BLACKPOWDER V2 TIPS FOR PLAYERS No 1 DISENGAGING

I thought I would let you see the tips for players that I produced for the players before The Great Game in Glasgow.  Here is the first of the four of them.  The others will follow over the coming days.

Introduction

It may be glorious to get all of your units heavily involved in the action but that may well not allow you to get to day 2 of the Great Game with some of your units intact.  We want as many players as possible to get to Day 2.  This is not tactical advice on formations/reserves etc. - its all about what you can use in the rules.

It is important to know how you can withdraw your units and how to recover their strength.  Firstly understand when to retire your units which have heavy casualties especially once they get to a Shaken state i.e. Casualties equal to their stamina, as any further casualties from shooting will make them take a Break test and they are vulnerable in hand to hand combat.  Secondly understand how to recover casualties from units and make full use of it

Note that units in Hand to Hand combat cannot be Ordered including Rallying Pg 67.

How to disengage

Retire under Initiative

A unit which is unengaged can use an initiative move to retire facing the enemy Pg 36.  They can interpenetrate friendly units with no penalty Pg 37.  You can also attempt to order them to make multiple moves away from the action but that is not guaranteed.

Disorderly Retreat

An unengaged disordered unit within proximity range of the enemy can use an initiative order to make a Disorderly Retreat Pg 51.  This allows them to retire facing the enemy but they do not recover disorder at the end of their turn – their disorder lasts to the end of their following turn.  Best to represent this with a 2^nd disorder marker and simply remove 1 at the end of their turn.  This is new in version 2.

Fall Back

A unit which in hand to hand combat makes all of its engaged opponents Break or Retire can make a move to its rear even if disordered.

How to Rally

Infantry battalion and cavalry regiment commanders plus Brigadiers & Divisional Generals can issue a Rally Order to one of their units each turn if it is within 12” of the command figure.  “Rally round me lads!” Pg 34.

If successful the commander moves to the unit, joins them and removes a casualty from them.  It is the last command that the commander issues in the Order phase.   A unit with one casualty cannot be given a Rally order so the final casualty can never be removed.

The command figure remains with the rallied unit until the end of their opponents turn.  This does make the commander risk being a casualty if the unit suffers excess casualties pg 74  or being lost if the unit breaks as the result of a break test pg 74.

The other way to lose Units

Also remember that units which Retire from Hand to Combat have to make a full Retire move and if they end up on top of a friendly unit at the end of their move they get to make a 2^nd Retire move.  If this 2nd move also ends up with them on top of another friendly unit they Break and are Destroyed.  So be aware of the available space behind your units.