"In the past, how did they know who was the enemy " Topic
8 Posts
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| Tango01 | 30 Jan 2018 3:56 p.m. PST |
… in a battle?
Interesting topic…
link
Amicalement
Armand |
robert piepenbrink  | 30 Jan 2018 4:37 p.m. PST |
Trying to remember the name of the ECW battle when both armies settled on a field sign of wearing something white in their hats and a field word of "God our strength!" The battle is commonly called "indecisive," but I bet the participants called it a few other things. |
 StoneMtnMinis | 30 Jan 2018 4:38 p.m. PST |
Usually the ones trying to kill you? |
| jdginaz | 30 Jan 2018 5:52 p.m. PST |
Easy, the enemy are the guys over there. |
| robert piepenbrink | 30 Jan 2018 6:28 p.m. PST |
Sadly, the enemy rarely STAYS over there, and the ones trying to kill you may very well be on your side--which is sort of the point of uniforms, flags, field signs and field words. As an example of this going horribly wrong, consider the Battle of Barnet, among many others. I figure in real life about one casualty in seven is "friendly" fire. I wouldn't put up with anything like that in a miniatures game. |
 Jeff Ewing | 30 Jan 2018 7:20 p.m. PST |
If you've never seen reenactors volley fire black powder weapons, it's hard to believe how much smoke is generated. Black powder era battlefields must have been a CnC nightmare, with visibility in the dozens of feet. |
 miniMo | 30 Jan 2018 9:51 p.m. PST |
Napoleonic Brunswickers had the best plan: shoot at any one in front of them who is not wearing black. May have caused some headaches for Anglo allies, but at least the Brunswickers weren't likely to shoot themselves! |
| Mick the Metalsmith | 31 Jan 2018 7:10 a.m. PST |
Familiarity with your unit's members was all that mattered. Most units were comprised of family or clans until the late medieval period. Even after, a unit's time on campaign made everyone pretty familiar with his comrades. the linear nature of combat usually meant that you never encountered many of other friendly units, if someone was in front of you and facing you that you did not recognize, he was a fair target. Temporary badges often sufficed. I don't think sword or spear armed units had much problem from friends causing casualties, aside from some impatient cavalry overrunning friendly crossbowmen, who they knew to be such but didn't care about. Long range artillery is where the source of friendly fire usually occurs. Muskets, due to smoke, occasionally had this problem…and it is with the arrival of the musket that the national uniform starts to make an appearance. |
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experiments with 3Dprinting tiles.