping with Black Powder recommendations.
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