Marching Thru Georgia wrote:
Another thing to consider for your #4. If you capture the gun you must also capture the limber otherwise you have a 2400 lb paperweight. The ammo for the gun is on the limber and it's much easier to move by hand then the gun. Without the limber you have no ammo or fuses for the guns so they are useless for the current fight. And without at least some artillerists to guide the infantry you want to man the gum, most wouldn't know what to do anyway. Loading and firing a CW cannon isn't anything like loading and firing the rifle musket and most infantry would probably miss some important steps, like poking the friction primer through the powder bag to ensure the burning primer touched off the powder charge. or covering the touch hole while swabbing so that no air gets to the burning embers when swabbing out the barrel before putting a new charge in. Is bad if you don't have all those embers out and shoving in a bag of black powder that explodes because of them, it could really ruin the day of the person ramming the charge home.
Acually, the friction primer was not used to "prick" the powderbag. Rather, they were issued a "Priming Wire" (an .8 diameter piece of steel with a sharpened point on one end and a loop for the middle finger on the other to aid in extracting from the vent) to open the bag through the vent. After being "pricked" the Friction Primer was inserted. Also, the Friction Primer was not long enough to reach the powder bag.
J
Yeah, I know, but when I was replying I couldn't for the life of me think of what it was called. Had one of those "Duh" moments. :blink:
Those "duh" moments will continue to grow as you age! Wonderful thought, eh?
J
Jack Hanger
Fremont, NE[/size] "Boys, if we have to stand in a straight line as stationary targets for the Yankees to shoot at, this old Texas Brigade is going to run like hell!" J. B. Poley, 4th Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade
I had another thought. Whether it's good mostly depends on how the code is set up, but here it is:
If a gun takes a certain amount of casualties, it loses it's ability to limber. This represents the horses being hit, as they so frequently did, and also give incentive to keep guns away from the front. I've read plenty of civil war accounts where they had to leave guns behind because they took fire and lost horses/limbers, and the enemy were too close.
The actual threshold where this happens can be used to help balance it, I'm thinking somewhere from 4-6 casualties. (after 9 casualties that gun routs entirely from the field).
I only thought of this because of the way guns work after being captured, they can't be limbered, so whatever changes to make that happen, it may be possible to do the same thing here, again if this is a good idea depends mostly on how complicated it would be to implement.
Last edited by Garnier on Mon May 03, 2010 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"P.S. This still does not address the Cannister fire OVER, THROUGH and AROUND friendly INF to the arty's front"
That's being addressed as a separate issue in our bug reports. We're working on it.
As I recall (without doing any further research) firing any type of ammunition over the heads of troops was frowned upon as the sabot, located between the round and the powder, usually separated from the round and was apt to cause injury to the troops in front of the gun, even if the gun was at a higher evelvation.
J
Jack Hanger
Fremont, NE[/size] "Boys, if we have to stand in a straight line as stationary targets for the Yankees to shoot at, this old Texas Brigade is going to run like hell!" J. B. Poley, 4th Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade
I had another thought. Whether it's good mostly depends on how the code is set up, but here it is:
If a gun takes a certain amount of casualties, it loses it's ability to limber. This represents the horses being hit, as they so frequently did, and also give incentive to keep guns away from the front. I've read plenty of civil war accounts where they had to leave guns behind because they took fire and lost horses/limbers, and the enemy were too close.
The actual threshold where this happens can be used to help balance it, I'm thinking somewhere from 4-6 casualties. (after 9 casualties that gun routs entirely from the field).
I only thought of this because of the way guns work after being captured, they can't be limbered, so whatever changes to make that happen, it may be possible to do the same thing here, again if this is a good idea depends mostly on how complicated it would be to implement.
In the "For What It's Worth" department, this excerpt regarding service of the "10th Massachusetts Light Artillery at Ream's Station in August of 1864. During the battle the battery was fighting from behind a makeshift barricade. The men were protected but the horses were fully exposed. In the passing of the opening minutes of the battle only two of the thirty horses were still standing and both of these animals bore wounds. Of the two remaining horses one horse had received seven separate wounds before it went down. Others were hit, went down, and struggled back up only to be hit again. The average number of wounds each horse had suffered was five." Full article can be found at http://www.taylorsbattery.org/The%20Art ... Driver.htm
J
Jack Hanger
Fremont, NE[/size] "Boys, if we have to stand in a straight line as stationary targets for the Yankees to shoot at, this old Texas Brigade is going to run like hell!" J. B. Poley, 4th Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade
Includes a great article on driving artillery horses and why batteries/guns were habitually turned to the left!
J
Last edited by Kerflumoxed on Mon May 03, 2010 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jack Hanger
Fremont, NE[/size] "Boys, if we have to stand in a straight line as stationary targets for the Yankees to shoot at, this old Texas Brigade is going to run like hell!" J. B. Poley, 4th Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade
