INTRODUCTION
About three years ago I tried Bob Jones' Piquet rules, first Les Grognards for Napoleonics, and then the Medieval/Renaissance module, Band of Brothers (BoB). I've played several other Piquet modules since then, and although I like them all, BoB is my favorite. I've been collecting rules for the Renaissance era for over 20 years, and for my tastes, these rules really capture the flavor of the period and are exciting to play as well. Because of the transitional nature of warfare in this era BoB is the most complex module for Piquet released so far, but once you get the hang of the rules, they play very smoothly.
BoB shares a number of elements with all Piquet modules. Each army has its own Sequence Deck. The Sequence deck contains a different mix of cards for each army modeled, and indeed, the make up can be modified to reflect scenario specific conditions. This was indeed done for this battle. The Sequence Deck contains cards that allow (but do not require) Movement by Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery in their turn, "Reloading" of firearms and canons, Changes of Facing, change of Formation, Leadership activities by commanders, Melee, and many others. It may also contain cards requiring uncontrolled charges, morale checks, and special Stratagems. The players roll 20-sided dice and compare the scores to determine who has the impetus to act and also how many impetus points they have to spend. The player with the impetus turns cards from his deck (which costs a point each), and may spend impetus carrying out the actions allowed by each card, or pass on a card he can't or doesn't want to use, and turn another card.
The draw of the cards and the unpredictable swings of impetus create a "fog of war" that I find much more like the confusion of battle than most wargame rules. Some players may find the rules seem to "random" for their tastes, but Piquet is really about managing that uncertainty in such a fashion as to maintain as much control of the flow of events as possible, while forcing your opponent to react to your moves. The combat rules also emphasize less predictable results than most sets. Rarely is it a sure thing that one unit will defeat another in melee, or cause significant effect on a target unit if firing, although the odds are heavily influenced by the tactical situation.
Finally, Piquet gives each side a pool of "Morale Chips" which, in an abstract but very effective and elegant way, represent the armies will to fight. Morale chips are lost each time a stand of troops has to be removed, and each time a unit is disordered, routed, or loses a melee, and each time a commander tries to rally a unit. Although the battle isn't lost when one side runs out of morale chips, if the tide doesn't turn shortly thereafter, things start to get ugly fast for the "chipless" side! If these concepts interest you, give Piquet a try!
This battle was the sixth in a "pseudo-campaign" set in Renaissance Italy circa 1500 that Joe Fish and myself have been playing, based upon the ideas of Ken Baggaley. The overall campaign acts as a backdrop for our battles. In this action, Joe Fish, assisted by Roger Downie, has the Ottoman Turks, and I played the Venetians. We used 25mm troops from an assortment of manufacturers spanning the past 15 years, including Essex, Hinchliffe, Foundry, Redoubt, Minifigs, and others. In this particular action, many of the units were recently painted, and seeing their first battle. I don't know about you, but we usually expect "raw" troops to give a poor account of themselves in their first tabletop battle, and we half expected the same here. It didn't happen that way - most of the units performed admirably.
In Piquet, all units except artillery generally have 4 stands. As a battle report convention, when the loss of one or more officers is cited, this equates to the loss of an equivalent number of stands from the unit. The report is written in a narrative style that I hope you will find entertaining, with "editor's notes" explaining how some of the events relate to the game and it's mechanics. Thanks to Joe are in order for his contribution to parts of the narrative.
PROLOGUE
It all started with the Sultan's sons. Three rather dissimilar brothers, this brood of the Sultan's. The most dangerous at dinner was the most reliable on the field, the most reliable in court the biggest problem in camp! Someone, whose identity Mohammed would love to discover, suggested to the Sultan that the time was ripe to pull treasures from the remaining isolated Byzantine principality and the over extended Venetian holdings. What better way to blood his three young princes than to raid the area around the Adriatic?
Small numbers of seized merchant wagons from poorly escorted convoys had convinced Hassan al Rancid, a man difficult beyond his twenty five years, that he was a tactical genius. His brother, Mustafa, only slightly older, actually was a better tactician who did manage to torch a small Byzantine village and destroy a unit of their once proud cavalry. Mustafa piously gave the credit to Allah, but the battle plan had actually been Farad's, his oldest brother.
Raids on weak knee'd merchants and unprepared villages were all very exciting. Laying siege the port of Durazzo required the Sultan's cannon and elite troops as well as the typical fanatic looters employed in the Balkans. A seasoned commander was also needed, so Mohammed Farouk found himself now hurrying to stop an army of Venetians from lifting the siege. Scouts had reported the slow progress of the would be saviors of Durazzo down the coastal road from around Trieste.
Near the mouth of the Drin River there was the small fishing village of Lezhe. The ground was open and favored cavalry as much as the encroaching foothills to the east would allow. The Venetians had marched faster than expected, but then Mohammed had brought along some of the Sultan's heavy artillery for the event. With a sigh, Mohammed Farouk mused that the life of an Ottoman general, and in his case, also the Caliph of Baghdad, was never dull. Fail your master, and strangulation in the Sultan's tent is likely to follow swiftly. At the same time, too many victories were known to make Kalliman paranoid about palace coups and could be equally dangerous to one's health. More than one successful general had died prematurely, rumored to be courtesy of his Magnificence's skilled poisoners.
