Piquet unit values revisited

  

Playing through my fourth Piquet game (starting here) I got confused by my own notes on unit BDVs.

In my first attempt to summarize house rules, I listed based on a starting BDV of 6 and the Cartouche default unit shifts on p.68 ff of the rule book.

And in my recent roll call of minis painted so far, I noted unit BDVs based on geenric defaults and with some historical adjustments to reflect the general prejudice on unit qualities.

Between the two, the values for Prussians match. But for the Empire, they don't. And I don't think I would have remembered the Russian ind/art up1 morale.

So I want to try again here and hopefully come to a more consistent result.

1. Infantry

1.1. Guard Infantry 12-10-10

Should be rarely used for scenario specific situations only.

1.2. Elite Infantry 12-8-8

Typically used for Grenadiers and rarely for other elite units.

Prussia: Grenadiers

Empire: good Grenadier units

Austria: good Grenadiers

Russia: Grenadiers, at,12-8-10

1.3 Regular infantry: 10-8-6

Typically used for normal, experienced infantry units

Prussia: Musketeers, Fusiliers, good Freikorps (e.g. Wunsch)

Empire: average Grenadiers, good line infantry (e.g. Guards, units having a generally good reputation or a good day, maybe first battalions of larger regiments like Kurmainz just for variation)

Austria: average Grenadiers, line infantry

Russia: Musketeers, 2nd rate Grenadiers (e.g. observation corps) at 10-8-8

1.4. 2nd rate infantry: 8-6-6

I'm hesitating to use the "trained militia" category here. I will use this not for hastily raised militia, but for the average or below-average units of more or less professional armies like the Empire and Austria.

Militia would be 10-6-6, i.e. same firing effectivity as regulars but worse in melee. On the other hand, 2nd rate militia with 8-4-4 seems to punish melee and morale too much. So I will reduce both combat stats, and leave morale at 6 unless some special circumstances need to be reflected on top.

Prussia: rarely used, e.g. for 2nd rate Freikorps, garrison troops

Empire: all not-so-good infantry

Austria: rarely used for bad infantry, e.g. loans from not-so-professional armies.

Russia: rarely used for bad infantry, e.g. observation corps at 8-6-8

1.5. Specials

For now, I only see one special case that doesn't fir the categories above. Maybe if I get to larger Jäger units (Russians, perhaps?) I will add more here.

Habsburg Grenzer units which are less effective at firing, but tough. As per Cartouche army lists, they should be "Elite Natives", i.e. 10-10-6.

2. Cavalry

Not much to vary here, except maybe an attempt to show the better quality of the early war Austrians and the improvements of the Prussians over time. But maybe it is better to do this via the sequence deck, e.g. with additional cavalry move or cavalry melee cards, not via the unit stats.

2.1. Hussars (light cavalry) x-6-6

Empire: second rate Hussars might be x-4-6

Austria: early war / veteran Hussars might be x-8-8 as per Cartouche army list (elite light cav)

Prussian army list shows 50% chance to be elite x-8-8

2.2. Dragoons (medium cavalry) x-8-6

Empire: second rate Dragoons might be x-6-6

Austria: early war / veteran Dragoons might be x-10-8, but only a sixth chance per Cartouche army list.

2.3. Cuirassiers (heavy cavalry) x-10-6

Empire: second rate Cuirassiers might be x-8-6

Austria: early war / veteran Cuirassiers (50% chance per army lust), and converged Carabiniers, are x-12-8

2.4. Russian Cossacks: Regulars x-4-6, Irregulars x-4-4

I'll want to have at least two categories: reliable, trained "professional" units and the truly irregular troops which basically had no battlefield role (but a lot of value off the battlefield). Cartouche has 50/50 trained vs 2nd rate militia.

2.5. specials

I'll worry about other specials like converged Carabinier / mounted Grenadier batallions when I get there...

3. Artillery

As you can see in my latest roll call, I don't even have any artillery units yet. But I already know the basic prejudice I want to reflect, e.g. high quality Austrian artillery. Cartouche army lists shoe regularbartillery in all these armies.

3.1. Elite Artillery 10-4-8 (Light and Medium), 12-4-8 (Heavy)

Russians get up1 morale for 10-4-10 resp. 12-4-10.

Selected Austrian units

3.2. Regular Artillery 8-4-6 (Light and Medium), 10-4-6 (Heavy)

All Prussians, Russians, normal Austrians and selected Reichsarmee units

3.3. 2nd Rate Artillery 6-4*-4 (Light and Medium), 8-4*-4 (Heavy)

Use this for remaining Reichsarmee units.

Note: the 4* indicates values one "down 1" below D4 - the value can't go below but when I adjust the base BDV (D6) behind these values the 4* will first turn into a straight D4.

Slow-mo Piquet: game 4, turn 4-5

 

First shots were already fired at the end of turn 3, while both armies were still deploying. Let's see how aggressively they continue in...

Turn 4

There are no casualties yet, so sequence decks remain unchanged and complete, except for one card removed from the Prussian deck for their poor commander.

Phase 1, roll 1: 16:2, 10:4 pips.

Empire turn infantry move. For the right wing, infantry speed is not enough to let the Dragoons charge home, so they only move the mandatory inch to avoid exposing their flank to the Prussian Hussars. The rest of the right wing and reserve move up and start forming into line.

As per the Piquet house rules, I will allow the 90° turn from column to line on a move command, even to the Prussians who have enemy cavalry approaching and should be even more motivated to pivot quickly.

Empire then turn dud, dud, cav move. This is when the Dragoons charge Hoffmann Fusiliers and catch them in column of march. This flank attack immediately disorders the Fusiliers, and can be resolved immediately without waiting for a melee resolution card.

