Black Powder Cold Steel

You might have noticed one thing about me is that I have a fondness for Command Decision. Included in the second edition was this little variation that took the basic mechanic and transposed them into the horse and musket period.

Now I have never played these rules but they have had some interesting ideas that have always intrigued me. The most interesting of these was the basing and figure system which allows for a more detailed representation of a unit but without necessarily increasing the complexity. The traditional game uses a fixed ratio of representing figures to men such as 1;20 1:60 and so on. In this case you have a fixed representation of a units frontage of 50 men while the depth varies according to the number of ranks you have. So a battalion in two ranks has three time the frontage of one in six. It is such an elegant solution that I am surprised it has not re-appeared in any other set of rules.

But such is the fate of many ideas. But here I am again thinking that I want a good set of rules that will enable to play the War of 1812 as well as the the Latin American Wars of Independence. So maybe it is time to start again with looking at all these rules and seeing if they work. First looking at creating some lists for the War of 1812. Secondly some consideration should be made into updating them to the CDIV standard. But first I'll present the original rules as published for your information.

Enjoy