G'day guys,
The Piquet system uses cards to decide when actions occur rather than assuming
that everything alternates or is simultaneous. Add to this that you roll dice
to see how many actions get to occur and Lady Luck starts to loom large
(that's the fun part);) I'd say that "Erratic Thrust" would be pretty much
like the way its handled for the aircraft supplement so you'd probably end up
with something like (and this is going to be a slightly simplified
explanation):
Impetus (# actions): determined by rolling dice - each side rolls a die
(D20 in existing Piquet) and the result is how many impetus (actions) that
side/person gets for that phase (turn in FT), during the phase (starting
with the higher roller) you turn cards (cost one impetus per card) until you
perform an action (costing an impetus) specified on the latest card and then
the other guy gets to start using his impetus and so on until you both
run out - you can also store some of the impetus for use as 'opportunity
chips' (for emergency manuevers/ opportunity fire etc).This is the
method used in a couple of the supplements, though it is slightly different to
the 'standard' Piquet Impetus of roll dice and the difference in the rolls is
the impetus the higher roller gets (loser gets zip). Then when the cards run
out or the two sides roll the same amount the 'turn' (Piquet turn that is) has
ended and the cards are reshuffled and you start. [I hope all that didn't just
confuse the heck out of you all.]
Potential (very basic) Deck:
Deploy Fighters Reload Fighters
Move Fighters (this would be a simultaneous card - so when either side
turned it up both sides would get to do the action)
Change Course (plot/write out new movement orders - if got another move
card before changed orders then just use the existing/old set - cost one
impetus for all ships in command** otherwise one impetus per ship out of
command) Reform (all ships out of command which can rejoin their command do
so) Move Ships (once again a simultaneous card)
Target Acquistion/Reload (firing is an action you can do without getting
a card for it first, i.e. you get to fire at will, but you can't fire again
until you've turned up one of these) Deploy Missile
Move Missile (I probably wouldn't have a dedicated missile/fighter
attack card, rather just assume that if can get to base to base then attacking
etc) Damage Control Boarding Action (like Melee in historical deck)
**Ships who can't keep up with the orders plotted for the commander's ship and
those that have lost communications (via bridge hit etc) would fall out of
command.
Potential Optional Cards
Fuel Check (for those who want fuel to be important) Ammo Check (for those who
want ordinance to be important) Mechanical Check (for those who want to
include the quality of manufacture
- if you fly hear to hard (fast) and she's poor quality or very damaged
etc then something is going to give...) Space Debris (bit like weather in
space I guess) Officer Check (this is standard in the basic deck usually, but
as FT doesn't have morale I thought it would be better as optional here) Ace
Crews Change Course (really good crews could change course here too
-
in case you wanted to incorporate morale into movement ability etc, to capture
well howned fleet vs green etc) Turkey Crews Change Course (really bad crews
could ONLY change course on this card, not the basic card) Ace Target
Acquistion (get to acquire target on this card too) Turkey Target Acquisition
(only acquire target on this card) Sensor Scan SNAFU (wasted impetus really as
you're crew sist round and twiddles its thumbs, another good way of
differentiating between the top navies and lesser natiosn as the lesser ones
would get more of these)
OK that's a potential set off the top of my head so I've probably over looked
something (and I've skipped over a few other details on purpose), but you
should get the idea. You'd end up with something that didn't
necessarily have the strict move-fire etc of FT, but had a lot more 'fog
of war' [though I'm not sure about the viability of fog in space;)]. It'd
probably need a few good hard shakes to work the finer details out, but I
think it'd keep the simplicity and elegance of both game sets. Anyway just
some thoughts.
Cheers
Beth
> Beth Fulton wrote:
> G'day guys,
<piquet system snipped>
> Cheers
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> Elizabeth Fulton
Is Piquet a published system? If so, where? How much does it set you back?
(Not to intice an advertizement.)
Your discription reminds me of some of the chit/card draw systems I have
seen for some wargames.
I have played "Across five aprils" -- an American civil war game that
has a very simplied version. It includes only two types of chits:
Unit chit -- Each unit has it's own chit. It moves when drawn.
