Upcoming HYW Convention Game

Greg and I are going to be running two Hundred Years War games at Gamex, the local convention here in Los Angeles, and I thought I would take some pictures before I packed up the miniatures. I've managed to tempt my friend Greg with the period and he has become a pretty prolific painter of 28mm medieval miniatures. Between the two of us, we've managed to amass a significant army. I do all of the basing to keep it consistent and also because Greg can't stand basing, flocking, etc.

(ABOVE) Our mounted knights with pikemen in front. All of them are Perry Miniatures and I've replaced many of the lances with steel wire.

(ABOVE) Our command stands with skirmishers in front. Most of the flags can be removed from the poles.

(ABOVE) Casualty markers (Perry and Old Glory),

(ABOVE) Dismounted men-at arms. Perry in front, Old Glory behind.

(ABOVE) Some of our longbowmen. There are actually too many to fit in the shot. (Perry and Old Glory)

(ABOVE) Close-up of my Breton skirmishers (Old Glory)

(ABOVE) Unloaded and disorder markers.

(ABOVE) Crossbowmen and pavisiers (Perry Miniatures).

(ABOVE) One of Greg's artillery units.

(ABOVE) Billmen and other common infantry. The big peasants are old Vendel figues. They look like freakishly large peasants. Don't trust this scum to hold the line.

Piquet Archon: Studying the Viking Wars

All right. I've always been interested in the Ancient periods, but the only 28mm "Ancient" army I ever painted was a Hiberno-Norse Viking army I painted for WAB's Shieldwall book.

Since I have these nice Vikings all painted, based, and ready to go, I thought I might offer my exploration into the Piquet Archon rules as a mini-review of the book for the curious.

The Archon 2 book is the second edition of the Ancients supplement for the Piquet Master Rules. Written by Eric Burgess, the book itself is 206 pages and contains rules and army lists (campaign musters) for approximately 140 armies from 1700 BC to 1283 AD. Chinese, Mayans, Visigoths, Romans, Trojans...they're all in there. The Asian armies are also well-represented.

Each army period is organized and contains the various army lists that would traditionally fight in that region and period. I'm going to focus on the "Viking Wars" period. It is one of the smaller periods and it only lasts from pages 192 to 194. It contains three army lists: Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans.

Shieldwall is obviously important for this period and as with many of the special formations used in the time periods covered by this supplement, there is a special rule for this formation. Units may enter or leave the shieldwall formation only when the Deployment Sequence Card is flipped. Shieldwall gives extra protection from missile fire and in melee. The disadvantage is that units in shieldwall move half and do not get the UP1 bonus for initiating melee.

The intro for each period summarizes the military history of the period and lists the historical battles and time of occurrence for each battle.

The next section is the Sequence Deck section. This establishes the Sequence Deck construction for each army. The Viking army has more Melee cards, more Heroic Moment cards, and good Terrain movement cards.

The Saxons have shaky cards. They have Courage cards which force them to check their morale and Milling Around cards which waste their time.

The Normans have a strong Sequence Deck which does not match the heroism or melee capacity of the Vikings, but gives them good cavalry action and overall flexibility.

The Army Characteristics Table again places the Saxons at the bottom of the pile. They get less morale points/ACD cards per unit than their two opponents.

Both the Vikings and Saxons get 2 command groups. Only the Normans get 3 command groups. Can you say "Cavalry Maneuver Group?"

There are several special sequence cards that apply to armies in this period:

Battle Lust - This card acts as an extra Melee Resolution Card (it allows you to fight a melee). Units that are affected by the Battle Lust card get an extra bonus for melee and they must always pursue. Other units affected by Battle Lust who are within a move of an enemy unit immediately move into contact and must initiate melee if possible.

Heroic Challenge - This card allows the player to make a personal challenge with one of his leaders against an opponent's leader. Refusing the challenge costs a significant penalty in morale chips. Losing a leader to a challenge causes the normal penalties for the death of a leader.

Pillage and Loot - Ill disciplined units will have to check when this card appears. If they fail the check, they head toward the enemy's camp and loot the camp until they are brought under control by their commanders.

