Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

I find myself frequently cursing the game system when my units fire and cause little or no casualties. After all, shouldn't SOME of the bullets strike somebody? Then I found this article and it sobered me somewhat. This is from Nosworthy's "Anatomy of Victory" and it vividly illustrates the inaccuracy of smoothbore muskets, as well as the relative values of two different fire systems. At the Battle of Malplaquet, Sept. 11, 1709 the British 18th Foot, Royal Regt. of Ireland, advanced to contact; the writer is Captain Robert Parker: "Upon this Colonel Kane, having drawn us up, and formed our platoons, advanced gently towards them, with the six platoons of our first fire made ready. When we advanced within a hundred paces of them, they gave us a fire of one of their ranks: whereupon we halted and returned the fire of our six platoons at once, and advanced upon them again. They then gave us the fire of another rank, and we returned them a second fire, which made them shrink; however, they gave us the fire of a third rank after a scattering manner, and then retired into the wood in great disorder: on which we sent our third fire after them, and saw them no more. We advanced cautiously up to the ground which they had quitted, and found several of them killed and wounded: among the latter was one Lieutenant O'Sullivan, who told us the battalion we had engaged was the Royal Regiment of Ireland. Here, therefore, was a fair trial of skill between the two royal regiments of Ireland, one in the British, the other in the French Service; for which we met each other on equal terms, and there was none else to interpose. We had but four men killed and six wounded: and found near forty of them on the spot killed and wounded."

Granted that this occurred before the time of our games, but the weapons had not changed in the intervening time. Each regiment fired every firearm at its disposal, let us assume 800 total rounds going downrange. Of those 800 rounds fewer that fifty found their marks. I complain no more, but am content that my shots hit anything at all.

God save Ireland, Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all; if you were not born Irish, may you at least die in Ireland.

A pretty good visual example of this is in the movie Barry Lyndon, where a regiment of British make a long approach through several volleys coming from French lines. Hundreds of French muskets fire all at once at fairly close range, but only a handful of British fall with each volley, though it looks dreadful for the British. Not explicity shown, the British do rout the French from the field with a close-in heads-down charge.
Phil

So true. Slow burns, wet powder, scared troops, mis-fires, improper loading in the heat of the battle (which could be half your powder falling on the ground to forgetting to prime the pan), all combined with the notorious inaccuracy of a smooth bore musket. Where the ball shot out in any given direction. Thus linear formations where massed troops in line had some chance of hitting the broadside of a barn.