Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Movement

Welcome back and a big thank-you to those of you who have been stopping by and who have joined this blog as followers. That's most unexpected and very pleasing.


Just as soon as I can work it out, I'll try to get commenting turned on so that you can all join in the discussion.

Down to business then.

From various sources, we see that the Cavalry might have as many as three types of move;
A Normal Move of 9";

A Battle Move of 12" and;

A Charge Move of 18".

Note that the "Battle Move" is not a part of Grant's original nomenclature. I am using it though with some justification (and trepidation as I am not sure whether Grant's fatigue rules might have applied so early in the Rules career) as the distances mentioned match perfectly those of "The War Game".

I have not been able to find any mention of infantry move rates. Since however the cavalry rates seem to match up, I am provisionally going to assume I can import the infantry move rates unchanges. Thus:

Infantry in Line move 6";

Infantry in line and Firing 4";

Infantry in Column 7.5";

Infantry Charging 9" and;

Infantry Skirmishing 7.5".
Ditto the Artillery - 1" when manhandled and 6" when drawn by a team.

2 comments:

Archduke Piccolo said...

Since ACW formations were a bit looser than the European armies of the 18th Century, I imagine they were a bit more nippy about the battlefield as well. You might consider slightly quicker movement. Of course, the ripple effect onto other aspects of the game (Movement and missilery for instances) might have to be taken into account as well.

I use a similar organisation as yours but with an extra HQ figure - a musician (as most plastics manufacturers seemed to include them!) - as well as the CO and Flag bearer.

My cavalry cam under the influence of Terry Wise (his Airfix rule set), and although the CSA cavalry had the 12 troopers of your organisation (plus 3 HQ figures), the USA 12-figure battalions (3 HQ plus 9 troopers) was way too small.
So I went for 23-figure CSA Cavalry regiments (3 HQ + 20 troopers) and 15-figure USA battalions. The HQ figures in my rule set also represent horse holders, so my USA battalions can call upon all 12 troopers for dismounted action; the CSA has to designate 2 troopers as well at its HQ as horse holders.
Cheers,
Ion

Old School ACW said...

My Dear Archduke,

I'll allow the rules to reveal themselves first so that I can compile them in their entirety befor I tinker - believe me there are things that I would tinker with as I continue to look at ACW tactics.

I have the Terry Wise book and it is a coinstant source of inspiration to me - perhaps this has been the case since I was a young boy.

Best wishes.