In answer to some of Mike's claims. First, asking of any British unit broke ... you have to ask yourself did the French ever get over a ridge and exert good pressure on them? The answer is ... not very often. Most of the way that the French fought in the Peninsular Wars is not characteristic of commanders like Davout or Lannes. Division commanders like St. Hilare or Gudin were missing from the Peninsular.
When you go to the campaign of 1808 you see a decent performance by the French. Wellington hadnt taken command. Sir John Moore did a good job with what he had but he was vastly outnumbered. The French lose at Bailen to the Spanish ... but mainly that was a fluke when the Emperor was in command.
Now fast forward ... its the PLACEMENT by Wellington of the troops that mattered. When it came to the crucial moment he was on the spot. Not so with the French centralized form of command. This comes from having ONE front on the battlefield active. Thus rarely were the French able to coordinate an assault on more than one front. Usually Wellesley had time to get from one portion of the battlefield to the other.
Now lets study Beresford. He didnt do very well in an independent role. And thus the British didnt do well either.
Which leads to ... Waterloo. Ney and Jerome directing the attack on Hougomont throughout the battle. Borodino ... countless attacks on the Redoubt.
Fixation on a physical objective usually dooms players in our games as well. The old magnet ... attack the main body rather than chip away at the peripheral.
My main counter to the British being far superior (which is what the golden morale would do) is that they were not as the Russians who were known to die right down to almost the last man and stay in place. I cant think of any British unit taking 50 percent losses while in place and remaining there.
Now if Rich does decide to put this in the game (golden morale) we also expect that once you launch a charge with your BRITISH cavalry that they take off and basically run away. But I doubt that you really want the game to be historical .... right?
So its just another case of trying to justify one thing while compltetely overlooking another. If you really want a British army ... kiss your cav goodbye. They were some of the hardest cavalry to control. Suggestions for them please?
Page 105 of Paget's book on the campaigns talks about the Connaught Rangers and 3 other battalians driving off 11 French battalians. This is something that is hard to portray in our games other than to say ... the French stay in columns and get hosed while the British fire in line.
I have nothing but admiration for the British in the attack. The problem is that our game engine doesnt reflect this very often. What happens normally is:
1. On the French turn they move up, take fire and melee. The disorder the British just by meleeing them (assume that the French lose).
2. The British (usually) dont regain order right away. This flies in the face of their fierce Celtic style counterattack where often they chased the French right back down the hill!
You just cant have these in the game. Not much I can do about it. I have advocated non-disorder alot for the defender. It would stop alot of cheap attacks by (skirmishers) small units used just to disorder troops (I do it sometimes just to draw an effect in some games where I am testing out the series).
Thus 300 Old Guard have zip zero chance of winning a melee against a militia unit of 900 men.
Thus to cap all of this off: I have said before that the British had a fierceness that the French lacked. They were not afraid of drawing steel and going right into the fray. The French on the other hand usually shied away from that. How do you model that? I dont know that you can with our current game. Perhaps someone down the line will put that into a set of minature rules ... or new game engine.
I suppose if you made the British line A++ you might achieve the above. But they would still disorder when attacked more than likely.
Perhaps you havent read my ideas on a revised melee system. Its much in line with what Nosworthy portrays in his book, With Musket, Cannon and Sword which I find very fine reading.
Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, 5ème Division, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)
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