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RE: Commander ratings

 
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RE: Commander ratings - 6/12/2008 12:18:25 PM   
arundle

 

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Don't forget though, the British never adopted that many continental policies. Most continental armies used large and tight 'blocks' of men to march slowly forward (called an attack column, introduced by the Napoleoinc French), designed to help keep up the moral of the mostly conscripted French army as well as try and break the moral of an opposing army through sheer number of troops. Unfortunatly, this hindered their firing ability (only 2 men could fire from each side).

Britian always fought in 2 stright lines. This allowed them, with their expert musket drill training, to lay down volley after volley agaisnt advancing blocks, and thier superior training and drilling resulted in them not running from such large infantry blocks. Using this tactic (especially if they could hit a flank), the British army didn't actually need large numbers of men, and could still decimate much larger infantry blocks, as they could bring all of their men to fire. Eventually, the column was eventually stopped by its own fallen soldiers. This allowed the small British army to defeat such larger forces.

To bring this back to the topic before we get too far into discussing Napolionic army tactics: I think the problem here is that Wellington's ability would be okay, if this (the above) was taken more into consideration. Unfortunatly, apart from their high moral, the British don't have too many other brilliant combat modifiers, to my knowledge. This does mean that when a smaller army should be quite effective for them (espcecilly on the defensive) they still use exactly the same charts as all of the other continetal armies (not saying that whole new charts are needed), despite the difference in tactics, blunting this effectiveness in the game.

(in reply to DCWhitworth)
Post #: 31
RE: Commander ratings - 6/12/2008 10:55:39 PM   
DCWhitworth


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I agree with you in principle although I must quibble with the details.

The columnular formations adopted by the French allowed them to move *quickly* not slowly. Lines move much more slowly - it's much easier to keep in formation if you are following someone that if you are side by side with them.

The reason the French adopted this system was not so much because of morale but because their levee en masse troops didn't have the training to fight in line effectively.

Again everyone else adopted it because the French beat them with it. The British, not having lost to the French, stuck to their linear formations. Their highly trained army could use them effectively so they saw no need to change.

_____________________________

Regards
David

(in reply to arundle)
Post #: 32
RE: Commander ratings - 6/13/2008 10:13:46 AM   
arundle

 

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That makes sense, thanks for clearing it up. I think it was a mixture of lack of training and poor general moral of conscipt troops that made the French adopt the column idea, as it was quite effective at negating both. (Being in the middle of such a large number of troops would make almost anyone feel a little bit more confident).

Also, by marching slowly, I meant more in battle. I beleive the principle was to march toward the enemy, slow enough to keep the formation tight (which could still be quite speedy), but without generally stopping, which made the attack quicker in turn (correct me if I'm wrong on this point). Also, for troop movement, such an idea would allow troops to move at faster rates.

I completly agree with the point about the British: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". I did mean to imply that above, but I didn't actually put it in; my mistake.

(in reply to DCWhitworth)
Post #: 33
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