Seven Years War with Black Powder... again... again.

Although I set out a blog yesterday, I discovered this morning that I had missed some photos that really were quite good. Andy had taken a bunch and I had missed posting them. So here we go.

A close up of my midsection with the accompanying Freikorp hussars and the Death's Head Hussars of the Prussian army.

Andy and Martin's French cavalry deploys.

The freikorps hussars have fallen back while the Death's Head hussars had broken and evaporated by going toe-to-toe with French heavy cavalry. Here two regiments of infantry turned to face a flanking threat... which seems to have disappeared.

The French brigades are all over the field with only one Prussian infantry brigade to oppose them, or so it seems.
Well, one should be enough.

A French battery threatens a dragoon regiment and the over-all commander while a Prussian freikorp regiment goes up against the French line. There were other troops there.
The little red bead meant the unit had used it's first fire special rule. This could only be used once.

Now the gun is gone and so are the dragoons. Von Zeiten attempts to rally the cuirassiers
and the Prussian infantry appears to be giving as good as they get.

French grenadiers and the cavalry reserve advance late in the game.

The Prussian grenadier brigade (in the foreground and the line infantry including some fusiliers continue their advance.

I'm really getting to like the Black Powder rules. They're simple, playable, learnable, and flexible; all virtues for rules in my book. Although the rule writers poo-poo playing the War of 1812 in their comments on history in the main rules (they'll pay, they will!), I think that the Napoleonic suppliment (Albion Triumphant) and the SYW suppliment (The Last Argument of Kings) provide plenty of ways to game in that specialized period. I may find out  in a few weeks. 

Lastly, when Beth and I went to my aunt's funeral, I got a chance to refresh my soul a bit by driving through the part of the Alleghenies called the "Kittitinny" which is a Lenni-Lenape word meaning "the endless mountains." Here's a sampling. It's nice to see in the day, but less so at night in a construction zone with heavy traffic.

On the Interstate going north from Hazleton to Scranton

The mountians go from horizon to horizon. The chain extends from Quebec to Georgia.

Our GPS can show us the elevation; here it's 1540 feet.

Looking at the hillside outside of the supermarket. I was raised this sort of view all around me. There was a strip mine less than a kilometre from my house... and our home was heated with a coal furnace.

Once again the GPS give us our elevation on the way back to Ontario near the New York-Pennsylvania border.

... and we gathered provisions that are unavailable in Canada. Tastykakes are a Philadelphia product and Little Debbie snacks come out of Pittsburgh. (They ARE available in Canada.) Lance crackers are not found north of the border. Birch beer is a carbonated soft drink/soda/pop that uses birch root rather than the sassafras used in root beer. It's an aquired taste but on I really enjoy... and again, one not available where I live in Canada.