let's suppose we have two stacks (8 units each) of infantry firing at each other. if you fire your companies individually, you run the risk of each company returning fire. if they do, that could be 64 return fires to your 8 shots. fire as a group and it drops down to a maximum of 8. A ratio of one-to-one instead of the horific 8-to-1 you could suffer from individual fire.
64 shots gives the enemy a greater chance to inflict casualties than 8.
as for shooting in a group you will notice in the results box 8 numbers ... one for each unit firing. the number of casualies is the total of all the shots.
Gary is right. work in groups. the military calls them units <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>. more gamers need to use that concept - 1 regiment/battalion, not 8 companies.
Micro-managing individual company fire is as unrealistic as the high numbers of return fire being referenced at the beginning of this thread.
Battalions should fire, all at once on one target hex (it would be nice if casualties would be equalling distributed amongst all occupying the hex, but...) so select one target and shoot at it, if you eliminate it you cause morale problems for the surviving units in the hex.
this is linear warfare. companies fight in 3-ranks, 22" apart. each hex is 125 feet this would allow 204 men to fire from the front of a hexside.
I mention this only to point out that many of our regiments/battalions should remain stacked together in the same hex and not strung out over 4,5 or 8 hexes.
battlelines should be compact and well controlled. too often, we gamers scatter our units about the field as though they were tanks or modern infantry companies capable of independant operations.
just a thought.
Major Al Amos
1st U.S. Dragoons 1812-R
[url="http://www.angelfire.com/ok4/amos/CCC/1812regulars.htm"]<img src="http://www.angelfire.com/ok4/amos/CCC/chippewa_s.gif " border=0>[/url]
Edited by - Al Amos on 12/09/2001 22:51:56
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