Paco wrote:
More importantly, the MORALE of the respective forces was generally the key to success, not the size of the forces per se. At its simplest, a Napoleonic attack was a colossal game of "chicken." If the attackers pushed ahead (e.g., did not pause to return fire, were disorganized by defensive fire, etc.) the defenders, in effect, needed to pass a morale check to see if they stood or ran away. If the defenders crumbled, the attack succeeded, if not, the attack generally failed. That's how a single battalion of Middle Guard could drive off an entire division of Landwehr Prussians at Plancenoit. As someone already pointed out, the key to British tactical defenses was that they would: 1) Hold their defensive fire until the attacker was at point blank range (25 - 30 yards); 2) Deliver one (1) volley of fire which generally shattered the attacker's front rank; 3) Immediately counter-charge the now disorganized attackers.
From what I have been reading, this is more of a universal trait than just limited to the Napoleonic period, there are battles where entire lines ran off before contact was made. The individual combats were not resolved by actual casualties.
Quote:
None of this can be simulated with the Tiller game engines.
I don't think I would go that far, myself, as the entire point is about interpretation. A good example of this are from posts that are made from time to time where people are not getting the concept of losses not being literally dead, wounded, captured.
In the above example isn't it a defensive fire that disrupts the attacker in your defensive turn, then in your own attacking turn you forgo your own offensive fire and melee? I don't quite understand how that isn't being represented then?
Of course I guess there are some modifiers that I have been using in the Musket and Pike series engine that there isn't in NB -for example I could stick a unit with a negative melee 'bonus' (up to -90%) on a per unit basis in the OOB files which if you did that would largely render even a 1000 man unit impotent, which changes the overall impact of the engine.