Caputred Artillery

[Gfran64]

I have a question for any Re-Enactors. How far do you think a captured piece of artillery/limbers could have been moved without horses? Also, how significant of an incline could it be pushed up? The reason I ask is that I've noticed that in the game the captured piece of artillery seems to be able to be moved an unlimited distance over any terrain. I don't see how men could have moved a gun of that size up a hill and/or through woods without horses. Also, when the fatigue level of the men moving the captured gun reaches exhausted, they shouldn't be able to move the gun anymore, .......they're exhausted. If they are pursued by infantry, they would have to abandon the gun and the gun would have remained viable but unmanned. If hit by artillery, then I think that the gun is dead and the troops retreat.

I would suggest, as has probably been mentioned before by someone way more savvy than me, that there be a spike/disable the gun command for captured artillery. Also I would suggest that if a gun crew is exhausted, they can't move the gun overland. Also suggest that infantry fire could force any artillery piece to be abandoned due to lack of men/horses to move it. Also a thought, if cavalry captured a gun or an abandoned gun could they have used their horses to move the gun and limbers?

P.S. Norb, I'm not trying to be a pest. I know your plate is full. Just thinking out loud.

Regards,

Greg

[ironsight]

Somewhere buried in one of these threads, Norb hinted that there would be a cannon spiking or disabling feature. This is something that i also thought should of been included in TC2M long ago. We'll see!:)

Whats kind of interesting is i'll move a captured gun clear across the map up and down hills through ravines, gulleys, creeks and the woods and their fatigue level is sometimes unexpectedly good! However the vast majority of the time they'll be exhausted. Maybe to some degree it depends on the fatigue level of the capturing unit who ends up manning the gun. I try to not move captured guns too far from where they were captured because there's almost always enemy infantry nearby and cannister rounds to be used up. But when a gun is isolated in the woods, its vulnerable and has to be moved to safer ground.

Another thing i noticed about captured artillery. Once in a while if a captured gun is right next to an uncaptured gun they sorta morph into a single unit with both a reb and a yankee flag with each apparently not recognizing that fact. When this happens, there's no red halos. The only way to separate them is to manually move the captured gun away, then the halos appear and usually the uncaptured enemy gun will rout it with point blank cannister! A win-lose proposition!

[Gfran64]

I have seen that also. It seems to happen when the gun sprite of the captured gun is oriented passed the enemy limbers sprite. It's a few steps back and cannister at 20 paces. Not pretty.

Greg

[Hancock the Superb]

We also need a retire by prolongue, with cannon wheeling while it is retiring. When you use cannon fall-back in TC2M, it won't fire unless it is facing the enemy exactly! So, if the enemy changes positions, you can no-longer keep the cannon firing. And the prolongues would enable a faster withdrawl. Good for people who like to use artillery, like me!

[Ephrum]

This brings up a few more questions.
Could a battery be captured, by cavalry, while the guns are limbered and moving?

I would think they could.(provided the battery isn't to close to infantry support)

How much resistance could a battery put up if their guns were limbered? And if captured while limbered, couldn't the horses of the battery be captured also?

[Hancock the Superb]

A battery would double quick itself out of the way. Six horses can get the thing moving pretty fast.

[Ephrum]

Hancock the Superb wrote:

A battery would double quick itself out of the way. Six horses can get the thing moving pretty fast.

I'm sure they could move pretty quick. But they are hauling a cannon. I don't think they could outrun a cavalry brigade, regiment, or squad.

[ironsight]

Ephrum wrote:
Could a battery be captured, by cavalry, while the guns are limbered and moving?

Happens all the time. The last battle i played i ran down a limbered retreating gun in the woods for quite a distance with one my TC'd cavalry squadrons and eventually captured it. While running down that retreating gun, the cavalry killed 4 or 5 of that gun's commanders in the process. That gun's cannister rounds came in handy later on too!:)
With this type of scenario though, i believe the enemy gun will usually white flag surrender before it allows itself to be captured. The white flag unfortunately means the gun was quickly disabled before surrendering it over and disappears off the map.
Still haven't figured out why some allow themselves to be captured while others white flag.

Hancock wrote:
Good for people who like to use artillery, like me!

Count me in as one of those people! Quick and strategic placement of batteries has been my key to overwhelmingly win battles. For major assaults, i always try to bring up the artillery as close as possible to the front lines with 1 or 2 supporting brigades with a reserve brigade held near the rear of the guns. The 18th Century version of Blitzkreg! And whenever possible i like to place batteries in good cover in the woods to blast the enemy flanks or guns. Converging fire works just about everytime. Keeps them enemy guns occuppied diverting their attention.

Another tactic i'll use right before an assault is to get those enemy guns to turn away from my infantry lines by fainting a cavalry charge out of the woods towards the enemy battery flank. When they finally get them guns turned around to fire at my charging cavalry, i skeedadle em back to the safety of the woods and then immediately DQ my assaulting brigades towards the enemy line. When the enemy turns their guns back around to aim at my infantry, i charge those enemy guns for real this time with my cavalry capturing as many of those cannister-firing guns as possible. By this time my infantry has arrived and its the writing on the wall for the enemy!:)
Usually before i do this i like to soften up the enemy line by hammering it for a while with my artillery to clear any enemy infantry/cavalry out of the area. Makes for a cleaner and successful assault with minimal casualties.

[Gfran64]

Ahhhh,

The old bait and switch again. Ironsite you snake you.


Regards,

Greg

[Hancock the Superb]

Most of my guns are for counter battery fire. My infantry can hold off an assalt, generally, though I put my batteries in areas to help them. When the enemy isn't attacking, the batteries are on counter battery, though.

I think we need to have the guns able to take out officers (norb):)

Anyway, after the enemy infantry is bloodied, I go on the attack, with a battery in support, going up to the front lines, unlimbering, firing cannister, limbering, and moving on again!