If you’ve read my previous blog, I verbally unpacked the starter set of Black Powder 2nd Edition. So, what lies beyond that?
This time, I’m talking about where to start next in terms of expanding your collection. Unless you’re particularly knowledgeable about military history, it’s possible that it can seem a bit intimidating. However, fear not! It’s much simpler than it seems.
As mentioned in my first blog, Black Powder allows you to bring collections from any line of minis into the fray – so long as they fit the historical setting. So, you could bring in that old squad of 28mm grenadiers you have lying around (don’t we all?). Or you can explore non-Warlord Games 28mm lines such as Victrix, Victoria, or Perry.
“But with such a vast choice, how do I know what to buy?” I hear you wail in despair. Well, luckily for you, there’s a troops guide in the rulebook! The rulebook lists ‘types’ of units. This might be “Line Infantry,” “Rifled Musket Light Infantry,” “Guard (Foot),” or “Guard (Mounted).” Each row comes with stats too, and a list of the relevant special rules from the “Useful Rules” section in the rulebook.
Now, a tripping hazard here is that you might want all the top-dog cool stuff immediately – and that’s fine – but you do have to consider balance a bit. There are ways of attributing points to units, which come in supplements, but that doesn’t seem to be how the game is designed at its core. Instead, it’s just a mutual agreement kind of setup. The opponents all agree on what’s entering the field so the game stays fun and fair.
So, imagine we are building on top of the Black Powder 2nd Edition starter set box contents, which are more or less balanced already. Picking two units of Napoleonic mounted Old Guard is going to give the French army player a big advantage – huge, in fact. So, you might want to nerf them a bit by reviewing their special rules, or buff some of the opponent’s units so they stand more of a chance. But you can get creative with it too.
Here’s what I did:
I bought one unit of French Old Guard on foot (Victrix miniatures), and one unit of British 95th Rifles (Warlord Games). This was just enough to spice up each side, because now each team had a specialty. The French had a stalwart centrepiece unit in the Old Guard. Immovable. Unshakable. Very, very sweaty under those bearskin hats.
On the British side, while the 95th Rifles wouldn’t hold a candle to the Old Guard in hand-to-hand combat, their long-range sniping abilities gave the British player a different perspective. They had to move around – forwards, backwards – to pick their targets and stay far enough away from any surprisingly sharp plastic bayonets while they took long-range potshots at the opponent’s important units. Their superior shooting skills gave them a different edge to the French army.
When I played my first game, my opponent and I sort of made them the “main characters” and played so that those two units would try to do the cool spotlight stuff – like charging ahead of the rest, or sniping from the back lines, clambering into buildings, etc. etc. Truly action-movie stuff.
Of course, that’s just what I chose to do. The choice is really yours. If you see a unit in the rulebook and you like the sound of them but don’t know what they look like or where to buy them, you may have to do a little self-research – but it won’t be much more than a Google search away.
The beauty of Black Powder is that there is no “army book” or “codex” dictating how to build your force. You can include as few or as many minis in one unit as you please, noting the stat changes for different sizes (Tiny, Small, Regular, Large). For example, a Tiny unit is going to be much weaker than a Regular or Large unit, but harder to hit due to their fewer numbers – and other such modifiers. Therefore, if you find a couple of minis at a car boot sale, that’s a game-eligible Tiny unit!
Finally – and this is my wild card big finale – historical wargaming purists, look away now: going back to what I said earlier about the minis being historically accurate – while that’s the intention, it’s not strictly the only way. Once you have the rules down, you could pit any rifle-toting armies against each other from any universe. The game comes across as malleable in that way, and I think that’s really cool.
So, if you’ve got a horde of Tyranid Termagants and a barracks-worth of Astra Militarum infantry, what’s stopping you from slapping some imaginary redcoats on one team and blue on the other? Go crazy with it! This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from stepping outside of Warhammer:
It’s okay to separate the game rules from the game models. Learn the rules. Give it a go. Get creative – and most of all, have fun exploring what you can bring to the game!
