Gentlemen,
I was thinking about fire combat again and again in the past, currently my perception is that we usually use units that fire in a way most beneficial to us, but that is not necessary like they were used back then. I make three threads to not mix the discussions on the different unit types.
This one is about skirmishers.
To me it seems that they are only used as speeds bumps on the defense to force the attacker to melee them away or expose the cavalry in the attempt to tide them down. On the offense they are only good as a kind a minor shield because any fire through them at formed units behind them get reduced by 20%, but in the end they are missed on the assault so it may not be worth the shield an assault.
If that is correct one wonders what's up with the stories of skirmishers softening enemy units with their fire as a preparation for an assault. This was strongly used by the French in the Revolutionary Wars as the volunteer bat. were just not trained enough to perform like professional soldiers and battalion maneuvers were hard to be done with them. So the volunteer bat. broke down into swarms of skirmishers and tried to destabilize the enemy line with fire, so that the professional bat. could follow up with an assault.
Now, how do you use skirmishers generally?
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