32. Black powder weapons in Oathmark

Oathmark setting is in technological terms like european early medieval: there are no crossbows (which I wont accept, because dwarves have to have crossbows, so I made house rules for them), not to mention black power weapons. But what if… What if once somebody would invent a magical powder, which explodes if ignited? And what if somebody puts that powder in a tube, and throws a rock on before igniting it? What if the kingdoms of the Marches would get primitive black powder weapons? Maybe it doesn’t fit the initial idea of Oathmark, but as its just a house rule and not a must, I don’t see big problems here (if You want to use house rules, just agree it with your opponent, if not, You can use your miniatures as archers and catapults after all).

So lets take a look, what differences black powder weapons do in comparison with traditional ranged weapons have (let them be neuro-, or baroballastic, just to show off a bit)? At first, draw here a line between hand held ranged weapons and artillery! I would say, that a primitive cannon is about as accurate, as a ballista, but a primitive handgun is a lot less accurate, then a bow (especially with a skilled shooter). Black powder weapons have a higher power, but lower accuracy, are a lot less reliable, are heavy and clumsy, and do make a lot of smoke.

How to simulate that difference according to the rules? Now, this is the point where the engine of Oathmark has a limitation… WHFB had separate stats and rolls for hitting and wounding, Frostgrave has more than 1 health points, so there hitting and wounding can be dependently differentiated (higher hit chance with reduced damage or lower hit chance with increased damage). But Oathmark has a one-roll hit/damage system (which makes a lot quicker gameplay), and most human sized creatures have 1 health point (the Frostgrave system can’t work here). So its not possible to directly describe a high power / low accuracy (or the reverse) weapon.

But let’s try it indirectly. How does shooting work? The attacker (if is in range) must roll appropriate number of attack dice (max 5, but decrease with shielding skill, which again serves the quicker gameplay), and every roll which hits the target number, means 1 (or with overkill and/or champion dice more) wound (1 loss for most human sized creatures), where the target number is depending on the attackers shoot skill, the defenders defense number and some modifiers. There is no difference in accuracy and power, but if, let’s say low accuracy means -1 Shoot, but high power means +1, that’s may according to the rule-mindset, but at the end the weapons are the same, which is kind of lame…  What else can be made?

• Number of attack dice could be changed, but as 5 is the max, the effect is pretty limited (for example -1 Shoot but +2 attack dice doesn’t really work, as the unit have mostly 5, the maximum of it).
• Lowering the defense value of the attacked would mean the same as increasing the shoot skill of the attacker.
• Cancel the defense bonus of armor (which is +1 for light armor and +2 for heavy armor)? Its certainly an option, but the administration could be a bit complicated.
• Cancel the shielding skill? Well that sounds good to me, but it’s maybe a bit too slight.
• Increase the damage, but only if it hits? So, if 3 of 5 dice hit the target number, the caused damage is not 3, but more? Not that bad, but feels a bit odd…
• Give a damage bonus on, well, every 10 rolled? Getting better.
• Let’s give them a champion dice which means +1 damage? Sounds easy, but the character killing ability feels a bit overpowered and I wouldn't want to have 2 different rules for the champion dice.
• Modifying the hit determination table? Lets make +1 damage not after every +5 overkill of the target number, but for example +4? Sounds like too much calculating to me.
• Decrease range? That certainly must be done, but too much castrates the weapon, to little will have no real impact.
• Adding disadvantage depending on the range? Like -1 shoot above half range? Slowly getting there!

So after reviewing the possibilities, I decided the following:

• Slightly reduced range
• No shielding
• Disadvantage on shooting above half range
• +1 damage for every 10 roll (even, if it wouldn’t normally damage so even the best armor can be penetrated)
• Exploding weapon (S3 attack on the shooting unit) on every 1 roll, but without morale roll (because we didn’t take reliability into account until now)
• Move or Fire (because heavy and clumsy…)
• Smoke (after shooting the unit is covered with a cloud of smoke and so is it harder to hit)

What do we get with this? A weapon, that can do a lot of damage (especially on short range), has a chance to damage even the most armored target, cant be dodged with a shield, but can be self-dangerous and slow moving. I think, it fits! Lets see the units!

