Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

I have been pondering a way of capturing the "spirit" of skirmishing units.... in particular
RIFLED skirmish units. There's a well known anecdote from the battle of Cowpens that
a skirmish line of rifle men repelled a unit of cavalry from quite a distance by dropping
approximately 15 moving riders. The cavalry unit retreated without accomplishing the
task of clearing the skirmish line, and Tarleton was forced to send his infantry
forward without a good idea of what was ahead of him.

Morgan had sent out these skirmish units with a rather good plan. He had them
move forward in groups of 3. After the first rifleman shot, the other 2 would
be able to provide cover against attack while the first one re-loaded.

In the Cowpens OOB file, these skirmish units are scored with rather low morale
factor - - to reflect the skirmish unit's poor ability to repel bayonets. Unfortunately,
by giving these rifle units a low morale factor they are almost as quick to
"rout" simply because of musket fire. Historically, however, these units were
quite resiliant to musket fire.... since they could hide behind trees or rocks,
while they carefully took aim at their own pace. Hence, their ability to hit
targets, while not part of disciplined volleys, was quite high - - and so was
their ability to withstand return fire. Even if all they could do was hide behind
shrubs, their general "invisibility" rendered them difficult to hit due to low
"target acquisition" by the opponents - - even if their cover was not adequate
to deflect shot.

So how are all these dynamics to be reflected in a customized OOB and pdt file?
I wanted to present my thoughts on the matter and see what the learned members
of the club thought about these ideas. And then, having the benefit of views from
more experienced members, I would try to test a modified OOB and pdt file.

Factors to adjust and why:
1) In order to reduce the tendency to rout due to musket fire, I would increase
skirmish units to "B", or probably "A". "A" units are almost invulnerable to
fear, usually leave a battle only if their general *wants* them to. And with
the Quality Fire parameter ON, it would reflect the high effectiveness of
these rifle skirmish units.

2) However, rifle units are, as we know, terrible at handling melee.
And so it may (I repeat, *may*) be necessary to keep the Quality Melee
parameter OFF. Rifle units are already calibrated to melee poorly, but
it will take testing to find out whether an "A" rifle unit is still able to
stave off a melee from a well manned unit.

3) In connection with (2) above, one way of helping to make the
skirmish units sufficiently vulnerable to melee is to make them rather
small. They could be icons of 3, 5, or 6 men each. And they could
be stacked into a single hex, or spread around. Again, testing will be required
to find out if a 3 man skirmish unit has enough fire power to more or less
get 1 kill per "volley/shot". This would represent a 33% hit rate, which
is the bare minimum for a rifleman firing into a non-eXtended line.

4) At the same time, by keeping a high morale rifle unit in EXTENDED
order, it helps reduce their vulnerability to musket fire and INCREASE
their vulnerability to melee....which is exactly what we are looking for.
But if a 30 man musket unit fires into a 3 man extended order unit...
will it kill 1, 2 or all 3 men? If so, it may be necessary to increase the
size of the skirmish unit from 3 to 4, 5 or 6.

This is where I plan to begin my testing. But before I begin, does anyone
have any thoughts about other aspects of a skirmish unit to consider?

Regards,

George Brooks
Tampa, FL