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.