More Black Powder

We had an opportunity at the club last week to expand our understanding of the Black Powder rules using the Last Argument of Kings supplement.

This time a match up between Russians and Austrians circa 1710. Four brigades a side. On the Austrian right a cavalry brigade with a unit of cuirassiers and two units of dragoons, facing a Russian brigade with horse grenadiers and dragoons. In the centre (see picture below) two brigades of line infantry and grenadiers faced off. On the far left a brigade of Croats (foot and horse) faced a similar brigade of Cossacks.  

The battle started with the Austrian cavalry charging right across the table while the infantry, somewhat more reluctantly, plodded towards the Russian line. The Croats didn't budge an inch. The cuirassiers made short work of the horse grenadiers although the dragoon battle was more even. By the time the Austrian infantry got to effective range the cuirassiers were threatening the Russian infantry flank and started to roll up the Russian line. The Croats eventually got moving, but the Cossacks hardly moved the whole battle and some desultory skirmishing was all that happened on the left. 

I thought the rules played well. The 'first fire' special rule for foot worked well for this period and the firefight was a decent battle of attrition. The cavalry contest could have gone either way. The Croat v Cossack skirmish was just what you might of expected and the Black Powder command rules come into there own here. Overall, enjoyable and pretty good simulation of warfare in the period. More plus marks for Black Powder.

The figures above are mostly Front Rank for the Austrians and Reiver Miniatures for the Russians.