Epic Black Powder Big Issue HELP

[VinUnleaded]

Hi everyone,

Long time Napoleonic’s miniature gamer here.

I have played the original Black Powder along with many, many, other Napoleonic miniature rule sets over the years, and purchased most of the Epic Black Powder Gettysburg products when it first came out, and now have purchased, built and painted all the buildings in the Epic Waterloo range.

I just received my copy of the Epic Black Powder Napoleonic Waterloo Hundred Days Campaign book that just came out.

Although, I feel the variety of scenarios, information and historical backgrounds in the book is great, I feel the photos of the game play in the book caused me a ton of concern and actually turned me off. Please let me explain.

One of the issues I had with the Original Black powder when playing Napoleonic’s,  was the need for a large space and large numbers of miniatures. Moreover, I felt the visuals as a result of the rule set resulted in a slightly cramped look. Despite this, I still felt the way Black Powder scenarios handled this, was good by breaking up battles into smaller chunks.

When Epic Black Powder Waterloo was announced and released I was very very excited! Not only did I have every single bit of information, buildings, troops at my disposal, just like Epic Gettysburg. I was also looking forward to being able to play larger battles of larger segments of battles with the new Epic Rule Set for both Gettysburg and now Waterloo etc., and on a smaller table than what is required in non epic black powder.

Sadly, when I saw the photos in the Hundred Days Campaign book, I was turned off by how “cramped” everything looked. Also, it did not look “Epic” at all. Instead, to me it looked like the same old same old Black Powder in its larger scale, but even more cramped, less realistic looking, not epic looking at all, and less realistic poses, despite the larger formations and smaller figures, which allows more troops.

Even worse, was the flora used in the terrain! They are much too large! They make the wide open fields of Waterloo and other battles look like they took place in largely wooded battlefields in Virginia USA or something. Whatever possible Epic looking views that might be obtained were ruined by the oversized bushes, hedges, and tree’s.

Like I said, I feel like I am looking at one of the original Black Powder games, that even though are now in a smaller scale, are just about the same except for more miniatures cramped into an even smaller space.

Is there something wrong with me? Am I expecting something that was not supposed to be? Epic and realistic  looking battles on a grand scale?

Please help me and if I am missing something, please tell me as I want to be able to use these rules and miniatures in an enjoyable way.

Is there a way in the rules to change miniature basing, distances, scales, etc. anything, to make the game more “Epic” as intended?

I am not the best at using rules and especially optional rules, but if there is a way I have missed to obtain that Epic feel in the rules please explain that to me.

Thank You in advance.

• This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by VinUnleaded.

[Garry Wills]

No I don’t think there is anything wrong with you. Epic clearly means more figures to the unit than normal, which does look good. But as others have pointed out the Epic battalions fill the same frontage as their 28 mm equivalents. Similarly the full scale buildings also cramp the space on the battlefield unrealistically. I have wargamed in 15mm for almost fifty years and therefore didn’t buy into it. Others have addressed this by reducing the number of stands per unit and others have cut the strips of 10 figures into two strips of five, which allows you to better  represent columns and move towards the effect you hoped for. Epic is a good thing because it clearly has brought people into Napoleonic wargaming, but it has arguably been sold misleadingly. This was perhaps less of an issue with the Epic ACW because columns were not used so much once on the battlefield.

Regards

Garry

[John Stiening]

I think the book could use some more epic table shots. Most of the images are close in and do lack the epic feeling that can be had on a huge table. I would have loved to have seen a shot of an 8×6 Hougoumont table. The map on page 54 looks incredibly interesting and to see it realized in miniature would have been a treat. What we get instead are close in shots.

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