Piquet Field Of Battle - The Battle Of The Boyne

Battle of the Boyne re-fought today at Chateaux Le Duc using the ever excellent Piquet Field Of Battle rules.

Game was planned as group get together but in the end due to other commitments it ended with Le Duc our convivial host and Stephen B and mineownweeself.

Being Stephens first visit to Le Ducs gaming room we started late (made absolutely no matter as you shall see !!) as he inspected the treasure trove of figures, books etc (although I think I fell asleep once or twice whilst they drooled over various D&D type stuff).

After waking me we then diced for sides and I drew the Jacobite force and Stephen the Williamite.

Le Duc had made a couple of scenario specific tweaks which I am sure he will explain fully on his Blog but essentially units with Pike could adopt a 'Pikes Forward' formation which gave them Up 1 against Mounted but losing ability to move.
Other tweaks were mainly terrain specific and to deck composition.
For instance the Jacobites had 1 or 2 (?) Uncontrolled Advance cards included and possibly more Melee cards than standard.
Williamites had Advance cards and increased Lull cards and their various Brigades only activated as each fresh Move Card appeared for them, they had only the Dutch Guards across the river at game start.
Le Duc had made Boyne specific boards for the game which looked excellent especially the river complemented fully by his super 25mm troops.

FOB is easy to tweak this way for a scenario without much effort.

Game started with Jacobites getting jump on the Williamites allowing me to advance more Infantry into the village of Oldbridge and bring my two Cavalry Brigades abreast of each other although I was reluctant to advance too close to river as there was a battery of guns covering from a small hill and I was aware of the Uncontrolled Charge cards possibly getting me into trouble.
This initial success as such was high water mark of Jacobite effort !!

Le Duc was then witness to the power of Stephens luck not only with dice rolls but with card draws !!
He managed to draw Move cards in succession and rolled even and sufficiently higher than me to allow 3 Infantry Brigades (Huguenots, Brits and North Irish) to cross the river.
The first two across opposite my mounted wing were very impressive as they managed to cross (restricted to column formation) and then deploy into line facing my Horse (which were pretty good).
Of course when I charged this meant they had full firepower and damaged and pushed back my mounted charges.
Stephen then managed to draw Firepower cards in succession getting further hits on the cavalry before them.
I only managed to repel one unit into the river but it soon returned and Rallied its hits.
In the village his Dutch Guards weathered the ineffectual fire of Jacobites or Rallied off damage (one unit managed to remove 2 hits in one roll !!) and contested occupancy as North Irish arrive to the rear.

Of course to add woes to my woes one Brigade of Cavalry refused to move on two opportunities meaning their erstwhile mates were left dangling, even when a fleeting opportunity arose to hit Infantry who had just dropped out of 'Pike Forward' formation.
Then I lost 2 of my 4 Commanders (yes 2) to death rolls (only by 1 on a D12) putting their troops Out Of Command and susceptible to the Uncontrolled Charge possibility (you just know what is coming...........)

I lost a Lull card exchange and lucky legs pulled another opportune Leadership card to Rally of hits and then immediately I 'won' a Lull to pull the inevitable Uncontrolled Charge card which saw of course my damaged Horse charge to their complete doom !!

By now my Army Morale was exhausted and I was giving Morale to the Williamites.

Just as Le Duc activated a Brigade of Danish Foot (which failed to move as he does not have demonic dicing spell) I of course pulled Army Morale and promptly failed and the Jacobites fled the field.

Despite the one-sided battle it was a hugely enjoyable game with all those events and exchanges that only the PK family of rules can generate.
I dont know of any other system (possibly Die Fighting or Blackpowder ?) that would allow the Williamite Foot to ford the Boyne and deploy without interference as most other systems have set sequences of  phases which allow players to predict exactly how far and exactly when units will move or arrive.
I just love the narrative style game FOB produces which makes it a joy to play even in abject defeat.
Events just occur in a plausible fashion that makes the games seem like a historical account or novel.
This combined with the easy mechanics of the system is hard to better for large games and for me is Wargaming as it is meant to be.

I look forward to Le Ducs version of events.................................






Jacobite deployment

Williamites with river to cross (Dutch Guard across in foreground)

Overview of set up

Huegenots getting helping hands to ford the waterway

Dutch Guard approach village

Le Duc vainly awaits activation of his Danish Foot and Dutch Horse

Jacobite horse split

And move to support Foot

Impressive array of Williamite might

Williamite foot have teleported into Line in front of my stunned Horse units and already beaten off their initial charges (Note red UI loss markers and green Out Of Cmd)

These uncommitted Crown Forces not required

Gaping hole as one whole Jacobite Horse Brigade has evaporated !!

Jacobite Foot in difficulties in the village as North Irish push forward.

WW2 Barbarossa To Berlin played

A game of BTB played with my Dad.

As a change I played Axis and came very close to an auto victory in mid 1943 but just could not hold onto a couple of victory locations in Russia (20vp required I had 19vp at turn end !!).

