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On this Independence Day, I thought that it would be appropriate to review the game that recreates The American War of Independence, or The Revolutionary War, depending on who you’re talking to–a Black Powder review. This is a game that I got into a long time ago, but which has taken me an equally long time to review because the game is just so BIG.

But let’s break things down as we usually do into Gameplay, Hobby, and Lore.

Black Powder Review: Gameplay of Black Powder

Black Powder is a game that was designed by wargaming luminaries and Games Workshop alumni Rick Priestly and Jervis Johnson. But while there are some things that seem similar, including wounding rolls and savings throughs, there’s a lot that feels very different, like not removing models from play when you’re taking casualties.

The game is a rank-and-flank style game, and the game is a You-Go, I-Go type of playstyle. But it’s done with orders, and the orders are a little on the simple side. “Advance troops into a line and open fire.” “Form into a column and proceed down this road.” “Open fire with artillery.” And when you give the orders, there’s not a 100% chance that your commanders will follow the orders. (They have a Staff Rating that varies from Military Genius to Unfit for Duty.)

It should also be noted right here that there is an awful lot of flexibility in this game, for good or for ill. (There’s a little of both.) Although the game is generally released with 28mm miniatures–I first got into it through the American War of Independence–the rules are the same for Warlord Games’ “epic scale” (13mm) Napoleonic range and American Civil War range. Basically, if the fighting is between the 18th to 19th century, at any scale, it falls under Black Powder rules. Consequently, the games that you play with this can be on a grand scale or a small scale, with a massive table or a small table–and that applies to no matter what scales of miniatures you’re using. One of the scenarios in the game recommends an 8’x12′ table with 600 28mm miniatures. Which, I probably don’t need to say, is a little extreme. I have barely painted half of my Colonial Army and British Army, and it’s the best I can do to field a small force.

(I have also gotten into both the Epic Scale ACW and Epic Scale Napoleonics, but I’m still in the painting stage with these armies. I desperately want to recreate Waterloo with all of the many amazing Warlord Games Waterloo army packs, but absolutely no one at my FLGS plays historicals and the nearest store with an historical presence is 45 minutes away.)

Anyway, part of the fun of the rules is that the orders that you give to your units don’t always go according to plan. Problems arise, blunders are rolled up, and it can really screw you.

Another thing that needs to be said is that, although this game is designed by former Games Workshop writers, and although Warlord Games makes Bolt Action, which is a point-based game, Black Powder is NOT a point-based game. It’s a game that almost requires a gamemaster or referee, or at the very least a well-written scenario. Fortunately, Black Powder is supported very well by an active fan community and there are a lot of scenarios available if you know where to look. I think that Warlord Games is missing a trick here, considering how many rule books they release for Bolt Action–one for every imaginable theater of war–that they don’t do the same thing for Black Powder. But they don’t.

Still, from what I’ve played of the game, it is very engaging, and surprisingly quick to learn. It’s not overly crunchy, and there is a lot of dice rolling, but it still maintains a different feel from Games Workshop games and, for that matter, Bolt Action. It’s certainly its own beast.

I want to play more games and I want to paint more miniatures (there are SO MANY MINIATURES NEEDED) to get into something other than The American War of Independence. But it’s solid.

Gameplay Score: 7/10

Black Powder Review: Hobby Aspects of Black Powder

This, I think, is both good and bad. It’s good because there is so incredibly much that you can do with your armies, and so many different scales that you can use your models. The game, like all Warlord Games (with the exception of Konflikt 47?) is miniatures agnostic. You can use whatever models you feel like, which is good because the game spans so many different time periods and settings that there’s no way that Warlord Games could produce models for all of them.

Currently, I own the Colonial Army Starter Set, the British Army Starter Set, the Waterloo Starter Set (28mm), a brigade each of American Civil War Epic Scale (13mm), and the French Cavalry box in Epic Scale (13mm). So, it’s a lot. And there’s a lot that you can do with it. The models from Warlord Games are fun: the British Army Starter Set comes with Woodland Indians, who helped the British in the war, and the Colonial Army comes with both Minutemen but also Colonial Militia. (They each come with identical sprues of commanders and artillery, so it’s up to you whether you paint the mounted commander to be Washington or Cornwallis–they have different head options.)

I did have a good amount of fun making scenery for my American War of Independence, but I did so primarily as a diorama. The British Dragoons were especially fun. But the game scenery could really be anything that you want it to be, especially if you get into different time periods and different armies and different scales. For my 28mm I used 3D printed scenery from Printable Scenery, which was admittedly anachronistic. (Warlord makes special scenery for the notable strongholds in the Battle of Waterloo.)

My problem with the hobby side of this game–and I admit that it’s a problem that I’d have with virtually any rank-and-flank style game–is that it’s just painting the same miniatures OVER AND OVER. I want variety when I paint. (Painting the Epic Scale stuff is worse, because then you’re just painting the same thing OVER AND OVER but really small. And small is an acquired taste.)

When it comes to hobby, I’m going to give it points for Warlord’s really excellent models, but I’m going to take away points for lack of direction.

Hobby Score: 6/10

Black Powder Review: The Lore of Black Powder:

And this is where it all falls apart. Black Powder is a game that is loved by a whole lot of people–and rightly so–because it can be used to play virtually any period of history between 1700 and 1900. But the problem with that is that the level of technology in that two hundred years changed dramatically, and the tactics employed changed dramatically. There are things you can do which seem weird to do. Should your Colonial Militia form square? They can, but should they? What about the difference between rifles and muskets? The difference between smooth-bore cannons and gatling guns?

And they don’t even try to hide this. In the scenarios that come in the book, the first one is the Battle of Elixheim in the War of the Spanish Succession (1705) and the last one is the Action at the iNyezane in Zululand (1879).

(I will say that one thing I was happy to see is that you can play battles from the Sioux War–Battle of Dead Man’s Creek, 1876–and I have been looking all over for rules to play with the Sioux War. BUT it doesn’t do anything to make it FEEL like the Sioux War. It’s just the same rules.)

I’ve got to give the game props for ambition, and for being a commonly used ruleset that crosses so many conflicts. I have heard through the online groups of that historical game store where Black Powder is regularly played that they all like they can play different periods without having to relearn the rules.

Even so, I’m not in love with how generic the lore of Black Powder is.

Lore Score: 3/10

All in all, it’s a good game and I like that I have it, and I enjoy painting the models. But without a strong fanbase anywhere near me, and without the drive to paint 600 infantry (at any scale–28mm or 13mm) I just don’t love it.

Good for some. I want to love it more than I do. Lots of potential.