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Post by ooiittee on Jun 16, 2016 21:25:30 GMT
When looking at artillery to factors make up its effectiveness: crew and gun. Loading and aiming determine the hit, range and shot determine the effect.
Alot of rules I see consider a 12lbs shot to have double the damage potential than a 6lbs shot.
I understand there would be a range difference (potentially), and the 6lbs would be loaded and fired faster, but I would have thought once fired either would bounce through a column of troops and given they are both a single shot surely the potential to harm when they do hit is the same. 12 would be more likely to kill but you get hit by a cannon ball you out of the fight either way. Right?
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Post by bruce on Jun 16, 2016 23:16:31 GMT
Oolittee there has been a detailed discussion of the weight topic and the Grand Battery rule going on over on the Yahoo Et Sans Resultat forum. You may have to join to read it though. The ESR website has a link to the rules and they also give some insight.
As I just started playing ESR I have not yet formed a Grand Battery, but it appears to create a sort of no man's land in front of it. I am replaying the sample scenario now as many of my orders were so incompetent in the first try that I ended up masking my batteries, none too grandly, and getting caught out prior to deploying, just not enough foresight. But very interesting. I will likely report next week. Bruce
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Post by keithabarker on Jun 17, 2016 13:33:07 GMT
Alot of rules I see consider a 12lbs shot to have double the damage potential than a 6lbs shot. I don't think that a single 12pdr roundshot has double the damage potential of a 6pdr roundshot.
Being hit by a 6pdr or 12pdr roundshot won’t make any difference – you are very probably going to die. And the other 2 guys in your file are very probably goners too.
So it really depends on what the rule writers are trying to represent. Why use a 12pdr…
- Their noise – the sound of the 12pdr was reported as being very bad for morale.
- Their range and accuracy.
- Their canister – longer range, heavier and more projectiles.
- Their ability to damage “hard cover”.
- Their potential to inflict more casualties by bounce-through vs deep targets.
Why use a 6pdr…
- They require many fewer resources (cost, crew, horses, and caissons).
- They have a faster rate of fire.
- They are easier to maneuver and can be placed where they are needed.
- They can be brought into action much faster (no need to move the barrel from travelling to firing position)
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Post by captainchook on Jun 19, 2016 0:32:42 GMT
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Post by profjohn on Jun 19, 2016 22:05:22 GMT
Another consideration - if you really wanted to distinguish between poundage and effectiveness of artillery - is quality of powder. My understanding is that this varied quite considerably between artillery corps. So the Austrians, for example, quite literally got more bang for their buck than the French. This would also make a different to range and potential killing power of any artillery piece whatever the poundage.
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