Two D3 or not two D3

I am lucky in the wargaming resources available to me. I know that having a table that be permanently left set up is something that others envy, plus I actually do most of my gaming in the legendary wargames room. You would imagine therefore that having got the logistics and, in the latter case, the aesthetics completely sorted that I and my colleagues would play games of an appropriate standard. The reality of course is sadly different, and at the moment we are scratching around for form like any number of overpaid Premier League strikers (*).

Our basic issue is getting the rules right, Black Powder in particular. It's all a bit odd because I'm sure that we were pretty much on top of them when we last played them. There are some mitigating factors: they are still very badly written; we have moved on to a new period (the Peninsular War) and its accompanying supplement; there has been a bit of a break since we last played at all; and also the flow of the evening was interrupted when a mouse phoned up James and challenged him to a duel (**). In any event the usual (and enjoyable) post-game tradition of wondering what would have happened if one party had been a bit bolder, if another had been less cautious, if that card had turned, or that dice roll had been different was replaced by debating what would have happened if we had remembered that it's harder to save against artillery or that British infantry can fire and then countercharge etc. etc.

I was also responsible for introducing a further indavertency into the mix myself. Movement in Black Powder is driven by rolling two D6 and comparing the result with the commander's rating, usually a 7 or 8, with the result needing to be equal or lower in order to move at all. There are nuances, but essentially the lower one's roll then the further one moves. Early on in the game my forces were moving great distances; it appeared that I couldn't fail a command roll if I tried. Half way through my second turn it became apparent that it seemed that way because I literally couldn't fail; I was rolling two D3s by mistake. In my defence I was simply rolling the dice that were put in front of me, but it did rather sum up the evening.



*    Feel free to substitute a more culturally appropriate sporting simile should you so wish.

** This incident certainly happened, but I wasn't playing much attention at the time and so may have the precise details wrong.