Battle of Bittewasser -- our first try with "Black Powder"

Last weekend Rob, one of my gaming buddies, came over and we tried out "Black Powder" for the first time. Opponents were two early 18-th century "Imagi-Nations", Saxe-Bearstein (me) and Stagonia (Rob). 

After Rob's first turn

We were advised by a number of TMPers to cut my 8' x 5' table in half and have only 8 units per side (4 mounted, 2 per side; and 4 foot units in the center).  With little room to maneuver, this forced us to "learn the rules" by mixing it up right away.

As a "house rule" Rob and I decided to reduce movement by a third (thus 8" and 12" instead of 12" & 18") because we do not play on a 7 foot wide table.  And it was well that we did so, for a glance at the photo below shows how close Rob's Heavy Horse were after a single move:

Table edge is right behind the Dragoons closest to you.

My Wildschwein Dragoons (front unit with blue caps) were in definite trouble . . . and the unit behind wasn't happy either.  But things can swing back-and-forth quite a bit in "Black Powder" and so they did here.

But first, an apology . . . I have cancer and after almost a year (in total) of chemotherapy, I have a definite case of "chemo-brain".  My mind is fairly foggy and I have terrible short-term memory so Rob was kind enough to handle the rule book for us.  Needless to say, I have little detailed memory of the battle, but here are a couple more photos (I forgot to take pics for the most part):

Some of Rob's foot -- who he had trouble motivating.

My Heavy Horse are about to ruin's his Dragoon's day.

We certainly had fun. . . . And tomorrow we will attempt to play an actual scenario . . . the "Bridge at Kronstadt" scenario by Brig. C. S. Grant, OBE.

-- Jeff