Question on musket fire

[Bloody Bill]

Hey gents so here is the situation I have found on multiple occasions. Three small regiments are able to out shoot a large regiment by a massive margin.

Exact example: ON the Antietam map AP Hill scenario I had three Reb regiments about 400 men total. They were fighting a single 600 man Yanky regiment. The Yanky regiment took 60 losses and broke in about ten minutes. The Rebs took 3 losses in one 0 in another and 1 in the last for a grand total of 4 losses. I was playing on the normal difficulty. The fight was on an rolling hill no cover for either side and elevation was about even.

I only mention this because I have seen this same scenario play out many times. Another quick note is I have noticed many many time a fresh regiment not being able to stop another regiment charging it. Why could a fresh regiment shooting in the open not stop a regiment moving at it for 200 yards? Regiment in question was around 300 veterans getting charged by 500 green. The charging regiment left 4 dead sprites on the ground before making contact.

[RebBugler]

In this scenario there are a lot of Reb guns on the high ground which are very effective, perhaps the Yank reg took some arty hits. Also, occasionally lone units get caught exactly the same distance between two or more enemy units and wind up doing more wheeling than shooting, this is an issue that will hopefully be addressed in the next engine.

Charges, without more info, saved game, it's hard to say much. I do know that charging units don't suffer many casualties when en-route due to it happening so quickly.

[Saddletank]

Quality of troops?

[Garnier]

The Yanky regiment took 60 losses and broke in about ten minutes. The Rebs took 3 losses in one 0 in another and 1 in the last for a grand total of 4 losses

Assuming no other units were involved and they were on equal elevations with no terrain bonuses, this is most likely due to difference in quality of the troops. I've run tests with two regiments of 200 men each vs one regiment of 400, all stats equal on flat ground, and casualties came out about even between the two sides repeatedly.

Why could a fresh regiment shooting in the open not stop a regiment moving at it for 200 yards?

In real life, how many casualties you inflict would depend very much on factors like how well you can see them -- is there smoke in the way, are they standing up running across smooth ground or crouching behind slight irregularities in the terrain -- and what the target is like -- is it a formation of 5000 men in a huge mass, or just a thin skirmish line. The game doesn't take these factors into account at all.

In the game, the following two cases will have the same killing rate:
1) You're firing at 100 men in a skirmish line at 100yds, who are firing back through smoke and are probably crouching.
2) You're firing at 5000 men in a big mass who are running at you, no smoke in the way.

If you mod the game to speed up the killing rate, then case 2) might behave realistically, but case 1) will be ridiculous -- you'll wipe out the skirmish line too quickly.

[Bloody Bill]

Quality of troops?

Confederate troops were 1) seasoned 2) volunteer. Union was Irregular. Ground was generally rolling with no real height advantage. Units were not fatigued or shaken.

[Saddletank]

That's your answer then. I've played an MP game of the Union attack on the Bloody Lane and the Union division was stopped dead before it got anywhere near its objective. Many Union troops in the Antietam scenarios are not of good quality.