mihalik wrote:
Hi, General,
The original question was how do we feel about meleeing limbered artillery with infantry in column. I'm assuming your answer is no.
I guess a related question would be how do you feel about infantry in column meleeing Frank Stringfellow, dismounted and all by himself.
The embedded melee option was introduced for turn play to eliminate the panzerblitz tactic. It should have succeeded in its purpose.
You say it was a bad idea during the war to attack in route column. I say it is also a bad idea in the game against any kind of credible
defense. Only when a defense is woefully undermanned is column assault a viable option in the game.
If you follow official "House" rules other than their restrictions you can melee anything you run into in column. If you are using the optional Melee phase rule the worst abuses of column melee are reduced. It did eliminate the worst abuses of panzerblitz tactics but it still allows something close to it.
Their are a number of serious problems associated with allowing infantry to melee from column. The obvious is it allows you use roads to make deep penetrations that might get you into the rear of the enemy and then melee them at no risk at all. Picture historically a Union regiment near Gettysburg watching a Rebel column march down a road, through the town and then turn and strike them in their rear with a column of four and suffering no combat disadvantage for doing it? Actually a combat advantage since they get a shift for striking the Union rear but there is no negative shift for having been in column. That is 20 minutes this regiment watches a Rebel unit move almost a mile and strike them in the rear in the worse formation they could assume with no penalty. Reality is they would have changed facing, struck them as they moved, and routed them from the field easily.
Columns only suffer receiving fire penalty. Since in Turn play that fire is already halved there is very little penalty for staying in column if you plan to melee. In games like Overland there is an actual advantage to staying in column to close for combat. You are usually in woods which column can move three hexes in instead of two. In Turn play the defender's fire is further reduced by the woods. While the attacker in column suffers no penalty. Not being able to fire isn't really a penalty. It gives you a bonus in melee and it keeps you from activating enemy fire.
But my main objection to Column Melee is that it isn't historical. In the Civil War they didn't march up to enemy units in route column and do anything. They changed to line formation before entering firing range. They sometimes used column of company or division to assault but these units couldn't use roads. They were just mass units for meleeing when they could approach without attracting heavy fire.