How to use ATTACK Columns ?

[Pawsy_bear]

I found column to be quite effective in moving units across the battlefield and using them under TC to double time to attack in column. Best to use columns at the Bde level and attack arty or units that have suffered some attrition or moral loss of course. The columns speed is no faster than in line but it paths through the battlefield quicker than a line which is accurate.

[Saddletank]

The columns speed is no faster than in line but it paths through the battlefield quicker than a line which is accurate.

This is a key observation and should be stickied somewhere - or printed on the box cover. Its a fact of black powder warfare applicable to the entire period from the start of the end of linear warfare until about 1890. Many wargamers seem not to appreciate this point.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

For those who say they have never seen the AI use attack columns. Here an AI Prussian division was ordered to move into combat. The AI put both brigade into column of division and moved them across the field.


It's true that attack columns did not move any faster than a line, but lines had to stop more frequently to dress ranks. The result was an attack column would reached it's destination sooner due to less stopping. The KS mod models this by having the line move 15% slower than attack columns.

[Holdit]

I was always under the impression that while movement in line was no faster than column in terms of march speed, line was slower because of the need to stop and dress ranks more frequently to prevent the line from becoming disordered. One historian, I wish I could remember the name, who was involved in a BBC production of War and Peace sometime in the 70's, found himself instructing some army recruits (extras) in the art of Napoleonic infantry manoeuvres. He reported that the experience brought home to him the difference in columnar and linear movement, and he found it much easier when moving his charges in column because of the comparative ease in maintaining good order during movement.

[Saddletank]

Yes, that's exactly right. Its what Pawsy_Bear said.

[lecrop]

An interesting article by James R.Arnold on the subject, A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Peninsular War

An extract:

"According to Oman in his "Column and Line" lecture, the massive column had "become the regular formation for a French army acting on the offensive during the later years" of the Napoleonic wars. This tactic, he said, arose from the early Revolutionary days when the French discarded the linear tactics of Frederick the Great and improvised a new system in which a very thick skirmish line was thrown forward followed by a "row of columns of the heaviest sort". These columns comprised companies, standing in three deep line, arrayed one behind another. None but the two front ranks could effectively fire their muskets while the remaining ranks were useless except for the impetus they provided. Oman writes that when Napoleon resolved "to deliver his decisive blows, he often used pure columnar formations, covering the front of the mass...by a skirmish line, and if possible supporting it by a heavy artillery fire"."

I think that being a controversial subject, should at least be available to the players to attack in column formation, and not always in line as seems to be the case.

[Pawsy_bear]

you can attack in column, TC, order column, double march, right click location. On hitting the enemy they melee

must be done au pas de charge and en mass!

[sifis172]

is there a difference in efficiency when engaged in a fight with
bayonnets in soww?

on the post at hand, i think that it was more of a morale issue,
in column formation you could see comrades forward, back, left and right.
this would raise morale considerably if you compare it to a line formation
in which case you couldd only see comrades left and right.
in the abovementioned " the line would close in on a column and surround it",
i think it would be very difficult to achieve this. if it ever happened,
my view is that a column smashing on a 2 men depth line, as was the british,
would break on impact.

[KG_Soldier]

The force march (attack march) command will keep a battalion in assault columns when closing with the enemy. Battalions will not stop and form line when in range of the enemy.

The brigade commander and the individual battalions have this command option when you right click to move.

[Greek]

An interesting article by James R.Arnold on the subject, A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Peninsular War

An extract:

"According to Oman in his "Column and Line" lecture, the massive column had "become the regular formation for a French army acting on the offensive during the later years" of the Napoleonic wars. This tactic, he said, arose from the early Revolutionary days when the French discarded the linear tactics of Frederick the Great and improvised a new system in which a very thick skirmish line was thrown forward followed by a "row of columns of the heaviest sort". These columns comprised companies, standing in three deep line, arrayed one behind another. None but the two front ranks could effectively fire their muskets while the remaining ranks were useless except for the impetus they provided. Oman writes that when Napoleon resolved "to deliver his decisive blows, he often used pure columnar formations, covering the front of the mass...by a skirmish line, and if possible supporting it by a heavy artillery fire"."

I think that being a controversial subject, should at least be available to the players to attack in column formation, and not always in line as seems to be the case.

OK, I know very little about Napoleonic warfare, but at Waterloo was not the comment made (to paraphrase), "They are coming in the same old way" to which Wellington responded, "then we will meet them in the same old way."? My understanding is the French were attacking in column as they did to Wellington and company in Spain, hence his retort.