Uncontrolled Charge - Affected units will involuntarily move toward disordered or routed units and melee them immediately. There is a chance to remove the card from the deck after it appears.

Undisciplined Advance - If the army commander fails a Leadership Roll, his entire army will begin to involuntarily advance toward the enemy. They will only stop advancing once the general successfully makes his leadership Roll. There is a chance to remove the card from the deck after it appears.

Ineffective Missilery - Missile fire from militia units is reduced by one die for the turn. There is a chance to remove the card from the deck after it appears.

The armies each get individual army composition lists for their forces:

THE VIKINGS

Most of the Viking units are bondi units of varying quality. These are the average Viking troops. They are able to form Battle Line, Battle Order, and Square. They can also lock their shields to form shieldwall.

You can upgrade 1 or 2 bondi units to huscarl units. These units are much higher quality than the bondi.

(Quick note: In Piquet, units are rated by a die type that they use for Fire, Melee, and Morale. The die the unit uses in a particular test is modified up and down in size depending on the circumstances of the test. The unit's die is then rolled against the opponent's die. In this example an average bondi unit might be rated No Fire/D8 Melee/D6 Morale while a determined huscarl unit might be rated No Fire/D12+1 Melee/D12 Morale.)

You can also have 1 or 2 archer units.

There are Berzerker rules for the Vikings. Two units can be designated as Berzerkers before the battle begins. They are great in melee and are treated as fearsome, but they have no armor. Alternately, the Viking commander can make up to two bondi or huscarl units decide to go berzerk during the game on a Heroic Moment card. Inspired by their warchiefs, the troops fly into a rage.

Berzerkers are powerful units and when they are successful, they inspire the army, but if they lose a melee or rout, their defeat can have a devastating effect on the overall morale of the Viking army. Berzerkers are a gamble and they can win a battle for the army, but the army looks to them for inspiration and if they suffer a setback, they can lose a battle.

Vikings are affected by the following cards: Battle Lust, Heroic Challenge, Pillage and Loot, and Uncontrolled Charge. Obviously, it is easy for this army to get overenthusiastic and out of control on the attack.

THE ANGLO-SAXONS

This army is an interesting one.

Half of the army can be housecarls. They are better than Viking bondi and not as good as Viking huscarls, but there are a lot of them. The housecarls can form Battle Line and Battle Order. They can also lock their shields to form shieldwall.

The fyrdmen and a few bow-armed skirmishers make up the rest of the Anglo-Saxon army. The fyrdmen are mostly bondi-quality, but some are even worse. These troops represent the common Saxon regular militia. The fyrd can form Battle Line and Battle Mass (a less organized Battle Order). They can also lock their shields to form shieldwall.

The Anglo-Saxons have one more trick up their sleeves. Their housecarls and fyrdmen are armed with darts. Darts represent various short range missile weapons that the Saxons can throw at their opponents as they get close. These missiles give the Saxons some chance to disrupt attackers as they approach their battle lines, especially if the Saxon shieldwall is arrayed along a superior position like a ridge.

Anglo-Saxons are affected by all of the cards for this period. Only the housecarls are affected by Battle Lust. This army obviously prefers to stay in shieldwall and await the attack with its missile fire, but the various involuntary movement cards will make it difficult to keep the Saxon troops from losing patience and breaking ranks. A poorly timed Ineffective Missilery card could also be devastating.

THE NORMANS

Approximately half of this army is stirrup-equipped heavy cavalry. Heavily armored and bad news for unprepared infantry. The stirrups give the cavalry an UP2 modifier when they initiate melee rather than the normal UP1.

One skirmish unit can be infantry armed with heavy crossbows. A few skirmish units can be armed with advanced bows.

The remaining units in the Norman army are sturdy spear-armed infantry. They are equipped with a mix of heavy and medium armor.

The disciplined Normans are only affected by the Pillage and Loot card.

So there you have it.

The Vikings are aggressive and can gamble with a few berzerk units on the assault, but they can easily lose control of their assaulting troops.

The Anglo-Saxons rely on their plentiful housecarls to bolster their shieldwall, but the poor discipline of the troops, especially the housecarls, can ruin the best Saxon defensive plans. Hello! Hastings?!?

