In any event, last night the lads from Armchair Dragoons got together for what we hoped would be the second part of our Battle of Teugn-Hausen using Black Powder 2. We all like the rules and, despite a few goofs here and there, I thought I had been running things reasonably well.
Then, while looking up an entirely different matter, I happened upon a teensy paragraph near teh bottom of p. 29 to the effect that if a commander fails in an attempt to give an order, that commander may give no further orders that turn. I understand that the rule is there. I do not know what I was asking the authors and editors to do to prevent my missing it, but that is a rule of first consequence and, despite having logged several dozen hours now playing BP2, I just missed it. Veterans who have not missed it are, of course, laughing at me (at worst) or nodding sagely (at best) when I say the proper implementation of that rule makes brigade orders a much bigger deal and makes initiative orders of much greater consequence.
I enrage myself sometimes.
Other notes:
*Commanders must issue orders (or attempt to) for the turn and then and only then may move (cf. p. 39 top left). I am glad this rule is the way it is. This was the rule I was looking for when I found the one that so flabbergasted me above.
*We (I) have consistently missed the modifier (a negative) for a commander's strategy rating when an enemy unit is within 12'' of a unit the commander is trying to order.
*"Pas de Charge", had by many French troops, grants a +1 to French troops in column. This is added to the +1 all units receive for being in attack column for a net +2!
*Cavalry cannot form attack column. That's an infantry only thing!
*LoS is determined from the flag stand to the target. We may have buggered this one up once or twice.
*While it is true that skirmishers sight from the model of their commander's choosing, if a proportion of the unit cannot see the target, the number of dice rolled is reduced by that proportion. We definitely did this one incorrectly.
*We will have to keep a close watch on the diagram on p. 48. While it is true that one can ignore skirmishers and fire at a more distant target, this is only the case if the more distant target is otherwise (pace the skirmishers) clear.
And this, which I take to be an editing omission, has me cross with the author: The rules on retiring indicate (p. 80) that a "retire" move is "a normal move in every respect". I wish it had clarified if this includes being affected by terrain. Miniature games are not of one mind on that topic. Worse, though, the rule does not include the little tidbit included in the table on the preceding page that if one move is insufficient to get a unit clear of friendly troops, it may make a second move and only then break. Would have made matters a good deal better last night had this been notived.
If you make your way through the whole of last night's festivities, you will also hear a lot of discussion about the best way to handle movement through heavy trees. Forests played a big part at Teugn-Hausen and I am not comfortable that the standard forest rules represent this well. I think, therefore, that we will use those from Clash of Eagles entirely, viz.:
*Woods are "rough ground" meaning skirmishers move through them without penalty, formed infantry and cavalry pay 2:1, and artillery pays 3:1.
*Non-skirmish troops and troops not in march column may only receive one order per turn, no matter what the command roll.
*Brigade orders may only be issued to units in march column positioned with 3'' of each other.
*Shooting at a unit with 50% or more of its footprint in trees grants a -1 shooting modifier.
*Troops sheltering in the woods (50% or more of its footprint in) receive a +1 morale modifier.
*Non-skirmish troops fighting hand-to-hand in the woods receive a -1 to their to-hit rolls.
*For a unit to fire out of the woods, it must be within 1'' of the edge of the woods.
Again, this feels like a lot, but one only learns by playing.
...and the video itself:
So animated was I by the retiring question, I fashioned this video:
I think I'll go ahead and buy the rules this week. It's clear we're going to be playing this a lot more and the more of us that really understand the rules the smoother this will go.
ReplyDeleteA fine notion. I only observe that some of the rules -- like those for the Austrians and the entire point system -- aren't in the main book, but in one of the supplements...as is the woods rule we were poking at.
ReplyDelete