Polish Snipers

[Didz]

Just noticed this Polish Rebel Line Infantry unit behaving rather oddly whilst under artillery fire behind a wall. One or two of its men were taking extremely long range pot-shots at my infantry on the ridge.

You can see on the mini-map how far they are away. If the maximum musket range is 300 yards, then they must have been at least 900 yards away. Not only that but I think they actually hit one of them, the shots were certainly carrying that distance.

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[antisocialmunky]

If its a bug, its awesome. :) That's pretty neat.

[Hooahguy]

were they hitting anything? if not, theyre pretty lousy snipers.

[Didz]

were they hitting anything? if not, theyre pretty lousy snipers.

Well given that hitting a barn door a 50 paces was an achievement with a smoothbore musket, hitting a man size target at 900 yards and doing him some harm was certainly something to be proud of.

In truth I doubt a musket ball would actually carry that far. One of the reasons French soldiers in Napoleon's army are frequently described as wearing their greatcoats in battle despite the hot weather is that along with the broad leather cross-belts the extra thickness of wool was capable of stopping low velocity spent musket balls causing injury. Towards the end to their flight these balls might leave a nasty bruise but didn't have the power to cause an injury. Likewise soldiers at Waterloo desribe the rattling sound caused by hundred's of spent musket balls bouncing off the breastplates of French Cuirassiers.

[antisocialmunky]

I don't think anyone was getting shots anywhere that close until the 20th century.