The Normans have good troops and excellent cavalry, but they should wait until their enemies are out of shieldwall before they move in to attack. Efforts should be made to lure their opponents out of good positions.

That's only three pages out of the book and I think Eric Burgess did a great job of framing army lists that can let you fight many exciting battles between these historical Dark Age opponents. Each army has its own personality, strengths, and weaknesses.

This high level of detail and careful design is consistently present throughout the book. If you're interested, the Archon supplement book is available at piquet.com.

Vikings for Archon

Well, my divorce from Warhammer Ancients Battles is now official. I recently rebased all of my WAB Hiberno-Norse Vikings to 40mm square bases for Piquet: Archon. This will allow me to fight the Viking Wars period with my Norse raiders. Miniatures are by Crusader.

(ABOVE) The Raven King and his two rival sons.

(BELOW) These bases will identify the huscarl units.

The Viking list consists mostly of bondi units. There are a few huscarl elite units and a few archer units, but the majority of the army is the bondi shieldwall (BELOW).

Some close-ups (BELOW).

Chevauchee 1

With our plans for a Punic Wars game cancelled, we decided to set up a 28mm Band of Brothers Hundred Years War battle. The game table was generated as an encounter battle using the excellent Theater of War Piquet campaign rules reviewed elsewhere in this blog.

Greg (RED) commanded a Free Company of ravagers and freebooters who had missed their opportunity for glory and ransom at Crecy. I (BLUE) commanded a contingent of local vassals and common troops who were raised by the Duke of Orleans to drive this pestilence of looting scum from the French countryside.

The Free Company army list is interesting because they have to be divided into commands based on their nationalities. They have access to some excellent troops, but disagreements between the various freebooter captains and a desire for loot above all else means the Free Company sequence deck is hampered by a Pillage and Loot card and a Command Indecision card.

German command: 1 mounted men-at -arms (MAA) unit (won't dismount) and 1 heavy spearman unit.
English command: 1 dismounted MAA unit, 4 longbow units, 1 mounted longbow unit.
Gascon command: 2 dismounted MAA units, 1 skirmish unit

The Early French HYW army list has some of the best mounted MAA available in the game, but their horses are only protected by cloth barding. Dismounting the French knights reduces their quality, but if you leave them all mounted versus so many longbows, a repeat of Crecy is inevitable. I compromised, dismounting 4 of my 6 MAA units.

My best knights, my retinue knights and nobles, laughed at the Duke's order to dismount and ignored him. Hopefully, the presence of the oriflamme at the battle might serve to inspire my troops. The French have a few cards: Uncontrolled Charge, Undisciplined Advance, and Courage that create situations where their cocky knights can act impetuously and unpredictably.

Cocky bastard command: 1 mounted retinue knight unit, 1 mounted noble unit.
Good listener command: 4 dismounted knight units, 1 Breton skirmish unit, 1 archer unit.
Regular Joe command: 2 arriere-ban infantry units, 1 militia crossbow unit, 1 Breton skirmish unit.

During the narrative, I don't describe every card that was flipped. Many cards were flipped during the game. I had a few good impetus runs that allowed me to run through the deck and pick my cards. We both had some terrible luck in combat, but my initiative luck was a little better than Greg's.

DEPLOYMENT
We determined the battlefield objectives on the table. All of the directions on the table will be described from my perspective as the French commander since I'm a self-centered bastard. On the right side of the table, there were two villages. The village on the Free Company side was worth 7 VP. The village on the French side was worth 14 VP. My command of common troops started the battle deployed in that village. I guess the local levies were holed up there defending against the invaders and the French knights were arriving to rescue them. In front of the center hill is an impassable rocky ravine. Behind the French center is a light woods and the tents of the French camp. On the left side of the table is a long hill with a swamp just above it. The Fee Company side of the hill is worth 15 VP. Why? Maybe that's where the Free Company has left their loot wagons or where a particularly valuable hostage is kept.

