How is Battle Command Ancient and Medieval different?

Battle Command (as a series) - as well as Field of Battle, have at their core the focus on key decisions, command and control, and friction on the battlefield.  That is handled by the use of a card sequence deck.  However, those decks, and the use of those decks is very different from Field of Battle compared to Battle Command.

In Field of Battle, each army's CiC rolls their command die (ranging from a D8 to a D12+1, the larger the better).  The difference in those rolls give the number of initiative points for each army.   Side A then turns cards and acts on them one at a time.  When they are done, Side B does the same from their sequence deck.  Sequence decks are 27 cards or so.

In Battle Command, the same CiC roll of determines who has the initiative, but everything else is different.  If you win the roll with an Even die roll, you get 2 initiative points.  If you win with an odd roll, you get 1 initiative points.  Each army's sequence deck is 9 cards.   However, the action cards (fire, move, melee, leadership) have a matrix of possibly different actions that you can select for your army depending on how well your CiC rolls when the action cards are turned.   This makes each card much much more likely to have value.  It forces decisions - what do I really want to do now?  What do I NEED to do now?  Additionally, you have the decision as the army commander of acting first or second with those initiative points.

Battle Command games are very heavy in command choices.  The rules are simple, but complete.  Complete does not equal complex.  There's only 1 page of reference tables that you need to play the games, and that's only on 1 side of a piece of paper.  

How fast is fast?  We played two development/playtest games of a Thirty Years War game yesterday.  Each army had 15 units.  The first game was 1 1/2 hours, the second game was 1 hour.

(This is from an earlier playtest of the Pike and Shot period rules)

Discussion of Battle Command Ancient and Medieval

 First of all - why the title "Battle Command Ancient and Medieval"?   That's not nearly as captivating a "Swooshing Blades of Death" or "Pikes and Javelins" or "King Tut to Edward IV".

Well.   I'm a Mechanical Engineer.  I prefer things to be well designed, clean, and smooth operating.   Flashy titles are....not my cup of tea.   "Battle Command" is the basic procedural skeleton of the series of rules that began a year ago with the publication of "Battle Command Musket to Rifle 1700-1900", continues with "Battle Command Ancient and Medieval", and will there will also be "Battle Command Pike and Shot" and "Battle Command WW2".  I much prefer a title of a set of wargame rules to just tell me what era is covered rather than make me try to guess what is covered.   I guess it is easy to guess that I'm not a fantasy gamer....

The basic impetus of creating the rules began a couple years ago when we had to reschedule our group's game day.  I had the troops set out (for a Peninsular war game) and the terrain set up, so I just went ahead and did a solo development play session - I just used 1/3 of the cards from Field of Battle, made up a matrix of decision combinations, and started to play.  My goal was to eliminate as much of the downtime as possible - those turns of a card where everybody just says "that's no use - can't use it".   Even in the first development game, it was clear that it was going to be a unique system and that it was also going to achieve my goal of reducing downtime and also providing games with a TON of decision points.

I'll add more in subsequent posts.   I'll end this with a few photos from some Battle Command games (both Musket to Rifle and Ancient and Medieval).

More to follow.....

New Game Released!

 I see that it has been almost 2 years since my last blog post!   Trust me, those years have been very busy, and one of the things that kept me busy was the creation, playtesting, and development of the new Ancient and Medieval rules, Battle Command Ancient and Medieval.    

https://www.piquetwargames.com/product-page/battle-command-ancients-to-medieval

Battle Command: Ancient and Medieval introduces a new feature to the ancient and medieval period – the Action Matrix. This is the heart of the game, and it presents the command decisions that players must make to best control and lead their forces. Leadership is at the core of determining the non-linear turn sequence and actions available to armies. Armies with a higher quality commanding general (CiC) will be more flexible and capable than armies with a lower quality commanding general. Decisions on which available action to use on each Action Card will depend on the battle circumstances. There will be times when the commanding leader is faced with evaluating the tactical situation facing his entire army but will be making an action decision that is focused on a single command group or even a single unit rather than the entire army. Utilizing the command options decisively and at the right time will be critical to victory.

Those familiar with the sequence card deck and primary/secondary card action process introduced in Battle Command: Musket to Rifle will note that the choices are more limited in Battle Command: Ancient and Medieval. This reflects the far less articulated command structures in the ancient and medieval period as compared to later periods.
 
