Scourge of War Boards

Shirkon,

My #4 proposal is only for the times when a regiment captures the gun and automatically mans it. I would like the option of not manning it, just spiking it instead.

I'm also in favor of #2,.

However, can you consider adding in a melee before a gun is captured? As it stands now, capturing a gun is really like two-hand touch football. You charge the gun and you get it if you can touch it. Those batteries had crews that were very proud of those field pieces and were known for fighting to preserve their "virginity". Not only that, but those crews were, in many cases, recruited from the infantry ranks. So, those guys had been trained to fight.

If you can rush in a regiment by column, you can quickly capture an entire battery with an enemy infantry regiment nearby. They simply don't have time to react. If you add a melee in, this might give those neighboring regiments time to rush in and help defend the battery. At the very least, it might buy enough time to pull the remainder of the guns out of harm's way.

Just a thought....

Marching Thru Georgia wrote:

I vote yes for all three.

I hope that for #2 the guns will not instantly limber, but will spend time doing so. I would also add a #4. Where the player can man the captured guns, ask him if he would like to do so or just spike them, (they raise the white flag and disappear).

Another thing to consider for your #4. If you capture the gun you must also capture the limber otherwise you have a 2400 lb paperweight. The ammo for the gun is on the limber and it's much easier to move by hand then the gun. Without the limber you have no ammo or fuses for the guns so they are useless for the current fight. And without at least some artillerists to guide the infantry you want to man the gum, most wouldn't know what to do anyway. Loading and firing a CW cannon isn't anything like loading and firing the rifle musket and most infantry would probably miss some important steps, like poking the friction primer through the powder bag to ensure the burning primer touched off the powder charge. or covering the touch hole while swabbing so that no air gets to the burning embers when swabbing out the barrel before putting a new charge in. Is bad if you don't have all those embers out and shoving in a bag of black powder that explodes because of them, it could really ruin the day of the person ramming the charge home.

If I may add, historically, seldom was a gun captured and immediately manned, because the gun crews generally ran off with all the tools of gun loading. In essence, disabling the gun. This was opted by most battery commanders over spiking so the possibly of getting their gun back was still available. Plus, it was faster.

So, with this thread, we're really talking gameplay, and what seems to be more realistic.

If I may add, historically, seldom was a gun captured and immediately manned, because the gun crews generally ran off with all the tools of gun loading. In essence, disabling the gun. This was opted by most battery commanders over spiking so the possibly of getting their gun back was still available. Plus, it was faster.

So, with this thread, we're really talking gameplay, and what seems to be more realistic.

So what would prevent the other side from capturing/spiking the gun? The tools would not do them much good then.

A captured gun was a valuable prize for unit commanders, great fodder for promotions. Guns that were intact but unable to be manned, were tediously rolled back, MANually, to friendly lines. Spiking was always the last option considered.

A captured gun was a valuable prize for unit commanders, great fodder for promotions. Guns that were intact but unable to be manned, were tediously rolled back, MANually, to friendly lines. Spiking was always the last option considered.

Is this one of the subjects you are considering bringing up to the NSD team?