My mounted knights deployed on the left with the goal of sweeping the enemy off of the left hill. My dismounted knights were in the center and they would try to get to the center hill before the English longbowmen. My levy troops were safe and snug in the village on my right. Greg deployed his Germans opposite my mounted knights. His English command was in the center and his sneaky Gascons were obviously going to move to secure his own village.

TURN 1


(ABOVE) At this point, my mounted retinue knights had climbed the hill and were heading toward the German knights who were also on the hill. My second mounted noble unit was thundering toward the gap between the two hills. The German spearmen facing me in the gap saw this threat and formed a hedgehog defense. In the center, my dismounted knights and the English longbowmen raced to be the first to crest the center ridge.

(ABOVE) My mounted nobles in the gap were fired on by a unit of longbowmen and they were disordered. Suddenly, I flipped an Uncontrolled Charge card from my sequence deck. This card states that any MAA who are fired at this phase immediately move toward the nearest enemy. The disordered nobles, their marginal discipline disrupted by the missile fire, charged the hedgehog of heavy German spearmen.

(ABOVE) LUNCH BREAK. Showing the colors at the local pub between turns. Newcastle, Piquet, wings, and chili cheese fries.

(ABOVE) By some miracle (Greg rolled a 1 on a d12 vs d6 combat), my berserker nobles overran the German hedgehog and sent the mercenaries fleeing for their lives. The enthusiastic French knights pursued after them and smashed into a unit of English longbowmen. Greg flipped the "Pillage and Loot" card from his Free Company sequence deck and his German knights decided to use the distraction of the battle as an opportunity to loot the French camp. The knights wheeled and tried to make a beeline for the tents on the bottom center of the table.

(ABOVE) Unfortunately for the greedy Germans, their urge for booty blinded them to the threat of the French retinue knights who were still on the hill. The finest mounted knights on the table wheeled, charged down the hill, and smashed into the extra-heavy German cavalry. On the center hill, the longbow fire was heavy but surprisingly ineffective as the French dismounted knights climbed the hill and battled the English company in melee. One longbow unit was routed from melee, but a unit of dismounted English MAA was able to fight off two units of French foot knights and send them tumbling back for their horses. So much for the oriflamme.

(ABOVE) At this point, the Free Company had run out of morale chips and the French still had 5 or 6. The French retinue knights defeated the German mounted knights and sent them routing from the table. In an upsetting turn of events, my battered mounted noble unit's luck ran out and it was destroyed in melee by a longbow unit.

(ABOVE) The Duke of Orleans was attached to a foot knight unit in the gap between the hills and was killed by a lucky arrow shot that penetrated his visor (1 on a d20). Arrrrgh! His units of foot knights then pulled back from the gap after they failed a Courage! card check and became disordered. I moved the mounted retinue knights forward to drive the longbowmen off of the left side VP hill. My routing foot knights continued to flee until they found their horses and fled from the battle.

Greg then pulled a "Major Morale Check" card from his sequence deck. With no morale chips in the Free Company reservoir, I was able to roll a d20 for morale challenges. I rolled 16 morale challenges and Greg stated, "I'm done." With cries of "treachery!" the tenuous bindings of loyalty between the different companies dissolved under the pressure of battle. It was every man for himself and the Free Company fled to loot areas with less determined resistance.

We used the 1/3 rule for Initiative and it really produced a great game. Impetus was determined using a d20 roll off. The difference is the amount of impetus pips the winner gets. The loser gets 1/3 of that difference (rounded up) in impetus pips. The winner chooses whether the loser goes first or second.

Archon: Punic Wars

Well, I planned to host a 2nd Punic War game using the Piquet: Archon rules, but when Greg showed up at the house, he didn't bring his Romans with him. We ended up playing a Band of Brothers encounter battle using Theater of War to generate the table, but I thought I would take a few pictures of my 10mm Gauls and Carthaginians before I had to sadly put the little guys away. I had forgotten how cool the massed warbands of Gallic fury look when they're coming at you. Most of the miniatures are from the 10mm Old Glory line with some Steve Barber miniatures mixed in. These miniatures were based for Might of Arms, but they would work just as well for Piquet until I get some 28mm stuff painted.

