Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Please someone help me out here as don't seem to understand the rank concept of the line infantry properly.
In my current scenario the PDT shows me:
Extended Line Values
2-Line Infantry: 360 men 3-Line Infantry: 540 men Artillery: 8 guns

So for a unit to have 3 ranks it must have at least 540 men, one can also see that when in line formation as the unit box shows a symbol with 3 bars and an arrow like this: III>
These units can also go into extended line and show now just one bar and an arrow like this: I>
Units that are below 540 can't extend the line and have in line formation a symbol with 2 bars and an arrow like this: II>

Now let me quote the Firing Modifiers from the Leipzig manual:
"2-Rank Infantry units in normal Line or Extended Line formation fire at 50% increased effectiveness.
2-Rank Infantry units in Shortened Line Formation fire at 75% effectiveness.
3-Rank Infantry units in Shortened Line Formation fire at 75% effectiveness."

So now how does the "2-Rank Infantry units in Shortened Line Formation" fit into this?
I assume that when I have a 3-Rank line formation and I extend it it will be a 2-Line Extended formation, and so either take the 75% effectiveness when being 3-Rank Infantry in Shortened Line or 50% increased effectiveness when being 2-Rank Infantry in Extended Line.
But I can't see 2-Rank Infantry units being able to extend their line at all, so how should they have a "Shortened Line Formation"?

Also what is the "2-Line Infantry" value in the PDT there for?
The 3-Rank values marks the number I need for being bale to extended but as 2-Rank infantry can't seem to extend what is that value there for?
Or does it mean when I'm below that I don't get the bonus of "50% increased effectiveness" like 2-Rank Infantry units in normal Line would get?

I hope someone can bring a bit light into this.

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2-Rank Infantry units are typically British and KGL units that were trained in firing in a 2 Rank formation, thus increasing the lethality of their fire over other nations typically using a 3-Rank formation. The 2-Rank Infantry units get an increase in their firepower if they extend the line. A 3-Rank Infantry unit does not receive this same benefit. The way you tell whether the unit is a 2-Rank or 3-Rank unit is to right click on the unit itself. If it is a 2-Rank unit, it will be so labeled. As 3-Rank units are by far the most common, there is no such labeling for them.

Does that answer your question?

I think Vladimir for one is the man to ask about all that. I know in the past a lot has been written on the subject....I'm a simple person and as long as it's a line and can shoot that is good enough for me.

To that informative conversation I would add that to extend a battalion you need 2 things:
- the battalion in line formation
- enough men to extend the line, in your case 360 and 540 men and 8 guns.
as determined by the pdt file.
For Waterloo for example it's 600 and 800 men I believe.

As for the benefit of extending the line, I would say that if it's an extended 2 lines infantry battalion you will have 75% of effectiveness + 50% increased (does that means that you get 125%? or 75% + half of those 75% which would end up with 112% of effectiveness?). At least that's how I read it. Then you have to add or remove % depending of the quality of the unit, the kind of unit that you fire on, if the enfilade modifier is to be added or not.... etc
as for the 3 lines infantry battalion the only benefit of extending is that you will have a better coverage in hexagons with the same amount of units.

Or you can do like most of us: just fire on whatever you have in front of you and remember that the Brits have a devastating fire power when in line when they have British Musket at Waterloo.

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Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
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"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx

Thanks Mark for pointing to the British, I somehow was an a total wrong track thinking 3-Ranks turn into 2-Ranks when extending and so on but now I got it, I checked one of the Leipzig scenarios for British units and could see that them being a 2 Rank unit is explicitly mentioned in the unit box.
Now I also got that the 2 values in the PDT are for either a 2 Rank or 3 Rank unit, again I thought that would be values for turning 3-Ranks into 2 Ranks and so on.

David I'm also unsure about the modifiers but I guess your right with the 112,5%.
A simple calculation shows that it somehow fits.
Taking the smallest 2 and 3 Rank units would gives 360 men respectively 540 men.
Now extend their lines and you get 2x 180 and 2x 270.
Now add the modifier(we ignore now the weapon values, etc.)
180*112,%=202,5
270*75%=202,5
If balance was the target 112,5% would fit and if that is correct the part is very misleading in the manual.

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