Manoeuvrability, defensive fire and artillery.

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javimon
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:05 pm

Manoeuvrability, defensive fire and artillery.

Post by javimon »

Good afternoon,

Our gaming group has some questions that maybe you can help us with.

MANOEUVRABILITY
Page 56 and next ones describe the different types of movement a unit can do: face, side step, wheel, etc…

Question 1: are those movements mutually exclusive? For example, can a close order infantry battalion in line formation side step 3” and then move obliquely 3”?

Question 2: if the answer of question 1 is “yes, they are mutually exclusive”, does that mean that a unit can´t wheel and then advance straight ahead, just like is allowed during charges (page 40: charging units and their supports may use their charge bonus to execute a wheel first, as far as the charge bonus permits, (5cm [3"] for Infantry and 10cm [6"] for Cavalry)? If a unit can´t wheel and advance, manoeuvrability will be severely restricted, although maybe it is supposed to be so.

Question 3: if wheeling and advancing straight ahead is allowed outside charges, how much can a unit wheel? Can it wheel, advance, and wheel again, or maybe advance, wheel and advance, or any combination of those two movements?

Question 4: Do cavalry units have greater manoeuvrability? Can they face and advance, for example? The Voluntary Retire Move on page 57 says “(Unformed) Units may About Face for free, there is no movement penalti”, which seems to apply to any kind of unit. Does this mean that an unformed infantry unit retiring has more manoeuvrability that a formed cavalry one?

DEFENSIVE FIRE
Question 5: Can a unit charged on the flank that can´t face or failed the test to do so fire at the chargers? We suppose that it can´t, but just to be sure.

Question 6: Can a unit charged after a “Victory – Charge on” result fire at the chargers? We didn´t found any rule to prevent it, but other rulesets limit reactions of units charged in that way (surprise, no time to react, etc…)

HORSE ARTILLERY
Question 7: Can horse artillery field medium artillery? Page 12 says “Horse Artillery tended to have lighter pieces, mainly using 6pdr, 4pdr or 3pdr guns”, it doesn´t seem to rule out medium artillery, as 6pdr artillery are classified as Medium in the “Artillery ranges” table.

Question 8: Can horse artillery field Large Batteries?

ARTILLERY AND SKIRMISHERS
The rule Skirmish Screen Effectiveness on page 71 says “Artillery shot will always pass through a screen without effect and strike any Close Order units behind, inflicting casualties in the normal manner. Canister fire will pass through a screen and hit any units behind, but the first casualty caused always goes on the Skirmish screen”

Question 9: Does this also apply for Light Infantry in open order, or just for pure skirmisher screens?

That´s a good amount of questions! Thank you very much and regards,

Javier.
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DCRBrown
Posts: 1352
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2016 5:04 pm

Re: Manoeuvrability, defensive fire and artillery.

Post by DCRBrown »

J,

MANOEUVRABILITY
Page 56 and next ones describe the different types of movement a unit can do: face, side step, wheel, etc…

Question 1: are those movements mutually exclusive? For example, can a close order infantry battalion in line formation side step 3” and then move obliquely 3”?


A = Yes, (for ease of play only.)

Question 3: if wheeling and advancing straight ahead is allowed outside charges, how much can a unit wheel? Can it wheel, advance, and wheel again, or maybe advance, wheel and advance, or any combination of those two movements?

A = Yes, (for ease of play only.)

Question 4: Do cavalry units have greater manoeuvrability? Can they face and advance, for example? The Voluntary Retire Move on page 57 says “(Unformed) Units may About Face for free, there is no movement penalti”, which seems to apply to any kind of unit. Does this mean that an unformed infantry unit retiring has more manoeuvrability that a formed cavalry one?

A Yes.

DEFENSIVE FIRE
Question 5: Can a unit charged on the flank that can´t face or failed the test to do so fire at the chargers? We suppose that it can´t, but just to be sure.


A = No. It can only fire at units within its current fire arc.

Question 6: Can a unit charged after a “Victory – Charge on” result fire at the chargers? We didn´t found any rule to prevent it, but other rulesets limit reactions of units charged in that way (surprise, no time to react, etc…)

A = Yes. (This will change in the future.)

HORSE ARTILLERY
Question 7: Can horse artillery field medium artillery? Page 12 says “Horse Artillery tended to have lighter pieces, mainly using 6pdr, 4pdr or 3pdr guns”, it doesn´t seem to rule out medium artillery, as 6pdr artillery are classified as Medium in the “Artillery ranges” table.


A = Yes, if there is a historical equivalent.

Question 8: Can horse artillery field Large Batteries?

A = Only Russian Horse Artillery

ARTILLERY AND SKIRMISHERS
The rule Skirmish Screen Effectiveness on page 71 says “Artillery shot will always pass through a screen without effect and strike any Close Order units behind, inflicting casualties in the normal manner. Canister fire will pass through a screen and hit any units behind, but the first casualty caused always goes on the Skirmish screen”

Question 9: Does this also apply for Light Infantry in open order, or just for pure skirmisher screens?


A = Both.

DB
javimon
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:05 pm

Re: Manoeuvrability, defensive fire and artillery.

Post by javimon »

Thank you very much Mr. Brown.

On question 1, I undesrtand that the answer "Yes" apply for the "can a close order infantry battalion in line formation side step 3” and then move obliquely 3”?" bit, so they are not mutually exclusive, as it is also implied when you say that a unit can wheel, advance, wheel again, etc...

On Question 4, I understand that "Yes" applies to cavalry units being more manoeuverable and able to face and advance.

Thank you again and best regards,

Javier.
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