More on combat

[loki100]

More on combat

This post sort of links together the discussions on unit stats, stack selection and march to the sound of the guns. As far as possible, I want to concentrate again on things you can control – usually in how you organise your armies.

If you want more information on the actual details, I can only suggest reading two of Narwhal's older posts. They were written for AJE but the basic system is the same. one cover the fire phase and this looks at what happens if units close the melee stage.

Here what I want to focus on is the selection of which element, usually a battalion or battery chooses its immediate opponent. We've already covered stack selection so this is the layer beneath that.

The process of matching off elements is in two stages.

First is who is selected to fight? Three rules apply:

After the first round of combat, if the unit is already engaged it is more likely to be engaged again (in effect that battalion etc is already in the main line of battle)
The less hits a unit has, the more likely it is to be selected to fight (so if you have a large force there is some protection for the more damaged elements)
If the unit has routed in an earlier combat phase, it is much less likely to be selected.

Second is who do they fight?

This is a little bit more complex. There are two stages and two small variations.

First for non-support units (ie infantry and cavalry).

The 'divisions' in a stack pick a target from the available enemy divisions. Remember this can be anything from a fully organised division to an isolated battalion. This in effect mirrors part of the stack selection routine.

This is random but modified by two rules. All the remaining hit points in the 'division' are multiplied by the 'combat signature' of the elements. The higher this score, the more likely that division will be selected.

Most full strength infantry battalions start with 8 hit points. If you go back to the unit stats thread, you'll see that infantry have a combat signature of 100, artillery is at 50 and cavalry 15.

This means that the largest 'division' in a stack is the most likely to be targeted.

Then support units pick their target. If support units are in a 'division' with non-support units, it will use the same target. A 'division' of pure support units will pick either support or non-support 'divisions'. It maybe less use given the shorter range of Napoleonic era artillery but in AGEOD's Civil War 2, but in that game there have been several debates about the merits of pure artillery divisions – I personally wouldn't risk this.

But remember that many Napoleonic armies have both artillery in the divisions (sometimes embedded in the brigades you build) and loose at the corps/army level.

Then once the 'divisions' are selected, the elements are chosen. If there are support elements in the division then it is unlikely that these will be selected by infantry or cavalry till all the infantry and cavalry are in action (and then range plays a part). There are a number of rules that apply here, such that cavalry will go for units low on cohesion etc.

Each element can usually only be attacked twice in the same battle round (so it can for example be hit by artillery and then by musket fire). However, if the enemy still have unengaged elements these will join in and select elements already under attack (so a small force can be badly overwhelmed … back to the random stack selection rules.

So what does this mean in practice

In general, I'd build my 'divisions' as balanced forces and to much the same size. A single large division with a cluster of smaller units in the stack is the most likely target on the battlefield.

Again, being outnumbered is bad news. So try to balance up your stacks and your units within the stacks.

[loki100]

just to bump back into view

[OldSarge]

Bump.