<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
Exactly. I, too, find that the rule makes some sense; I just read about such a situation in the Battle of Corinth where all the regiments held in reserve behind Battery Powell were thoroughly disrupted and partially routed themselves when the frontline regiments routed through them. However, I can't recall ever to have heard about anything like that happening to a battery.
Second point, I can't understand why Rout Limiting, a rule of similar impact on the game, has been made optional but this here is made mandatory.
I find the HPS ACW games (only) to be definitely unfair to artillery. There seems to be a conviction that artillery must be rendered totally impotent by whatever means--breakdown in sections, weak PDT values, and now enforced disruption whenever kept even near the frontlines. (Alternative: keep them so far away from the frontline that they do no harm whatsover.)
I keep reading and reading about single artillery rounds that take out entire files; many battle accounts (too many to think these are exception or just made up cases) mention shells that kill 8, 12, even more people. Single shells. We are lucky to get such a kill from a whole section firing 20 minutes (one game turn). The history of Civil War artillery is full of accounts of batteries repelling infantry assaults all on their own by utterly disrupting and badly mauling the attacking formations. No such thing is possible in the HPS games.
Gen. Walter, USA
AoS / War College
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Just curious on a couple points:
1) Are you saying you can't find examples of artillery batteries routing, or do you mean, routing as a result of seeing other units rout through them? (Sorry if this seems a dumb question)
2) What's your opinion of artillery in <i>Campaign Franklin</i>? I increased fire power to ensure quality wasn't diminished by other factors.
BTW, the optional rules window in the ACW series is getting a bit large. If that trend continues, it will become confusing to newer buyers, so difficult chioces must be made to limit an otherwise limitless well.
Perhaps, becoming undisrupted as a result of this already mentioned rule, could become easier. For example, units that disrupt as a result of routed units, could rally 50% quicker than other routed or disrupted units.
Rich W.
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