LED Gunfire Lights

I went to Historicon this year and had a chance to watch a great Napoleonics game put on by Architects of War and the Perry Brothers. While I watched the game with great admiration, I suddenly saw one of the players put smoke in front of one of the units. The smoke had little flashing lights inside of it that made it look exactly as if the troops were firing their muskets.

I was very impressed by the effect these smoke markers created on the table. You put a few flashers behind a strip of pillow batting (filling for pillows available in cheap large bags from JoAnn Fabrics) and you have your gunsmoke. It gives the battlefield a very active look as if combat is occurring even in areas where the player action is not focused. For Piquet, they make great markers to indicate unloaded units who have fired.

Almost immediately after getting off of the airplane from Pennsylvania, I emailed Architects of War and asked about the lights. They told me the lights were LED flashing lights. An extensive search on the internet found two websites that supplied them in a variety of colors.

extremeglow.com
flashingblinkylight.net

They're called a variety of names like "LED blinking round body pins". Apparently they are used for rave parties.... Whatever.

The LED flashers are thimble-sized metal cylinders with a magnetic bottom. You pull out a small paper tab, twist the bottom half, and they begin to flash two different colors. Don't lose the paper tab because you can reinsert it into the flasher to keep it from accidentally lighting up. They give off no heat and come in a variety of color combinations.

Red/Yellow works great for tank fires, cannons, and building fires. I prefer Yellow/Yellow for musket fire. Other colors would work great for sci-fi and fantasy. Yellow/Yellow is actually hard to find.

I made a video to show how the lights can look on the battlefield. Obviously, it's hard to see them in a photo. I lowered the room lights a bit so the flashers are more visible. It makes them a little more "flashy" in the low light, but in good lighting, the flashes look more like real gunfire. Neither of these are professional films, okay? I made them quickly to illustrate the effect, so spare me the filming critiques. :)

Battle of Preacher's Knob Part 1

I recently purchased Theater of War(TOW) and Hallowed Ground(HG) from Piquet. TOW is a campaign system designed for use with Piquet. HG is designed to wargame battles from the Mexican War to the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. I plan to use it for my American Civil War armies.

TOW uses the existing sequence decks for Piquet armies of any historical period and converts them into campaign decks that are used to march your armies on the map at a higher strategic level. When armies become engaged in a battle on the campaign map, the rules then use the armies' sequence decks to generate:

• the units that appear on the battlefield (from a campaign roster),
• the type of battle that is fought (Attack, Defend, etc.),
  
• the terrain on the table,
  
• the victory objectives (some give you victory points, some give you a morale bonus), and
  
• the sequence and location that commands deploy on the table.

One of the nice aspects of the TOW rules is you know how many units you will need to have painted before the campaign begins. A formula calculates the size of an army's campaign roster based on the quality of the army's sequence deck.

My campaign is an 1862 Eastern Theater ACW campaign. Using the TOW rules, the Confederates get 18 units on their campaign roster. The Union army gets 28 units on its campaign roster because its deck is poorer in quality.

On Saturday, we generated a battle using the TOW rules. This battle is a Level 3 Union battlegroup attacking vs a defending Level 2 Rebel battlegroup. The Level 2 Rebel battlegroup had a one level advantage from its battle hand.

The Union drew 18 units from their campaign roster. The Confederates had a great draw that pulled all 18 units from their campaign roster. The Union had a 3:2 artillery advantage. The Confederates had a 3:2 advantage in cavalry.

We used a roster for the units and didn't roll for their quality until they saw action. This adds some fog of war to the game because you don't know how good your troops are until they "see the elephant." I actually rolled very well for troop quality with some minor exceptions.

The commander of the Union (played by Greg) is McClellan (ABYSMAL skill) while the Rebel commander (played by yours truly) is R.E. Lee (SUPERIOR skill).

Hallowed Ground is actually 3 rule sets in one. It allows you to game at three different tactical levels:

• one unit is a company
• one unit is a regiment
• one unit is a brigade

For this game we will be using the Grand tactical rules, so each unit is a brigade. This battle will represent a full battle between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac.

