"Rifle and Gurkha Regiments - Better Shots?" Topic

I'm tweaking some colonial rules and wondered if there's evidence that Victorian Rifles regiments – including Gurkhas who styled themselves as Rifles – had more training on the rifle range than line regiments. Mind you, I fully intend to use stereotypes for the other units in the game: +1 in melee for impetuous Highlanders, etc. so I'm painting with a broad brush here.

I'd give the bonus to Ghurkas but not to British Rifles.

I've never read anywhere that Gurkhas were better shots the anyone else.
Same with Rifles.
Everyone had rifles now, and I don't think anyone spent more time on the range.

Except the Guides. Emphasis on marksmanship and strong competition to get in the Regiment so they could pick the best shots.

I give Gurkhas a bonus in melee for big knives, aggression and attitude.

I'm with James on this one.

In the Indian Mutiny the Gurkhas used shortened muskets because the standard p1842 was a bit too big for them. Now if you shorten an already inaccurate smooth-bore musket you don't get better accuracy.
Same as in Vietnam were the full 30-06 was a bit too much for most of the South Vietnamese.

But in melee they must have been absolutely terrifying and effective. Still are I guess…

Can you be a bit more specific as to the years in question? After the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 it might be because the Gurkhas, and Sikhs if I remember correctly; were the only Native Troops allowed rifles for some time. There were actually smooth bore versions of the 1853 Enfield muskets made for the Indian Army.

I often see colonial rules variants that give the Gurkhas and sometimes Highlanders a break on rough terrain modifiers, they get to ignore penalties for Hills. I understand where this is coming from, but feel it is inherently romantic malarkey. For one thing, Imperial military formations would have been trained to move in uniform formations and cadences, so the lowest common denominator rules, right? No one is fighting in a "tribal" fashion, combat occurs within defined European drill.

And Highland regiments were not universally composed of Highland Scots by this time, far from it.

I don't have a problem with greater elan being represented in other ways, morale perhaps or willingness to engage in close combat, but I can't see that making certain units super-elite in movement or fire is justified.

@Piper: But when the entire unit's "lowest common denominator" is able to run up the hills at 120 beats per minute (compared to everyone else's 90 bpm), doesn't that change things?

If Ghurkas are going to get any sort of bonus it should be in melee for their big scary knives. A long standing Wargames rule tradition!

Interestingly in David Rowlands exhaustive analysis of combat effectiveness, Ghurka units did actually seem to perform quantifiably better than other regiments on all the standard measures such as loss ratios etc.

Not to mention the psychological impact of constructing cairns from the heads of your opponents.