Quote Originally Posted by Kulgan View Post
That's a good question, the full answer would probably be a book 7000 pages thick. I will try to do it in a few lines and will give several reasons why lying down was hardly used:

* In the time period lying down to avoid enemy fire would be regarded as a weakness, real soldiers would stand up and properly return fire

* The common soldier was not that smart and not easy to handly, thus leaving a regiment standing was simply easier.

* Lying down soldiers are a really easy target for enemy cavalry. In order to take a charge without getting whiped out you would have to make a Bayonet wall and stand firm in tight ranks, this is much easier accomplished when you're already standing up rather then lying down.

* The fire by rank type of warfare would is also much easier when everyone is standing rather then lying down

* If you would want to do a bayonet charge, again it would be much easier and faster if the regiment is standing instead of lying down. The same goes for general movement across the battlefield.

* You must not think in modern warfare and then look at the 18th century when thinking about taking cover. Nowadays if you don't take cover you're dead in a split second, back then the accuracy and amount of fire was so low it would not make a huge difference in casualties wether you are taking cover or not. Thus the general's of the time traded this higher death rate among their own troops for a ton of factors described above. it's quite logical if you think about it
One also needs to consider that the Age of the Rifle did not truly begin until the latter parts of the Napoleonic Wars. Although the smoothbore musket was the bread and butter of standard armies of the time round munitions were not as accurate as more standard "bullet" shaped munitions (The minie ball comes to mind), the ability to mass produce rifled barrels, and cartridged munitions systems. During the timeperiod depicted (1700-1799) engagements were still decided with cold steel, be that a calvary man's sabre, or a line of bayonets.

Armies of the time period depicting in ETW depended on mass fire for any effect, and needed to react to, or partake in, the eventual charge.

The Age of Rifles refers to a time period which began with the invention of the minie ball and ended with the Russo-Japanese war. It's referred to as the age of rifles because at the time a mass of armed men firing downfield was the centerpiece of the battlefield, the bayonet charge and the use of calvary declined considerably as the accuracy of said fire was considerably improved over the technologies in use 100-150 years ago.

Additionally I think the melee messes that result in gameplay are accurately depicted.

Naf