Black Powder Rule Review

 

Black Powder is a game by Warlord games meant to simulate combat of the Black Powder Musket era.  As previously stated I am a huge ACW fan but this ruleset in theory could be used for the age of Napoleon, AWI, The wars of unification in Central Europe and many more.  However, I will review the Epic Battles Separately.  The reason why is the rule book for Epic Battles 100 days is a much better product than this and I do believe it should be graded differently.  I will be grading this game based on the 28mm scale it was designed for.

My Reviews are going to be graded like classes in College; A,B,C,D,E.  At the end we will get a GPA which will determine if this game makes distinguished honor roll, honor roll, passes or fails.  A good game should at least pass with a C average.

The categories I will be grading are 1) Presentation/Product/Package, 2) Game Rules/Mechanics,             3) Historical/fantasy Cannon Accuracy, 4) Cost/time, 5) Good Time and Memories

1) Presentation/Product/Package. Warlord games excel at this.  They produce great miniatures that go with their and supplements tons of supplements.  You could have a whole shelf full of supplements (Could they compete with Games Workshop, I wonder). There are some typos in the rules and the QRS is not exactly the most useful for playing the games but the photography in that book, just wow.  

A-

2) Game Rules/Mechanics.  A lot of Warlord games get knocked for their mechanics and their simplicity.  I will admit the I go/you go turn is old fashioned but My 7 and 5 year nephew learned how to play this game because it was simple.  The fist full of dice rolling helps too.  There is nothing inventive or mind blowing creative but it works and works well.  My favorite part is the "Blunders" Chart.  I do like passing the order tests as well.

B

3) Historical Accuracy.  It is very difficult to write a ruleset to cover such a large period of history and get every nuance right. I do believe it is an unfair judgement of Black Powder but it is not without merit.  Yes, Cavalry in the time of Napoleon was used much differently in the time of the ACW.  And why on earth is the ZULU wars included... ok I do see there are some bones to pick here.  If you are not a studied historian like my 7 and 5 year old nephews.  This game makes you feel like you are playing an old battle.  However, if you did more than watch the movie Gettysburg then this might feel lacking in Historical Accuracy.

C+

4) Cost/Time.  Good News first.  Every black powder game we have played at living hope alliance has always concluded in less than 3 hours.  Which makes it a great game for us to play on Thursday nights.  Cost, 28mm figures are not the cheapest.  Especially if you buy them from warlord games.  Plus in the time it takes to paint one unit (4 bases) of infantry and base them I can do 8 units of the Epic Scale Size.  Fielding Large enough armies to recreate "Pickets Charge" could take years and tons of Money.

C+

5) Good Time and Memories.  Yes! Yes! Yes!  My nephews playing is a big win.  When Aidan has a blunder and his elite unit retreats off the table.  Love playing the game and love the memories with it.

A

GPA is 3.06

Not Honor Roll but not a bad game.  Again if you have little kids who want to play with toy soldiers this is a great starter game.