Battle Command: Ancient and Medieval introduces the Action Matrix to ancient and medieval wargames. Initiative, sequence cards, and leadership quality are all used to determine the
non-linear turn sequence and actions available to armies.

Biblical era wars through the Wars of the Roses are covered.

You can purchase a coil bound rulebook or PDF of the rulebook via the link above.  There are also professionally printed card decks available via the website.   

The rulebook includes card sheets that can be copied to allow the creation of your card decks if you should so choose.  It's pretty easy - copy onto your choice of paper or cardstock and then slip into card sleeves.  For game development work I use a paper front and back card sheet cut into the individual cards, sandwiched around a standard playing card, all in a card sleeve.  The playing card gives a nice sturdy feel and the cards are pretty rugged if done this way.

There are a ton of battle reports and photos on the Piquet and Field of Battle Facebook page.  I'll also be uploading game images here moving forward.

An Update!

 Wow - it has been a long time since I updated my blog!   I don't know how that happened, other than, well, one gets busy and time goes by before you know it.

So, what have I been working on?

The biggest project is that I wrote a new set of rules and released them - Battle Command Musket to Rifle (1700-1900).   These were released in January 2023 and are available through the Piquet wargames website:   https://www.piquetwargames.com/product-page/battle-command-musket-to-rifle-1700-1900

I'll go into a lot more detail about these rules in future posts, but here is the summary:

Battle Command Musket to Rifle 1700-1900 introduces many more command decisions, while maintaining the fog of war through the use of a deck of sequence cards. The Action Matrix allows players to seize opportunities to emphasize specific actions, sometimes having to make a very hard decision on whether to use the card for only one Command group or to instead use the card for a much larger portion of the army. This allows players to get inside the command loop of the enemy and by the choices made, make the enemy face tough decisions of their own.
 
Armies with a better CiC will have opportunities for more flexibility and better choices than armies with lower rated CiCs. Battle Command is a fast, fun game that emphasizes command and fog of war more than any other game in the Field of Battle/Piquet stable of games. The decisions can be hard, but the rules are not.
 
Periods Covered
• War of Spanish Succession 1701-1714
• Great Northern War 1700-1721
• Jacobite Rebellion 1745-1746
• Seven Years War 1756-1763
• American War of Independence 1775-1783
• Napoleonic Wars 1799-1815
• Mexican-American War 1846-1848
• Anglo-Sikh Wars 1845-1846, 1848-1849
• Crimean War 1853-1856
• Franco-Austrian War 1859
• American Civil War 1861-1865
• Austro-Prussian War 1866
• Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871
• Russo-Turkish War 1877
• Anglo-Zulu War 1879
• Anglo-Sudan War 1881-1899

I've completed new armies, rebased everything to my new 2 stand per unit standard, completed major portions of other armies, completed playtesting and development of a new WW2 game we'll be publishing....and other stuff as well.

I'll post more details with photos of the new armies, units, games, etc.

There has been loss in our group and at home over this time period.  Terry Shockey passed away, which effected us all.   Terry was a sweet man that loved wargaming and all that went with it.   We miss him very much.    My wife Lisa and I lost our Jack Russell terrier, Toby, to cancer in March.   That was a hard loss as Toby was intertwined in our lives.   He was also a constant presence at our games, always finding an open chair to hop up onto so that he could survey the tabletop.   

We had planned on waiting to get a new pup, but an opportunity presented itself to get a new 8 week old Jack Russell Terrier.  A 10 hour drive to the breeder and we met our new puppy.

World - this is Henry!


Henry is a curious, loving shorty Jack.  He's so very smart....which gets him into problems at times!  I'm sure you'll be seeing more photos of Henry as he gets initiated into game days.

Speaking of game days, our next group game day is in about 2 1/2 weeks, period yet to be determined.  I'll make sure to post photos.

That's all for now.   More to follow!

First Test & Development Games of Pulse of Battle: Ancient & Medieval

 We had a smaller group yesterday for our first playtests of the new "Pulse of Battle: Ancient & Medieval" rules that I've started working on.   They'll be an expanded and modified version of Pulse of Battle, covering the ancient period up through the Swiss Burgundian war in the late 1400s.

The games we played were both Republican Romans vs. a Gaul army.   There's not a lot of nuance in playing a Gaul army, and not much tactical flexibility.   The Roman army is the complete opposite.   I didn't expect the Gauls to win (I used the same troop count for both sides in the first game) as I was primarily doing rule testing.   The Gauls didn't disappoint.   They were CRUSHED in the first game.  The Romans blew a wide hole in the middle of the Gaul army, decimating the Gaul's Army Morale Point total, and the Gauls happily failed their first Army Morale test.

