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Command Piquet - new Rules for Horse & Musket

Fusilier Roly Hermans gives us a brief look at the forth-coming Command Piquet rules, then is joined by Fusilier Peter Haldezos in presenting a photo-report of their recent test game.

The various sets of rules under the Piquet banner have always been popular with many of the Kapiti Fusiliers. So it was with pleasure that Fusilier Peter Haldezos and myself were recently able to play a test game of the trial version of the forthcoming Command Piquet rules.

Command Piquet has refined the basics of standard Piquet into a simple set of rules covering the whole horse-and-musket period. Since playing our test game, I have sat down and re-read the rules, and am becoming more and more impressed with them.

What I like, for instance, is that there are only two charts that have to be consulted during the game, which are simplified versions of the existing Piquet fire and melee charts. Everything else is worked out by opposed die rolls, using a pre-determined Target Die (bigger or smaller based on the quality of the unit), and another pre-rolled and pre-modified Combat Die. General officers also have pre-rolled Leadership Dice. So by various rolling combinations, every circumstance can be easily resolved.

The rules also use a Piquet card deck, though the actions on most cards are a lot simpler than in standard Piquet. The only exception to this is the Leadership card, which allows players to do quite a number of things, such as rallying, manouevring, deploying and much more. In fact, I would say that general officers in this game play a much larger role than in any other wargame I've played.

There are some other unique characterisitics in Command Piquet. For instance, there are no casualties taken from fire or melee (though you do score hits). Every three hits is a 'Unit Integrity' lost - different types of unit have varying amounts of these Unit Integrities (eg infantry have four), and these points can be possibly regained on a Leadership card. Getting down to zero Unit Integrities means you rout.

Movement happens when you draw the appropriate card, just as in standard Piquet. However, under these rules if you really want to move even further (making a dash for an important feature, say) then you can test to have extra moves after your move. You can do this several times, but each test is successively harder to pass (and each one costs you in initiative).

Command Piquet uses the opposed D20s for initiative, though in a simplfied form. But to get rid of those notorious long bursts of initiative (the crux argument of many Piquet critics), you now also have a fixed number of Opportunity Initiative Points which you can bring into play during an opposing player's initiative if you desperately want to do something - but these points can only be bought back on a Leadership card, so you can't squander them too easily.

Note how often I have used the word "simplify", which really puts in a nutshell what these rules are all about - a game that flows easily and quickly, without getting too bogged in minute detail. All in all, I like what I've seen of these rules so far. They still need a bit of fine-tuning, but the rule mechanics are easily the most elegant I have ever come across.

The Battle of Mohlenberg Hill
(a test game of the trial Command Piquet rules)

The following pictures were taken by Fusilier Peter Haldezos during our test game of Command Piquet. You might be able to tell from his captions that he was playing as the Austro Prussian commander!

Our test game was a hypothetical Napoleonic battle, pitching Austro Prussians against French and their lackeys. We used 28mm figures (mostly Front Rank, with Calpe Prussians) and 15mm terrain (the town looks like a town and the eye is suitably fooled).
The central battlefield fairly early on in the battle. The French artillery brigade make a dash for Mohlenberg Hill in the centre, but get caught out by failing extra moves on their move cards and by swinging impetus - their commander squirms as the Austrian infantry appear over the hill!
Closeup of the two doomed batteries in front of Mohlenberg Hill. Hitting the slope on the diagonal screws up the nice straight Austrian command group formation - but they are going for speed rather than prettiness. They soon chop up the artillery in their next move.
Meanwhile, the French (and their Nassau lackeys) are about to deploy into the town of Smallhausen and to party with the Prussians. Note how the 15mm houses in Smallhausen look perfectly OK with 28mm figures in a game setting.
Here we see most of the two-section town of Smallhausen. The French sneak into one section under the Landwehr's noses and then try to push out into the Prussians, but find them more than they can handle.
A shot of the newly liberated Smallhausen after the French have been forced out. The green counters signify 'out of command' as the brave Prussian command group leader has just gone down to a survival check.
On the other flank, French dragoons and carabiniers face off towards the Austrian cavalry beyond them and Prussian cavalry (the blueish pixels) beyond them. Austrian grenzers can just be seen in the woods on the right.
The Austrian and French cavalry have just crossed sabres. The crack French carabiniers (D12+6 for the combat!) beat the Austrian dragoons (D12+2) but with no Unit Integrity loss - phew. The Austrian hussars have pushed the French dragoons back an inch belying their light cavalry tag.
Prussian lance-armed Landwehr cavlary and dragoons wait in reserve. These figures, the Austrian Hungarian cavalry general with his hussar trumpeter, and the Austrian dragoons were all rushed into service for a recent local convention - Peter says he must finish the bases one day!
Merde! The guard retreats!!! The guard is repulsed with heavy losses from their brave last-gasp charge on the artillery (we were about to call it a night). They really need some guardsman casualty figures, and the rules need a special Major Morale Check for the French when this sort of thing occurs!

But definitely a victory for Command Piquet in providing us with a fun game that moved quickly and decisively.

Note: If you are not already familiar with Piquet, read this article by Fusilier Terry Swain about the standard rules.

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