Hi MG,
This is the first playing of a scenario as a test game so that is exactly what we are doing, testing ideas based on the principles we want to model as laid out in the post. Therefore how others who play the scenario want to model British firepower, for example, will be their choice. Personally I think the firepower is about right based on historical context and should be a constant. The British firing ability is counterbalanced by French veteran experience, thus they are all "C" quality units
The question is how much fire could be issued at any given time given the circumstances, (surprise, visibility, disorder etc). That is a variable we intend to play with in the following tests. On top of that you have other variables such as attaching officers at critical times that will make games different one to another
The range of combat is close given the visibility down to 100 paces and fire on chargers is often issued at 75 paces. The casualty count reflects this with the British, interestingly, having suffered more from firing and the French having a higher level of captured.
The 7th KGL were broken in the first contact and the 1st KGL may have suffered a similar fate had the 2/96th Ligne not gone walk about. In the original fight Langwerth's brigade were avoided and Lowe's brigade were broken as happened in our game when the 9th Legere broke the 5th KGL.
The British units are set up on their positions and given a call to arms would naturally face towards the French lines. If a French battalion had stumbled into a British flank that would and could happen by the random movement.
Each turn captures a fifteen minute period of time so you would expect a number of men to be ready to issue fire in that time. The first contact with the 7th KGL only had 14% of the unit available about 70 men and that fire was split on the two French columns before they broke. The columns are often able to issue fire from 33% of their numbers before charging, so you will see the British battalions engaged got shot up.
Had the 24th Ligne won their combat with the 87th the game looked likely to end with a French victory, given they were ahead on casualty count, and they would have had two moves and four battalions to deal with the 88th before Hill could have intervened. Frustratingly, the 24th came across in front of the 9th Legere during the approach march.
We plan to vary the British response in subsequent games to see how that alters the play, but on balance I think this is an interesting little challenge for both sides in having to manage with what you have, not necessarily in the right place, and just like with the real thing, it is scary putting French columns in against British lines even when only about 15-20% of their ranks are able to shoot.
Once we have seen what the variables have to offer then I will write them up so when using C&G the choice about what to include or not will be a personal preference.
Thanks for your thoughts
Cheers
JJ
experiments at 11x.