(ABOVE) Here's the battlefield that was generated. The Confederates deployed on the left long side. The Union on the right long side. The hill in the Confederate center is Preacher's Knob. It is worth 4 morale chips to the occupier. In the far Confederate left corner is a swamp that overlooks a road that leads to the Confederate line of retreat. It is worth 8 morale chips. In the Union right flank corner is a Class II woods worth 11 victory pojnts. In the Union left flank (off picture) is a swamp worth 5 victory points.

(ABOVE) The Confederate left flank. Dismounted cavalry is deployed in the swamp to protect the Confederate line of retreat. Unfortunately I rolled a POOR commander for them. That might come back to haunt me.

(ABOVE) My Confederate center, on top of Preacher's Knob, is occupied by Hoods's division. It's my best division led by Hood, a SKILLED commander.

(ABOVE) The Confederate right flank is guarded by Johnson's Division. A.P. Hill's Division is resting in the woods behind Preacher's Knob as the army reserve.

(ABOVE) The battle begins as artillery from Anderson's Division duels with the Union Artillery Reserve.

(ABOVE) Wheeler's dismounted cavalry stares across open ground on the Confederate left as Hooker's Union 1st Corps emerges from the woods opposite them (BELOW). Where is JEB Stuart when I need him?

(ABOVE) McClellan (Greg) elected not to dismount his cavalry. He sent them riding around in a wide sweep to attempt to get behind the right flank of the Confederate position.

(ABOVE) Unfortunately for the Union, I then pulled 11 Impetus. This allowed Johnson's Division to advance and one of his infantry brigades unleashed a terrible volley into the flank of a cavalry brigade. This volley devastated their mounted ranks and led to a rout by that brigade. (BELOW) Also, ATTENTION!!! ATTENTION!!! If you look at the smoke in the picture below, you can see one of my LED flashers in the smoke fired by the infantry. If you haven't started using them, I recommend them highly. They make the units look like they are firing with flashing yellow lights lighting up the smoke. The LED flashers don't usually show up in the photos, so I'm excited.

(ABOVE) Greg's cavalry commander (Custer?) was not to be discouraged by this result and he continued on his ride around the Confederate right flank. Here one of Johnson's brigades is again shooting into the remaining cavalry brigade's flank. The brave cavalry brigade took casualties, survived(!?!), were meleed in the flank, won the melee(?!?!?), routed my infantry(??!!?!?!), pursued, until they were finally finished off by a volley from the second line of Johnson's Division. Not a bad ride.

(ABOVE) Yeah, I know the gunner is in Union uniform. Maybe it's a militia uniform. It is 1862.

(ABOVE) Here's Greg's view of the same gun. His artillery must have taken ten shots at this battery.
(ABOVE) The Union launched Hooker's I Corps from the woods into an attack against the Confederate left center. Greg ran off a string of 30 to 40 Impetus in a row and two of his brigades smashed into an elite Louisianan brigade and a fiesty Floridian brigade. The Texans turned out to be tired (rolled a 3) and the Floridians were determined (rolled a 20). None of it mattered and the Union routed both brigades.
(ABOVE) Anderson attempts to rally his units as the routed flow around him like an unstoppable wave.

(ABOVE) Close up of the shot. This reminds me of Bragg attempting to rally his army as they ran off Missionary Ridge.

Greg had to leave just as he was starting to win, so I plan on leaving the game set up so we can finish it at a later date.

Piquet Game Alert!

Greg and I will be running an English Civil War Piquet game at Aerohobbies Game Store in Santa Monica at 11:00 am this Sunday, October 24. This period uses the Anchor of Faith supplement. Players and the simply curious are welcome to join in the fun. We provide the miniatures, terrain and rules. You provide the enthusiasm. Post a comment below if you think you might attend.

Aerohobbies is located at 2918 Santa Monica Blvd # 3, Santa Monica, CA 90404.

(ABOVE) This is a painting of Greg trying to count my army morale chips.

Color Piquet Cards

I recently made a set of Piquet sequence cards, but I wanted to develop a more visually appealing version of the cards. I designed the cards to look like Magic cards with artwork on the upper half of the card that reflects the action allowed by the card. I pulled most of the art from old paintings I found on the internet.

