I had the opportunity to play another Piquet game at Brent's house a couple of weeks ago. This time it was Eric, Bob and Chris vs. John and myself. We took the Confederates. Eric was a new player in our little group and it appears that he will be invited back.
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| Our host with Eric and Bob before disaster struck the Union. |
We had some bad luck in the initial deployment rolls and the Union was able to deploy in two additional zones of their choice. However, we were able to win the army strength roll and, as a result, the Union had one command delayed until the seventh move card. Since there are only 4 move cards in each deck, the Union reinforcements would not arrive until the second time through the deck.
The Confederate army had two very poor brigades so we decided that these brigades would be screened from the Union by the remaining three brigades. Otherwise, poor brigades become nothing more that moral chip burners. Since there were really only three good brigades, the Confederates deployed in a narrow arc from the center of the board to their left. Nothing was deployed on the right.
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| The Confederate deployment at the start. |
The Union deployed across the board with Eric commanding an inferior brigade on the right, Bob commanding a small but very high quality brigade in the center, and Chris commanding two average brigades on the Union left.
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| Eric's command is in the upper left corner. |
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Bob's outnumbered center command of 3 foot and a battery
(in the background). |
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| Chris's two brigade command on the Union left. |
The Union planned to advance upon the Confederate right in force while the remainder of the army held in place. However, unbeknownst to the Union commanders, their deck was the worst quality possible in Piquet Field of Battle and it contained at least 2 more lull cards than the Confederate deck. This inhibited the Union army's ability to react and change formation.
The Confederates, seeing that the Union center was isolated, decided to advance destroy it before the Union could engage the Confederates from the left. Almost immediately, a high quality Union regiment routed to the rear. However, the Confederates could not sustain this advantage because the Union center contained their best troops and a vicious d12+1 battery. Three Confederate units were quickly streaming to the rear. The Confederate attack in the center began to falter.
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The attack on the Union center. Note that all three Confederate
gun batteries are supporting the attack. |
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| Confederate center breaking and fleeing to the rear. |
The Union commanders became confident of victory. Only later events were to show that this confidence was misplaced.
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| The Union left flank attack. |
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| The Union is confident. Chris executes the left flank attack. |
Suddenly, the Confederates swung a battery around on their right flank and fired into the advancing Union devils at short range. One Union regiment heads for the rear. Then two Confederate regiments on the right advance against two remaining Union regiments in the woods on their right. Both Union regiments flee with significant losses. Half of the forces on the Union left are gone and the remainder are isolated. The Union runs out of moral chips and begins giving moral chips to the Confederates. Soon, an Army moral check card came up and the Union army is forced to withdraw.
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The end. Confederate left in the foreground. The shattered
Union left is visible to the upper right. |
The game was a lot of fun. It took about 3 hours to play to a decisive conclusion. Once again, Piquet Field of Battle gives the best miniature wargame experience possible. It could only be improved by using little robots instead of cast metal miniatures. Thanks again to Brent for hosting another fun game.
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