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The idea troops would waste all their ammo was claimed about revolvers, then double action revolvers (by no less than Sam Colt himself!), then bolt action rifles, then bolt action rifles without magazine cutoffs, then stripper clip fed bolt actions, then self-loading rifles. It never really worked out like that in practice. It turns out training…[Read more]

@lordnat like your idea of attaching Light Mortars to your officers and understand what your saying about light mortars and removing Japans distinguishing feature (though I’m not sure the Japanese made particularly heavier use of them than many others, in certain theaters and formations the Brits certainly used the things extensively as did the US…[Read more]

A unit that can have a spotter say so under “options”. So its normally stuff like Med/Hvy mortars and howitzers.

So, your Katyusha does not have that option.

But also note the part on p.71 under Indirect fire that allows them to fire against enemies even if friends are in the way.

For making semi-auto and BA rifles different, I suppose the easiest way to do that would be to decouple the two halves of the Assault keyword, making it into two keywords that don’t use the name of a only semi-related game mechanic (“Assault gives Tough Fighters which improves Assault, but also does other stuff not related to Assault”) like…[Read more]

I’m not sure I follow you logic, Richard?

What ever size of figure you are using, an infantry is typically a battalion if we’re talking Napoleonics. You might have 24 figures in a 28mm battalion, or 100 figures in an ‘Epic’ battalion.  Each would still have a stamina of ‘3’ to represent a regular sized unit.  In Black Powder the number of fig…[Read more]

I think that part of the problem is the small number of casualties that a unit experiences in a given turn. Since Epic battles are designed to represent rather large units, it would not be unusual for them to experience large amounts of casualties. Perhaps this is yet another problem that takes place when you try to mesh a game designed for 28mm…[Read more]

I like a lot of the ideas here.  however BA should try and stay a pretty fast game without having a ton of extra rolls and stuff.  That said, one thing I think would help a lot is adding artillery scatter.  It is just odd that a howitzer can miss and there is no handy explosion.  I am sure a one roll system could be worked out to not overly slo…[Read more]

Hi Richard – there is a quick reference sheet available on the Warlord site here https://www.warlordgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/black-powder-playsheet.pdf if that helps?

I would strongly suggest you remove units from the board when they break – the core game expects you to do this, and as you say, you’re wasting time by not doing it. (N…[Read more]

A mate of mine 3D printed my Bettys as a gift so there are STLs out there… however I think I put the wings on slightly wrong so they are a bit bowed :p

@Generaljimbo81 – issue is if you start allowing lots of light mortars with their move and fire in lists you are removing one of Japanes key distinguishing factors (the grenadier squads)….better to give the light mortar as an option to the HQ (ie the LT allows you to take 0-1 light mortar then the mortar slot allows you to take 0-1 of light,…[Read more]

RE snipers – if you make them any better you need to up the points… theres an argument for upping the points alread

RE medics – my view is: make them a team of 1 -4 (so you measure from any member of the unit).  And you you add  3 extra rules
Medical Orderly : +1 to the dice on frindly units for each additional member in the unit
Hippocratic o…[Read more]

On medics: make them too cheap and they will be in everyone’s army, so I think it would work better if they were able to roll to help any casualties, no matter from HE, etc.

LMG teams also get that sometimes. That and outranging rifles would indeed make light mortar be good for more than an option to spend remaining points for an order dice+smoke. I’ve seen being able to pay extra to make one of the men accompanying an officer count as a spotter for any one indirect unit in a fanmade list of things for an update. That…[Read more]

Oh and Light Mortars – Allow them to be selected in 1-3 teams for a single slot but Order Die for each (bit like Soviets get for AT rifles). Though I also think their range needs to be increased. This would make them a more attractive option.

Personally not sure Ed 3 required per se as think things could prob be corrected in an FAQ / Errata. 3rd Ed would then just be the base rule bits from errate in 1 book.

However I do see the following need some work:

MMGs – Give them a special rule that a crew man can take over the gun in the event of “exceptional damage” if Ld test is passed…[Read more]