BLACK POWDER - UPDATED HOUSE RULES

As you will know from the reports in the blog I am an enthusiast for the Black Powder rules. I find them simple and fun to play. But a few issues have appeared in our games. I have a separate page for some house rules and ideas for house rules that we have used in our games. I updated the page in June and now in again July with ideas I have seen suggested on other sites or which I have picked up from the other BP based rulesets - HAIL CAESAR and PIKE and SHOT. These include

Another option for Interpenetration
option 3 - When Interpenetrating a formed friendly unit, if the centre of your formed unit does not pass through the friendly unit, then there is no penalty - however if the centre does pass through then you risk disorder - dice for each unit and on a score of 1,2,3 it becomes disordered.
This is taken from HAIL CAESAR.


Disordered Cavalry Rally Back under initiative
Often cavalry can be stopped standing disordered in front of units firing at them and if disordered are unable to move. There is a rule in PIKE and SHOT for disordered units rallying back so my suggestion is that this can be applied to cavalry in BP.
Rule - a disordered cavalry unit not in combat can rally back a move under Initiative.

Revised Broken Brigade Rule
I do not like the optional standard ‘Broken Brigade’ rule in BP and in particular it tends to penalise small brigades of two or three units such as cavalry brigades. Instead, I suggest the following system:-
a) -1 Command Modifier for each lost or destroyed unit in the brigade.
b) -1 Break-Test modifier for each lost or destroyed unit in the same brigade.
This makes brigades become harder to control as the battle goes on and units are lost. (I would not include the loss of tiny units or guns). This is a variant of a suggestion on the BP forum.

Levy Useful Rule
This is taken from HAIL CAESAR. Useful for applying to militia - the problem with poorly trained troops is keeping them organised in action. Value can be modified eg 2+ to 5+. I would combine with Unreliable for militia units.
Levy Useful Rule - Unit must roll 4+ to remove disorder at the end of its turn.

Stoic Useful Rule
I gave Russian Napoleonic the Steady useful rule. However there is no risk of failure in the first break test with Steady which I think makes it too powerful a useful rule with units surviving in quite impossible situations. Some uncertainty is required. My solution is to use a version of Valiant but amended so that the unit can only reroll the first break test it makes rather than the first test it fails.
Stoic Useful Rule - Unit can reroll the first break test it makes.