A couple of weeks or so ago my wife asked me for a list of Christmas gift suggestions. At the top of the little list which I gave to her I wrote, in rather largish letters,
Black Powder: Battles with Model Soldiers in the Age of the Musket, by Rick Priestly and Jervis Johnson. For years I've toyed with the idea of 28mm gaming in French and Indian war and American Revolutionary war settings, I've even bought some buildings and boxes of cheap second hand minis on ebay...but I've never found a set of rules that really drew me into investing in it... Could
Black Powder be what I've been looking for? Well, Hell, Rick Priestly wrote it...that's a point in it's favour, right?
These seven Coureurs do Bois and four Indian Warriors are all Old Glory figures that came loose in a box along with a bunch of Dixon militia, Roger's Rangers and some very nice, but tragically out-of-scale RAFM British and Mohawks... They didn't come out all that well, but I'm hoping to get better as I get more comfortable with the period...
I only discovered the existence of the
Black Powder book very recently, but the reviews on Amazon sound promising.
Some of the reviewers hint at a set of rules reminiscent of the 40k
ROGUE TRADER book...with a reasonably simple combat system and considerable emphasis on character and
plot-driven games...just what I'm looking for...The reviews were encouraging enough to move me to dig these guys out of their box and take a stab at painting them...
Rick Priestly admirers will get a chuckle out of a review written by a Warhammer 8th Edition fan, a certain Jman1234, who despairs over the fact that Priestly, the man who "Ruined Warhammer 40k and Fantasy" (?!) should be allowed by someone, somewhere, to write another set of wargames rules...
If
Black Powder shows up under the Christmas Tree, I may
be inspired to begin creating my campaign setting, but right now, I don't have anything other than photos of these French and Indian Warriors. I don't know who they are, where they live, exactly, or what they are all about..though they certainly look like trouble makers extraordinaire...
Hopefully Santa's Trolls...or is it Dwarves? Mind Flayers? Yeah, Santa's Mind Flayers...No, Mind Flayers don't work for Santa, Elves do. Okay, hopefully Santa's Elves are bundling up a copy for me as I write...
Hey-Hey, Mouse,
ReplyDeleteFunny about the French-Indian figs, I find that period fascinating and it seems that every couple of months I think about plunging in... just last week I was seriously contemplating Warlord's new figs. But yours are classic! Nice.
And Black Powder is great, the only problem is trying to actually read the rules - the pictures are way, way too distracting and mind-blowing. Also, Black Powder really is more suited to large games. But you know good ol'Warhammer works well for gunpowder skirmish games. I've fought a lot of Colonial battles using a modified Warhammer. And they were all fun and fast. I'm sure it could also work for the FIW. Although, I hope Santa's Mind Flayers work their magic for your Christmas present.