Robert,
Thanks and I agree with much of what you say in terms of how both the areas for improvement and their solutions can be framed. In regards to the HPS games, the study clearly can only address pdt values not the underlying system. It doesn't pretend to do anything else. I've been saying all along on this board that deviations from reality need to be addressed by the system not the pdt. All of the designers provide input in our internal discussions on what we'd like to see done to improve the system. I'd like to see system improvements in the way ADF and melee is handled as much as anybody.
Drew
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Robert Frost</i>
<br />Excellent study, Drew! I always prefer a mathematical approach to these questions when possible. It beats anecdotal evidence, even my own. This goes a long way towards answering the question as to whether the HPS artillery factors are correct (at least for 6-lb smoothbores). It does not at all resolve the problem of artillery in HPS, however. One could DOUBLE the factors and the same issues would remain.
The controversy over artillery in HPS has always raged around fire factors, sufficient/insufficient. After all, PDT factors are the only thing one can control. Unfortunately, this is a forest-for-the-trees comparison. The issue lies not with the factors "tree", but deep within the "forest" which is the GAME ENGINE. Unless the GAME ENGINE is modified, the issue will never be resolved. Whether factors are correct or not, artillery will remain INEFFECTIVE in HPS compared to its historical counterpart. Casualties may be "correct", but guns will continue to be easily meleed (a magnet in HPS because of the high VP value, rather than something to be avoided as was the case in the Civil War).
The whole issue, I believe, revolves around the manner in which the GAME ENGINE handles artillery in Melee situations. I accept the MELEE portion of the game system to represent close range fire and advance which causes one side or another to break. Yet the system allots a defensive value to artillery as though the gun crews carried pikes and MELEE represents the rare, if almost non-existent, hand-to-hand combat. Gun batteries contribute virtually nothing to the defense of a hex, where in REALITY this is when they would have been their most DANGEROUS. Double-shotted canister at 50 yards will cut all sorts of "swathes". As a line approaches it would be narrowing the angle of dispersal, increasing the fire effectiveness.
If I could change the GAME ENGINE this is what I would do:
When an attacker clicks on "Resolve Melee" the game engine would branch to the following logic if artillery is in the hex:
Randomly determine a number 1, 2, 3
If 1 then the battery limbers and moves one hex to rear. Movement hierarchy is 1)road hex, 2)clear terrain, 3)otherwise it remains limbered in the melee hex
If 2 then the battery limbers and remains in melee hex. It defends
with the same value as the current system attaches to it.
If 3 the battery stands and fights. Its defense value becomes
50 x the number of guns in the hex. A 4-gun battery defends as though it were 200 infantry. After all, each gun is attributed a value of 50 when firing, why not when defending?
The program would then resolve the melee.
The relative scenarios (1, 2, or 3) could be evaluated for their frequency. This is just an example.
Assuming that the game engine will not be modified, what can one do immediately to address the issue via parameters? Little, actually. I have suggested that the limber/unlimber factor = 3. Guns were more mobile than the system attributes. A major step might be the following:
Eliminate VPs for guns. Nada. Zero.
No army in the Civil War vacated the field or lost a battle because it suffered too many gun losses (VPs). In fact, many batteries were reclaimed after their original loss. So, let the value of guns be what they brought to the battlefield: firepower. Lose them, and you lose their killing power.
BG Robert Frost
Army of Cumberland
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Colonel
3rd Bde/1st Div/17th Corp
Army of the Tennessee
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