The lower half lists the title of the card and I figured out how to place smaller text below the titles to explain how the cards work. This way the players don't have to always refer back to the rulebook to see what they can do on each card. They can just read the card.

(ABOVE) This is the full set of cards. This deck gives you enough options to form a deck for any Hundred Years War army from Band of Brothers.

(ABOVE) The murder of Louis d'Orleans by the Burgundians and a painting of a river crossing.

(ABOVE) The "Sleeping Knight" painting. Perfect for the wasted impetus that comes with Milling Around.

(ABOVE) Knights puzzling their way through the woods.

(ABOVE) You better pray when you pull this card.

(ABOVE) I love this painting. The levies in the painting look nervous.

(ABOVE) Joan of Arc, of course.

(ABOVE) Another appropriate painting.

(ABOVE) Henry V

(ABOVE) I kept the backs the same because I like the neutrality of the black and white.

Making Card Decks

One of the most important parts of Piquet is the use of Sequence cards to dictate the action in the game. Each army has its own Sequence Deck which reflects its particular strengths and weaknesses. You can only move your cavalry when the you flips your Cavalry Move In Open card. You need a Melee Resolution card to fight a melee. You need a Missile Reload card to reload your bowmen. Each historical supplement comes with sheets of cards you can cut out to make up these Sequence Decks. I laminated my cards and they are good enough to game with, but I was concerned they might become worn out after a lot of gaming.

I think I first heard of a website named artscow.com on the Too Fat Lardies Yahoo group. This company allows you to custom design decks of playing cards with any images or writing you want. You can even choose to remove the poker suits and symbols from the cards, but I opted to keep them so I could use the cards for Band of Brother's "Beat the Drum" army generation rules.

I chose a black and white picture for the back of the cards because I liked the image, but you can use color images. It also makes the deck a little more neutral and easier to use for any army.

When I tried to use jpg files, the card designer program warned me the images might not have enough resolution, so I used a bmp file I found on the internet instead. The deck cost about $12-$15. The cards are durable and comparable in quality to a real poker deck.

(ABOVE) Close-up of the card backs.

(ABOVE) Here's the full 52 card deck. Two decks should provide enough cards for two armies.

(ABOVE) Here are the fronts of the cards. I put exclamation points on those cards which have bad effects. I originally wanted to include an explanation of what each card allowed in smaller font below each title, but the card design program wouldn't let me have more than one font size on the front.

The Convention Game: Agincourt

Well, we played out the battle of Agincourt at the local convention: Gateway 2010. Luckily, I had at least one experienced player on each side. Jason and Adam (French) and Ilan (English) had all played Piquet before. Jason and Ilan also played in the play-test games before the convention. Two English players were new and one French player was new, but they seemed to get the hang of the rules as we played.

Overall, I'm not really happy with the way the green metal bases look, but the figures are based individually for Warhammer Ancient Battles and I wanted to have some flexibility to try them out for different systems so I'll have to put up with them for now. I'd be willing to commit to basing for Piquet stands, but I want to be sure the guys I play against are ready to make the move before I do. Nothing is more annoying than having to rebase your figures for another new rule set. So far, everyone seems to like Piquet: Band of Brothers, so it looks promising.

(ABOVE) Here's the opposing sides before the game began. The English (left) began showering the French (right) with long range volley fire. The French ran to the battle line and launched their attack. The voice of the Constable of France could be heard pleading, "Remember the plan!!!"

(ABOVE) Closeup of the French mounted units on the left flank. Not many, huh? Where were the rest? Sleeping, arguing, eating, watering their horses, sulking....you get the idea. These were Greg's knights. Greg contributed approximately 90 figures to the battle which took some of the painting pressure off of me. Thanks Greg!

(ABOVE) The English longbows behind their stakes.

(ABOVE) The French right flank mounted knights charge against the English and Welsh longbows. Those stakes look painful!! Their leader, Cligny de Brabant, was shot through the visor by a longbowman and died instantly (1 in 20 chance). This was significant because his unit later routed the longbowmen in melee, but without the leadership of Brabant, the mounted knights pursued the fleeing archers with reckless abandon and were not seen again on the battlefield.

