Black Powder Disses Canada?

So far I’ve really enjoyed Black Powder. I’ve finished the rules section, which seems solid, and am into the last half of the book which discusses the different wars that the rules cover, special rules for representing special unit characteristics and the appendices. Usually, this is one of my favorite parts of a set of wargame rules and Black Powder has much more than the average.

However, I do have a complaint. While there are many wars that don’t get much play in the wargame world, and the War of 1812 is arguably one of them, the way that the book dismisses it is a bit insulting. While most of the lesser known conflicts are mentioned with a simple disclaimer of a lack of interest, readily available books and miniatures, the War of 1812 is dismissed as not being of much interest except for those interested in family squabbles.

I know the war isn’t much studied amongst the majority of the world. Even in Canada and the United States the war is not well known or understood. However, to say it is only interesting to people interested in family squabbles ignores the deadly seriousness of the war to those involved, as well as the potential repercussions if the war had progressed differently.

I don’t think that there would have been much difference, or need for, Canada to annex parts of the US. No matter how much territory we gained it would result only in a slightly larger Canada and a slightly smaller United States. Both countries would have likely followed the same paths through history.

Instead, imagine that the Americans had performed better in the war. Let’s say that they were only able to take Upper Canada. That would effectively cut off the rest of the continent from British/Canadian expansion. As a much smaller colony Lower Canada would have likely been eventually absorbed into the United States except for perhaps the maritimes.

How different would England be without it’s North American colony. Perhaps the British Empire is smaller, goes into decline sooner. WWI is taxing, but the Germans are still defeated. Would a weaker England have been able to prevent Hitler’s invasion without Canada, now part of the United States, arriving until 1942? When the United States is finally evolved what can they do against Europe without the British toehold. Cross-channel invasion was difficult enough, but imagine a cross-oceanic invasion.

A regime like Nazi Germany is eventually self-destructive, but what cost in human lives? What would Europe look like? In hindsight the war’s end feels inevitable. It may have been and I wouldn’t mind the epitaph of “not much interest amongst wargamers.” However, Black Powder disparaged my own interest as unworthy and that is what annoys me.

Tyler