NOTE: If you haven’t already read the post Total Casualties in the ACW series games – Thesis, you might want to do that, as it provides background for this discussion.
Paddy Griffith has a very interesting table in his book Battle in the Civil War. He breaks down a ‘typical’ Civil War firefight between two 400-man regiments in open terrain. Over an hour-long firefight in the early part of the war (Spring-’62) he posits that between the USA and CSA, an average of 1.65 casualties were generated every minute. Since there are 2 fire phases per side in a 20-minute turn (1 offensive and 1 defensive) it is reasonable to assume 10 minutes of firing per ‘shot’ in the game. This means 16.5 casualties per fire phase is average, for a 400-man regiment to inflict. It is important to note, that these numbers assume the entire combat happening at 150 yards or less (ie 1 hex range).
At a range of 1 with rifles (firepower 4), 400 men can be expected to cause between 8 casualties (4x400x.005) and 40 casualties (4x400x.025), with an average of 24 casualties. While the average of 24 casualties in 10 minutes is a bit higher than Griffith’s average, I would submit that as regiments run low on ammo and/or get disrupted, the number of casualties over an hour-long firefight would fall in line with about 100 per side. So, in the end the current fire combat system seems pretty accurate for modeling the results from an ACW firefight.
However, the current supply check value and morale check procedures do not drive towards historic results. Units rarely run out of ammo and disruption/rout from fire combat is the exception rather than the rule. As a result, firefights last too long and are too effective. I’ll cover those two topics in another thread.
Finally, while I believe that the firepower values for rifles and muskets are reasonable at a range of 1 hex, I think they are unrealistically effective at longer ranges. There seems to be plenty of evidence, that most combat took place at a range of 1 hex. Beyond that range the expenditure of ammo was not worth the results, especially since most units didn’t train to shoot beyond close range.
I would propose the following ranges/firepower
Rifle: Range 1= 4, Range 2=.5, Range 3= .25
Musket: Range 1= 4, Range 2=.3
Reducing the ranges on rifles will bring down the overall casualties, because blazing away at 500 yards for hours on end will no longer cause casualties to accumulate at more than a trickle. But that will be a minor adjustment, the real point here is that for the most part, fire combat results are pretty reasonable, so total casualties must be reduced by other mean than adjusting the combat system.
Lt Col Matt Clausen
1st Brigade
3d Division
V Corps
Army of the Potomac
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