Artillery enfilade

[deadtorius]

lets muddy it up even more

Lets say you have an enemy pike and shot BG in column facing you and you shoot at it, you would get a + since the target is 3 or more bases deep. Now if the same column were to wheel in front of you would you count that as an enfilade since they are only one base deep but you can fire into their flank?

I understand the concept of an enfilade, you shoot along the width of the target so your cannon balls smash through more targets and cause more mayhem than if you are shooting at the target along its shallower frontage. So a column in flank you would be shooting along its narrow frontage. Might be more of a theory than a rule interpretation since by definition it should be an enfilade. Was just wondering about other thoughts on this one.

[petedalby]

Now if the same column were to wheel in front of you would you count that as an enfilade since they are only one base deep but you can fire into their flank?

I believe so - yes.

[daveallen]

Lets say you have an enemy pike and shot BG in column facing you and you shoot at it, you would get a + since the target is 3 or more bases deep. Now if the same column were to wheel in front of you would you count that as an enfilade since they are only one base deep but you can fire into their flank?

Bear in mind that the +'s for three ranks deep and for enfilade are "any one of" so you'd only get a single +. If that's what you were thinking, you probably weren't though.

Another point is that the depth of wargames bases has always overstated the depth of the formations they represent, but not the width - an infantry base might have four or five times as many files as ranks*. So an enfilade on a single base wide column is effectively targeting as many men as shooting at a four deep formation. Hence no anomaly in your suggestion.

* Which is just what it looks like with four figures across a base - doh!

[alasdair2204]

Then just follow my suggestion of tracing a line through both side edges of a BG from either corner of the shooting base. The rule is intended to reflect shooting at a depth of target. There has to be an element of common sense in the application of this rule!!!

Because, Don, that is no less a horrible measurement than the cone I suggested!

What the rules do, imo, is create a 90degree 'cone' from lines extending the front and flank edges. Any artillery within this cone and in arc of fire get the enfilade bonus.

This is quite easy to measure, but it does apply a bit of a tweak to reality in so far as an artillery piece to the flank of a target, but just the wrong side of the front edge would be far more of an enfilade than one almost behind the target and just on the right side of the flank edge.

I can live with that tweak if it makes for an easier flowing game. I think it does.

I could also justify it on the basis that an important effect of artillery fire is on morale, so any artillery fire from the rear(ish) would be more 'effective'. But I won't as that is just another red herring

As this weekend's Scots won't be relying on massed artillery or lots of pointy sticks to survive I'm not presently unduly exercised by this question, but I did want to have it aired here so I wouldn't have to argue from first principles when I next turn up with six heavy guns.


So you know the rules on artillery, saves me looking them up when I play you

cheers

Alasdair

Dave

[alasdair2204]

Hi Dave

I'm glad you're learning the artillery rules, saves me learning them for when I play you

Cheers

Alasdair

[deadtorius]

Bear in mind that the +'s for three ranks deep and for enfilade are "any one of" so you'd only get a single +. If that's what you were thinking, you probably weren't though

.


Actually I knew that it was one of the other, I was thinking of whether or not you would count an enfilade on a flanked column, actually I had forgotten the + would apply since they are still 3 or more deep.

So seems irrelevant in the end of whether they are enfilade or not. I was too preoccupied with the whole vision of being longer than wider so would the cannon ball bouncing through them do as much damage in the enfilade. Oh well so much for trying to muddy things up. Now its all crystal clear

[daveallen]

Alasdair,

you know I'm too much a gentleman ever to turn my back on you

[quackstheking]

So Dave - who would you turn your back on if not Alasdair?

Don