Scourge of War Boards

I have posted about this cavalry issue elsewhere but I'll also post here in this new category.

During battle about 25% of cav troopers stayed behind the lines and out of the fight to hold the horses. So when a 400 man cav regt dismounts to fight on foot in reality only about 300 would be exchanging fire with the enemy. I believe the current coding doesn't follow this logic making cav units stronger then they should be. ...Should be an easy code change I'd think.


"Fighting on foot did eliminate some of the unit's firepower as one soldier was designated as a holder for four horses, including his own, while the other three troopers were detailed to the firing line."
http://www.civilwar.com/weapons/cavalry.html



thx. Great game!

Boyd

This is correct...
certainly something I will push for in future projects...

Yes, it's true, we should reflect this in the game.

I hate playing against cavalry in this game. Of course infantry vs cavalry was never a contest. Where the cavalry had a quicker reload time the rifled infantry guns had the range and more powerful weapons. In a stand up fight the cavalry would get torn to pieces. At Gettysburg the only way the Union Cavalry could hold off the Rebel infantry was that they fought defensively behind somewhat prepared barriers. Then they still couldn't hold but had to keep falling back.
In this game the rate of fire might be correct, but it was more than just the rate of fire. Half way through a sandbox game the cavalry will engage my infantry inflicting terrible casualties. So I charge, getting shot up the entire way and when I reach the cavalry line they fall back and set up 50 yards away and begin blasting again.
Also, what has been noted before, one in four would hold the horses to allow the other 3 to fight dismounted. The game should reflect this.
Late in the war Sheridan used his cavalry at times as infantry and was successful. Generally, the cavalry was no match against infantry. And it was a waste of cavalry.
I'll continually point this out(even though I prefer union) that the Texas Brigade is rated too low. 5th Texas is "Good" while the Arkansas Reg is "Average". Gen Lee said of the Texas Brigade,"Texans always move them." A little later he said to the Alabamans," All I ask is that you keep up with the Texans." Battle of Wilderness. That Alabama brigade was really pretty good themselves.
On another note my game runs well most all the time. No sound issues, only 2 crashes, and after I got my modem set up right no MP hosting issues. No activation issues.

Harmon
NY Cavalry

Cavalry is going to be getting an overhaul soon, so stay tuned.

All good stuff, NY--as Little Powell said, we'll work on it. As far as Sheridan's use of cavalry, however, that's 1864, and doesn't need to be reflected in our 1863 model. Cavalry is best used in this game in "Hunt Them Down" Sandbox situations, where you don't know where the enemy is, and need to find them before they find you.

I was playing a sandbox game and had some cavalry attached to my command. So, I sent them off scouting for the enemy. I was playing "hunt them down-no objectives". I play limited sight, limited map, and couriers. After they (the cavalry) had rode off and out of sight I was wondering what they would find and if they would report back to me???? Well they were sort of lost and I had no idea what they were doing and even if they had found the enemy. Eventually, they came back over the hill firing at the enemy as they came falling back. So they did find the enemy, but failed to send me any messages that I could act on. Does it do any good to send cav as scouts with limited options?
I thought this was a little funny. I'm not complaining at all the game is just fine as it is. I'll just have to work around this.


NY Cavalry

NY Cavalry wrote:

I was playing a sandbox game and had some cavalry attached to my command. So, I sent them off scouting for the enemy. I was playing "hunt them down-no objectives". I play limited sight, limited map, and couriers. After they (the cavalry) had rode off and out of sight I was wondering what they would find and if they would report back to me???? Well they were sort of lost and I had no idea what they were doing and even if they had found the enemy. Eventually, they came back over the hill firing at the enemy as they came falling back. So they did find the enemy, but failed to send me any messages that I could act on. Does it do any good to send cav as scouts with limited options?
I thought this was a little funny. I'm not complaining at all the game is just fine as it is. I'll just have to work around this.


NY Cavalry

That's funny, because I had exactly the same experience playing Sandbox last night, but I had my Map Icons Display Level set so I could see exactly what those cavalry were doing after I gave my orders, and I could see they were completely oblivious of almost all orders I sent them! So I have already put a bug in Mantis on this problem.