Manual Contradicts Canister Shot in Help Screen

[J Canuck]

The Manual states:
"Canister was the most lethal weapon on the Civil War battlefield, deadly against enemy infantry or cavalry within 350 yards or less." (Probably historically correct.)

The Help Screen of the game states:
"Canister was the most lethal weapon on the Civil War battlefield, deadly against enemy infantry or cavalry within 200 yards or less." (Probably correct in the game.)

These seemingly contradictory statements to what actually happens in the game is confusing. My game testing indicates artillery automatically shifts to Canister Shot when the enemy approaches to within 200 yards.

If I Take Command and order the artillery to use Canister Shot between 200 and 350 yards, will the enemy suffer Canister losses; or, if the manual’s 350 yard statement is in error as far as the game is concerned, I suggest consideration be given to clarifying the manual.

Hey – either I’m a perfectionist or a nitpicker. :dry:

[Kerflumoxed]

I believe there is an older thread that discusses ranges, but I'm not sure where it is located. But, yes, cannister would/could open up at 350 yards, so that part is accurate.

J.

[Garnier]

Historically it could be deadly at 350 yards, but in game they only fire canister at 200 yards or less (which is a good thing).

[Kerflumoxed]

Garnier wrote:

Historically it could be deadly at 350 yards, but in game they only fire canister at 200 yards or less (which is a good thing).

I don't know! As an Arty. buff, I kind like the 350 range! B)

J

[Shirkon]

Kerflumoxed wrote:

Garnier wrote:

Historically it could be deadly at 350 yards, but in game they only fire canister at 200 yards or less (which is a good thing).

I don't know! As an Arty. buff, I kind like the 350 range! B)

J

Biggest problem with using the 350 yd open fire range for canister is you will run out of it much faster and if you guns run out of canister they will limber up and start looking for a supply wagon. Most of the guns only have around 10 rounds of canister so you can see they can burn through that really quickly. With the open fire range at 200 yds you can stay in the fight longer before you have to resupply.

[Jim]

The standard canister round at GB had 27 shot. If you do the geometry and look at the shot cone surface at various ranges, you will see that the shot density gets thin at longer ranges and therefore the effective number of hits goes down a lot. We picked the 200 yd limit to balance effectiveness vs rate of fire. As soon as the SDK is out, you can mod the numbers and see what balance you are happy with.

Note to CS players - The howitzer has 48 shot in the canister load. These are otherwise useless as artillery, but very good at defense vs infantry attacks.

-Jim

[J Canuck]

Based on this great information, I won't force my arty to waste canister shot from 200 to 350 yards - thanks.

You know, considering Norb's games attract a large number of Grognards into playing with as much historical consideration as possible, we really should have some sort of easy reference chart(s) illustrating SOW's modeled casualty figures for all the different types of calibers, shots along with effective ranges. I am looking forward to reviewing this in the SKD; however, referencing those spreadsheets is not as user friendly as it could be when one is planning tactics during the heat of battle.

SUGGESTION FOR NORB
I realise hard core Grognards will relate easily with the SOW's modeled SKD data and store it quickly into their memory banks; but, good casualty charting designed in a user friendly format (perhaps as a Manual addendum) aimed at a larger audience may be a significant positive add-on for marketing Norb's games.