As part of Project: Quatre Bras, we've been making our way through various rule sets covering this battle; largely miniatures. Last night we played the first four turns of the Black Powder 2 Quatre Bras scenario, and though we struggled a bit over a couple edge cases, found the rules to be what they have always been, viz., relatively simple, straight-forward, free-form, and a fair amount of fun. That said, I was once again struck by some of its idiosyncrasies and, when I mentioned this on-line, got asked what they might be. With that in mind, my list.
1. It is a bloated book. I doubt there is a lovelier book of Napoleonic rules anywhere, but that has come with some nasty, complicating bloat. Page after page of figures, anecdotes, inset quotations, &c., mean that needed rules wind up many pages apart. Flipping through Black Powder 2 to find just that rule you are looking for can be frustrating. As a side note, the fact that the Blunder table is not on the Q.R.S. is a remarkable omission.
2. Do not ever tell me to use my common sense. I will stipulate that a rule writer cannot imagine every odd scenario that can come up on a table crammed with miniatures, but I worry that the authors used that cheap blanket to cover up a number of sins. Taking only the most recent example: find me a rule to tell me whether or not units must have room sufficient to change formation, say from column into line or column into square. I will warrant it makes the most sense to say that you must have sufficient room to make a formation change; very many rule sets so state. However, when your rules say black letter that a unit with the "Must Form Square" ability must form square when charged by cavalry, what am I to think when my columns are attacked by horse, do not have sufficient room, and yet must form square?
3. I have never liked its toolbox approach. For Napoleonics, there is the original rule set and now, I believe, four supplements. Each of the latter brought a tweak to the rules here and a special ability for a nation there. If you have none of the supplements -- I have all of them -- there are quite a few abilities that will make no sense to you. There is a cleanness to Black Powder 2 that I think risks getting bollixed up with all the supplemental lit. Worse, though, is that all that lit requires a great deal of tracking to keep straight and a fair amount of conversation with those with whom one is playing just to make sure everyone is playing the same game.
4. I am ambivalent about the crazy swinginess of the command system. In yesterday's Quatre Bras battle, the French looked ready to steamroll the Allies when, suddenly, they could not get a command roll to save their lives -- despite having a number of divisional commanders present. One brigade rolled no fewer than three blunders. Some like that, and I take their point. Others playing, though, thought it deprived them of agency. Here, I think, is one of those points where one will decide whether they want to play Black Powder 2. Can you bear it if the dice turn hard against you? In fairness, similar concerns were shared regarding Bloody Big Battles.
We will be back come next Saturday night, but these, and a few others, are those things that I think will ever keep Black Powder 2, from making it into my list of top ten rule sets.
