Column Attack

[witheford]

For me the decisive issue determining whether or not to purchase the game is column attack--the core of French infantry tactics in this period.
If the game--under both player and AI control--properly simulates the frequency and style of such column attacks, the rest sounds great.
If it doesn't, however, it is hard to see how it qualifies as a "Napoleonic" wargame.
I haven't yet read a clear answer on this question from the developers (if I have overlooked such an answer, I apologize).
Absent this, what is player opinion on this issue?
Nick

[Gunfreak]

Coloumn of division/compnaies ect are in the game, it varries how much it is used.

[Pawsy]

Use it all the time as the French

Attack in column works well but remember its also the primary formation for manoeuvre allowing you to thread through friendly units quickly.

[ulsterandy]

The problem is that the British did not use Column of division in attack. This was the French and other countries way of attacking. But again this is a game simulation so we have to run with what they do. Question did the game makers just copy and paste the game set up from the ACW games they made or did they do a new game? the graphics and uniforms are good as are the flags. For the British anyway do not do French.

[Gunfreak]

The british like the french did use columns, but like the french it was almost always a mix of line and columns.


I can't find it online, but I'm quite sure from my salamanca book by rory muir it shows british in mixed line/column formation.

Very much like my napoleon's finest shows french in same type of mixed fomation.

[Pawsy]

Well its a computer simulation and you can do unhistorical things but it would be a very boring game if run exactly like the battle. I for one enjoy refighting the battles and seeing if different tactics work.

As far as flags and dress etc goes, well I have read much about this and when you factor in that unit tailors made and repaired the units uniforms, flags and the soldiers had been on the march through mud and rain then there wasn’t much conformity to colour or style. During long campaigns replacement uniforms were non existent and soldiers would be dressed in what they could find.

Leave the idealised colour plates of uniforms, flags etc in the bin. There’s plenty of other forums that argue over the minutiae. I leave you with Wellingtons retort to those with a love of such detail and not substance:

Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion's petty cash and there has been a hideous confusion as the the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstance, since we are war with France, a fact which may come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall.

This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty's Government so that I may better understand why I am dragging an army over these barren plains. I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative duties, as given below. I shall pursue either one with the best of my ability, but I cannot do both:

1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain for the benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London or, perchance,

2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven out of Spain.

Your most obedient servant,

Wellington

[thewood1]

As to uniform colors, go to some of the textile museum,s in Lowell, MA. There whole sections on how un-uniform coloring was in all of the 1800's. This can be validated by seeing some of the preserved uniforms in some of the French military museums. The materials all faded at non-uniform rates.

Also, those plates you always were almost always done from memory. There were almost surely inaccuracies compared to what was on the actual battlefield.

[hjc]

We take multicolored clothing for granted these days, in the early 19th century many dyes were expensive to produce and not of uniform color from one lot to another.

It was difficult to get dyes to be entirely colorfast - so they wouldn't practically wash out in the rain - and to not fade when exposed to light, because early dyes were organic. Analine dyes weren't in use/discovered for another 40 or so years. For example one purple dye associated with royalty was produced from the mucus of certain molluscs.

Other colors were easier - when I was a boy my mother used brown onion skins to dye wool. (No I'm not ancient, she just liked handcrafts).

I wouldn't be surprised if some of Wellington's Raspberry Jam would make a good dye

[witheford]

Back on topic--does the AI deploy French infantry in column attack--or default to line formation?
If the AI does send in the French in column, does it do so occasionally or as a norm?

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: nick witheford

Back on topic--does the AI deploy French infantry in column attack--or default to line formation?
If the AI does send in the French in column, does it do so occasionally or as a norm?

I don't know. I rarely see the AI do a column attack. It looks like line is the default formation. It's mostly a shooting match until one side retreats. The manual says it's the norm and charges were rarely done unless critical.

[PresbyterJohn]

In the early era column tactics were a function of training and resources, or a lack thereof.

Now that you mention it the battles do look very linear but forum posters are saying that how things look doesn't reflect what is acually happening in the resolution of combat. Perhaps the French will always look like they are in line but really it's a column about to go in with the bayonet.