The Napoleonic Wars, Black Powder, 28mm

This, the second “Bonaparte in Italy” game played out this month was a straightforward encounter battle, with both sides beginning the game fully deployed and raring to go. The Austrians were penalised with a slightly worse Command Rating (7 rather than 8), but proved crucial when the dice started rolling. Their six battalions were deployed in a standard linear way, with their one regiment of cavalry on their right flank, and their left covered by a detachment of Freikorps skirmishers. The French attacked with two demi-brigades – each of three battalions, supported by a regiment of cavalry, a brace of guns and a battalion of elite grenadiers. Naturally enough they were doing the attacking, and the hapless Austrians were programmed to sit tight and weather the Gallic storm.On the left the French got off to a cautious start, hindered by bad command roles and a general fear of being ridden down by cavalry. This threat was removed when Wurmster’s Hussars charged a French battalion to their front, and promptly broke thanks to a crippling dose of closing fire. The French could now advance unimpeded by the threat of Austrian cavalrymen. On the French right a demi-brigade veered to the right to hit the enemy line on its extreme left, near the village of Fortissimo. The Deutchmeister regiment saw off one French battalion, which broke and ran when it failed a morale test. Two turns later another French battalion went, largely thanks to lucky die rolls by the Austrian Freikorps. That brought the demi-brigade close to its brigade break point – it had five units, including a small unit of skirmishers and the attached grenadiers. One more breaking unit and the remnants of the brigade would flee the field. That of course was where things started to unravel for the Austrians.The French grenadiers a proved to be pretty tough, shrugging off disorders while pounding the Austrian line with musket fire, supported by the French skirmishers. Then one battalion of the Deutchmeister regiment fled the field, and the hole in the line was blocked by the one token Sardinian regiment – La Marina. One more lucky French fusilade and the “Sardines” broke and ran. That brought their brigade moral to breaking point, and the remaining Austrians on that flank pulled back a turn. From now on they couldn’t rally off hits or disorders, which effectively meant the end was now just a matter of time.Over on the Austrian right things were also going downhill very quickly. The French advanced to within close musket range, and a lengthy firefight ensued. Hoping to break the deadlock the Austrians launched their Hungarian Alvinczy battalion against the 8-pounder battery that had just deployed in front of them. Thanks to closing fire they took just enough casualties to force a break test, and a “2” was rolled. Goodnight Vienna. Still, the Austrians still had two battalions of the Strassoldo regiment still in the fight, backed up by a gun battery.Unfortunately they too had reached 50% losses in the brigade, so they too couldn’t recover their losses. The French closed in, and any sensible Austrian would have headed for the hills. Instead we played out the debacle to its bloody conclusion – a resounding French victory, where all the Austrians had left was the Freikorps, skulking around the village.Perhaps the best thing about the game was the fact that one of the players – Alan – hadn’t played a wargame since using plastic Airfix figures as a teenager, and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Not only that, but he recovered from his earlier setback (losing two battalions) to comprehensively trounce his Austrian foes. I’m sure he’ll be back for more! This was the second game of Black Powder that Chris used, and it went far more smoothly than before – a sure sign that the rules are making sense. Both players – newcomers to wargaming – were quick to pick up the nuances of Black Powder, which is an excellent rules set for a quick, friendly game. I’m afraid that after trying out Warfare in the Age of Napoleon as a fast-play alternative to General de Brigade, I’ve finally moved back to Black Powder, as the best fast-play set out there. Sometimes that’s exactly the kind of game you want – especially with two “newbie” players. We got a decisive result in four hours of play – which isn’t to be sniffed at!

Tags: Black Powder