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Allied Training College (ATC) Coalition Library |
Up Close and Personal |
Being in the throes of receiving a sound thrashing at the hands of the immaculately tailored Colonel Wattie, I was somewhat surprised (to say the least) to be asked if I could contribute an article on the use of artillery for the newsletter. My surprise was compounded by the fact that I do not consider myself an expert in the use of artillery, nor the most effective, efficient or historically accurate. However, I do find my 'get 'em up close and personal' approach often yields satisfactory results (I frequently achieve hits in excess of 100). This of course not only increases fatigue levels and victory points whilst reducing the fighting capability of units, but also seems to cause many units to disappear from the front line! Naturally, there is a cost to this approach, batteries take more hits and are sometimes lost to cavalry charges. But, we should not dwell excessively on this loss of victory points given the added effectiveness of the guns and the points gained recouped from slaughtering those charging cavalrymen in the next round (besides, I have yet to find that I have enough ammunition for all my guns anyway!). It has to be borne in mind, however, that part batteries use up shots just like full batteries do - is it worth firing that two-gun battery instead of the eight? I have seen the alternative approach used many times - standing back at ranges of 8+ hexes, and watching whilst batteries use up shots to no effect. Indeed, I used to use it myself, but my first opponent pushed his guns up close and did tremendous damage to my units. Fair enough, I thought, fight fire with fire, and would now claim to have overtaken my teacher. To make maximum use of close-up artillery it is useful to remember that 'out of position' batteries can limber in defensive phase, as well as unlimber, allowing them to make full use of the movement phase. This may sometimes mean foregoing a shot to limber instead, but we all happily do this for infantry in column! Oh, and why keep those batteries on the field to be gobbled up once the ammunition has gone? Why not limber them up and remove them from the map, saving yourself the points. (Editor's query: Does removing units from the map earn victory points for your opponent?) To finish with, a few ideas for discussion. The tactic of close-up artillery was made much more effective by the upgrade allowing horse batteries to unlimber in the movement phase. Careful movement of batteries allows them to unlimber adjacent to other units. But has Talonsoft gone far enough? I often find it annoying, and unrealistic, that ZOCs prevent horse batteries from unlimbering IN FRONT of a unit. There are many examples of horse batteries doing just this, from the Napoleonic era up to World War I, and beyond. I do not know if it is possible from a programming point of view, but, bearing in mind how units can change facing, I do not see any reason why this should be unacceptable in principle! Similarly, horse artillery were intended as an extension of the cavalry arm - to be used in conjunction with, and in support of, cavalry. Why not then allow them to utilize the charge phase - perhaps to move and unlimber, or even unlimber and fire! That way, the threat of cavalry charge causing infantry to form square, exposing themselves to horse artillery up close would surely be more historically correct. Just a thought, a controversial one to finish with, and not directly to do with the use of artillery. There has been some discussion recently about the use of cavalry. Well, at the risk of upsetting my Army Commander, I would like to suggest a slightly different view. As French commander, I almost always use my cavalry to take 20+ guns in the first move, before the Allied player has a chance to respond. These cavalry often do not come back, and the view seems to be that this is a tremendously bad trade-off in points. Well, maybe it is, but I do not think it is quite as simple as that. Surely consideration has to be made of future infantry losses, with the consequent loss of points, increase in fatigue and disruption, and loss of combat effectiveness, not to mention routs. At the end of the day (or battle), I believe it is infantry that wins victories. [Written by Ian Weightman as Published in the Napoleonic Wargaming Club (NWC) Newsletter]
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