Screenies

[Intrepid Sidekick]

OK coming to the end of my working day so some more time to address points.

The unit sizes presented in the picture represent very early 18th Century combat formations. And in 1 to 5 scale as suggested by Rick.

Whether a unit uses ranked fire tactics, column tactics, line tactics or not will, as said before, depend on training, faction and unit type.

Some good points on both sides about Column, Line and the usefulness of melee and bayonets. But please, both sides, calm down a little. :) Finding the "truth" is always a complex thing and usually involves a much broader picture than anyone suspects.

As Ulstan points out,
Columns were useful for assault manoeuvres.
Lines were useful for maximising firepower.

Bayonet casualties varied from battle to battle and were different all across the periods between 1700 up to the end of the Napoleonic wars. The Battle of Culloden for example included a very bloody melee where the bayonet proved its usefulness.

As an example of the value and importance of the bayonet and melee; one of Napoleon's chief infantry tactics was to encourage his infantry to advance in column on the enemy and where possible briefly engage the enemy closely with musket and then charge with bayonet. And as Alexander Suvorov said: "attack with cold steel - push hard with the bayonet" and "The bullet is a fool, the bayonet is a fine chap". Two great generals with an exemplary battle record who both saw the bayonet as an important weapon in battle.

It is also true that advances would stall and become attritional exchanges of gunfire. But that was often, traditionally, regarded as a bad thing, except by Prussia and Britain who saw the opportunities and advantages, created by good weapons training, for armies without numbers on their side. That advantage was to infilict casualties on an enemy with superior numbers, prior to engagement in melee. Despite this approach, even those nations saw the psychological value of the bayonet charge as a "morale breaker". In fact Britain still does to this day - The last succesfull bayonet charge being carried out in Iraq in 2004 by the Prince of Wales Regiment and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Does that mean guns weren't or arent useful? No, of course not. Does it mean that meleee with bayonet is pointless? Again, no.

We at CA have decided to take a more balanced approach. We haven't ignored the value of either of these arms of warfare of the period. Each element has its value and it's place in Empire Total War.

[BeeSting]

We at CA have decided to take a more balanced approach. We haven't ignored the value of either of these arms of warfare of the period. Each element has its value and it's place in Empire Total War.

I think that's the most reasonable approach.