(ABOVE) The French dismounted men-at-arms (right) made great progress across the muddy field. At this point, the mounted knights were already fleeing from the battle, but the relatively unharmed dismounted knights were about to come to grips with the nervous longbowmen.

(ABOVE) The French king's sacred banner, the Oriflamme, leads the way to inspire the French. Never mind the fact that the French king and the Dauphine were safely camped back at Rouen, eating delicacies and getting manicures.

(ABOVE) Well, that was the high water point for the French. After we broke for lunch, the English went on an impetus tear. 19 impetus, 16 impetus, and then 8 impetus. A series of devastating point blank longbow volleys ripped through the French ranks as the archers fired, reloaded, then fired again. Lord Camoys led his band of English men-at-arms to victory against their heavily armored opposition. Camoys then started to threaten the flanks of the neighboring units. You can see his unit at the bottom of the picture.

Henry V lead his noble household and the Knights of the Garter into the battle and smashed the disordered column of French nobles facing him. Henry then wheeled his trusted companions into the flank of another disordered block of French knights which fled amid shouts of "Treachery!"

The red arrows are bad. One red arrow means they're routing. Two red arrows mean they're routing and can't be rallied. The battle ended shortly thereafter with a resounding English victory.

Archers and stakes

Most people know that the English longbowmen were a major reason the English armies had such success against the French during the Hundred Years War. The composition of the French armies was definitely dominated by the French men-at-arms with their heavy armor, melee combat skill, and impetuous disregard for the chain of command.

At Crecy, the French men-at-arms attacked the English army while mounted. The mounted knights impulsively charged through their own crossbowmen. They galloped forward and were mown down by the English longbow fire. While the knights were heavily armored, many of their horses were not and the English archers learned to aim at the mounts. I can only imagine the chaos as horses collapsed, dumping their riders, only to have more mounted knights ride over or collide with the casualties. It must have been like a giant traffic collision in front of the archers' positions.

One would assume the French learned from the experience of Crecy. At Poitiers, the French were dismounted and formed into divisions aligned in column, one behind the other. Most of this change was an effort to control the impetuous elan of the knights. If they were dismounted, the men-at-arms couldn't move as quickly. If you placed them in column, the warriors in the rear were forced to moderate their pace because they were blocked by the division in front of them. For various reasons, mostly due to the strong defensive position of the English, the French were unsuccessful at Poitiers.

For the Agincourt campaign, the leaders of the French army had a solid plan. The dismounted MAA would go after the English MAA. The French set aside a specially selected mounted division that would target the English longbowmen. Only the knights with the best armor and the best-armored horses were chosen for this mounted division.

Unfortunately for the French, Henry V captured a few prisoners who told the English that the French intended to send their mounted contingent after the archers. Henry instructed his longbowmen to sharpen six foot stakes from the woods and march with them on the campaign. During the battle of Agincourt, the archers hammered these stakes into the ground in front of their positions to increase the strength of their defenses.

In Piquet Band of Brothers, the stakes only affect mounted units. A mounted unit has to pay an extra move to get past the stakes. Also, archers behind the stakes can't be intimidated by Cavalry Morale Challenges from the French mounted knights.

Agincourt was apparently one of the first battles where the English used these movable defensive obstacles, so it would be nice to represent them on the battlefield. It's great to tell the guys, "Okay, pretend your archers have stakes.", but it's much more scary when you actually see all of those sharp points staring at you.



I found a box of nails at Lowes with tips that looked like they were sharpened. I used a box of Sculpey I bought at Michaels and pushed the nails through the sculpey. Bake them at low heat in the oven, prime, paint, and flock and there you have it. Cheap, easy to make, stakes that look good and are useful for a variety of defensive purposes.

For some guys, the oven baking might be a problem, but I have to admit, I live in the kind of house where my mother-in-law doesn't even blink when she sees me sticking clay and nails in the oven. She just assumes it's some new wargaming project.