Scourge of War Boards

Love the look of this new game guys - cant wait for it to come - I just wondered if we will have the ability to bombard areas of the battlefield with artillery i.e maybe wooded areas where infantry might be hidden? That would be a cool addition.

Zeke wrote:

Love the look of this new game guys - cant wait for it to come - I just wondered if we will have the ability to bombard areas of the battlefield with artillery i.e maybe wooded areas where infantry might be hidden? That would be a cool addition.

Is that, in modern terms, what is called "recon by fire?" Not sure that it would be historically accurate and am curious what others may think.

J :unsure:

Zeke wrote:

Love the look of this new game guys - cant wait for it to come - I just wondered if we will have the ability to bombard areas of the battlefield with artillery i.e maybe wooded areas where infantry might be hidden? That would be a cool addition.

I didn't get a huge amount of spent hours with TC, as mentioned i gave up after the the tech problem from my end, did get loads in with SM, Gettysburg.

The Artillery point is a good one, a well placed barrage of the enemy lines can have a devastating effect both on casualties and on moral of the enemy, and as you say may discourage any hidden raids from skirmishers on your forward positions from more hidden area's, the point about accuracy is also a good point.

Such an interesting part of military history this time span, and I've always vowed one day i will get over to the US and get a true visual of the area and all its different characteristics. B)

Kerflumoxed wrote:

Zeke wrote:

Love the look of this new game guys - cant wait for it to come - I just wondered if we will have the ability to bombard areas of the battlefield with artillery i.e maybe wooded areas where infantry might be hidden? That would be a cool addition.

Is that, in modern terms, what is called "recon by fire?" Not sure that it would be historically accurate and am curious what others may think.

J :unsure:

I have read of a particular instance at Gettysburg where a Union battery commander, I think it may have been Ames, ordered one of his pieces to shoot into the woods where Hood's men were. Though that was just to see what was there not to actually bombard them.

If I remember the situation right though something had been spotted. bayonet flashes at the very least. In the TC series there had to be a live target to shoot at, area bombardment was not possible. Don't know about this game though.

Area bombardment is not possible. The player or the AI can only shoot at an actual enemy unit that is in range.

-Jim

I think there's the story of Smith's Battery firing off a shot that stirred up the Confederates and gave away their position just prior to the assault on Little Round Top.

However, I believe that is more myth than reality.

It was Warren that sent orders from his position on Little Round Top to Smith's battery at Devil's Den to fire towards the woods Hood's men were hiding in. When the shot passed over them Warren saw the flash of their bayonets when they turned to watch the shot pass over. Isn't a myth really, it's documented in all the histories of the battle.

Shirkon wrote:

It was Warren that sent orders from his position on Little Round Top to Smith's battery at Devil's Den to fire towards the woods Hood's men were hiding in. When the shot passed over them Warren saw the flash of their bayonets when they turned to watch the shot pass over. Isn't a myth really, it's documented in all the histories of the battle.

From "Gettysburg Magazine"

It was now after 4 p.m. Hall and Taylor were alone with their signal party on Little Round Top. Additional messages reporting troop movement opposite their position were signaled to Meade. Suddenly, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, with his aides, Lts. Chauncey B. Reese and Ronald S. Mackenzie, appeared at the station.

Warren had been sent to the position by Meade at Warren's request. It is unclear if the messages as to troop movements opposite the Federal left had an impact on Meade's decisions to send Warren, but it certainly appears that the commanding general had ample evidence there was movement on the left. The most quoted source as to what took place between Warren and Hall is a letter from Warren to Capt. Porter Farley, dated July 13, 1872. As it was nine years after the battle, there is certainly room for discussion as to its accuracy. Warren recalled that there were no troops on Little Round Top with the exception of a signal station. He further stated "this was the key of the whole position and that our troops in the woods in front of it could not see the ground in front of them, so that the enemy would come upon them before they would be aware of it." Warren made no mention of the messages sent from Hall to Meade or Butterfield as to movements of Confederate troops. Warren stated that he requested that a rifled battery in front of the position (Smith's 4th New York) fire a shot and when they did so, Warren could see the "glistening of gun barrels and bayonets of the enemy's line of battle." Warren never mentioned that the signal officers told him that the woods were occupied by Longstreet's men.

A radically different account was provided by J. Willard Brown, historian of the U.S. Veteran Signal Corps Association and a friend and associate of James Hall after the war. According to Brown, Hall had a difficult time, trying to convince Warren there were Confederate troops opposite the position. "While the discussion was in progress the enemy opened on the station. The first shell burst close to the station, and the general, a moment later, was wounded in the neck. Captain Hall then exclaimed, 'Now do you see them?' " Conflicts in the accounts of survivors of Civil War battles were common, and the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. It is difficult to believe Warren would come to the signal station and Hall would not tell him of the troop movements he had observed. However, it would not be uncommon for a general to check this information by personal observation.

Warren stayed near the signal station as the battle for Little Round Top raged. Hall would leave the position later that afternoon upon orders from a Col. Morgan to report to Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick.

Based on these stories, it still seems counterintuitive and historically inaccurate to engage in recon by fire using artillery (or infantry, for that matter).

Steve