Gamex 2011 HYW Game

On Saturday, we ran a Piquet: Band of Brothers game at the GAMEX 2011 convention here in Los Angeles. The battle was set in the early Hundred Years War. During this war, the English would often launch raids (known as a chevauchee) through France. The raids would start at one English possession, rampage across the countryside, looting and sacking castles, and then end at another English possession. The English would then happily divide up their loot and high five each other. Sometimes, the French would manage to raise a large army to shadow or fight these raids.

In this scenario, the French army is pursuing an English raid led by the Black Prince. Feeling the heat of the close pursuit and slowed by his siege guns, Edward parked his army on a hill parallel to the French line of march and waited for them to approach. Once the French saw the English, they immediately deployed to do battle.

(ABOVE) The French mounted knights. They ignored the Constable's request that they dismount. A unit of retainer knights and three units of nobles with the Orriflamme. Scary!

(ABOVE) A Marshal of France leading dismounted men-at-arms with Genoese crossbowmen and Breton skirmishers in front.

(ABOVE) The city militia and some locally raised archers have come to fight alongside their social betters.

(ABOVE) The English defense opposite the French mounted knights. The archers at the bottom of the hill are Welsh and all of the archer units are protected by pits and stakes. I'm sure the Welsh appreciate being used as a speed bump by the Black Prince. "Hey, how come we're not up on the hill like everyone else?"

(ABOVE) The French mounted nobles charged impetuously. The rest of the army watches them. Big surprise there! One units of French mounted nobles had already been shot to pieces. Three more to go!

(ABOVE) Two mounted units left, but they reached the Welsh defenses. They eventually overran the Welsh, but by the time that happened, the French mounted units were wrecked.

(ABOVE) Inspired by the destruction of their mounted wing, the rest of the French army began to walk across the battlefield under a storm of arrows.

(ABOVE) The French pulled a Battle Lust card around this time and it allowed them to charge into combat with five of their dismounted knight units. That really dropped the hammer on the English. In the picture you see a unit of English longbowmen firing against a rising tide of armored knights, but the English do have a second line of their own knights to back them up.


(ABOVE) The French missile troops actually performed pretty well. On the center right, a unit of Genoese crossbowmen is firing point blank into the English lines. The unit's status was Determined and they were firing with a D12+2. Unfortunately, by the time this photo was taken, they had lost half of their stands. They need to run already so the dismounted knights can get in there! You can also see the unit of French archers sneaking through the woods at the top of the picture.

(ABOVE) As the fighting rages along the hill, the Constable of France leads his lust-filled knights to victory. Flushed with success, they pursue impetuously and run into the Black Prince and his household knights. Uh oh! With the French already disordered from their battle lust, this ended badly for the French and the CinC and his unit routed from the table.

After a few more phases, the French had 3-4 disordered units remaining on the hill, but no morale chips left to rally them. The English also reached no morale chips and drew their Major Morale Check card first. This check routed every English unit but the Black Prince's household and an artillery battery.

The Black Prince refused offers to surrender and wheeled his tired retainers to fight the dismounted French knights. Faced with his fearsome determination and reputation, the French then flipped their own Major Morale Check card and routed from the table. A close battle with both sides losing all of their morale chips and struggling to survive. Thanks to all the players who participated.

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.