Wargame Balance in the Black Powder Era

  I have been gaming for 28 years off and on. My favourite era is anything black powder. The strategic elements and uniforms are my favourite for gaming. I originally started playing with my father on a permanent 14 by 8 table with almost 4000 1/72 Napoleonics. We mostly developed our own rules, heavily influenced by Featherstone's books. Each battle we played we would have to adjust the rules for one branch of the army or another.

  My group has been playing 28mm Napoleonics, 7 Years War, and War of 1812. We have been using Musket and Tomahawk for smallish skirmish games, and General De Brigade for large battles. I highly recommend both rules sets. I have also heard Sharpe Practice is good but haven't played it. I tried Lasalle, but it was not for me, too fast, units disappeared easily, and did not come back, maybe for really big or fast games it's ok.

Balancing Troop Types

  General De Brigade has great rules for infantry, cavalry, artillery and skirmishers. They recommend 1 man equals 20 for Napoleonics, with 1 cannon equals 2. For the War of 1812 they recommend 1 man equals 10, and 1 cannon equals 1. The biggest battery you can have in GDB is 4. The scales for cannons would be way too many cannons IMO, we are usually have more like 1 cannon per 4 for Napoleonics and 1 per 2 for 1812; sometimes I will do 2 models for every 3 cannons. Cannons would often be in reserve in battles as well so it may still make sense.  For 1812 I change the scale for each battle to match my units of 24 to 48; 1 man equals 5, 8, 10, 15 or 20. If you have smaller units you probably need even fewer cannons. 

  I was reading about rate of fire for cannons for each Napoleonic nation. The French not only usually had more cannons than their enemies, they fired each cannon twice as often as other nations on average! Cannons win battles. But having too many of them becomes unrealistic and can ruin the balance of the game. In the War of 1812 batteries of cannons on both sides were almost always between 1 and 4 guns. So depending on the scale we are using a 4 gun battery will be 2 or 3 guns usually. 

  Skirmishers are tricky to make balanced to. If they are allowed too much freedom of movement they can do unrealistic overpowered maneuvers. 

  Cavalry too is hard to balance. In GDB they successfully charge about half the time which seems about right. When they don't charge they might rout the field, but they will more likely just retreat to their own lines. They usually win vs infantry not in square so that also seems right. 

  Infantry is the easiest to balance, and everything else has to balance with them. I like a morale system which allows troops to fall back before they just flee the field. Again GDB does this well. I'm sure there are other great rule sets out there that I haven't played.

Starting Positions and Orders

  I figured out what happened in the two big What If? battles. The American troops won both, I think in part because the British started deployed on neutral ground (not particularly defensive positions). This allowed the Americans to concentrate their forces and deploy their artillery where it was needed while avoiding the British guns. I would not change the What If? Scenarios, as the British were lead by Prevost who was a cautious defensive commander. Still that is how most battles looked, one side awaiting an attack by another.