nsimms wrote:
You may have just hit upon my problem. I often move a unit/leader/supply wagon from the captured guns, fire at them with a battery at their rear, and then move the unit back onto the captured guns if there are any left. What I see happening in the scoring quite often is that points actually disappear from my score.
Another problem that they are looking into, hopefully for the next patch, is that often guns that are killed are not counted as lost guns in the score. For example, you can fire at 2 limbered guns and destroy them but the score doesn't show 2 more gun kills neither in the total guns destroyed nor in the points. It's unusual to play 25 turns without seeing that happen. In a campaign scenario, the 'lost' guns have not carried forward to the next scenario so the system knows inside somewhere that those guns are actually destroyed. As a carryover from that problem, I have tested to see if the system is counting normal infantry and cavalry losses correctly and it does appear to be doing that.
One more observation I have made, if you have one of your units sitting on a stack of captured guns and then you fire at the captured guns in order to try and eliminate them, I haven't noticed where you will suffer any personnel losses from your unit but your unit will absorb fatigue from the fire. There isn't a much quicker way to go from low to high fatigue in one turn, and due to your own handiwork.
Hi, Ned,
Thanks for the information! This is all news to me, as I very seldom destroy captured guns, even when I should. Actually, I have never read of guns being destroyed in the heat of battle other than by enemy fire or malfunction, and I have never read of abandoned or captured guns being a target. I also haven't read of gunners leaving their own guns to man captured guns, but that doesn't mean it never happened. I have often read of guns being captured and immediately turned by the capturing infantry on their former owners. I have also read of guns being rendered temporarily inoperable (i.e., "spiked") by either the gunners before they abandoned them or the capturing infantry in various ways, including removing the implements necessary to serve them. Guns were also rendered temporarily inoperable by damaging wheels (easily remedied; caissons carried spare wheels) or carriages (not so easily remedied). I was just reading "Fields of Blood" about the Prairie Grove Campaign where a Confederate gun carriage fell apart while it was being fired. Fortunately, the Rebs were able to get away with the barrel. (That campaign makes a fascinating story, by the way, if you can get ahold of the book.) Anyway, I think the system does a pretty good job of modelling the capture of artillery, though far from perfect.
Ideally, I suppose the guns should be inanimate objects usable by either side, manned by a crew. Rich Walker hinted at Tillercon that JT might be open to instituting crews, but of course that could cause other problems. Thanks again for the enlightenment. Seems I am learning something new about this game every day!