Matrix Games Forums

Where is the Charge button I have four battalions outside Hougoumont, it mentions Charge Button in the manual under melee but under buttons its not listed, and I have not seen it in the game.

You cannot charge a fortress - you have to use artillery and musketry to drive the occupying troops out.

It is found if you right click on a unit when engaged with an enemy - it is the top green 'up' arrow in this post

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Lights would make a "charge"in a sense. La Hay Sainte was down to rifle butts and bayonets at one point.

If I remember rightly the 2nd Corp Reille lost 7000 killed and wounded trying to take Hougoumont, its going to take more than a brigade.

Thanks for the info I think melee could be used to take a building their are paintings of large Frenchmen breaking down gates with axes, and of course one of the game quotes is "The outcome of the battle of Waterloo depended on the closing of a gate at Hougoumont"

Yes - we thought about this long and hard but this was one of the few instances and so we excluded them entirely. The commentaries after the battle lambaste the French generals for not bringing up close range artillery to blow those gates apart instead of wasting multiple brigades throughout the day breaking on the walls. In SOWWL artillery damage will lower the defensive bonus of all forts, kill troops and lower morale.

Perhaps you did not thing about it long enough. There is no way possible to remove a stubborn defender from a fortified position with musketry and arty. The amount of munitions needed would be a waste because it would never work. The bayonet is the only way to remove a dug in or fortified defender. Take a look at all Napoleonic battles that had famous built up area fighting it always took the bayonet to remove the defender.

We did[:)]

It took the French most of the morning and into late afternoon to clear the allies out of a small farm like LHS and they had plenty of bayonets but no close range artillery. Have you tried any of the fortified scenarios?

I have to agree with Bloodybill, even if just in a historical sense. You can shoot and bomb all day long, but it has always been the job of the infantryman to get ladders on the wall, or battering rams through the gates to come to grips with the enemy and convince him to move his backside from his comfortable dug in position.