I ignored North African zone and was lucky Dad failed to get US into the war early as he was gaining control there with British alone.

As Total War occurred I had 34 VPs which may have just been enough to see off resurgent Allies but we had to end game at that point.

Great stuff

And in some sad Steiner news I had to say goodbye today to my little furry pal Gizmo and boy oh boy does it hurt :-(

Seven Years War action with 18th Century Principles Of War

Game at Stephens with him picking 18th Century Principles Of War as rules to use.

So he fielded Austrians against my Prussians.

We have used these rules once before but managed to somehow cock them up big style.

This time we realised that the concept of Command Markers is new from original POW and once we saw how they worked in conjunction with Orders and PiPs we were impressed as the system seems to generate a game that certainly 'feels' very SYW-ish.

Frederick's lot have some decent but not overwhelming advantages such as double moves when on Blinds and more chance of setting up as attackers which combined with better overall Command and Troop quality (Freddie is only Professional Officer available to any Army) makes them potent.

This is offset of course but being outnumbered by the Austrians for whom initial Deployment and Orders can be crucial.
Austrian cannons (out number Prussians 3:1) also are good balancing assets.

We did not finish the game but played enough to really enjoy the game system.
I see us playing this one again.

Piquet Field Of Battle II Solo effort

Replayed game I had set up for Die Fighting this time using Piquet Field Of Battle 2 one of my favourite games especially for solo action.
This was also to get practice with rules for up coming game at Le Ducs (Battle of the Boyne no less !) later this month using FOB.

The card sequencing in FOB lends itself very well to solo play as all one needs to really adjust for is Opportunity Fire by 'inactive' side but generally these instances are fairly intuitive.

All I added was couple of small Skirmish units (with only 3UI) per side to try out as Brigade Skirmish Screens.

I was also trying one or two house rules for Napoleonic era main one being forcing Infantry approached by Cavalry to attempt to form square (stolen from Black Powder) by rolling opposing Defense Dice and Infantry forming square if the equal or win the roll off.

Whilst author Brent Oman clearly states that he did not include such rules as he sees them subsumed into the Dice roll off mechanisms of Combat I prefer to see square as a sort of default tactic in the period.

In contrast to DFII we find the problem is not vulnerability of Line to Cavalry charges but that Infantry can go hunting Cavalry if Loaded as their firepower is generally tough on the mounted types.
System worked fine with Squares forming (some by choice) on both flanks when facing Cavalry which seems more historical (?) for Napoleonic period.

Game turned out to be real cracker !

In FOB there is a pre-game scenario system which in this case saw one Prussian Infantry Brigade delayed getting to the battle (would appear after Prussians had turned their fourth Move card).
However the gained a Deployment benefit which allowed them to deploy further forward allowing them to occupy town at offset.

Also whilst both Generals where same quality (D10) the Prussians ended up with an Exceptional Sequence Deck but only 19 Army Morale Cards whilst French had an Average Deck but 27 Morale Cards (a real advantage in staying power).

With Cavalry deployed on opposite wings this time both opposing Infantry Brigades formed (or where forced to form) square to counter the mounted arms.
So a lot of action occurred centrally with both sides exchanging musket and cannister volleys.
Just as the Prussian Reserve Brigade arrived they ran out of Army Morale (even giving a couple to the French), however in a real reversal of fortune the French then found themselves out of Morale giving back a Morale Card to the Prussians.
This proved timely as Prussians turned an army Morale card straight after meaning they could ignore it.
Such luck evaded the French who soon drew an Army Morale card of their own which they promptly failed  (General's D10 vs D12) ending a bloody and exciting solo game (sad really that I get so involved in solo games !!!)

Some pics



At start with Prussian deployed well foward

French Cavalry and Young Guard take up post on right wing

Prussian Infantry invest the town (occupied by Landwehr units)

Faced by French Cavalry the Prussian Grenadiers deploy into squares

French Infantry Brigade almost caught on the hop by fast advancing Prussian cavalry

Road on left from which Prussian reserves are due 

Field Of Battle cards

Prussian Cavalry charge French columns but are beaten off

Young Guard trying to turn  Prussians out of the town whilst Cavalry faces off Grenadiers

Action in the centre with Prussian reserves just visible on road to left

Prussian Cavalry reformed and French now in squares.

French unable to make any headway at town

Behind French lines

French set up

Prussian set up showing forward deployments

Die Fighting II Solo bash more play (pics and video)

Played some more of game with DFII.

New Inter-phase saw French Cavalry recover and with resource boost later from Napoleon they managed to deal some hurt to their mounted opponents.

French Infantry however suffered from Prussian guns and a couple of charges by Prussian Grenadiers losing another unit of Guns and one Infantry unit.











French Legere skirmishers are no more.................

French Infantry being pushed back near town

Cuirassiers see off Prussian Dragoons

Video of action, however note I make a slight error in that the beaten Prussian Infantry should have retired in Disorder as having a Fabian Commander they cannot choose to 'buy down' these losses but must Retire 2".