Painted 28mm Perry Henry V Command Stand

This is a Piquet Band of Brothers command stand I painted for Henry V. The figures are 28mm Perry Miniatures and the flag is from Battleflag. The flag is mounted on a hollow tube and is removable. Henry V is a Superior commander in my games. Attaching him to a unit gives it an UP2 in Melee and an UP2 in Morale since his presence includes his personal household. and retainers.

The figure is a very impressive sculpt with great detail for the heraldry.


Sir John Codrington was Henry's standard bearer at Agincourt. I painted his heraldry by hand. Thank God for my optivisor! Unfortunately, even with my enhanced vision, I missed a few tiny strands from my hot glue gun that have tangled on Henry. I guess Henry is fighting through a spider's web.

Piquet Ramblings 3: Chipping away at your morale.

Frederick ran from his headquarters in terror. All around him, his soldiers were routing, their eyes wide with fear. Suddenly, a horseman galloped out of the smoke with an extra horse.

Frederick recognized the old marshal. "Dessau?"

"Mount up, you young fool! The Hungarians are upon us!"

Frederick hopped upon the Dessauer's spare mount. Through the night and into the next day, the pair rode to put distance between themselves and Frederick's latest disaster. Frederick marvelled at the Old Dessauer's endurance in the saddle. It was hard to believe the old bastard had been campaigning for 45 years.

They finally came to a small estate and stopped for some much-needed rest. As Frederick settled down behind a bottle of red wine, the Old Dessauer sat in front of the fireplace, warming his boots in front of the licking flames. They sat for a while until Frederick broke the silence.

"My plan was sound. My infantry failed me."

The Dessauer turned his head and stared through Frederick, "Your cavalry was destroyed by the Austrians. You pushed them forward and they were overwhelmed. It's no surprise that the infantry was shaken."

"But the infantry was in the center. The cavalry were under a separate commander on the right."

The old veteran shook his head and growled, "The infantry was in the center. That is true. But they saw your cavalry crushed and routed from the field. Do you think this had no influence on their morale? Do you think because they serve a different general that this rout would have no effect on them? This is not a game. These are men."

Frederick mulled this over as he drank his wine. He was not finished, "But why DID the infantry run? I acknowledge that those infantry regiments had routed earlier in the morning, but they were rallied and in good order!"

The Old Dessauer creaked out of his chair and walked close to Frederick. He leaned into the young general and whispered in his ear, "You rallied them. That is true. Do you think that they forgot the fear they felt earlier in the day? Did they forget their flight? Do you think the destruction of our cavalry bolstered their courage? They are men, Highness, not game pieces, and the sooner you understand that, the sooner you will become a general."

When I first started to play Piquet, most of my attention was focused on the card sequence decks and the impetus initiative process. I overlooked the morale system and assumed it was just some quantitative measure of the army's endurance. "Army A has 30 morale chips, so when Army A suffers 30 losses, something bad happens." While this is true, the morale chip system actually has a few other aspects that I find interesting.

CHARACTER COUNTS.

Your morale chips are normally determined by cards you draw from the Army Characterization Deck (ACD) before the battle begins. Morale chips can also be established by a particular scenario. The player draws a number of ACD cards based on the size of his army. A better army might draw more ACD cards. For example 1862 Confederates draw an ACD card for every 3 units. 1862 Union draws an ACD card for every 4 units. Elite and Guard units count as two units for ACD draws. A 10 unit Confederate army with 2 elite units would draw the same number of ACD cards (4) as a 16 unit Union army.

The ACD cards can give you a variety of effects. There are 36 cards that give you from 2-10 morale chips each. Then there are 16 cards that each benefit your army's Movement ( add a Movement card), or Command (add a Leadership card or an Opportunity Pip), or Combat (Add a Melee or Reload card, or Morale (bonuses to Morale checks). 4 Stratagem cards can give you 1 of 24 possible sneaky battlefield surprises from a Hidden Ditch to a Flank March to a Stirring Speech.

So, it should be apparent that the ACD deck means that the same army can be very different from battle to battle depending on which ACD cards are drawn. One army might have a lot of morale chips and a guide that can show them a secret path through the woods (Strategem) while its opponent might have less morale chips but an extra Cavalry Move in Open card and UP1 die for Regular Infantry morale.

