Fixing Cavalry Scouting via the Little Bighorn Method

[DavidI]

By the Little Bighorn method of scouting I mean this:
Cavalry unit moving through the woods runs into unseen Infantry unit. Cavalry loses all movement points. Infantry unit fires in Defensive Fire phase killling 100 cavalry, then fires again in the next Offensive Fire phase killing another 100 cavalry. Thus the cavalry unit loses the same number of guys that Custer lost at the Little Bighorn in what should have been a matter of a few advanced pickets.

This has been a problem with BG's games and continues to be a problem with HPS's games, despite many complaints. This is very strange because the solution is already incorporated into the later Civil War games - allow Cavalry Regiments and detachments to "deploy Skirmishers" that would allow it to "see" two hexes out during it's movement phase. That would allow the cavalry to know something is out there without losing a couple of hundred guys to find this out.

Please fix this anoying feature.


DavidI

[lancerunolfsson]

Maybe because they are cav they should be able to see Three hexes? OTH Scouting with cav other than on a road in closed terraine should be sort of problematic. Granted not as problematic as it currently is.

[Rhetor]

Well, in my opinion far worse a problem is that cavalry (and infantry) in the current system can be surprised in exactly the same way in open terrain at high noon. In BG system all units are totally blind when moving.

[Caranorn]

Yep, that blindness is a serious issue. It makes ambushes possible in very unrealistic ways. On the other hand, players can already move much more agressively then generals did historically. In many cases one balances the other, a cautious player will if in doubt move step by step in the open (only a portion of a unit's movement factor to a better observation position, only expose a small part of the units etc.). So the major issue indeed becomes movement in greatly obstructed terrain where cavalry skirmishers would be a good idea (cavalry would be no more vulnerable in that role then on open ground.

P.S.: Losses themselves aren't really the important argument as they are currently entirely unrealistic (much higher thn real battles) (cavalry is only more effected in how small detachments ideal for scouting can be whipped out in a single fire phase).

[Rhetor]

Well, true, we can do much more than the generals... one obvious thing which we do have is the perfect, zoomable viev on the battlefield, and detailed on hand information about our own units.

The losses can be easily adjusted, although it requires tampering with the PDT file.