nwg

Not my normal style of game, but those Militia of yours kept charging me.....and they did very well, breaking many of my Lights.

I just watched the replay and I notice I had a Guard unit of 191 men in line facing your troops with FAW turned off !!!!!!.....I turned it off earlier when they charged, but they routed on contact then rallied in the forest, when I brought them back into action I forgot to turn FAW back on - lesson learnt - again !.

Very entertaining stuff fellas
I think you would agree gunner that in our games we have tended to field pretty similar army's, this is clearly not going to be the case with M, only just over 9K to spend and yet 4 arty units deployed, i guess this is only possible with a militia that costs 25 fl, still very interesting choices.
Was a very strong defencive position and with all them trees it looked a sound choice by Gunner to have all those lights, but M, dealt with them very well and we saw again how vital being able to chase down routing units is, there was also a whole unit of guard Jan's routing that M was not able to get at.
Not sure I'm looking forward to facing those charging Russians
P.S. i noticed in close up a unit of Russ militia charging with AXES whats that all about ???
WP both

Yes its interesting that isn't it? We'll all have to have a bit of a chat after this round of campaigns.

What to do when your line and non-elite infantry is not a match (firing wise) for your enemy? There is not a lot of point in going toe to toe matching infantry with infantry because you'll probably lose unless your opposition makes a mistake or you are an absolute tactical genius.




I couldn't see half of them. Trees are quite the double edged sword eh? You can't easily see whats coming (or going) and to send a lone cavalry unit into them to cut down routers invites disaster if there is a non routing unit hiding in the bushes.

But you're right, if you don't find some way to kill the routing troops they come back to haunt you. Breaking a units morale is only half the battle.




Yes, pretty nasty stuff eh? Those militia are the famous Russian "Opolochenie"... pissed off farmers really. Frankly its a bit of a historical stretch that they have firearms at all as they mostly had pikes or other polearms.

M.

The charging Russians are indeed dangerous, I'm going to have to modify my tactics a little bit I suspect.......if we had been even florins there I might have been in a lot of trouble.

Dougie, watch out for the SHOOTING Prussians in our next camapign.

Not my usual style either. We came into contact quite fast, I thought so anyway. Once things fired up it was a breakneck race to see who could click the fastest hehe.




Ahh, don't you hate that. I do this more often then I should...given that I should be learning my lesson. I've got to train my eye to have a quick look at the button bar each time I click an infantry unit. All kinds of crazy stuff can happen. GM is off when you want it on, FAW off, etc.

M.

I'm still finding my feet a bit to be honest. Theory is great but reality teaches you the worthwhile lessons. I think I had 1x too many artillery in that game. I was too low on troop numbers. Losing the howitzer (you have to laugh eh?) would have gained me a unit slot to fill with infantry and upgraded several other units or granted me heavy cavalry...which I desperately needed.

There is a 'sweet spot' somewhere numbers wise. I notice from previous games that armies in excess of 4000 florins are not the powerhouses you might expect as they lack cavalry -and- artillery support. Armies with only 3000 or so are too weak on numbers though.

Theres probably no hard and fast rule, likely a ratio of one player against the other. Just to confuse things further of course is the fact that the type of map plays a huge role as well....its a lot like an enormously complex game of rock-paper-scissors.

M.

I bet you cant wait to get at me on an even playing field and i don't blame you, i had my way for far to long.

Howys eh you don't give up easy do you M,
You are determined to prove there usefulness in CB32
Good luck

Its a real problem and I think ultimately its related to the 20 unit slot maximum. With so few slots available overall its a real problem to get the flexibility you need with your cannon but still find a place for special purpose under performing weapons (like the howitzer).

Either Cannon or Howitzer has to be the preferred weapon, it seems to me unlikely we'll ever find a place whereby both are equally useful and/or preferred. If I make Howitzers larger, cheaper, bigger or whatever then I can certainly see them again taking over the field to the detriment of cannon. If I tweak the howitzer but still leave them as the clear second choice then no-one will buy them (as today) because ultimately no-one can afford the luxury of spending a unit slot without a definite payoff.

I wonder if we'd be better served by making some radical change to the existing 'Position' batteries by making their 2nd fire ability howitzer shell rather then canister and getting rid of the dedicated howitzers altogether?

If this sounded like a good idea we'd have the divisional field cannon batteries of 4 pieces firing roundshot and canister and the corps level position batteries of 6 pieces firing roundshot and shell. Howitzers when you need them but without the difficult choice of 'wasting' a unit slot with howitzers that might not prove to be terribly useful depending on the map and circumstances......

M

Brilliant idea this M, adding another edge to your choice between divisional and corps batteries, also it seems much more reasonable to me that your corps level can fire shell rather than being dragged to the front line to fire cannister.
Yes mate the more i think about this the better it sounds.

It would certainly fit with my own logic of the corps assets not really being used in the front lines. Its all a bit fuzzy of course, I couldn't honestly try to take the stand and say corps level cannon were never distributed to the divisions and used like any other battery, but I guess what I had in mind when making the so-called 'Position' batteries were the 'Grand Batteries' made famous by the French and Russians. These very large combined batteries were not at all used for canistering the poor bloody infantry in the front lines.

I was never that keen on the prospect of 6 gun batteries canistering to be honest. Its one of the reasons I originally made these batteries short on crew....to make life in the front line just too dangerous for them. But, got to be cautious because my own personal view is not necessarily 'right' and is not necessarily shared by other CB players. Personally I almost lean as far as the Italians when it comes to the NTW2 canister ability (ie; I'm not that keen on it...I feel its a bit overpowered).

If we were prepared to accept the Position batteries in the dual role of cannon/howitzer I think it would all fit together rather nicely.

I might start a thread in the CB forums area about this as I think it needs to be discussed and explicitly accepted or rejected by interested parties.

Perhaps we could agree to make this change to the Position batteries -and- have the existing small howitzer batteries fire canister as their secondary ability just to really give some choices worth thinking about

Regards, M.

my thinking exactly regarding the grand batteries.


Again agreed 6 guns firing cannister is way to destructive for my liking,
But as you say we will need to hear all opinions,
Anyway put me down as being 100% with you on this one M.

I am tempted to abond in your view. At least it deserves a try.

Nice one GP
3 down 1 to go.

Am I the fourth ?....I go with whatever M thinks best, as he is the CB expert.