The one requirement is that you have to get at least as many morale chips as you have units in your army. If you don't meet this minimum total, you have to give up your special ACD cards and and replace them from the ACD deck until the army morale chip total meets the minimum.

Okay, so I pulled my Army Characterization Deck cards for my Early French Hundred Years War army. I have 18 units in my army and my army list gives me an ACD card divisor of 4. In the Early French HYW army, my men-at arms are Elite if they remain mounted, so against my better judgement, I leave two units of knights mounted and hope for the best. The two Elite units boost my unit total to 20 and allow me to draw 5 ACD cards.

I draw an 8 morale chip, a 4 morale chip, a 3 morale chip, an "Add a Brilliant Leader card", and an "Extra Artillery Move" card. This gives me 15 morale chips, 3 less than my unit total. My Early French army needs good leadership to overcome the impulsive nature of its men-at-arms and no artillery units, so I discard the "Artillery Move" ACD card and draw a 9 morale chip card to replace it. Awesome result! A total of 24 morale chips. This levy of early French HYW troops must be well-led and motivated indeed!

THE SIGNIFICANT EMOTIONAL EVENT

Okay, so my army has 24 morale chips. Once I finish a turn in which I have a unit routed, routing, or destroyed, the Major Morale Check card is inserted into my Sequence Deck for the remainder of the game. When I draw this card, I compare the total of my destroyed and routed units with my opponent's total. If I have more losses, I have to take a morale test versus the net difference. My Army CinC can take this test (usually with a d20) for the entire army and has a good chance of passing it as long as I can pay a morale chip for the test. Even if he fails the test, I can then have sub-commanders pay morale chips to take a similar test. By passing this test, they are protecting their units from the Major Morale Check.

If my army has no morale chips left, I can't pay for my leaders to assume the Major Morale Checks and units have to test using their own morale dice. This is typically going to be a d4,d6, or d8 depending on the quality of the unit. Considering that this roll might be versus a 3 or better, units can quickly become disordered or rout as a result of these failures. Running out of morale chips means that my units no longer look to their leaders to motivate them. Every unit now is out to take care of itself. And when it comes to my armies, that usually means running away.

So now that I know what lies at the end of the battle for my brave French knights and their spearmen and various levies they dragged to the battlefield with them, the question is: How do I get to the dreaded status of "NO MORALE CHIPS"?

SPEND THEM LIKE YOU'VE GOT THEM.

I lose a morale chip for each stand loss my 4-stand units take during the battle. I also lose a morale chip each time they lose a melee, rout, or disorder from a failed morale check. So, if my French pavisier unit is in melee, and loses the melee die roll 8-2 ( a difference of 6=6 hits), it loses 2 of its 4 stands (3 hits per stand) in melee, loses the melee, and routs unrallyable (because it was tripled). From this melee alone, I lost 2 morale chips for the stands, 1 morale chip for the melee loss, and 1 morale chip for the rout. A total of 4 morale chips ripped from my total of 24.

You can also spend morale chips to rally your units. When an Officer Check card is drawn from your Sequence Deck, you can spend a morale chip to attempt to rally a routed or disordered unit. Unfortunately, you have to pay the morale chip even if the rally is unsuccessful. The obvious problem is that if you no longer have any morale chips, you can't rally your units anymore. Not fun.

Most of this probably seems pretty familiar and the system seems to basically just measure the exhaustion of the army's morale. You lose morale chips as you suffer setbacks and when your army has suffered enough damage, it won't rally and eventually will break down on a Major Morale Check. There are quite a few sets of wargame rules with systems like this, but the next aspect of the morale chip system is what I like to call "Morale Ascendancy"...okay, I don't call it that. I'm not a complete dipshit, but that basically is what happens SO HERE IT IS:

GETTING THEM ON THE RUN.

