Mathieu Lafourcade – version 0.7 — march 2004
In these
rules, we will sometimes refers to the original Piquet (PK) rules and Archon.
The present rules called Forte Fortuna (FF) will differs substantially from the
original PK rules. Sometimes a rationale for the new or changed rules is
presented between [ and ]. This rational is only of interested for people
already playing PK
Simplifying
some Piquet –Archon mechanisms toward accelerating game pace. Also, the goal is
to allow young players to master the rules (I player with my son of 8).
Beside
filling the Army Characterization Record, no annotations or memorization is
required during the game.
You can
refer to the following links:
http://www.piquet.com
for the commercial web
site, which includes designer notes and product information.
http://www.piquet.org
for the Official Piquet
Gamer's Site, which includes news, information, scenarios, and some house
rules.
You need:
Before
playing you need to:
The
notation Dn refers to a n sides die throw. For n values in {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12,
20} we can use standard die, alternatively for any other values of n, we
simulate with a D100 (two D10 of different colors) and the following table (for values between 2 and 30 inclusive)..
Erreur !
Liaison incorrecte.
When
playing with 25mm, each figure roughly represents 50-60 men. A stand might have
4 figure (dense infantry like roman cohort, phalanx), 3 figures (regular
infantry, dense cavalry), 2 figures (skirmisher, light cavalry) or even 1
(elephant, chariot). A unit is normally composed of 4 stands. That is to say, a
four stands unit represent between 400 and 800 men.
One 1"
(roughly 2.5 cm) on the tabletop represents 25 yards/meters on the battlefield.
Simply enough, a millimeter (mm) is equal to 1 meter. In some games, we speak
into “pace” which is equal to 1 mm. If your longbow can fire up to 40 cm on the
tabletop, it refers to 400m on the battlefield.
There is no
more turn (at least as defined in PK), but only phase. Each phase is a sequence
of action of various lengths. Roughly each action equals approximately 1
minute. The best way to measure the time of the battle is just to pretend that
the simulated times is roughly twice the real (i.e. 1/2 hour of play equals 1
hour of battle)
We use the
playing card method. Each player has a set of 13 cards (King, Queen, Jack, 10 9
8, 7 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace), which values range from 13 to 1. The set is shuffled
and faced down. At initiative time each player draws a card. The higher got the
initiative with an impetus number equal to the difference with the next higher
value. In case of any draw, everybody draws a new card. When no more cards are
available, discarded cards are shuffled again.
[This method seems well suited for more than 2 players, leads to reasonable impetus swing, the max difference being King-Ace = 1, chance eventually swings back]
There is no
more turn, but only phases. As initiative cards, when a deck is emptied, it is
reshuffled and used again.
[any action that occurred at turn end, occur immediately with some differences, see below]
[Command Points supersede and generalize impetus points, morale chips, etc]
Command
Points reflect the capacity of the command to handle its troops, to assess its
moral, etc. A command with lots of CP will be able to control pace of events
more tightly (although not completely) than a command with few CP. Running out
of CP might be dramatic as almost no action could be undertaken, no morale test
be passed, etc.
Each player
receives at the beginning of the game an amount of Command Points (CP) equal to
5 times its number of units. The Bank, that is common to all players, receives
an amount of PC equal to 2 times the total number of units in the game. So the
total amount of CP of the game is fixed. Poker chips can be used for CP.
CPs are
used for acting on cards, paying for various actions or events (for instance
what was done originally with morale chips). We call Budget the amount pf CP in
possession by a player.
When a
player wins the initiative with n impetus points, it is granted n CP points
from the bank, that are disposed in front of him (these points are still called
player impetus points or PIPs at this time). He can do the following things:
Ex: A MOVE card will cost 1 CP for each group to be moved. An Out of Command unit will cost 1 CP to be moved.
· Converting 2 PIPs for 1 PC. This
allows to user to replenish his budget but at a cost and also at the expense of
acting.
[ ]
When a user
has expended all his initiative points, a new initiative sequence is
undertaken.
During the
initiative phase, if there is no more or not enough CP in the bank (which may
occur is people are thesaurising CP instead of playing) then the needed CP are
taken from the budget of the richest player. In case of equality, we resolve
the problem through some dice throw (lower loses and pays).
[This situation is VERY UNLIKELY to happen]
It is not
mandatory for the player to consume all its PIPs, but unused ones are lost for
this phase.
Unless
specified otherwise, any payment is made at the bank.
In all
generality every pro-active action has basic cost of one CP. Is the action is
automatic (for example, Levy to shoot at extended range, or engaging melee when
in contact from rear), adverting it would cost 1 CP.
Each time a
unit is routed, the loser pays 1 CP to the winner. If routed for external
reasons the loser pays the CP to the bank.
Each time a
stand is lost, the loser pays 1 CP to the winner. If the lost stand are due to
external reason like routing out of the map, routing through another troop,
etc. the CP are paid to the bank.
Actions can
be undertaken during someone else phase at a cost of 2 CP per action. The
player just says “opportunity action”. Some action requires a card to be
undertaken, some other no.
A unit
cannot do more than one opportunity action in a row. This is mainly due to
avoid someone who has stored several Reload cards to be able to continuously
fire at an incoming target.
A given
Opportunity card is played only for one given unit (not an entire command).
After playing such a card the unit is immediately Out of Command. The unit can
opportunity act only if there is no enemy in its control zone (anywhere closer
to one stand depth).
A unit is
composed of (generally) 4 stands. Each stand contains between 2 and 4 figures.
The number of hits of a stand equals the number of figures (elephants and
chariot are exceptions).
For light
troops (skirmishers), we put 2 figures per stand, so the unit has a total of 8
hits. It is the same for light or regular cavalry. For heavy cavalry and
regular infantry, we put 3 figures per stand, the unit total being 12 hits. For
heavy infantry, we put 4 figures per stand, the unit total begin 16 hits.
Battle line
(BL)
Battle
Order (BO)
Battle Mass
(BM)
Skirmish
(SK)
Combat
Column or Phalanx (CC)
Road Column
(RC)
Square (SQ)
A unit can
be “in command” (no marker) and “out of command”
Furthermore
a unit can be in various states: normal (no marker), disordered, disorganized,
routed.
The typical
stands dimensions are the following
Cheap stands for quick setup
The state
of a unit can be marked with colored pins. States are disordered (yellow),
disorganized (red), routed (black). The out of command marker is blue
Colored pins for unit states
Ex: This heavy roman infantry (legionaries) unit has only two sections left. The unit is disordered (yellow pin) and out of command (blue pin).