Mohammed considered the field as the forces deployed. The infidel Venetian commander had placed his best troops - the pikes and arquebusiers of the elite citizen guards of Venice, supported by heavily armored pistoliers and lancers, across from Mohammed's artillery and Janissaries. The local orchards provided succulent peaches, and slaves had recently arrived with a gift of ice packed in straw from the Sultan. The juice of the fruit and the ice will make an excellent mixture to delight the palate as we watch the infidels die under our guns while they try to cross the river!
Hassan al Rancid snorted at the idea of the guns and muskets alone stopping the Venetian pikemen. Being placed in charge of the Ottoman center, with its huge numbers of local rabble and looters from the hills to the east and south had enraged him. So, disgusted with his post, and convinced that his two brothers would snatch the glory with the cavalry they commanded, he had wrapped himself in his pavilion the night before the battle in a fog of blue smoke and, some say, forbidden drink. The morning found him a very disoriented man, and his orders confused rather than guided his officers and men. (Ed Note: He rolled up as a "Poor" Commander)
Farrad al Rancid commanded the Rumelian Sipahi and their retainers; Mustafa the Anatolian Sipahi and all the light horse that went along with the command. The detachment of the Sultan's Household Cavalry stayed near at Mohammed's hand. The plan was the Ottoman's favorite, letting the enemy come to be weakened with successive waves of light trooops before the cannon, Janissairies and heavier cavalry finished them off. Mohammed indulged in another mixture of peach juices and ices as the battle unfolded. (Ed Note: Peach Daquiris, courtesy of my wife!)
For his part, the Venetian commander, Niccolo Urlife, was happy to take the field again. A famous Condotiere, he'd never the less found himself unemployed after his last tour of duty with the Serene Republic, which had culminated in a hard won victory at the Battle of the Bolla. Thus, he was delighted when the herald arrived from the Venetian Senate, confirming the Dodge's nomination of him to command the field forces the Republic had mustered to lift the Ottoman siege of Durazzo. An experienced soldier, Urlife had expected some more substantial move on the part of the ambitious Sultan Kalliman al Rancid would follow upon the many Ottoman raids in the Balkan's this year, but even he was surprised that the target was Durazzo, one of the chief centers of Venetian power in the Adriatic for centuries. The Dodge had sent an ultimatum to the Porte, requiring them to withdraw from around the city by the autumnal equinox, but the only response from the court of the Sultan had been the return of the herald minus his tongue, but with a brief note pinned to his coat reading, "See You in September!" Thus the tempo of events had accelerated.
Unfortunately, he was not delighted that the Dodge had reserved the right to appoint and dismiss his principal subcommanders, but what's a mercenary to do, especially with a paymaster as reliable as Venice? So off he went to join his army. It turned out that the Dodge had appointed two men he'd worked with before, and one unknown quantity. First was Leonardo Orso Da Caprio, the 30 year old son of the Dodge himself. From his past experience at the Bolla, Niccolo knew him to be cunning ambitious, and very loyal to his father. Unfortunately, he also knew him to be somewhat unreliable and overly susceptible to pretty women Next was Paolo Vitale Loreclan, also known to him from the battle of the Bolla. Proud but of an inherently good nature, Niccolo cinched up his codpiece nervously as he recalled the 19 year old's fondness for his cavalrymen. Lastly, the Dodge had appointed one Izzo Morano to command the troops drawn from Venice's Dalmatian territories. The arquebus and sword armed Schiavonni troops seemed tough enough, but Morano was another matter. He was inexperienced at war and seemed a bit dull, but coming from their territories himself, he did have the support of his colonial troops. Overall, one could certainly do worse for subordinates. After inspecting his troops, Count Urlife lost no time marching down the coast of the Adriatic towards the besieged city of Durazzo. Fortunately, the Venetian senate had also sent a powerful naval detachment to support his advance, and therefore Urlife kept to the coastal road. By mid September, the Venetian army had drawn within a week's march of Durazzo, and the Ottoman scouts and pickets had grown from a handful to dense clouds. It seemed that the Ottomans would offer battle along the banks of the shallow, brackish river Drin near its mouth. When scouts reported Turkish artillery and the feared Jannisaries deploying along the road, a battle on the morrow seemed a certainty. After reviewing the terrain, Niccolo assigned Leonardo Da Caprio to the main center command, including his elite Venetian city Pikemen (would that he had more of these!), the elite Venetian city Arquebusiers, as well as his (somewhat) mobile artillery, and his musket armed scouts.
Their right flank would be anchored by the Adriatic itself, with support from the water available from a Venetian galleass and Galley detailed to cooperate with him. His far left flank Urlife assigned to Paolo Loreclan, his command including most of the Venetian cavalry. Niccolo still had a headache from the whining Paolo had done when he found that, instead of his beloved Venetian pistoliers, he would instead have a body of overly swarthy and ill mannered German mercenary Reiters as his heaviest cavalry. The Reiters also seemed a bit unsettled by their new commander, with further codpiece checks taking place in their ranks at the news. He admonished Loreclan strictly to keep his cavalry in control, and avoid exposing his flanks to the more mobile Turkish cavalry. With a twinkle in his eye, the young man gaily proclaimed that while he might enjoy exposing himself to the Turks, exposing the flanks of his troops was another matter altogether! Linking the two commands were the Schiavonni, with their paisano Morano leading them. The splendidly trained and fully armored Venetian Reiters, as well as his personal band of armored lance armed Cavalleria Leggeria, Urlife kept as a reserve under his personal command. They were deployed to the right rear of the main body, in order to counter any attempt by the swarms of Ottoman cavalry to gain the vulnerable flanks of the pikemen or arquebusiers.
More "See You in September"
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© Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum
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