Infantry Weapons Tech Discussion

[Mithrilotter]

I decided to review historical Civil War infantry weapons. Much to my surprise, both sides began in 1861 with smooth bore muskets. Both sides converted to Springfield and Enfield rifles, as fast at they could be purchased, by 1863. Some units converted to single shot breech loading rifles, like the Sharps and the Burnside carbines by 1863 (cavalry mostly) and some units further switched by 1864 to the Spencer repeating rifle (cavalry mostly). All of these rifles had been invented, manufactured and were available for sale before 1861.

As I see it for infantry, smooth bore muskets were Level 0, Springfield and Enfield rifles were Level 1.

As I see it for cavalry, smooth bore muskets were Level 0, Springfield and Enfield rifles were Level 1, Sharps and the Burnside carbines were Level 2 and the Spencer repeating rifle was Level 3. One could make a legitimate argument that only Union Cavalry could be upgraded to Level 3.

In my opinion, lowering the tech improvement Level of Infantry Weapons to just one, would reduce the attack power of the Blue Horde. That might improve the flow and play balance. It would also reduce the research costs for the Confederates, who are already MPP stressed.

I believe some already developed tech, leadership and tactical improvements should just be time delayed. This just involved battlefield learning and experience. No expensive lab research would be involved. But this would likely involve new coding which might not be available until the next Strategic Command game is developed.

Perhaps another idea would be to allow only one or two units to upgrade their weapons per turn. This could better simulate the limited flow of newly purchased weapons to the front.