Slitherine

I was just musing on the effectiveness of artillery and noted that they get a minus factor when shooting at foote but not at mounted.

In my (admittedly inexpert) mind I always thought that artillery would be more effective against closely packed, slow moving bodies of foote troops rather than against faster moving and generally more loosely formed units of horse.

Is the rationale behind this that the artillery in this period was more likely to 'scare' the horses and cause disruption?

pudzy wrote:I was just musing on the effectiveness of artillery and noted that they get a minus factor when shooting at foote but not at mounted.

In my (admittedly inexpert) mind I always thought that artillery would be more effective against closely packed, slow moving bodies of foote troops rather than against faster moving and generally more loosely formed units of horse.

Is the rationale behind this that the artillery in this period was more likely to 'scare' the horses and cause disruption?

To some extent yes. But of course, against the large BGs of foot, such as tercios and keils, they are on the same factor because they get + for more than 2 ranks.

And mounted troops can get to the guns a lot quicker, so should not get shot at as many times.

And there is at least one recorded case of one cannonball taking out 30 gendarmes.

And I think it is Marston Moor where the guns fire for hours without a single recorded casulty amoungst the foot.

Thanks for the replies. My interest is more or less only in the ECW so of course my BGs of foote are only two ranks deep. I see now that if they were in the deeper formations specified in other lists then the artillery would get an extra plus.

One other thing though. If the Horse got there quicker and were shot at less wouldn't that make the artillery LESS effective against the horse?

Ah yes Marston Moor... Good point.. How did the Gunnes fare against the cavalry?

Arty hits horse on 4's and foot on 5's. My own experience has been that if you get your horse into the arc of the guns you are likely going to be sorry you were there to start with and you really want to close ASAP to limit your casualties.
Last game my cav moved up on Parliaments guns, went disrupted and then failed the CMT to charge before the foot managed to move into rear contact with the battery. Then I had to charge in against defended guns, although I did not take any other casualties or cohesion losses after that first SNAFU. I managed to finally neutralize the battery and it stayed out of action for the remainder of the game.
I also shot up a light battery that broke, guns VS muskets, muskets will eventually win.

deadtorius wrote:Last game my cav moved up on Parliaments guns, went disrupted and then failed the CMT to charge before the foot managed to move into rear contact with the battery. Then I had to charge in against defended guns, although I did not take any other casualties or cohesion losses after that first SNAFU...

Were you not using Cavaliers against the animal haters? Being shock, cavaliers, do not have to roll a CMT to charge when disrupted page (83)

Kevin D.

ahhh...we missed that bit!!

I blame Blathergut as he is the one who pointed out I had to roll, should have gotten that arty unit before your guys showed up to try an defend it. See you just can't trust an animal hating Parliamentarian as far as you can throw a 1...

ah, all in all we haven't missed too much...even almost remembering optional break offs!!

Although last turn I forgot my Cavaliers could do a triple brigade move and just did a double with them... should have been on that arty even sooner but for my poor addled brain