proper use of skirmish formation

[gwgardner]

My first stab at GBB03, Merdith's brigade holding McPherson's Ridge, I thought that it would be best to advance in skirmish formation, since I couldn't see any Confederates in the woods.

One regiment ran straight into a deployed Confederate regiment, which proceeded to make mince of my regiment in skirmish formation.

That was surprising to me, as I thought upon spotting the enemy, Id have time to reform the regiment into line. Perhaps I ordered the skirmishers forward too far at a time?

How best to use the skirmish formation?

[Jack ONeill]

GW,

My advice, (and from others), is - don't. The Game engine does not recognize Skirmishers as the real world understands it. I, and other here, have written extensively on this. At one point, I even developed a modded skirmisher formation to be used with the NapMod. I t actually works, but must be tightly controlled by the player to be effective. There is no casualty difference between formations in SOWGB. The game engine treats it just like a regular Line formation. Also, it is horribly unwieldy to use in SOWGB. It's a great idea, in theory. I believe, down the road, Norb/Team is trying to incorporate it in the game. We shall see. It's tough game coding.

Jack B)

"Molon Labe"

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Jack is correct, the stock skirmishers are strictly for show. However, the KS Napoleon mod has skirmishers that work quite well. They function as skirmishers should and deliver many more casualties than they receive. They move out in front of the brigade and screen the main body. Even the AI uses them reasonably well.

[gwgardner]

Thanks. I'm going to try that Napoleon mod someday. In the meantime, I'll treat skirmishing as eye candy and for immersion, and very cautiously, when not in imminent contact with the enemy. My second stab at GBB03 I used it, but got right down out front with the lead skirmishers, and as soon as I saw the enemy I ordered 'line.' that of course would be out of the question in a more intense scenario, or with couriers (which I haven't tried seriously yet).

[mkeogh76]

It's disappointing to hear that the skirmish formation is only "for show" in SOW.

I had noticed that it doesn't really work as a skirmish line with sprites on the far ends of the formation being incapable of creating a LOS or initiating combat if an enemy unit is out of range or the LOS of the skirmish unit's center. However, I didn't know that the game treats it as just a unit in line formation in regards to casualties and combat power.

The skirmish line was an important and commonly used formation in Civil War combat, and so I hope someday we'll get a version of it that isn't just "for show."

[Saddletank]

You can right now if you're prepared to take the KSNapoleon mod's logistics files and convert them back to ACW use. We've only changed some numbers, nothing drastic.