[Cpl John]

Hi- sorry I took so long to reply to this. Not checking the Forums as often as I should. Dark and Bloody Ground lets you pick whatever size of unit you prefer to use. For example, if your fighting a small skirmish between Rangers and Native Americans you might make all the units 12 miniatures strong (which is what I tend to do)  and then treat this as a “Standard” unit with 3 stamina etc. If your going to play one of the bigger battles, such as Quebec, you might collect 20 strong British and French regular battalions. In this case, a 20 figure unit would become a “standard” unit and the Native American of Ranger units with 12 miniatures would become small units for that game. If you check out the scenario on page 94 (the Raid on Anytown), I split a single family into 2 small units- which could have 3 or 4 miniatures in each. Because we don’t remove miniatures to represent casualties, it makes the system very flexible and you can make up units sizes to suit the scenario or the miniatures you have to hand. Hope your enjoying the game- Pete Brown.

[Cpl John]

Hi Mark,
I think my intention with combined Prussian Grenadier units was always to treat them as Guard units. I use the different special rules to differentiate, depending on the battle being fought and the how the units performed historically. You should certainly be considering Stubborn or Brave for the Grenadiers, as well as superbly drilled and first fire. I think a 3+ save is also in order.
As Invisible Officer states, some Grenadier units were Grenadiers in name only, never having seen action and performing on a par with their line colleagues. I don’t think this should be the case with the Prussian Grenadiers, who were hand picked and did perform well on the whole.
As always with Black Powder, its your game and if you think they need to be harder to kill, make them so.
Hope this helps
Pete

[Cpl John]

Hi Mark,
The game looks amazing mate. Well done. The fortress is a great model! The Turkish cavalry and artillery look great and there is nothing like a line of Jannassaries advancing toward the town to make a chill run down your spine. The Austrians looked great deployed into line as well. You clearly put a lot of time and effort into the game and it shows.
Hopefully you will get lots of game time out of the two armies and try them in different scenarios.
Really pleased that the game went so well. Its nice to get positive feedback about the scenario and LAOK in general. This game made my day.
Best regards
Pete

[Cpl John]

Good Luck Mark. Hope its a great success. Take lots of pictures. It would be great to see it in action.
Cheers
Pete

[Cpl John]

Hi Phil,
The idea for “not clear” and “skirmish” is for fighting in woods. I Dark and Bloody Ground we have had to cope with the fact that some of the battles took place entirely in woodland, and in which troops fought in line, which is not possible under the current BP2 rules for woods which require troops to be in skirmish order in woods. We have had to work through different options for how to play this out.
Long story short, since troops in woods benefit from “not clear” due to the trees, skirmishers lost their edge as usually you can only have “not clear” OR “Skirmishers” as the -1 factor. In DABG regulars can now deploy in certain types of woods without having to break into skirmish order.
So if you had troops in line drawn up on the edge of a wood, and someone in the open fired at them, they could potentially claim the -1 for “not clear” and the morale save for cover.
If skirmishers are also on the edge of a wood and someone in the open fires at them, strictly speaking they gain only one -1 benefit and the +1 Morale save. I now allow them both to differentiate between them and formed troops. This has only arisen because formed troops can now be in woods, which under normal circumstances they would not under BP2.
Hope this is clear? Its a lot clearer in the book, which also deals with Provincial troops ( who often went prone, but stayed in formation, so not technically skirmishing) and suggestions on other type of fighting unique to this period and theater of war.
Ref recovery from Disorder. I use “Elite 4+” for troops like British Light infantry to distinguish them from Indian skirmishers, reflecting their drill and ability to reform better than Native Americans. Drilled regulars should certainly be better at recovering disorder than your locally raised Militias as well, in my opinion, and this is a good way to reflect drill on the board alongside “Superbly drilled” which just allows them to move when perhaps militias would not. Again, all just suggestions!
Cheers

[Cpl John]

Hi Phil,
In the new Dark and Bloody Ground supplement, I do suggest allowing units such as the British Light infantry to switch from skirmish to formed and back again, requiring an order each time to do so. This is because they were disciplined and followed the word of command. I think with North American Indians you will have to make a choice. My preferred option is to make them small units (stat line of 2 Stamina and 2 shooting) which reflects their fragility in a firefight and the reduced firepower they had if they lacked weapons or powder, or had mixed firearms and bows etc. However, I allow skirmishers to charge formed units which are SHAKEN. This allows your Indians to fire from cover until a unit is shaken before drawing Tomahawks and closing in to finish them off. There are other suggestions in the supplement too concerning allowing them to benefit from “not clear” in woods AND “skirmish” making them hard to hit in woods to get the Braddock effect. As always, these are all only suggestions and its best to try them out in different games to see how you get on.
Ref the size of units. If you go with 8 figure units as standard then they should have the standard stat line ( 3 stamina, 3 shooting etc) and make 6 figure units Small and 12 figure units Large and it should all work fine. I have run games where one battalion is broken into companies with three companies being led by a commander figure as a “Brigade’. Hope this helps.
Cheers

[Cpl John]

Hi Greybeard
The rules on Warbands and Skirmishers in LAOK 94/95 relate to North American Indians, so I assume you are talking about these for your 1812 games. Indian skirmishers are treated just as normal skirmishers in the rules. Indian Warbands are units of Indians which are too large to skirmish and are treated in a similar way ( albeit I know they are very different) to units of Pathans on the NW Frontier or even Bands of Mahadists. Ill disciplined mobs running forward to engage the enemy. I offered both stats lines in LAOK for the reader to choose, as not everyone agrees on how Indians warbands should perform on the battlefield. If you make them skirmishers, they cannot charge formed infantry. If you make them Warband, they struggle to skirmish and inflict the Braddock effect in woodlands. There are some new rules for Indian units and suggestions for playing entirely Indian armies in the new “Dark and Bloody Ground” supplement.
cheers

[Cpl John]

Hi Phil,
Yes is the easy answer. After discussion with Rick Priestley over a pint or two, it does not really matter if your “Standard” sized unit is a battalion, company or section, so long as you are consistent on your approach. Without bending the rules too far I show how to use the Black Powder rules for a raid on a settlement by bands of Indians all the way up to full scale battles such as Quebec and Ticonderoga. I also deal with traditional “skirmish” battles such as the Battle on Snowshoes and others which are small scale but are easily adaptable for the Black Powder rules. Give them a try and see what you think.
cheers
Pete

[Cpl John]

Hi Mark,
thanks so much for posting your battle report. I am always keen to get feedback on how the scenarios in LAOK play out. I played this scenario through a couple of times before it went in the supplement, but there are so many variables it is perfectly possible for one game to be a walkover if the dice all roll badly! I am glad it turned out so well for you. And I love the eighteenth century Turkish army. It certainly is not boring old lines of well drilled troops in tricornes!

[Cpl John]

Hi Aaron,
I am the author of Dark and Bloody Ground and I hope it is up to scratch. I have taken my lead very much from Rebellion, which everyone raves about, and included all the Uniform detail for the British, French and the Colonial Regulars and Militias, alongside information about the native American tribes. A history of the war is provided along with details of all the major personalities from both sides. I have detailed and provided scenarios for every major battle and even sneaked a short campaign scenario in at the end. I genuinely asked myself, “What would I need if starting out in this period” and then wrote the supplement I would want to read. If you do choose to buy it, I hope you enjoy it.
Cheers

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