Scourge of War Boards

Ive stated many times that I am a fan of both the SOW franchise and especially SOWWL. My more recent studies (and I think i got the recommendation on these or the matrix boards) have lead me to this work

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0300 ... ge_o05_s00

It really is a eye opening and consummate account of what really happened during napoleonic battles. For anyone mildly curious I would recommend it heartily.

Muir makes the following points:

1. Officers constantly (if good leaders) strove to drive their men to get as close as possible before opening fire.
2. A units quality or confidence often dictated the range at which a unit would open fire.
3. Often units would sit well beyond effective range and enter into a attritave exchange of fire
4. Melee was extremely rare on the battlefield. Most likely a unit would run if faced with a bayonet charge or alternatively its own fire would stop the charging unit in its tracks and either repulse it or the charge would falter and the charging unit stop and enter into a musketry duel (see above)
5. Units in square were practically invulnerable to cavalry attack unless unformed
6. Cavalry would always pull up a charge unless the unit being charged stated to flee.
7. It took real discipline to hold fast against a cavalry charge
8. Units in square were inclined by their leadership to hold fire as long as possible as the greatest moment of vulnerability was during reloading after a volley.

Muir makes other interesting and pertinent points, but the question here is how capable (with mods) is the SOWWL engine able to recreate the above?

Do you agree with his findings? If not why not not? Can you cite examples where the above was not true?

That said one of the areas where SOWWL excells is command and control, insofar as the courier process (given the caveat it is not working as intended currently). Given that, can the rest of the game be made to be a truer representation of what happened. Would this still be an enjoyable game to play if it were?

We have provided alot more modding potential in Waterloo with the AI dll. Going through your list,

2, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are all in the game already to some extent - but if you want to make change the distances/morale checks you will be able to mod that.

that sounds promising (and thanks for the reply) will the GB SOW SDK docs help indicate where and what to change?

The new AI .dll wont be in the GB one, the guys are in the process of writing a new SDK up.

We have provided alot more modding potential in Waterloo with the AI dll. Going through your list,

2, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are all in the game already to some extent - but if you want to make change the distances/morale checks you will be able to mod that.

Could you clarify number 2? I get the impression that when a lower quality unit fires at a higher quality attacker, the attacker also stops to return fire, where as what should be more likely to happen is that the higher quality unit continues its advance until it's closed to within the range it wants to fire at. Otherwise the lower quality unit drags the higher down to its own lever in terms of fire discipline.

It depends on the fire type you are using - units will 'fire at will' unless specifically told to hold their fire for a volley. The range a unit will start to fire when told to volley fire will vary depending on their experience level, so grog units will hold fire until very short range and cause max-casualties. This applies to line and square.

It depends on the fire type you are using - units will 'fire at will' unless specifically told to hold their fire for a volley. The range a unit will start to fire when told to volley fire will vary depending on their experience level, so grog units will hold fire until very short range and cause max-casualties. This applies to line and square.

Thanks, that helps. Given the period then, wouldn't it make more sense to have volley fire the default setting?

Yes I have Muir and also all the books of Nosworthy, they are very good authors (Nosworthy in particular on the fire tactics), but also Hess book on the rifle muskets during the civil war and the more recent book on the infantry tactics during the civil war has a good introduction on the '700-'800 precedents. I can suggest also From Flintlock to Rifle: Infantry Tactics, 1740-1866 of Ross

The approaching to the best range is subjected to various conditions: volley range linked to the experience, being or not already under fire, morale, stance of officer, angle of enemy respect my front, nearest enemy on other flanks, valid ground. If units stop out of best range can eventually restart the approach if not underfire for some time or start an advancing fire. It can be still improved without doubts but it is a very delicate thing because is linked to the interaction with the context which is the more variable of 1vs1 perfect situation.

Volley is reload from the AI every time no enemy is in range if the stance permit this; is released automatically when under the best range but of course the AI can release it before especially if the unit in defence is underfire because it needs to fight back

Thanks for the reply and the book recommendations. So to clarify, are you saying that volley is chosen as the initial mode of firing by the AI? Is there a chance for that command to fail and troops to start fire at will of their own accord if they fail a moral check?

THe volley is load if the brigade has a stance and if his stance setting permit to use it, so is use is variable. Of course this is valid only for AI controlled brigade, for a human brigade the release can be forced only at the correct distance or pressing the volley release.