I was playing a game on Saturday using the 1813 Prussians and was told that my artillery attachment to a reformed infantry in square formation unit could not fire separately at a target that was out of range of the infantry. I was told that if I was unreformed infantry I could fire. I believe that the rules do say this; but, what is the rationale and does it really make sense since all bateries had at least both canister and solid shot. Any comments?
V/R
Joe
Squares and Artillery Attachments
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Re: Squares and Artillery Attachments
In short, in square the artillery and infantry only fire at close range. This is best detaiiled in forum thread #33441 on April 8 by Terrys:
"Long Range:
Artillery Attachments can only fire (with 1 dice) at long range if they are attached to an artillery unit.
* The reason we did this was to reduce the number of wasted dice rolls in a game (1 dice at a 5 or 6, only relevent in your opponents turn).
Close Range:
All artillery attachments fire (with 2 dice) at close range, except that a unit in square only gets +1 dice (The artillery is spread around the square, usually at the corners).
Medium Range:
The Rule in general is that if your unit of infantry or cavalry get no dice at medium range, then the artillery attachment fires with 2 dice, otherwise it fires with 1 dice.
Squares:
What happens with an artillery attachment at medium range?
At the moment if you take the rulers literally (who'd do that?), unreformed infantry in square would get 2 dice and reformed infantry in square would get none - which seems just a little odd.
But the 2nd bullet point on page 50 is supposed to overrule this:
* Infantry in square can only fire at close range.
To make it clearer we should ammend it to:
"Infantry in square and their attachments, can only fire at close range."
In general. we don't allow units to fire with just a single dice. (before deductions)."
Chasseur added: "The doctrine was that attached Artillery did not usually fire at long range. Their use was for close support (in game terms close and medium range) of the unit they were attached to. They saved their fire for immediate threats to these units, rather than wasting their fire. It was typically the task of the Corps reserve and Army reserve batteries to perform long range fire"
"Long Range:
Artillery Attachments can only fire (with 1 dice) at long range if they are attached to an artillery unit.
* The reason we did this was to reduce the number of wasted dice rolls in a game (1 dice at a 5 or 6, only relevent in your opponents turn).
Close Range:
All artillery attachments fire (with 2 dice) at close range, except that a unit in square only gets +1 dice (The artillery is spread around the square, usually at the corners).
Medium Range:
The Rule in general is that if your unit of infantry or cavalry get no dice at medium range, then the artillery attachment fires with 2 dice, otherwise it fires with 1 dice.
Squares:
What happens with an artillery attachment at medium range?
At the moment if you take the rulers literally (who'd do that?), unreformed infantry in square would get 2 dice and reformed infantry in square would get none - which seems just a little odd.
But the 2nd bullet point on page 50 is supposed to overrule this:
* Infantry in square can only fire at close range.
To make it clearer we should ammend it to:
"Infantry in square and their attachments, can only fire at close range."
In general. we don't allow units to fire with just a single dice. (before deductions)."
Chasseur added: "The doctrine was that attached Artillery did not usually fire at long range. Their use was for close support (in game terms close and medium range) of the unit they were attached to. They saved their fire for immediate threats to these units, rather than wasting their fire. It was typically the task of the Corps reserve and Army reserve batteries to perform long range fire"
Re: Squares and Artillery Attachments
MikeK,
Thank you for the info. including the detailed summary. I really think that artillery attachments should be able to fire more than two inches (~100 yards)
when attached to a square, regardless of whether the square is unreformed or reformed. Out to six inches (~300 yards), medium range, makes the most
sense to me since this is within canister range of period artillery. Also, I believe the batteries would be placed in front of the squares rather than at
the corners with the gunners running inside when charged. (At least this is the impression that I get when reading about Waterloo.)
V/R
Joe
Thank you for the info. including the detailed summary. I really think that artillery attachments should be able to fire more than two inches (~100 yards)
when attached to a square, regardless of whether the square is unreformed or reformed. Out to six inches (~300 yards), medium range, makes the most
sense to me since this is within canister range of period artillery. Also, I believe the batteries would be placed in front of the squares rather than at
the corners with the gunners running inside when charged. (At least this is the impression that I get when reading about Waterloo.)
V/R
Joe
Re: Squares and Artillery Attachments
There is certainly an argument for allowing them to fire - but for the moment we just don't allow it on the grounds that we have no control over where they actually are, or whether or not the gunners have abandoned them or not.Thank you for the info. including the detailed summary. I really think that artillery attachments should be able to fire more than two inches (~100 yards)
when attached to a square, regardless of whether the square is unreformed or reformed. Out to six inches (~300 yards), medium range, makes the most
sense to me since this is within canister range of period artillery. Also, I believe the batteries would be placed in front of the squares rather than at
the corners with the gunners running inside when charged. (At least this is the impression that I get when reading about Waterloo.)