Battle chit -- All units attack now.
A good wargame.
Is Piquet a published system? If so, where? How much does it set you back?
(Not to intice an advertizement.)
Your discription reminds me of some of the chit/card draw systems I have
seen for some wargames.
I have played "Across five aprils" -- an American civil war game that
has a very simplied version. It includes only two types of chits:
Unit chit -- Each unit has it's own chit. It moves when drawn.
Battle chit -- All units attack now.
A good wargame.
Donald Hosford
Piquet is a full blown system - the web page is :
http://www.piquet.com
The rules are heavily based on luck - we've had games where one side had
as many as thirty actions before the opponent even moved ( a 20 Vs 1 die roll
goes a long way). There are bizarre events that can occur, such as on the
reload
card - if you are already loaded, and this card comes up, you can fire
your weapons (1 action) then reload (1 action) then fire (1 action) for each
unit before you have to flip your card to the next one. This tends to make
firing occur in bursts with very little option to spread fire out. People tend
to conserve fire into huge volleys where many units will get to fire and then
reload. Movement is a bit iffy too since it's possible for the opponent to
start at the far edge of the board and close with you without you ever getting
a shot. This is offset if you allow for bonus chips that can be cashed in for
extra actions. At least then you'll get one chance to fire (but you need
actions and the appropriate card to reload). There is an interesting side to
this though in that the luck eventually balances out - you just need to
survive
long enough for the luck to shift your way - which makes designing the
scenario important. There needs to be something that allows a player to hang
on for a turn or two of bad luck (extra distance on the map, terrain feature,
mission objectives other than destroy the opponent...)
Some thoughts,
--Binhan
Avalon Hill's Firepower (also an old Yaquinto ww2 game, probably Close
Assault) used a simpler version. The game is of squad-level combat.
Each squad is rated for number of chits and number of actions per chit. All
the chits go in a cup. Draw, activate, draw. A 'normal' squad is
rated 3/2. There is no limit on consecutive actions, which can get odd
and/or interesting. Victory Games used a chit system for a WWII game
(Panzer Command?), with one per regiment, plus the divisional commander and
one for the staff (IIRC). The Germans had a better chit arrangement, and the
Russians had numbers.
The earliest example of this sort of system was, AFAIK, The Sword and the
Flame, an old set Colonial skirmish rules. They used a deck of cards. Each
player could activate when his color was drawn. Face cards were special for
both activation, and in card draws for combat. S&F was a lot of fun the one
chance I had to play (15mm Colonials were never my cup of tea).
I even spice up Space Marine (2nd ed.) with a card for each detachment in a
deck. Each detachment completes its turn before the next activation is drawn
for. It makes an immense difference in gameplay. Then again, I always play SM
differently. The Imperial Dispatches playtests are always set up like an armor
engagement rather than the GW battle reports which invariably look like a WHFB
game. Actually, SM was played (in White Dwarf) more like WHFB than WHFB
looked. By that point the fantasy battle reports were between armies made up
of war engines,
small expensive regiments and characters/monsters. Add in magic, and
there were amazingly few maneuver elements; many of those were very mobile
(some airmobile). A WHFB battle in WD156 had 11 units vs 14, SM in SD144 has
23 vs. 23. Come to think of it, the Space Marine game has a wider field of
play; based on the distance between the start lines.
> At 5:51 PM -0700 6/30/99, Binhan Lin wrote:
Upon hearing these descriptions of Piquet, I'd be tempted to say that better
command and control in the modern/future environment allow a more
predictable # of impetus points to be generated each turn. Maybe modern
engagements should be 4D6 impetus, not 1D20?
As to these other systems, I'll just add the Rules With No Name (Foundry,
freely available at www.icenter.net/~gisby). A deck is made with a
joker, some bonus cards, and a card for each unit in the game. Each turn
shuffle and begin flipping cards. When a units card comes up, it activates.
When the joker comes up, reshuffle and begin a new turn. I'm tempted to add a
second joker and require both to come up before ending the turn.