This seems simple, but I am having some difficulty interpreting the Army Builder in respect to Artillery Units. The core British infantry division in the Peninsula has 1 RA BTY which is 2 cannon, is med wt and has +1 How. Does this mean 2 stands, one which is a howitzer?
Likewise the French core infantry division has 1 divisional BTY which is 3 cannon +How 1, does this mean 2 are cannon and 1 howitzer.
Thanks,
John
Two stands cannon, one stand howwitzer, for the British. Three stands cannons, one stand howie for the French. Hope that helps.
OK so the total art stands for the British are 3 and 4 for the French.
Within this type of unit with 1 how stand, how does the How stand act differently in respect to fire. Is that part of the battery able to fire overhead friendly troops at enemy.
I also see reference to How batteries, solely made up of How's, but I do not see them in the army lists.
Thanks,
John
Page 14: "Howitzer bases differ only in that they have certain special abilities to hit targets in cover."
Page 46: See the section called "Howitzer Dice."
I must confess I'm a bit puzzled by all the requests for overhead fire. I can't think of any instances when it happened in the Napoleonic Wars. I'm not even sure it happened with howitzers, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Thanks for the clarification Sam, I feel that maybe I was confused by page 81 in the opt rules for Howitzer Batteries. I misread the sentence about elevation and "over the heads".
By the way what are the criteria for using a How Bty, I do not see it in the army builders
thanks,
John
The Howitzer BTY doesn't appear in the army builder except as an option. It's just for historical scenarios.
Thanks. It must take a lot of patience to answer all these questions. I am sure we all appreciate your availability.
John
I figure that you guys are the "First Wave" Lasalle players. I need to hang out here and answer all your questions until you've got the game mastered, and then in the future new guys will post questions and there will be plenty of people who can answer them.
P. 112, "A Prussian player in the Liberation or Hundred Days theatres may exchange one of his artillery units for a Howitzer battery."
And don't think I won't try it. ;)
We had a guy use it to great effect against a town in one of the playtest games.
Hi Sam,
I respectively suggest all the requests for Overhead Fire are legacies of old rules versus independent accurate research of actual events of the battlefield, in time it'll drop away (one hopes) and for the older gamers of us it just takes a bit of time to make the mindshift.
We had much the same issue with Overwatch issues with the First Edition of Flames of War now no peep.
Carry on with the great work challenging the norm, cheers Rex
Hi Sam,
I asked a question re overhead fire on a different thread and I admit it was largely because all the other rules I've used allow it to some extent. Reading your comment above, I had a quick look on the internet and found this:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/g.vanuythoven/Art_Overhead%20fire.htm
which seems to indicate that overhead fire wasn't a good idea but it did happen if necessary (albeit this is from the Revolutionary period).
Regards,
Terry
I like the idea of no overhead shooting, and I also like the idea of the reduced shooting range when firing at different elevations. Some rules tend to ignore the how this affected mechanics of shooting roundshot.
On the other hand the rule that you cannot fire at all if at least part of a friendly unit is in your firezone seemed draconian at first but it results in more realist formations on the field when commanders try not to block their lines of fire.
I can imagine how much debate they had over these point during playtesting :)
Cheers,
Francisco
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