Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Wider Wargaming => Rules => Topic started by: paulr on 26 June 2021, 08:01:33 PM

Title: Black Powder - Broken brigade question
Post by: paulr on 26 June 2021, 08:01:33 PM
Rule Clarification #2

Broken Brigades:

We have recently tried Black Powder with the Glory Hallelujah supplement for ACW

We have a couple of questions on breaking brigades 

At the startof a player turn, a brigade is broken once half (rounded up) of its units are lost. e.g. 2 of 4, 3 of 5

Lost Units constitute:

1. Are we interpreting the rules correctly?
2. Do others include shaken units in the count to break brigades?

Our reason for asking is that particularly in early in the ACW when units are only stamina 2 it is fairly easy to shake units and we can see brigades breaking in their first or second turn of receiving fire just from units being shaken :-\
Title: Re: Black Powder - Broken brigade question
Post by: Steve J on 26 June 2021, 08:47:50 PM
I ignore the Broken Brigades rule, preferring to play until one side is obviously the victor. This is largely due to mid-week games time restraints in an evening.
Title: Re: Black Powder - Broken brigade question
Post by: steve_holmes_11 on 26 June 2021, 09:52:32 PM
Whipped sounds like a Glory Hallelujah rule (I don't have that supplement).
That aside, your interpretation of "rules as written" looks quite correct.

My group (playing Napoleonics) quickly rejected shaken results contributing.
We found that a few good artillery shots would see off a brigade with the rules as written.
This meant that set-up time exceeded playing time.
Title: Re: Black Powder - Broken brigade question
Post by: sunjester on 27 June 2021, 07:10:05 AM
We do include shaken units, but still allow rallying of Broken Brigades.
Title: Re: Black Powder - Broken brigade question
Post by: Leman on 27 June 2021, 08:04:26 AM
In the ACW the unit of operation was often the brigade as many regiments were small (often fewer than 300 men), thus if a couple of regiments start to panic it would more likely affect, say, an 1863 Confederate brigade, than an 1870 Prussian brigade for example.