Screenies

[BeeSting]

If you want a hybrid war (melee/gun powder), then the best time period to represent that was in the 16th and 17th centuries.

inaccuracy of muskets were made up by exchanging fire at 50 yards (unless you are a skirmisher firing a rifle) and the effect fired from massive volleys were devastating, it was enough in most cases to break the enemy line without having to engage with bayonets. Consequently the value of an infantry unit was its discipline to not flee and maintain order after receiving such blows. The best example of this discipline in 18th century was the Prussian infantry.

Napoleon was rather unconventional, however. When his opponents were expecting to exchange and withstand or outlast enemy fire, his men threw them off by moving in, after cannonading and skirmishing with an overwhelming concentration of forces in shock bayonet attacks against enemy flanks. This was a new way of fighting which ended an era that bulk of ETW time frame represents, the 18th century warfare largely defined by Marlborough and Frederick II.

So the argument.... we are comparing two different time periods or two different stages of development of European warfare. Yes, bayonet charges became conventional part of warfare from Napoleonic to American Civil wars, but majority of death and wounds were still caused by small arms, muskets and rifles.