"Counter Battery fire, Johnny Reb (question)" Topic

Hi, played a game for the first time in almost, two years. Enjoyed it, however counter battery fire, seems a little weird.
I think we did it right , it just seamed odd.
Too give an example. A pair of guns achieve a brace of hits, the save is 1,2,3,4,5 as they are Napoleons.
Assuming that the 2 saves are made. No resulting morale tests.
Is this right? it seems to easy to save guns?

Which version of Johnny Reb are you using? II or III?

If you are talking about JR2, that is correct. In JR2 for counterbattery fire, you have to declare whether you are shooting at the crew, or trying to actually hit the gun. If you shoot at the crew, they get to save as skirmishers. If you are shooting at the gun to disable it, then the gun gets to "save". If you are shooting at it with rifled cannon, then the cannon is disabled on a 5 or 6. If firing smoothbores, then the target cannon is disabled on a 6. So yes, rifled cannon have a better chance of disabling a battery. Do you know how hard it is to hit a cannon sized object at range with a 3 inch round projectile? Its not supposed to be easy. You are better of with Napoleons trying to shoot the crew. And there should be no saved. If you missed, then the solid shots just sailed on by without actually hitting anything.

We are using JR2, @Cleburne, must have missed the part where we could declare the crew as a target, which was part of the issue.
The way we read it was, solid shot had to target the guns, whereas canister and infantry shots, target the crew. Will double check.

thanks
jon

I just re-read the section. I can see how the rules could be interpreted that way. But to me that would mean you could only target the guns if firing beyond the canister range of 4". What about shell? That just seems an unnecessary restriction. Smoothbores were good at canister and raining down exploding shell. The crew still save like skirmishers, even more so if they have any cover, so its still tough to get two permanent casualties to destroy a section. Rifles were good at aimed fire. You get a Union battery of 6 Parrots or Ordnance rifles within a foot and you are very likely to start breaking carriages and axles and unseating enemy cannon. You can use the rules to take advantage of the type of cannon you have.

I now play mostly JRIII. I played the original for about 25 years and I enjoyed their artillery rules. In counter battery fire, the die roll decided if you got gun or crew. If your firing gun was a smoothbore and you rolled snake eyes, you got a critical hit and hit the gun any other roll and you got a crew hit. Rifled piece you got a critical hit with a 2 or 3 on the hit table. A Whitworth, on a 2, 3, or 4. In JRIII, arty fire is more abstracted. Have never played JRII.