American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

When an artillery unit is fired upon by small arms fire, there is a probability that the artillery unit will become Uncrewed. This probability is determined by the Crew Kill Parameter Data Value. For a given Crew Kill value of C and a nominal strength loss of L from small arms fire, then:

Probability of crew killed = L / C

Thus if the nominal strength loss is 25 and the Crew Kill value is 100, there would be a 25% chance the crew would become killed.

The User's Guide is a bit unclear here. What in the heck does all that mean? I understand most of it up to "nominal strength loss". Where does this number come from? The example plucks 25 out of thin air.

I would assume a units strength when firing at an artillery unit matters. If it were a simple equation like "25% chance" than any small unit could wipe out a crew (but it is so unlikely I don't recall ever seeing a crew wiped out by a small regiment on a fluke).

_________________
Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

I think the way it works is you fire at the artillery unit. The program computes results in number of casualties as if the artillery was infantry. Then it uses the formula (# of casualties)/100 to come up with a percentage chance the crew is eliminated. So the size of the unit does matter.

If the crew is not eliminated, the "casualties" will convert to some number of fatigue, which I guess serves to represent crew casualties.

Wish it had been simpler.

_________________
MG Mike Mihalik
Forrest's Cavalry Corps
AoWest/CSA

Gen. Milhalik is correct.
If you're an old boardgamer or miniature player this might be easier to understand.
Crew Kill Value=100
Fire Results = 25
Needed to kill crew Result<=(25/100)*100
Roll 2 different color 10 sided dice, say red/white

red =2, white=6
result 26= crew ok, takes fatigue.

red=2, white=5
Crew Killed.

Game engine does not report actual casualties when firing small arms vs crews, just results of crew killed or fatigue.

_________________
Gen. Ken Miller



The McKeesport Union Guard

3/1/II
AotP

I must be misunderstanding something. That makes it sound like it would be easier to uncrew a six gun battery as opposed to a one gun battery because you could impose more casualties on the six gun battery and it is still divided by 100.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

Hi, Ned,

I don't think it makes a difference if it's one gun or six, because the 100 factor in parameter data applies to each artillery unit, regardless of size. Now modifiers such as limbered formation or density or facing make a difference because they affect the casualty result.

_________________
MG Mike Mihalik
Forrest's Cavalry Corps
AoWest/CSA

So if we take 500 average quality men with Rifles (effectiveness 4 at a range 1) and fire into an unlimbered battery in an adjacent hex it would create a Standard Fire Value of 2000 (500 x 4). The Low End Combat Result would be 10 (= 5 x 2000 / 1000) and the High End Combat Result would be 50 (= 25 x 2000 / 1000). With no combat modifiers in place the computer would choose a value between 10 and 50 as a final combat result. If we assume the median of 30 for this example then we would get the following math:

30 / 120 [Gettysburg's Parameter Date for Crew Kill] = 25% chance of Crew Kill

Does that seem correct? The math seems to work and it sounds reasonable. The conclusion being the more men you have firing at a battery the better your chances to score a kill are (excluding taking modifiers into account).

Follow up question here:
http://www.wargame.ch/board/acwgc/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21809

_________________
Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

This is not a crew kill example but one I found very interesting. I was playing David Mallory in Larry Mills' Fortress Rosecrans's tournament. David had pushed me out of Murfreesboro and I had gone ahead on points after capturing several of his cavalry. So he was attacking to even things up. I had a strong position behind The western fork of Stones River. He placed a 4 stack of artillery 5 hexes away from one of mine that contained 2, two tube guns with a 12 hex range and a 350 man infantry with a range of 5. I fired all three units at the same stack 6 times and took out 4 tubes. This has happened before but never with such accuracy. It must have been luck.

_________________
Dave Danner
General
Commanding Cumberland Rifles, II Division, XV Corps
Army of the Tennessee
S = √ 30 x d x f + - e

Yes. To kill the crew fire stacks of infantry and not single units. Just like you should fire stacks of artillery and not single sections to kill guns.

_________________
Lieutenant General Christian Hecht
Commander I Corps, Army of the Potomac

"Where to stop? I don't know. At Hell, I expect."