The Dragoons get a D8 up 2 flank for D12, the Fusiliers defend with a D8 d2 disordered for the minimum D4. Roll is 5:2, one stand loss and doubled so the Fusiliers rout. 

The Prussians lose 4 morale chips (disordered, lost melee, lost stand, rout),but still have 3 more chips left than the Empire started with. The Empire gets two bonus pips for the rout. I forgot to mark them out of command for leaving the command group, will do that now.

The victorious Dragoons are blown and disordered after melee, and roll their morale D6 vs D10 for routing infantry to check pursuit. They check successfully 6:2, and use the 2 bonus pips to retire one move to get out of the Prussian Hussars' way. They will be blown but good order on their next move.

After all this excitement, the Empire next turn dud, melee resolution, dud, dud.

The Prussians see cav melee, dud, reload and use that for the Frei infantry.

Roll 2 for 6 remaining pips: 17:11, all 6 go to the Empire.

They turn cav move amd let the Dragoons inch towards the right, threatening the Hussars and giving the Grenadiers behind them a bit more space.

Then turn dud, elites reload, native mobility (not used to keep the Grenzers in command), and dud.

Phase 2, roll 1: 18:7 for 8:3 pips.

Empire see inf move, move their right and reserve. The leftwing stays put. 

Next they turn officer check. They move the C in C towards the center, otherwise there's nothing to do.

Next they see cav melee, reload and reload the 2nd Kurmainz bat.

The Prussians turn a dud and infantry move. They have to rout Hofmann off the table first and leave the rest of the move to their next initiative. 

Roll 2: 1:8, 2:5 pips.

Prussians form line with their left wing, Then their reserve advances, still one move behind the left. On the right wing they advance Dossow Fusiliers a bit.

They turn a difficult move next and bring up their rear to catch up.

The Empire reload the 4th bat. Kurmainz, and fire the 2nd bat. at the skirmishers again. This time they fire D10 d1 for range, d2 at skirmishers. D4:D6 is 3:1 for no effect.

Roll 3 for the last two pips: 17:17 ending the turn.

Turn 5: Prussians replace two cards (poor commander, one unit lost) with duds.

Phase 1, roll 1: 13:4, 5:2 pips.

Empire turn an unhelpful cav move, dud, deploy to wheel the Kurpfalz guards into line, and reload.

Prussians turn two duds.

Roll 2: 12:8, 3:1 pips.

Empire load and fire 2nd Kurmainz at the pesky skirmishers, D4:D6 for 1:3 no effect, and fire 4th Kurmainz at 4:2 still no effect but to be reloaded.

Prussians turn Maneuver.

Continued, but ineffective, firefight between Kurmainz and the Prussian skirmishers in the center 

Roll 3:  8:10, 2 Prussian pips to let 2/Dossow swing into line and turn cav melee.

Roll 4:  5:3, 2 Empire pips reload 4th/Kurmainz, and turn a heroic moment.

Roll 5: 16:19, 1:2 pips.

Prussians urn tdud and their first command indecision at a good time (end of their initiative anyway). Apparently the staff work better than the general's poor quality would suggest.

Empire turn a dud, keeping the heroics dangling for...

Roll 6:  12:6, the remaining 2 pips go to the Empire to turn a useless heroic elites reload and a dud.

Phase 2, roll 1:  15:5, 7:3 pips.

Empire turn dud, cav melee, inf move for their right wing and the reserve. Then turn a dud and their bonus inf move.

Prussians turn unhelpful native move, inf move and first march the leading grenadiers on the table and advance the left wing Hussars.

Making the best of their extra infantry move card, the Reichsarmee is already filling the center with its infantry lines while the Prussian grenadiers are still marching on the table.

Roll 2: 14:11, 2:1 pips.

Empire advance their right and reserve. Prussians advance their rear.

(here, my lack of connectivity ate a few initiatives' worth of notes, including the first very exciting clash in the center where the Wunsch skirmishers saw off an attack by two Kurmainz batallions)

The first infantry melee in the center (spoiler: it didn't go well for the Empire...)

Phase x, roll 1: 9:2, 5:2 pips

Empire turn the Dragoons a bit to have the Malachovsky Hussars in front, turn a useless native move, Officer check. Barely make the Officer Survival (D20 roll of 3), don't waste chips and pips on the disordered infantry, turn Cav move and charge the Dragoons into the Hussars in another attempt to land a decisive blow.

Prussians turn another Officer check in a row, and a melee.

Roll 2: 6:18, 4:8 pips.

Prussians resolve the cavalry melee, with (counter) charge advantage: D6 up1 charging vs D8 d1 blown, 6:4 for one stand loss and a morale chip. The Hussars roll to prevent pursuit: D20 d1 disordered, d2 prevent pursuit, d1 for the nearby Dragoons for D6:D8, 6:4 and stay under control.

Then turn cav move, but keep the Hussars back (they would melee the Dragoons at a risky D4:D4). Turn cav melee, reload, use that on Frei, infantry move. Use that to turn the leading Grenadiers into line, and refill one opportunity pip.

Roll 3 for one remaining pip: 3:3, ending the turn.

End of turn 5, on the right flank: watched by the Grenzers on the hill on the left, and the Prussian HQ in the village in the back, Malachovsky Hussars have beaten back the Dragoons, giving their Grenadiers at the very right time to deploy in line.

On the left flank, one Kurmainz battalion is running away, two others with a cav unit on the end of the line for support barely hold the line against, well... a lonely Freikorps battalion in skirmish formation. All clichées