Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Having read several accounts of the battle of Waterloo, it never registered with me before that the angl-allied army, or at least the British trained battalions were arranged in lines 4 ranks deep. Is this mirrored in the game? Obviously if they are in 4 ranks instead of 2 the number of muskets they can bring to bear is halved with a corresponding reduction in their firepower.

Anybody?

<font color="gold">Général de Division Greg Morgan, Grande Duc de Montebello et Comte de Gironde
Commandant IIIème Corps
Armée du Nord

Escadron des Gendarmes d'Elite "l'Immortels" de la Vielle Garde
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It appears that, per regulation, the British used three ranks. When the battalion was under strength, the third rank was used to fill up the first two to maintain frontage ... so as a rule, after some campaigning, the British fought in two ranks. Some minor German contingents at Waterloo may have used the rather archaic four ranks ... I would have to check.

<center>
[url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_walter/NWC/16thLD.htm"][/url]
Brig. Gen. D.S. "Green Horse" Walter
~ 16th (The Queen's) Light Dragoons ~
4th Brigade, Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corps
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~ 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards ~
[url="http://www.geocities.com/militaireacademie/"][/url]
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Dierk,

No, he's not talking about a throw back to 1704. He's correct though that the Brits deployed in 'double' lines, giving them 4 ranks deep.

Colonel Al Amos
1erè Brigade Commandant
2ème Division de Dragons

Hi Greg
A new book called 'The battle' by Alesandro Barbero (spelling not sure) gives some really good insights on Waterloo. It really is a different account of the battle one of the best new Napoleonic books I have read. Cleared up a lot of questions I had lingering in my mind.

I recall this book says they formed the 4 deep lines because of the threat of cavalry and it was easier to form square from these double lines. The cav threat was mainly because of the extensive use of reverse slopes at Waterloo and therefore the reaction time issue.

regards
Colin





Colonel Colin Knox,
Baron de l'Empire
2e Regiment Gardes d'Honneur
La Jeune Garde
IIIe Corps ADN
http://www.aspire.co.nz/colinknoxnwc.htm

Greg,

The 4 rank formation is probably only really reflected in the game with the minority of British battalions which have over 600 men, and therefore start in the 'shortened line' formation. They fire at 75% strength unless they go into 'extended line' formation, when they fire at 50% increased effectiveness, just like the rest of the smaller 2-rank normal line units. The big Nassau battalions are also in shortened line (800 lower limit for 3-rank infantry), but as they don't use the 2 rank line I'm not sure they have the same penalties or bonuses (the manual only lists modifiers for 2-rank line formation). In the Talonsoft game the British guards also had the shortened/extended line feature, as far as I remember, but in the HPS game these big battalions have been divided into two units in the OOB, linked only by name, so they are now too small to fall under these conditions. Of course, if you stack the two half battalions together I suppose you have your 4 rank formation simulated again.

So in summary the 4 rank formation is simulated only in a) the big battalions with 'shortened line', firing at 75% strength, b) stacking two normal line battalions together, firing at 50% strength (as only one unit in line can fire in game terms).

<center>[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/Napoleonic/nap.htm"]Lieutenant Colonel Antony Barlow[/url]
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/anglo_allied_army_stats/Anglo_Allied_Army_Cavalry_Corps.htm"]2nd British (Union) Brigade, Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corps[/url] ~
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/militaireacademie/dragoons.html"]4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards[/url] ~
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Looks like Charlie double stacked some battalions and not others. Looks like about 1/3 of the fron Anglo line is setup that way in the historic version of the scenario.

Maréchal Hamilton,
Duc de Barbancon
21st Division
VII Corps, ADR

1er Regiment Garde
Fusiler-Grenadiers