Cavalry vs. artillery

Forum dedicated to the Scourge of War Game set during the Napoleonic Wars. Scourge of War: Waterloo follows in the footsteps of its American Civil War predecessors and takes the action to one of the most famous battles in history. It is by far the most detailed game about the final battle of the War of the Seventh Coalition.

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Damascus
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2003 6:57 am

Cavalry vs. artillery

Post by Damascus »

Rereading John Keegan's book "The Face of Battle" and he discusses how, at Waterloo, artillery was usually placed in front of the infantry. When cavalry would come up the gunners would run into a nearby infantry square while the cavalry were unable to do anything with the guns as they were not going to dismount and try to drag them off. In SOWW cavalry capture guns rather easily. Is there a way to mimic the real behavior? Possibly a mod that takes this into account?
Biondo
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:32 am

RE: Cavalry vs. artillery

Post by Biondo »

Hi Damascus, this is not possible AFAIK because guns are considered a single unit and not handled by a different crew unit
Damascus
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2003 6:57 am

RE: Cavalry vs. artillery

Post by Damascus »

I see that in the Quatre Bras DLC it says, "Removed the ability for cavalry to capture and bring enemy guns into action."
1annoyedgamer
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:52 pm

RE: Cavalry vs. artillery

Post by 1annoyedgamer »

ORIGINAL: Damascus

I see that in the Quatre Bras DLC it says, "Removed the ability for cavalry to capture and bring enemy guns into action."

Yes, but it still doesn't do what you want to simulate. If cavalry captures artillery now they are simply removed from play, guns and all. And the cavalry unit still gets the points for capturing the guns.
The best way to protect artillery from cavalry is to place the battery between two infantry squares, with the squares out in front ahead of the guns. This does two things, first, by spacing the squares out so that the guns are in between them, the guns maintain an effective and open field of fire. And 2nd, by moving the squares forward of the artillery cavalry cannot charge the guns. This is because there is no way to choose a specific target with cavalry, it simply charges the nearest unit in range. If the squares are out ahead of the artillery, they will always be the nearest target to the cavalry, hence the cavalry cannot charge the guns. The guns will however plow them with close range canister fire.

You can see this technique demonstrated in my video on the scenario "Mont St Jean: Sabers vs. Bayonets"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-t_O2ghDFU
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