Piquet

15 posts ยท Sep 27 2004 to Oct 8 2004

From: Adrian Reen-Shuler <saltpeanuts73@y...>

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 09:59:08 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: Piquet

It's a generic rules set which emphasises fog of war from the commanders
perspective. The premise is that you know what you've told all your units to
do, but are they actually doing it in a timely fashion?

With out going into excruciating detail, it uses an alternating initiative
system (sort of), when it's your initiative, you get impetus (action points)
to spend activating your units. But, and this is the real core of the system
in my mind, what actions you are allowed to take each turn depends on drawing
cards from a deck. The result is that often only some of
your units can move / reload, etc. and you're really
not sure what you'll be able to do the next turn either (of course the same
thing applies to your opponent).

Since you know the composition of the deck of cards, you know what you should
be able to do over the course
of 4-5 turns, but not what you can do next turn.

The biggest problem (in my opinion) is that the designer has taken virtually
the same rules set and applied it to all eras. It works pretty well for ACW,
but not so well for WWII (or strangely, American Rev
war).

-Adrian
> --- J L Hilal <jlhilal@yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:

From: Laserlight <laserlight@q...>

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 14:14:38 -0400

Subject: Re: Piquet

> With out going into excruciating detail, it uses an

I've been mulling over something much the same for SG2, except that a unit
would be able to take one of a limited number of Battle Drill actions--
eg "Fire on enemy in open at RB3 or less", or "Return Fire", or "go In
Position"--even if the commander doesn't get any activation points.

From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 10:16:00 +1000

Subject: RE: Piquet

G'day,

> With out going into excruciating detail, it uses an

Sort of;)

You (usually) roll off dice and the winner takes that amount (or the
difference in the rolls or whatever houserule) as their impetus so you can end
up with lopsided runs which can make things more uncertain yet. Mind you there
probably as many variants of the impetus system as people who've tried Piquet
;)

> The biggest problem (in my opinion) is that the

I don't know much about the more modern periods (either in reality or in the
game as I haven't played them), but it works well for ancients through to
Napoleonics in my opinion. I've also played with other people's WWI biplane
and wooden sailing ship variants and had fun. As
for sci-fi, spaceship wise I had a go at mashing it together with FT,
and while it was fun I actually prefer standard FT myself. Derek has written
some PK inspired spaceship rules which allow for fleets,
multiple players per side (running different factions), psuedo-vector
movement, missile swarms and still play quickly, but unfortunately real life
over took him before he got it to a point for general consumption. I know a
few guys have had a go at combining DS or SG and Piquet, Derek has at a go at
tying Piquet to FMA and I think someone tried a WH40K or epic combo and
someone else a Battletech combo. Quite apart from the published games I think
the basic concept has immense flexibility and
could be extended very usefully to sci-fi, as evidenced by Laserlight's
comments.

Having said all that, the uncertainty and potentially uneven initiative does
mean that it is not for people who like control in a game and its pretty much
one of those things you either really like or really loathe.

Cheers

From: Laserlight <laserlight@q...>

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 22:31:00 -0400

Subject: Re: Piquet

Beth said:
> I think the basic concept has immense flexibility and

<grin> it's so flexible, I don't even know what it is....

But I specifically do not want the DBA-like "I know I have this many
action points so I can do A, B and C without fear of interruption" or "I
rolled low so my units just sit here mindlessly." I do want an incentive for
group moves, and uncertainty as to which side will act next.

From: Michael Brown <mwbrown@s...>

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 20:10:47 -0700

Subject: RE: Piquet

The key issue I have seen with PK (I have never played) is that it is geared
to 1-2 players, and my in my crew it we want 6-8 players.

JMO

Mike

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 10:24:00 +1000

Subject: RE: Piquet

G'day Mike,

> The key issue I have seen with PK (I have never played) is

It can cope with multiple players pretty well (as well as any gaming system
I've seen)... espeically if you use one of the alternative impetus systems;)

From: Robert Makowsky <rmakowsky@y...>

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 03:16:02 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: Piquet

All,

> From the talk on the list I ordered Piquet Point of

Thanks for pointing this out to me!

From: Carlos Lourenco <loscon@g...>

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 13:34:33 -0400

Subject: Re: Piquet

Hey Bob, I have the Piquet "clock" thingy. Made in nice wood, it tracks
activations and what not. I thought of throwing it out a million times, when I
find it I'll give it to you. It pays to be a pack rat.

Los

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 03:16:02 -0700 (PDT), Robert Makowsky
> <rmakowsky@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: bbrush@u...

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 13:38:44 -0500

Subject: Re: Piquet

Holy Bat-crap Batman, it's the return of Los.

Welcome back.

owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU wrote on 10/07/2004 12:34:33 PM:

> Hey Bob,

From: Doug Evans <devans@n...>

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 13:57:05 -0500

Subject: Re: Piquet

I was still sulking from my misremembering the card play, or more likely,
recalling someone with their own way of playing, that it took Bill's
intemperate language to open my eyes.

Welcome back, Los!

You know, you could tone down the nastiness of the card draw by having some
wildcards, so that you get to chose SOME of the time. Or is that also a part
of Piquet I missed? *sigh*

The_Beast

From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>

Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:00:04 +1100

Subject: RE: Piquet

G'day,

> Welcome back, Los!

I'll second or third or whatever we're up to by now that;)

> You know, you could tone down the nastiness of the card draw

Its called the Brilliant Leader card;)

> Or is that also a part of Piquet I missed? *sigh*

Its alright mate patchy memory happens to the best of us;)

Have fun

From: Michael Brown <mwbrown@s...>

Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 18:11:35 -0700

Subject: RE: Piquet

I'll me too on this one!! Good to have you back.

Mike Brown

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Carlos Lourenco <loscon@g...>

Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:18:33 -0400

Subject: Re: Piquet

Thanks to all, it's good to be back, am retired from the Army for good
(theoreticaly) and I'm looking forward to ECC.

Los

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 18:11:35 -0700, Katrina Brown <mwbrown@sonic.net>
wrote:
> I'll me too on this one!! Good to have you back.

From: Indy Kochte <kochte@s...>

Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2004 09:34:58 -0400

Subject: Re: Piquet

> Carlos Lourenco wrote:

Woohoo!

Mk

From: Jon Davis <davisje@n...>

Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2004 11:15:24 -0400

Subject: Re: Piquet

> Carlos Lourenco wrote:

> Thanks to all, it's good to be back, am retired from the Army for good

It'll be good to see you again, Los. It's been a few!