Quote Originally Posted by SpencerH View Post
Friendly fire incidents do happen. I know, I was fired upon by fellow members of my own platoon so I think I have a better viewpoint on the subject than most others here. Most incidents of "friendly fire" are due to artillery or aircraft ground attack but despite your strawman, thats not what we are discussing. Incidents of short range "friendly fire" occur because of confusion. Its easy to mistake who's who in the dark or in heavy cover and sometimes the rapidity of movement on the modern battlefield cause errors. OTOH, its totally unrealistic to have a unit armed with a musket or bow, standing in an open field, fire point blank into the back of the unit in front of it.
I respectfully disagree. In modern times it is unlikely a group of trained soldiers would fire into a friendly group and even now it still happens.

I agree that experienced or elite units would be unlikely to make this mistake. Militia, conscripts and other poorly trained infantry might very well, under the stress of battle, fire in way that caused damage to a friendly group. They might be standing in an open field, but that open field would be filled with the sound of cannon fire, explosions and in pitched battles visibility could be severely impaired by smoke. Add to this the fact that muskets are innacurate and unreliable compared to modern weaponry, and that 18th century troops recieved very little training in accuracy.

If a group of untrained, nervous men in the heat of battle recieved an order to fire then many would probably do so, even if friendly units were in the way.

I do however agree that if the A.I is doing this regularly it is a problem. Occasionally because of poor planning or bad orders is fine. Frequently due to stupidity is not however. Friendly fire in itself is not a bug, but the fact that the A.I does it frequently might be.