• Dwarf Handgunner A4 / M5 / F0 / S3 / D10 / CD1 / H1 / Pts18
• Special: Aimed Fire, High Power Shot, Handgun Misfire, Inaccurate Shot, Move or Fire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon, handgun, light armor
• Terrain: Dwarf City + Forges (max 1 unit)
• Range: 18

• Human Handgunner A5 / M6 / F0 / S3 / D9 / CD1 / H1 / Pts15
• Special: Aimed Fire, High Power Shot, Handgun Misfire, Inaccurate Shot, Move or Fire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon, handgun, light armor
• Terrain: Human City + Iron Mines (max 1 unit)
• Range: 18

• Orc Handgunner A6 / M6 / F1 / S3 / D9 / CD1 / H1 / Pts17
• Special: Wild charge, Charge (1), Aimed Fire, High Power Shot, Handgun Misfire, Inaccurate Shot, Move or Fire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon, handgun, light armor
• Terrain: Orc City + Smithies (max 1 unit)
• Range: 18

Special:

• High Power Shot: no Shielding against attack, +1 damage on every roll of 10, even if no hit, applies only for shooting
• Handgun Misfire: S3 attack on shooting unit on every roll of 1 (without morale test)
• Inaccurate Shot: S-1 above half range
• Move or Fire: no shooting attack after moving, but still allowed after manoeuvre
• Smoke: after shooting, unit can be shot with S-1

Orcs got a bit special treatment here: they are strong enough to use their handguns as a two handed club in close combat (F+1). Elves and undead get no black powder, because the first ones are masters of the bow, so don’t need it, and for the second ones even using a simple bow enough trouble…

Now let’s see the artillery! There are other differences as by the handheld versions, because looking at the gameplay, cannons are much closer to catapults, as handguns are to bows. The high power and the unreliability (and smoke!) is also given here, but I think, there shouldn’t be any penalty for the accuracy, because medieval siege weapons were also not precision instruments. That’s why I would say its is enough to give bonus on shooting and give them smoke and a misfire chart:

• Dwarf Cannon A4 / M2 / F2 / S5 / D9 / CD1 / H1 / Pts160
• Special: Artillery, Crew (4), Aimed Fire, Shielding (1), Artillery Misfire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon
• Terrain: Dwarf City + Forges (max. 1 unit, either a cannon or a mortar)
• Range: 40

• Dwarf Mortar A4 / M2 / F2 / S5 / D9 / CD1 / H1 / Pts160
• Special: Artillery, Crew (4), Indirect Fire, Shielding (1), Artillery Misfire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon
• Terrain: Dwarf City + Forges (max. 1 unit, either a cannon or a mortar)
• Range: 40

• Human Cannon A5 / M2 / F2 / S5 / D8 / CD1 / H1 / Pts140
• Special: Artillery, Crew (4), Aimed Fire, Shielding (1), Artillery Misfire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon
• Terrain: Human City + Iron Mines (max. 1 unit, either a cannon or a mortar)
• Range: 40

• Human Mortar A5 / M2 / F2 / S5 / D8 / CD1 / H1 / Pts140
• Special: Artillery, Crew (4), Indirect Fire, Shielding (1), Artillery Misfire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon
• Terrain: Human City + Iron Mines (max. 1 unit, either a cannon or a mortar)
• Range: 40

• Orc Cannon A6 / M5 / F3 / S5 / D9 / CD1 / H1 / Pts140
• Special: Wild charge, Charge (1), Crew (4), Aimed Fire, Shielding (1), Artillery Misfire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon, light armor
• Terrain: Orc City + Smithies (max. 1 unit)
• Range: 40

• Goblin Rocket Batch A6 / M2 / F1 / S4 / D8 / CD1 / H1 / Pts100
• Special: Charge (1), Crew (4), Indirect Fire, Shielding (1), Artillery Misfire, Smoke
• Equipment: hand weapon
• Terrain: Goblin City + Smithies (max. 1 unit)
• Range: 32

Special:

• Artillery Misfire: Has to roll D10 before every shot for the Misfire chart.
• 10-3: normal shot
• 2: jammed, no shot
• 1: explosion, CD3 attack on self with own S value, and no shot
• Smoke: after shooting, unit can be shot with S-1

Again, nothing for elves and undead. Elves don’t even want catapults, because they are “inelegant”, so why would they use giant, loud, stinky, smoky machines? And undead are a bit simple minded for this (too).

Note: I limited the available number of every black powder using unit, because these should be really unique on the battlefield (and so the possible unbalancing effect can be reduced).

I hope You like these house rules! If You try them, please give me a short report, how they work, because unfortunately I don’t have any fitting miniatures for them (yet).