Thursday, June 23, 2016

Piquet Les Grognards - solo (and some new additions)

Solo game of PK Les Grognards played using French and Prussians.

Interesting to see 'original' style PK in action (although Les Grogs has several changes to initial set) with separate ratings for Firing, Melee and Morale compared to Field Of Battle's Combat and Defense.

I used a optional Active/Reactive D12 rolls for Initiative wherein each side gets to use rolled number for initiative use.
This worked well and less at times jarring extremes than standard D20 and Phase Limiting system.

Use of Opportunity chips and using 1 Pip or every single action seems odd after FOB.
But allowing Cavalry (and Old Guard) to perform Morale Challenges I like along with Cavalry Opportunity Charges (FOB sort of covers this by having units capable of multiple moves on single card play - dice rolls allowing).

Having to place extra Dress Line cards into decks along with Major Morale card and then discarding cards based on losses is also interesting.

The combat systems work fine as do the card decks but overall I found the game to be a lot less dramatic than FOB which subsumes a lot of these things into the Even vs Odds rolls and uses Pips merely to turn cards not per action.
The FOB system streamlines so much as no need for the Deployment and Move in Class II/IV cards from PK as again the Evens vs Odds system elegantly caters for this.


FOB2 Melee is definitely more exciting as resolved in same turn as initiated (FOB1 was more akin to original PK) and not having to wait for a Melee Resolution Card.

Still PK is streaks ahead of most rule sets for non-linear sequence of play and narrative building but its newer offspring is indeed hard to better in the drama and speed of play stakes.

Les Grogs has a Grand Tactical version (each unit a Regt/Brig) included which I must try and the horizon movement option looks interesting.































































As to the new additions-

Print version of set I acquired on PDF


















and





















And two (what am I thinking !!???) new additions to the Steiner Clan.

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