In some rulesets, you take morale checks every time certain things happen: A unit loses a combat, a unit is within 12" of a slain commander, a unit is within 12" of a routing unit, etc. In Piquet, YOU decide when your opponent takes a morale test. In fact, you are challenging your opponent's morale. If you caused any hits (not even stand losses) on an enemy unit in shooting or melee, you can challenge the target's morale. This called a Tactical Morale Challenge. The target rolls its morale die (usually a d6) vs. a challenge die the size of which is determined by how much damage you caused on the target.

Cavalry can make a similar morale challenge called a Cavalry Morale Challenge where they can challenge the morale of a unit that enters their general charge zone. Heavier cavalry roll a higher challenge die. Your heavy knights can basically scare the shit out of low morale units that are ordered to approach them. "You want us to get closer to the giant armored bastards on horses!?!"

What makes this cool is that to issue a morale challenge, you have to SPEND a morale chip. If you win the challenge and disorder or rout the target, your opponent also gives up a morale chip, so that's a wash, but if you lose the challenge, your target is fine and you're down 1 precious chip. This means that players will be judicious about when they will challenge morale. Players are less likely to waste morale chips (and gaming time) on challenges they are unlikely to win. Morale challenges will happen where it matters the most, but a player always has the option to gamble and roll the dice on a close challenge if it matters to him.

A player can also spend a morale chip to get one re-roll of a morale check. So, if you get totally boned on a challenge like his d6 vs your d12 and you roll a "1", you can say, "That's bullshit." and roll your d12 again. But it will cost you.

It also means that an army with NO MORALE CHIPS can't challenge its opponent's morale. If the English have been kicking the ass of my French all game long, is an English unit going to suddenly fail morale when it suffers a setback from some missile fire? If they have the French down to NO MORALE CHIPS, it should be pretty clear to the participants that one good French crossbow volley is not going to turn the tide.

THE TIDE TURNS.

This brings up another interesting aspect of the benefits of reducing your opponent to NO MORALE CHIPS. When your opponent would have to normally pay morale chips, but he can't because he has none, you GAIN morale chips. So as your troops merrily hammer away at your poor battered opponent, their morale actually improves. It's as if they can see the impact and feel the momentum as the battle swings in their favor.

Here's an example.

I'm leading in morale chips 5-2. One of my French knight units wins a melee, kills 1 stand and routs its English opponent. The English player has to give up 3 morale chips, but can only pay 2, so I gain 1 morale chip. 6-0. An English longbow unit fires and causes a 1 stand loss (-1 MC), but can't challenge my morale because they have no chips. My French confidently brush off the setback. 5-0. I fire a Genoese crossbow unit and cause a 1 stand loss to a longbow unit. The English again can't pay the chip, so I gain 1. 6-0. I then gamble on a morale challenge with my new morale chip and challenge the longbow unit. 5-0. It fails the challenge, it can't re-roll the check because it has NO MORALE CHIPS and routs (-1 MC), the English can't pay the morale chip, and I get it back. 6-0. Even worse for the English player, with NO MORALE CHIPS, his longbow unit can't be rallied and will rout off the table.

Finally, one of the least common uses for a morale chip is to buy down your opponent's initiative. The common complaint about Piquet is that you have to watch while your opponent uses all of his impetus. The buy down allows you to spend morale chips to reduce the amount of Initiative your opponent won by, but since you don't get those morale chips back, this is definitely a decision to be made only in the most desperate circumstances. Or it's a great way to finish off your opponent by reducing his impetus when you've opened up a big lead in morale chips. I always forget to do this.

Okay, so I hope I've been able to explain a few of the interesting aspects of Piquet's morale chip system.

1. It treats the army as a whole and casualties suffered on one side of the battlefield impact the whole army, not just the poor bastards who survived them.
2. It streamlines the morale check system and lets the challenging player decide when and where morale checks are made.
3. Once you have your opponent on the ropes, your army gains in confidence and is better able to ignore setbacks.

Some supplements, like Hallowed Ground Grand Tactical scale, even allow you to transfer morale chips to subordinate commands. In these games, the morale chips are treated like an abstract form of reinforcements, artillery batteries, extra ammunition that the CinC can move from command to command as needed.

In the end, the morale chips give you a quantitative measurement of an army's fighting endurance that is divorced from the numerical strength of the armies.