"Prolonging artillery" Topic

This is a beloved and to my mind a much abused rule in many black powder miniatures games. The guns constantly push an inch or two forward (as far as allowed) every turn while blasting away at full effect. It is true that guns could be prolonged forward, either by prolonge ropes attached to horses or by gunners in specially designed harnesses (the fabled bricoles). Several factors kept this from being as constant as some rules allow. These include exhaustion, ammunition and terrain.

Gunners got tired. Every time a shot was fired, they had to run the one-ton pieces back into place. There was the cumulative effect of all those detonations. Add in hauling the guns around the battlefield and the crew might soon be ineffective. But most rules don't track the fatigue of each battery or section crew. Too complex, I hear you say.

One usual reason for constant fidgeting of guns in games is to get the guns into canister range and cause more hits. Senarmont did this at Friedland, right? That was a calculated risk, because only a portion of artillery ammunition loads were canister, usually reserved for artillery to protect against attack. Most rules don't track ammunition or if they do, down to that level and so there's no reason for players not to fidget their guns into canister range and blast away for the rest of the game. Again, too complex you say.

Finally, the real world isn't as flat as even a fairly cluttered game table. Artillery in the real world needs to find a moderately flat piece of ground to deploy their guns, and their limbers behind that and the caissons and other vehicles behind that. Our tables are full of such places. If prolonging guns forward, even a slight real world incline, one that wouldn't bother a walking man or horse, would make hauling a one-ton piece over it quite a chore. Just pedaling a bicycle up a slight incline is a noticeable difference. Now attach a few hundred pounds to the bike. Put little rises and ditches everywhere on the table? That's too hard.

My point: constant prolonging or man-handling of guns around a field leads to a-historical tactics. Either it should be difficult enough so that it does not routinely occur or ban it completely.

I imagine complex games like Empire will solve it the first way. That's good for those with the time and patience for such rules. I don't have either anymore, so I prefer rules that make guns limber up to move. Your mileage may vary.

Well presented argument and one that I agree with – I think you could allow one or two turns of prolonging but a creeping all-game panzer-like advance is very unrealistic

We just don't allow any prolongue – if you want to move your guns, limber the bloody things up

If a gun prolongs don't allow it to fire or reload. The prolong takes the entire turn. This will still allow for the occasional critical adjustment but will take away the advantage of artillery acting like tanks.

Why should it be banned? It was done and, for the ACW at least, it is in the artillery manual.

It was done and, for the ACW at least, it is in the artillery manual.

My point is, was it done during the entire battle or an emergency procedure? In many games it becomes, as stated above, a panzer-like advance.

Leidang has an interesting take.

I recall a game of Perryville where after a few turns the battered infantry on both sides sheltered behind their constantly prolonging guns. Sound like any battles you've read about?

Another issue you did not touch upon is ground scale. Prolonging an inch or two sounds reasonable, but that might equate to many meters of, as you point out, manhandling a heavy gun over rough terrain. I suppose you could make the maximum prolong move/turn a minuscule distance.

Some games only allow you to prolong (prolongue? Prolonge?) once, basically meaning the guns are anchored to the original spot they unlimbered and unable to move more than an inch or two from there.

@vtsa: My point is that is was done, and it is in the manual, so it should not be banned. If artillery is moving around like panzers, it is because there is a problem with how the rules handle prolonging pieces. You can handle it any number of ways, such as the battery can't fire the turn it prolongs, or it fires at half effect, and/or it accumulates a fatigue marker, a battery can only prolong twice per game, etc. While banning prolonging is a solution, it is a solution that prohibits a known practice.

I think that there could be two issues. First as you say there is terrain. The second is that if the gun is in the same position it is easy to relay as it goes back to the same position. If it moves it has to relay from scratch. This will slow the rate if fire. In addition this would make them more vulnerable to say skirmishers.

Much must depend on the time scale of the rules, eg. 10 minutes or half an hour per turn. I recently watched a game where guns were only able to fire for so many turns, or so many times, with no resupply rule, or so it appeared. – "Because guns could not fire all day long" I was informed, I was quiet even though I had recently read of one battle, may have been Lutzen, where 9 hrs was mentioned!

Tally Ho!

According to the 1861 U.S. War Department Instructions for Field Artillery, prolonging is done by attaching the prolong rope to the rear of the ammunition limber and then to the ring on the end of the gun carriage. The limber horses advance or retire at a slow walk while the gunners march beside their gun. They may be ordered to load while the gun is moving, so that, if retreating, the limber may halt briefly to allow a shot at any pursuing enemy. The Instructions also give information on the best way to prolong across ditches or similar obstacles, so it could be done under certain conditions.

I would not allow firing while prolonging forward, but would while retiring if the target is within charge range.

I'm with the ground scale/time scale" crowd. In a classic H&m game--30mm or thereabouts, with battalions taking up a foot of frontage--that 1" handpush is maybe 10 yards--perhaps a reasonable adjustment. When you get to 15mm castings, brigade maneuver units and ground scales of 1"=100 yds, which is more of a problem, but I can see a certain lack of enthusiasm for a quarter-inch prolong. I'd allow it in a big casting/small unit game, either ban it or cost a turn's fire in a small casting/big unit game, and adjust in between by feel.

But no quarter-inch movements, and no ammunition inventories. This thing's supposed to be fun, after all.

Direction of prolong is an issue too. It was easier to prolong in retrograde then forward.

With some rules, naming no names, I often think the gunners should hang a bayonet from the mouth of the barrel.

Please let's not prolong this debate any further …

It is one of my ambitions to at some point own a Union ACW battery which has a plaque hanging from the barrel reading "DEUTSCH HIER GESAGT." Probably needs to be in 54mm. (Yes, it was done historically.)

Was that Dilger's battery?

You could do something like this:

To attempt to prolong the gun, roll 1d6:
1, 2, 3: success
4: success, but gun can't be prolonged again (crew exhausted or terrain problem)
5, 6: terrain problem: gun can't be prolonged in that direction again

Adjust as desired for desired granularity (larger die), crew quality (die modifier), etc.