"Opinions on urban combat rules for Napoleonic era" Topic
5 Posts
All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.
Please don't call someone a Nazi unless they really are a Nazi.
For more information, see the TMP FAQ.
Back to the Game Design Message Board
Areas of InterestGeneral
Featured Hobby News Article
Featured Link
Featured Ruleset
Featured Showcase ArticleESLO Terrain explains about their range of modular buildings.
Featured Workbench ArticleCan any of these products cure the dreaded "wedding cake" effect?
Featured Profile ArticleAt last!
Current Poll
|
tshryock | 17 Jun 2016 12:25 p.m. PST |
I was playing a game recently and the rules count towns as a certain class of terrain when it comes to musketry, so those in the town get the benefit of cover. It also allows fire out of the town section in any direction. Two questions: 1) Is it realistic to have musketry alone force an enemy unit from a town section? That sounds odd to me, but maybe it happened more than I realized. Any thoughts on this? 2) Shouldn't a unit in a town really be required to choose a facing -- ie a side of the town where the most troops are concentrated? Wouldn't the unit (battalion scale) be mainly deployed along the enemy's edge of the town and not equally dispersed through the area? Would you allow fire from the other facings (assume a square town section for sake of this example)? And would those other sections be penalized when firing (assuming you allow it) since most of the troops would probably be facing the primary edge facing the enemy's front? All thoughts appreciated. |
ColCampbell | 17 Jun 2016 1:42 p.m. PST |
In the rules we play ("The Sound of the Guns" by Larry Brom), towns are rated by the number of units that can be inside (garrisoning) them. Normally a town can only hold one battalion, and maybe an artillery battery. We rarely have towns larger than that. A unit can only be forced from a town (or a town section although our towns aren't that big) by cold steel, i.e. losing a close combat. They cannot be forced out by a failed morale roll due to artillery or infantry fire. Of course they can be totally eliminated by fire, but that's not what you asked. As far as facing, we allow up to 1/2 of a battalion to fire out of a single side of the town. If the battalion wants to concentrate on a single side of the town, the the other sides are left unmanned. Also if an artillery battery is in a town then it must be oriented to a particular side and can only fire out of that side. Hope that helps. Jim |
45thdiv | 17 Jun 2016 5:02 p.m. PST |
That's just a skirmish game. Take a look at sharp practice. |
Jcfrog | 18 Jun 2016 6:50 a.m. PST |
Musketry would be at very very close range ( a few dozen meters at most) as an early form of suppressing/ covering fire as sometimes related in memoirs etc. Otherwise it would make no sense to waste ammo as the other side, if no advance Can fire obliquely from windows with others reloading behind Or just wait till you are tired of it in near total cover. Otherwise your shooting, if the game is at a small scale, might flush out the chaps in gardens, behind hedges etc. It would depend on the structure of the built up area: open/ close, I read somewhere that canon would be useful rather close too, esp 12lb, sort of remember it saying smaller was near useless. Again it would depend on the strength of the buildings…as nowadays. One of the simple bibles as often is Kriegspiel 1824 as those who wrote it were say probably into the thick of some of Lützen village fights for example! There it says 6 lb under 300 m and 12lb under 450m to breach; roughly 8-15 minutes for first possible results. Attack a village needs 1 bn for each 300m, in column. Defense is adequate with one per 300-500m. This means if less, some parts will be more porous or rather the central reserve small or non existant which in most rules should make it easier to seize the village. Hardly any one should be " shot out" of a village say with a unit being a batalion or more unless it is demolished or burnt. It is fragmented close combat, disordering and often longer than the usual close confronctations in the open. |
Rudysnelson | 26 Jun 2016 1:19 p.m. PST |
Got guard du Cotps back in 1979, we developed an objective Combat system which covered urban actions and field fortifications. It reflected very effectively the disorganization and sponge effects over objective fighting. This was a 1:50 ratio system but we did modify it was various levels down to a 1:15 ratio. |
|