American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

As to the question, I have no problem with shooting at leaders. The problem I have is with leaders hiding out of sight while "leading" their men. Too bad we can't have a system that makes leading worth the risk, such as max effectiveness when stacked with troops, with the effectiveness decreasing as the distance increases. Somehow the +10% in melees usually doesn't make it worthwhile to put them in harm's way, unless they've already been killed. An awful lot of leaders were combat casualties during the war, including army, corps and division level commanders. You wouldn't know it playing the game.

MG Mike Mihalik
1/III/AoMiss/CSA

I have absolutely no problem with the completely historical act of firing upon officers. I will occassionally lob a shell at a lone officer just for the heck of it if I have the ammo to do so, but generally will not waste the ammo. I don't know that I've ever seen it actually cause a hit. We have much better luck when firing at a unit with an officer in the same hex rather than lone officers...

Regards,

Col. Alan Lynn
2nd Div, II Corps, AoA

Signal Corps, Assistant Editor

"The only accurate news is well researched history."

God Bless <><

I can definitely say that in hundreds of games I have never seen a shot kill a lone leader. I did once (to my own complete surprise) kill JEJ with an extreme range (18 hexes) shot aimed at two routing units. I suspect he was likely mounted. For some reason Rebs seem to love to leave their leaders mounted.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
Reserve Artillery, AoS

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by KWhitehead</i>
<br />My answer is Yes, but I never do it. I have never seen a lone leader killed by direct fire so it's probably a waste of ammo. I don't know how the game actually makes this test so I don't even know if you can kill a leader this way.

BG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
III Corps, AoM (CSA)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Since I have a game with you now Ken, I like that you don't mind. lol. A couple years ago I had Meade, Gibbons and Hancock sitting on top of Big Round top watching II Corps counterattack Longstreet when my opponent decided to lob a shell their way. They were not stacked with any troops. Needless to say, the shell took Meade's head clean off and my opponent gathered up a nice little sum of victory points. Fortunately the assault on Longstreet was a complete success so it didn't matter but I was pretty shocked. The battery was at least 2 elevations below me and at least 12 hexes away. I don't make a practice at shooting at leaders, especially with Talonsoft games, because it's a big waste of limited ammo, but I have seen it work on more than one occassion. I have NEVER seen it work with HPS games. In fact, I get the impression that leaders have teflon skin in those games.[:D]

Major General Don Golen
1st Div/ V Corps/
Army of the Potomac, Union!
Assistant Commandant Union War College
http://acwgc.org/wc/

General Golen,

My vote is 'Yes', it is perfectly acceptable to shoot at enemy leaders.

That said, I have wasted far too much artillery (and infantry) ammo firing at lone leaders. I MAY have gotten lucky at some point, but we Rebels normally have such limited artillery ammo I usually regret taking the shot.


Your humble servant,
Gen 'Dee Dubya' Mallory

David W. Mallory
ACW - General, Chief of the Armies, Confederate States of America & Cabinet Member
CCC - Ensign, Georgia Volunteers, Southern Regional Deaprtment, Colonial American Army

My two cents worth....

1: The only rule of war is that there are no rules of war.

2: This is a game, not reality.

Colonel R.E.Daley
1st Corps of the ANV
3rd Calvary Divsion,
3rd Brigade
"We are the Midnight Riders"

You can kill a lone leader in HPS. That is where I managed to give ol' Jeb Stuart a dirt nap.

General Mark Nelms
6/3/IX/AoO
"Blackhawk Brigade"

I think if Gen. Sedgewick were here to reply, he'd definitely say that shooting at officers should be prohibited. Then again, he got picked off by a Confederate sharpshooter at Spotsylvania.

As for me....you stick 'em up there in a nice pretty pile, and I'll shoot at 'em, too.


Gen. J. Cuneo, CSA
Army of Alabama, Commanding


"I have seen the faces of men, who had dared death so often, it lost its' terror." -J.S. Mosby

Among Sedgwick's last words were, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."

MG Mike Mihalik
1/III/AoMiss/CSA

A definate YES if there is munitions to spare. Although from another era King William III almost suffered this fate at the battle of the Boyne when he got a bit to close to the front and was a highly visablen / easily identified target.

Col G Howie
1/1/1 , AoA

Because of the remote odds of success I generally don't bother even with tonnes of excess ammo, but I believe them to be fair game.

Recall that our little lone counter will represent the leader and staff, and the more stars the more staff and riders there will be - that would make a nice little target for a bored battery. Frankly I can almost hear the exchange:

"Well th'as jess hogwash Eustace, yew couldn't hit a cow leaning against yer gun less yew stuck his head in the barrel, and even then..."

"Yah? see them riders on yonder ridge? you jess watch em a mite - Battery B 'll show yew how is done."

Lt Gen Mike Kaulbars
3rd "Freiheit" Division
VIII/AoS

I rarely, if ever, take the time to target lone leaders. However, it would be unrealistic for leaders to be immune to danger and stray shots so I am not against it in principle. I do target stacks of routing units which appear to be stacked with an important leader though and once killed a reb by the name of Lee at Gettysburg. My opponent wasn't happy[:D]

[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/acw/acw.htm"]General Antony Barlow[/url]
[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/aoc/XXAoC.htm"]Army of the Cumberland[/url]