Piquet – Barrage rules?

[vtsaogames]

I tried to find online reviews of these rules. But what comes up are reviews of a board game with the same name about cutthroat business.

 

If anyone has played the WWI game, please let me know how it plays.

How complex?

Can a game be resolved within say 3 hours?

 

Thanks in advance.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

[Tony S]

Back when Piquet first appeared, my friend and I played a fair bit of it. It was quite revolutionary when it was published, and we enjoyed it, but mostly for Napoleonics. Ancients was a bit clunky; a bit of an odd mix of new Piquet mechanisms with some old school weapon interactions and such.

As for Barrage – never played it. We played the WW2 supplement once, but as I recall, we weren’t too thrilled with it. (You must remember, this was…omg…a quarter century ago). If I remember correctly, we were playing Command Decision and/or Rapid Fire and stuck with those.

Oddly enough, I was still rather interested in Barrage, and despite my misgivings with the WW2 set, found it compellingly attractive. Probably because it not only did WW1, but also covered the RJW and the RCW, both of which had few specific rulesets that covered it, and even back in my youth found obscure conflicts fascinating. At that time, I didn’t have any armies for those periods, so never got around to playing it.

Fast forward to a few months ago, and after finishing a Russian WW1 army with enough fancy bits to stretch into the RCW, I decided to look at Barrage again, based on my positive memories.

Again – haven’t played it, and after (trying) to reread it, quite honestly have no real urge to do so. The artillery rules are detailed and very heavy going. They cover twenty pages, and include a lengthy pre-game bombardment pre-plotting of artillery missions. I get it – artillery was rather critical in WW1, but it’s quite a chore to wade through. Back in the day, that’s the sort of “crunch” I loved; nowadays, not so much.

I seriously doubt it can be played in three hours. However, the included army lists are quite extensive and detailed, and provide an idea of force composition and effectiveness, so could be useful as a resource in that respect.

And, I know you didn’t ask, but I’ll offer my opinion on a few others anyway. For my WW1 gaming, I use Peter Pig’s Square Bashing. Much simpler, and is able to be completed within three or so hours. I have tried Great Escape Games “1914” but wasn’t so keen on them. For me, it didn’t feel at all like a WW1 battle, and had some odd rules. I also have played Nordic Weasel’s “Trench Hammer”. Fun, simple set that did have some interesting bits, although it’s rather small in terms of figures needed. Even though I would prefer to field a division as in Square Bashing, I’d play Trench Hammer again. Especially as you only need an hour or so to play!

[vtsaogames]

Thank you for this, will give Barrage a pass. Complex rules went the way of bell bottoms for my crew.

 

We played a bit of Square Bashing a few years ago, mostly Brits vs. Huns. A number of games saw defenders winning every game, sometimes close, sometimes not. Then we tried one with my 10mm Mesopotamia figures. The Turks attacked and got absolutely creamed. Realistic, but not much fun.

 

I do have a 9×13 hex mat, 4 inch hexes. Maybe I’ll have to try my hand at Great War rules. Maybe not.

I have a copy of Trench Hammer, will have to give it a go.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

[Tony S]

You know, I can’t quite remember if the victor was usually, or always the defender in Square Bashing.   It’s honestly been awhile since I’ve played.  Now I’m curious to perhaps show them the light of day again, and pay closer attention.

That said Vincent, have you considered or tried – or even heard of – “Through the Mud and Blood” not from the TooFatLardies, but rather Dobbies Hobbies on Wargames Vault.  It purports to be a divisional set of rules, and the single review makes it sound appealing to me.   As I only own Russian and Austrian armies, the lack of anything specific to the Eastern Front has stopped me from looking at them.

https://www.wargamevault.com/m/browser/publisher/12196

[vtsaogames]

Only knew of the Lardies version, will have to give these a look. Divisional, eh? I have German, British and French for mid-late war in 15mm, and British-Indian-Aussie vs. Ottomans in 10mm.

Thank you.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

[MartinR]

I played a fair bit of Square Bashing back in the day and we generally found the game to be quite balanced, if rather dice dependant. I switched to historical scenarios after a while so didn’t bother with points etc.

If you’ve got stuff based at one base per company, Great War Spearhead works very well. Division and up.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[vtsaogames]

MartinR wrote:

I played a fair bit of Square Bashing back in the day and we generally found the game to be quite balanced, if rather dice dependant. I switched to historical scenarios after a while so didn’t bother with points etc. If you’ve got stuff based at one base per company, Great War Spearhead works very well. Division and up.

 

Thanks for the tip. I had GWS mixed up with Over the Top. Never got around to trying the latter, writing style didn’t grab me. I sold my copy during a rules purge some years back. I note GWS II is stand-alone, don’t need to buy the original Spearhead.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

[Author]

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