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Greetings all - long time, no post.
Interesting discussion.
On Ligny, it should be remembered that Napoleon's plan was for a flank attack by I corps but, as we all know, events conspired to thwart this. Standard strategy from the Emperor, but it had served him well down the years.
Ney gets the scape-goat treatment for Bautzen as well. It was Napoleon's fault that Ney could not bring his entire wing into play, it was Berthier's fault that Ney's initial approach to the battlefield was on the wrong line, and Bertrand / Napoleon's error that the corps of Barclay and Yorck were not cut-off and destroyed during their retreat following their ill-conceived foray against Ney's advancing wing at Koeingswartha and Weissig. If Napoleon had doubts about Ney's capability he could have joined that wing during the night of 20th May and directed the flank attack himself. Ney's error at Bautzen was to stop his advance after taking Gleina and Preititz, being diverted by Kleist's counter-attack. Hindsight indicates that the French would probably have secured the decisive victory had he continued his advance in the direction of Hochkirch, but Ney, being Ney, he elected to deal with the immediate threat to his communication with the main army. And what was Napoleon doing during Ney's attack? What all good emperors do at such times. He was sleeping in a sheltered ravine amongst the batteries of VI corps.
On artillery, (BG series - though may apply to HPS engine as well). It certainly makes sense to standardise battery sizes for the following reason. Because of terrain modifiers, such as walls, hedges, or even a skirmisher screen, a 12 gun battery firing at a target at maximum range has a chance to hit it if behind such cover. A 6 gun battery of identical calibre, should be able to hit the target with half the frequency. But the way the engine works, it can not inflict casualties at all on this target. So, battery standardisation (in size) is a good idea. I would break down the Russian batteries into two x six guns, and keep require that they be kept together so that they still represent the 12 gun battery that they were. Remeber to increase the ammunitiona allowance accordingly. I would strongly recommend that playing NIR you use the New Settings project files with reduced morale, decreased ammunition, increased cavalry movement and turn off the morale boosting optional rules. You will wind up with a game more to do with manoeuvre and a lot less slaughter.
In PTW, do the same. Turn off those morale boosting optional rules. Defending the crossings will become a much greater challenge, when each unit placed there is exposed to artillery fire and will rout in short order. If your opponent uses artillery to defend the crossings, manoeuvre yours to gain flank shots against his until he withdraws them. The fighting at Ligny lasted 6 hours I suspect that no one unit was engaged for that length of time. Formations, whether company, batallion, regiment, brigade etc would be engaged for a while, then replaced by units from the second line. They might take part again later on but I doubt if any were engaged the whole time. This is why casualties are histroically lighter than in the games. In most games, every unit begins moving on Turn 1, with the apparent sole aim of making contact and beginning the blood-fest. This is not how the battles were fought historically, so why expect a historical outcome from it [;)]
On the original point, I would suggest that artillery not be left exposed like that during a night turn, get them back in the security of their division / corps. Alternatively, play with a house rule that allows no night melee - the thought of a battalion column "creeping-up" undetected on a battery , is somewhat amusing.[:)]
Final thought on competent commanders. I think there were many, on all sides. For the French, of course, they were always over-shadowed by the genious of Napoleon. A particular favourite is Eugene who, in spite of not wanting it, assumed command of the remmnants of the army in 1812 and prevented the seemingly inevitable advance of the Russians on France even with the defection of Prussia, which was enough to send Murat scuttling back to Naples. To follow this up with his succesful campaign against the Austrians in Italy in 1814 was another good performance from him.
Trust all is well with you all
Mark
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