Scourge of War Boards

Hm, I think people aren't following what I mean.

A cavalry unit can capture a bunch of cannons, but you need to take manual control of it and tell it to charge again and again and again.... about 2-3 times for each cannon (sometimes the charge orders don't register if the cavalry unit isn't right on top of said cannon).

Instead of making us deal with such silly clicking, the task should be automated i.e. cavalry that charged 1 cannon will attack all of them, and not suddenly dismount and start a firefight 2 steps away from a cannon-muzzle shooting out canister.

This isn't a matter of historical accuracy or of computer AI. It's a bug, a poor design decision, and the game would be better without it.
(at least in my opinion :laugh: )


Also, the process of capturing the cannons doesn't always work-out. Having the crew change sides (and uniforms) is I guess a fine representation, but having the option of spiking the cannons is needed, to keep them from being recaptured.

Charging a battery can be a PITA without a doubt. But like 7th Wis said "So satisfing!". Most of time I notice that the guns that are captured (by cavalry) and the crew is lost, presumablely prisoners/killed and the gun is white flagged and removed from the map. If your cav is TCd, you should be able to capture that entire battery in a matter of seconds, sometimes a little longer, but not much. Having an additional cav unit nearby usually will help to destroy a battery. At 20 points per gun and the loss of gun crews, you should have made a pretty good score, without many loses and one tired cav unit. At times I've gotten as many as three batteries with one cav unit, a huge score, well worth (game clock time) paying attention to.

Hoistingman4

BdColonel wrote:

Hm, I think people aren't following what I mean.

A cavalry unit can capture a bunch of cannons, but you need to take manual control of it and tell it to charge again and again and again.... about 2-3 times for each cannon (sometimes the charge orders don't register if the cavalry unit isn't right on top of said cannon).

Instead of making us deal with such silly clicking, the task should be automated i.e. cavalry that charged 1 cannon will attack all of them, and not suddenly dismount and start a firefight 2 steps away from a cannon-muzzle shooting out canister.

This isn't a matter of historical accuracy or of computer AI. It's a bug, a poor design decision, and the game would be better without it.
(at least in my opinion :laugh: )


Also, the process of capturing the cannons doesn't always work-out. Having the crew change sides (and uniforms) is I guess a fine representation, but having the option of spiking the cannons is needed, to keep them from being recaptured.

I see and I agree that it's poor AI for cav to dismount and shoot when they could easily charge and capture.

This is a relatively easy thing to do but what about when the arty guns are unattached? They don't really form a battery anymore so when would this charge stop if u had, say, 15 guns and only 8 of them were a real battery while 7 were unattached? All of the 15 captured or just only 8?

Eh...problems problems problems...:blink:

Let us not think on that now it is all in gods hands by god I mean norb and god but norb can't play god only morgan freeman does that.:laugh: But really let god handle it however and don't even do that thing that the comic daine cook told a joke about where the guy turned and said i'm a athyust after daine said god bless you after the guy sneezed you haft to watch it to understand.:laugh:

norb wrote:

I see and I agree that it's poor AI for cav to dismount and shoot when they could easily charge and capture.

Cool :cheer:



GShock wrote:

This is a relatively easy thing to do but what about when the arty guns are unattached? They don't really form a battery anymore so when would this charge stop if u had, say, 15 guns and only 8 of them were a real battery while 7 were unattached? All of the 15 captured or just only 8?

Eh...problems problems problems...:blink:

Cavalry could, after being given the order to charge, attack 1 by 1 any cannon that is within a certain range of the previous artillery piece, regardless of whether is belongs to 1 or more batteries. That way people would have to keep an infantry unit near by to scare off the cavalry.

How many time in the ACW did an unsupported cavalry unit capture or overrun a deployed artillery battery? Can anyone cite chapter and verse of where and when this happened?

Cedar Creek does not count as all of the captured artillery was limbered and in a gigantic (for the time) traffic jam on the turnpike.

-Jim

Jim,

I looked for that specific documentation for my artillery posts and was unable to find anything specific. Perhaps someone more adept at finding the location of such citations could help me out. The only captures I could find were more related to raids of limbered artillery placed well to the rear with the supply trains or situations resembling that.

Regards,

Greg B)

Jim wrote:

How many time in the ACW did an unsupported cavalry unit capture or overrun a deployed artillery battery? Can anyone cite chapter and verse of where and when this happened?

Cedar Creek does not count as all of the captured artillery was limbered and in a gigantic (for the time) traffic jam on the turnpike.

-Jim

I am completely ignorant of the ACW, my main knowledge is in Napoleonic era. In napoleonic times it happened enough not to be considered an exception. Although captured guns were very rarely used in the same battle as infantry men an cavalry men were very poor and inefficent gun crews, captured enemy guns were regularly disabled. So I am fine if you cannot capture the guns but just disable them.

The real question is how often in the ACW did cavalry have the chance to flank or attack from the rear an undefended artillery battery? And if such an occasion came along is there any law in physics or military strategy that prevented cavalry from disabling those guns?

VC

Hey Von Clausewitz,

To the best of my knowledge cavalry if placed properly could disable guns after they had driven the crews from them. But remember that the crews were armed with pistols and could fight back. Capturing limbered guns was a different story altogether. Most often was the case that guns were abandoned on the field because the crew lost sufficient horses to pull them. They would be recovered by whatever side decided it was worth their effort, many times after dark. If the abandoned gun remained within your new lines then it was yours and visa versa. It was no small task for men to move these guns any distance at all without horses.

Also, guns were rarely left unsupported by infantry and pickets. If an enemy cavalry unit charged an active battery well forward of their lines, chances are that that cavalry unit was going to lose many of its horses. This would leave a significant portion of that unit as widely dispersed and permanently dismounted cavalry. Thus their cohesion as a unit as well as their ability to make it back to their own lines would be significantly impaired more than likely resulting in their eventual surrender. If cavalry was historically effective at taking active enemy batteries then there would be more accounts of it in ACW literature. I have found no accounts of that. I have found some accounts of cavalry raids in very rear areas resulting in captured artillery.

So, although in TC2M cavalry is probably the best way to take artillery it is probably not historically accurate. The Battle of Brandy Station, VA was the largest cavalry battle of the ACW with some 20,000 men engaged over 10 hours. During that time only 3 guns were captured, those by Hampton's brigade of the ANV. The 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry charged Stuart's Horse Artillery and failed to capture any pieces but did manage to suffer the highest casualty rate of any regiment, from either side, engaged in the battle. You may take that for whatever it is worth.

Regards,

Greg B)