American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)
http://www.wargame.ch/board/acwgc/

Needed Corrections to the HPS Games
http://www.wargame.ch/board/acwgc/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20959
Page 2 of 2

Author:  Christian Hecht [ Sun May 27, 2018 11:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Needed Corrections to the HPS Games

LGen Harney wrote:
I see that the consensus is that Supply wagon travel is arbitrary and capricious. Up to the game designer, so be it.

I've put a question up for this:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20968


LGen Harney wrote:
Regarding the -20 penalty for "uphill" shooting I have seen no argument other than the Designer "Said So". Hecht's post and link prove that. Joe, you are mistaken concerning your theory about troops "jerking triggers".

In my opinion, there should be no penalty for ranged fire uphill. And as a compromise, there should also be a -20 for downhill fire.

Maybe the -20% is too much for simple musket fire, but unless we get a separate modifier for at least infantry & artillery fire I wouldn't change it. It's just not realistic to have artillery fire, especially with cannonballs, not be impacted by the target being on a higher elevation. Firing artillery downhill on the other had may not be a problem at all.


LGen Harney wrote:
One last question, why does this also apply to artillery?

Because the modifier for the higher ground is applied to all fire weapons, and why should it not? Cannonballs just down roll uphill very good.

Author:  LGen Harney [ Sun May 27, 2018 1:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Needed Corrections to the HPS Games

Howdy!

BGen. Hecht, you have seemed to missed my point. Which is that there is nothing Ballisticly relevant to a -20 modifier for uphill shooting. It's just a made up, arbitrary thing.

You forget, or do not know, that the Enfield Rifled Musket, Springfield Rifled Musket, and all other "Rifled Muskets" were capable of hitting a man size target at 500 yards. Granted, it would take a sober soldier for the shot, but anyway.

So why is shooting uphill so difficult? I just would like to know why?

Rob

Author:  Christian Hecht [ Sun May 27, 2018 10:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Needed Corrections to the HPS Games

I said it already, ballistics alone are not the only factor nor the decisive factor.
The constellation you point out might let the modifier seem too high. But when we talk about smoothbore artillery rolling the cannonballs into the target it may very well be not high enough(think of Waterloo or Gettysburg to see the low effect artillery can have on a higher target).
As I said, as long as we are stuck with a single modifier for all kinds if fire weapons, from rifled over smoothbore artillery to rifles, rifled muskets, smoothbore muskets, shotguns down to pistols we will always have situation where the modifier seems too high or not high enough.
The modifier i simply a compromise in an abstract game engine.

It's just the same as with the weapons fire values, we are stuck with a single fire value for a specific distance, but artillery uses a much wider range of ammunition in the civil war that had different effects in a range area where they overlapped. Just think of canister and cannonballs, on the same distance these would have different effect but we are stuck with a single value that is a compromise that factors in many things and not alone the type of ammunition.

Page 2 of 2 All times are UTC - 5 hours
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
https://www.phpbb.com/