This thread goes back to my earlier issue with Antietam. If the attacker fires combined stacks the defender will maybe have 2 units fire back. When the defneders are 100 to 200 men they just will not hit many men. It is my opinion that this tactic make simply defending a position impossible. As everyone who reads these post knows I was destroyed in two Antietam battles, once as the Rebs and once as the Yanks. When I was the Rebs my opponent would move adjacent to my guys and fire a combined stack hitting 25 to 50 men. I would have a unit fire back and hit 3 to 10 at best. As the Yanks my opponent attacked Hooker and Mansfield and did the same thing. Again, it is my opinion that this tactic is using the game engine for an unrealistic advantage. Fire combat is suppost to represent a fire fight between two opposing forces, not 3 or 4 regiments against one with 2 or 3 standing idle. Now if I understand correctly you have to hit 25 men to cause a morale check so you have to fire as a stack for your fire to be effective. So we are back to some of the comments from that earlier post. Can the engine be tweaked to cause a defending stack that is fired upon return fire combined? Or do we have to accept that attacking is the only effective way to be successful? To me it just defies logic that it is less costly in men to attack than to defend.
Lt General Jon Thayer
III Corps
Army of Northern Virginia
jonathanthayer@bellsouth.net