The second game had the Gauls with about a 40% advantage in army size......and they still lost.   The Romans concentrated on the Gaul right flank, and the Gaul left flank couldn't get enough movement to ever get into the game.   The Gaul cavalry on the right had an opportunity to sweep around the Roman left/rear, but couldn't seem to get going.   

Photos follow below.

First Game!

 We were finally able to get back to gaming this past Saturday.   The start of the game was delayed a bit because everyone was so glad to see each other, and the stories were flying!

We played two SYW games, with the first armies that I finished during the pandemic - Austrians and Prussians.  This was their first time in battle.   Both games were close - the Austrians won the first game by a slim margin.   The commanders switched sides, and the Prussians won the second game by the tiniest margin.

During the second game, both sides were at 0 AMPs.  The Prussians decided to take a couple of low percentage artillery shots just to see if they could get an AMP paid to them by the Austrians for a UI loss, which would put them at least out of the danger zone with 0 AMPs.   Rolling a D4 vs. a D6, Greg R. rolled a 4 vs. a 1!   1 UI lost to the Austrians, and the morale point went to the Prussians.   Now a second fire, at a D4 vs. a D6, and Greg R. once again rolled a 4 vs. a 1!!  That's a 1 in 576 chance of occurring!!!   The next Prussian card was turned.....and it was the Army Morale card!   Without the drama of the artillery fire successes, the Prussians would have been forced to check morale to see if they remained in the battle.   Whew.    

Two more times both sides were at 0 AMPs, but eventually the Prussians crept up a couple of AMPs and finally the Austrians turned an Army Morale card when they had 0 AMPs.....and they failed.    What a game!

This was the first time using a couple of my new Cigar Box Battle mats.   They are awesome!   I just used them over my terrain squares terrain, and I loved the smooth hill shapes.

I'll finish this post with a random assortment of some game photos.

New Product Updates

 Wow - I'm almost posting regularly!  It has only been 5 months since the last post....

We (Piquet Inc.) are just about ready to release Eric Burgess' fantastic set of siege rules, titled "Vauban's Wars".    You can read more about VW on Eric's blog:  https://dinofbattle.blogspot.com/

There is also a set of casino quality cards that go with the game.

Both are available for pre-order here: https://www.piquetwargames.com/physical-historical-supplements

This set will become the standard by which all other siege games are measured.  Eric has done a fantastic job with the rules.

The other "new" set is Field of Battle, 3rd Edition.  Conveniently enough, the rulebook, sequence cards, and campaign tactical map cards are also available at:  https://www.piquetwargames.com/physical-historical-supplements

On new game development news, I'm working away on the WW2 tactical set - titled "Nothing Less Than Victory".   In this game, the basic unit of combat is a single stand squad (for infantry), a single stand weapon section (representing 2-3 weapons) and a single stand tank or vehicle (representing 2-3 vehicles).   It's pretty easy to get a full battalion on the table, and the game plays quickly.  My expectations are to have NLTV complete and published by early spring 2021.

I've also been doodling ideas for a couple of other games - a WW2 air game that is semi operational, yet also features rapid resolution of missions, allowing for encounters and dogfights.   I'm working on my 1/285th plane collection for this game, but have a ways to go before it gets more fleshed out.

I'm also jotting down ideas and procedures for a high level WW2 game where the basic unit for combat is the battalion.  In effect a player would be commanding around a division in the game, but there's no reason he couldn't command more.   I think it would be ideal for the Western Desert  or Russian campaigns.

And in the midst of all this "work" (its not work - its PLAY), I'm making great progress on my current miniatures painting progress - large ACW cavalry forces.  I'm making 12 mounted and dismounted cavalry units for each side.  The Confederate mounted forces are done and the Federal mounted forces are 2/3 done.  The dismounted units should paint much quicker.   I've always been fascinated by cavalry in the ACW and how it developed and was used.  Tons of interesting scenarios!

I'll start posting photos of my "pandemic" collections.   I finished (although nothing is ever finished) my SYW armies, rebased all of my ancient armies, mounted up armies for the WW2 battalion game, and did some more painting for my 25mm WW2 forces.   Pics to follow.....