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ORIGINAL: Caranorn

I only played the Napoleonic BG games against others (email), all my otehr gaming experience with BG is hotseat-solo or against the ai.

Anyhow, those games against another human player seemed to go more slowly, more careful marching (particularly flanking attempts trying to stay out of sight of the enemy, placing cavalry detachments on hills for spotting etc.), small breaks between actual fighting. Once contact was made in a particular place fighting would generally be brief but very brutal (two to three turns till one side routed en masse or withdrew temporarily). Fatigue was very important as I regularly had regiemnts that had been exposed too long to artillery fire would rout immediatelly once contact with enemy infantry or cavalry was made. I definitelly never saw lines firing on one another for prolonged times (even with english style battalions I can't seem to recall a situation where a force woudl stay in the firing line for more then two turns). Most artillery fire was long range, so ammunition realism was not as big an issue (limited effect though a badly placed batallion could receive significant fatigue over a number of turns).

I think the major difference between play against the ai and play against a human player is the surprise factor and the added caution to avoid getting surprised. The shock of contact could also at times seem real (when after a number of turns of manoeuvring and long range shelling two forces would come together in a violent clash for two or three turns and one would simply rout away (and in the worst case throw your reserves into disorder)).

The game I enjoyed most was one where my opponent tried a flanking manouver with the French at Ligny and where my cavalry picket had reported his movement early on. I managed to transfer various units in such a way to lay ambush on his column. This was the only time I managed to perfectly coordinate a battle. First letting him stumble into a single regiment (3-4 battalions) of veteran line infantry to stop his advance. Then charge a cavalry brigade (several regiments, split into squadrons) into both flanks of the now deployed French. His attempted counter-attack at first seemed to work as my line regiment had to fall back and the now immobile cavalry received a mauling. What he had not counted on was that I had two more infantry regiments (lesser quality) lying in ambush as well as reserve squadrons of that same cavalry. These now charged the French center and right and led to a complete collapse of his left flank (I had good vision of the field of battle from my picket posts while he could not see into a number of ravines and across fields my units had been hiding in). Within three or four turns his carefully planned flank attack had been halted and then destroyed (several batallions were captured or routed and surrounded), I even ended up capturing his hastily deployed artillery and iirc mauled the cavalry brought up to cover his withdrawal. So in only four turns or so I broke his moral and he conceded me a major victory (this was a tournament game, until then he had won everytime), that despite the fact that I had only mauled a detached force of his (maybe two divisions) and that my center was not faring all that well. It was the sheer shock of contact that brought me that victory.

I think ACW BG should be pretty similar, though the armies are of course quite different. Surprising the ai is not hard to do, getting surprised by the ai is almost impossible (I'd say impossible), against a human player this is entirely different which leads to added caution on both sides, but sucessful dares can lead to exceptional sucess.