-ed note: The following Cold Wars after action focuses exclusively on the Piquet games played. Piquet has received widespread approval in its innovative turn sequencing and the replication of the fog of war. Allan's experienced Piquet eye provides a quick overview of games played and a game tool to help keep things moving right along. Even if you don't play Piquet, there are some good tidbits & ideas in here for all!
I'd like to second Bob's comments on Cold Wars being a great show. The Piquet demo games were all very well done and the volunteers are to be both thanked and congratulated for their efforts. They drew a lot attention to the games and presented them in a really enjoyable manner. Jim McGuire's musical rendition of his own "Ballad of the Battle of Baltimore" (correct title?) was first rate, followed by an equally first rate scenario on that battle which grabbed everybody's attention. I sure hope we will be hearing more of his songs, an album maybe - "Ballads to Piquet By" :) In the scenario, the uncouth British troops who had previously, and rudely, I daresay, burned Washington, D.C., got their well-deserved comeuppance. Satisfying..., both from a historical, and a yank perspective... :)
(For those of our Piquet brethren of the UK persuasion, et al, no offense meant. You fellows still have enough of our regimental flags from 1812 hanging in your museums. It's pretty embarrassing when one has to go visit "foreign lands" to get information on your own army! :) )
Both of the other demo games were equally well done and presented Piquet in a highly positive light. At the Piquet stand, Jim Mauro presented a demo game in 6mm (!!!!!!!!), I think. It was a bit of an eye-catcher and drew a crowd. But how do you guys tell which side is which in that scale? I can't even make out the flags! Jim's Les Grog's scenario book was also available and I snapped up my copy. He's done an excellent job on it, in a format that is handy for laying out everything at the table. Another nice addition to the Piquet line is a third sequence deck, with a black back, which can be used for allied armies - easily distinguished from the normal red or blue deck. The updated Cartouche booklet was also available and includes rule additions for cavalry. (See, they really do listen!)
Bob and Jeff were kind enough to look at a couple player aids I developed.
They came about mostly because I am one of those who is visually oriented.
Tape measures and other mathematical devices (tools of the Devil, they are!) tend to provide me more confusion than assistance, and also, I have always enjoyed how a game battlefield looks, as much as how it plays.
Colors I can appreciate, big numbers and letters just look out of place. At any rate, the player aids are:
1. Artillery/Musket Stick. Most people have probably seen some variation on this through the years, usually done as a dowel about 36" long, painted in alternating colors to indicate hits and misses. I like the look of it but having different dowels for different classes of weapons becomes a hassle. Thus, my approach is to take a piece of wood (spruce, I think), which has a square cross-section, i.e., looked at from one end it appears as a 6-sided die does, with each side about 3/8" wide. The length of the wood is dependent on the max artillery range to be measured. In my case, the set is for 15mm Napoleonic artillery, so the max range for a Heavy
Artillery piece is 24", thus the piece has to be at least that long, but a little extra is helpful. On one face of the wood, mark off the distances for a Heavy Artillery piece, i.e., pointblank, short, medium and long. The stick is then painted or marked in different colors for each of those ranges and labeled as Heavy Artillery. In my case, the stick is red (pointblank) from one end out to 6", yellow (short) from 6" to 9", blue (medium from 9" to 18", and black (long) from 18" to 24". Now, rotate the wood 90 degrees to the next face and then mark or paint it to the appropriate ranges for Medium Artillery, then the next face for Light Artillery, and the final face for Rocket Artillery. In use, simply identify what class weapon is firing, place the red (pointblank) end of the stick at the center of the firing unit and see what color the target unit falls in. I usually do it by having the firing weapon class on the stick be the top so that I can look directly down on it, but you could use it
on either side. The same thing is done for a musket stick, except that it is a shorter stick cut to the max range of rifles, and includes on the stick faces for carbine, musket, and rifle, with a spare one for bows or whatever else you might want to add. It wasn't until I made the musket stick, that the difference in capability between a carbine and a rifle vividly set in for me!
2. Unit Movement Ruler. Like most wargames, particularly of the Napoleonic era, Piquet drives me crazy with the different movement distances for varying classes of units in different formations. I can never remember how far infantry or cavalry move in line, column, or anything else. Thus, I made a double-sided measuring device to meet my needs. Each side of the device consists of two rulers printed side-by-side and 10 " long, both marked on their outside edges. It is important that it be 10" and not the more usual 12" length. Let us now just concern
ourselves with one of these rulers, say the one on the left. It has numbers marked on it normally at 1" intervals like most rulers. Those numbers which mark actual movement distances for units are in black, the others in red. The red ones are so that it can still be used as a normal ruler and to mark half-distance moves. There are also some certain red intervals, such as 4.5", marked because they are half-distance moves for specific unit types. Although, the numbers are marked there, they really aren't normally used. At the beginning end (!) of the ruler (0"), the label says LINE. If one looks up the length of the ruler, you see that at the appropriate movement intervals there are labels which indicate the various unit types. For instance, at 3" it says Light Artillery, and at 6 " it says Line Inf/Light Inf/Grndr Inf/Militia/Inf/XHvy Cav. (Each of those is typed on a separate line so that they are legible). At 8", it says Heavy Cav/Dragoon Cav; and at 9" Light Cav/Med Cav.
To use the ruler, I normally don't pay any attention to the numbers. If my Light Infantry unit is in line, I just place the base of the ruler next to the unit, and then look up Light Infantry on the ruler - I then know they can move up to that distance. Now let us move to the right-hand ruler. It is the same configuration but is labeled DEEP COLUMN/WAR BAND/COLUMN and has marked on it the appropriate movement distances for the various unit types in those formations. Looking at it, one thing immediately jumps out at the user. At the 2" mark, instead of 2", it has 12" preceded by an *. There are no units which move only 2" in Column, thus, there must be some other meaning. Right!
The asterisk means that the unit can move the entire length of the ruler (10"), which is then repositioned at the front of the unit, and the unit can then move to the asterisked distance - which is any distance longer than 10". Here is the importance of using a 10" ruler - even though the number is in the teens, we still get the mnemonic of the final digit which is appropriate for that location on the ruler and can be used for that measurement. (Confusing, eh? What all that means is the 2" mark is used for 2" or 12", the 4" mark for 4" or 14", and the 6" mark for 6" or 16", etc.) So now, what we have is a ruler on the left side for any units in LINE and one on the right side for any units in COLUMN. If we flip the measuring device over we will see that there are two other rulers configured in the same manner, one for SKIRMISH and one for COLUMN OF ROUTE. In normal use, I don't worry at all about numbers. Just look at what formation the unit is in, flip to that ruler, and move up to the line marked for that type of unit. To make it even easier for me, each of the four rulers is done in a different color.
I hope that this hasn't been too long-winded, and is clear enough for everyone to understand. If you have any questions, post them here and I'll be glad to add some more clarification.
Once again, I had a great time at Cold Wars meeting all the enthusiastic people associated with Piquet, on both sides of the sales counter! I'm already looking forward to Historicon.
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© Copyright 1997 by Craig Martelle Publications
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