Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

When stacks of infantry are fired upon each unit takes a hit. When it is cavalry, only the selected unit takes casualties. Is it because the horses are of those famous dancing horses that they prance over the cannon balls whilst the Queen of Battle infantry take the lead poisoning all through the ranks?

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Major General Richard Bradshaw, 1st Viscount of Manchester

Lloyd's Battery, Royal Artillery
Royal Regiment of Artillery
Reserve Artillery & Engineers

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Ernie Sands
1ère Brigade of 2ème Division de Grosse Cavalerie, Réserve de Cavalerie
de la Grande Armée
President, Colonial Campaigns Club

Of course and the most famous of all, the Lipizzaner Stallions of the Austrian army could leap into the air and avoid low trajectory fire The Austrian hussars should be exempt from any "pass through fire" as a result.



FYI - I got to see the famous Lippizaner stallions while I was in the Wash DC area in 1982 while serving in the US Air Force. Its rare that they come to the US so when a friend asked me if I wanted to go with her I jumped at the chance. (horse pun) They performed in The Capital Center to a large crowd. A memory of a lifetime.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Interestingly, not only cavalry, but multiple dismounted Dragoons don't get pass through fire either. There's usually only a few hundred of them in a hex at a time, so it's probably not unreasonable, but still, it doesn't seem consistent.

I think artillery can be too effective as it is.

Cavalry already has an increased casualty penalty when fired at, I'm not sure why. I don't see how that can be the case. Infantry units usually have more ranks than cavalry, and are packed more closely together. One shot can quite conceivably take out 1/2 dozen infantry at a time. How a single cannon ball can take out more than one or two cavalry is beyond me.

The only explanation I can think of is that cavalry are taller, and less likely to have shots go high over them, but still, for my mind, cavalry should take less casualties.

Even infantry casualties, particularly at close range, seem high.

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Général de Brigade Dean Webster
1ère Brigade
1ère Division
4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

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"I have a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel"
Blackadder

Well you could also see it the way that cavalry is just a bigger target and that is why fire is more effective, also because the stand procedure was not charging over the whole battlefield but speeding up on a rather close distance to keep the formation as long as possible. Of course that would also contribute to casualties.

But the different handling in game, well I can only imaging that comes from the early days when cavalry was depicted as complete regiment and not like it is now usually done as squadron. Because the equivalent to a battalion is a squadron. Maybe time for an engine change. not raised casualties but pass through fire should work on multiple squadrons in a hex.

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Hey Christian, I get the idea that cavalry is a bigger target, but only in the respect that it is taller.

Being bigger physically, for both width and depth, means any type of shot that hits the target is going to hit less cavalry than infantry. Round shot will hit less men passing through, canister will be stopped more effectively stopped by the front rank, but again, there's less men in the front rank.

A cavalry formation is not a solid wall. Even if the horses are shoulder to shoulder, the men on top are not. There will be gaps that a well aimed but slightly high ball is more likely to pass through.

Unless they are standing still, cavalry are likely to be moving faster than infantry even when not at the charge. A moving target is harder to hit, and the faster you move the harder it is.

Even if cavalry are more likely to be hit because they are "bigger", I believe it is offset by the other disadvantages.

I still stand my assertion that cavalry shouldn't have a penalty when being fired at by artillery.

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Général de Brigade Dean Webster
1ère Brigade
1ère Division
4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

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"I have a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel"
Blackadder

cavalry moves a lot faster and is not bunched as closely together.

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2ème Brigade, 1ère Division, 1er Corps d'Armee
Général de Brigade