This Artillery Fixation is getting a bit old now.

[Fisherking]

And here we all are talking about not making the game harder, when everyone says it's so easy...I have to laugh.

I also remember them saying they are slowing down movement in the game as well. This is a hugely important piece of information for a variety of different reasons as I'm sure everyone can get.

I think the game balance will be a major part of the next patch. Some may like it some my not, but it will be a significant change I believe.

All I hope is that there is something there to like!

I was disappointed in the way most of the last changes panned out.

It was mostly too much of a good thing…….

A lot of the proposed changes don’t sound all that promising.

People are already getting upset.

I just hope it doesn’t foul things up more….

[Forward Observer]

I just thought I would mention that one has to be careful when quoting ranges, weights, calibers, and effectiveness of various artillery pieces and ammunition during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The ranges I quoted were taken from one of the Osprey "men at arms booklets" titled "Artillery Equipments of the Napoleonic Wars" , but I have come across totally different ranges quoted from other sources. Since this booklet only cover field artillery there were not any ranges given for mortars, but other sources still tend to indicate that the ranges of such weapons was a function of the weapon barrel and bore size, but that they still tended to have a shorter effective range than howitzer or cannon counterparts with the same bore size--meaning that 5 inch mortar probably could not out range a 5 inch howitzer while an 8 or 12 inch mortar could.

The book does go on to point out that there are several reasons for conflicting ranges, specifications, and effective performance of the various artillery piece fielded in these periods.

1. There was no uniform standards of weights and measures among European countries through the 18th and early 19th centuries. They give the example of the fact that a military dictionary of 1816 indicated that 100 lbs. for England and Scotland equaled:

81 lbs. 8oz. in Paris
113 lbs. in Marseilles
112 lbs. in Russia
89 lbs in Frankfort
etc.

For those reasons alone the 9 pdr. British cannon was almost the same bore size as its 8 pdr. French counterpart. Other calibers and ranges were just as subject to these variables.

2. They also go on to state that one has to take contemporary statements of artillery performance made by well known commanders of the period with a grain of salt---since most of the time these statements were anecdotal at best and not representative of any actual tests or statistics.

A lot of accurate statistical data for Napoleonic artillery was simply not available until the mid 1830's (over 15 years after Waterloo) when some of the various European powers finally conducted extensive testing of Napoleonic equipment in a effort to upgrade or advance their technologies.
In the the case of the British a lot of this testing happened as late as the 1850's at the Madras school of Artillery in colonial India.

Dang it, You gents are making me work too hard just to try and keep up with the dialog, and while interesting, I think I'd rather play the game than spend all my time trying to sort through tomes of dry technical info on artillery. Besides, I need to get in all the artillery play I can---before the developers possibly f#*k it all up with the next patch---

[Belgolas]

hmm... sounds like CA needs to buy some arty and test it. I would do it :)

[Didz]

Well as FO has said the testing was and has, already been done. So it doesn't need to be repeated, all CA need to do its google the information, or if they want to be really thorough to go out and buy some decent books. Same with the uniforms really, its all there if you can be bothered to look for it.

Even if these guns were not tested until 1830/1850 the guns themselves were still authentic and their performance would not have changed so I'd be quite happy to accept the figures produced as accurate. The only thing that might have changed of course was the quality of the gunpowder, French gunpowder during the war was said to be abismal, and may have affected performance.

[AussieGiant]

The only thing that might have changed of course was the quality of the gunpowder, French gunpowder during the war was said to be abismal, and may have affected performance.

*laugh*

Yes I remember repeated statements confirming that by multiple sources. The French gunpowder was appalling in some instances.