Typical land battle

[Ozzman1O1]

Fire power wasn't enough to completly stop calvary, it would slow it down and make the charge costly but you could still break thorough if the enemy persented a flank or was wavering. Calvery in this era was used more as a reserve, commited at the decisive point to break the enemy not to do the actually slugging out of the infantry.

have you even heard about the battle of balaclava!?destroyer of hope!

[Trax]

have you even heard about the battle of balaclava!?destroyer of hope!

Have you even heard about the battle of Hohenfriedberg, where the Bayreuth Dragoons broke 20 batallions of Austrian infantry or about the battle of Eylau, where Murat's 11000 cavalry charged through the Russian centre?

[Ozzman1O1]

have you heard about the thin red lin when 80 british and french soldiers made a russian cavalry charge of 2000 falter!

[Trax]

80

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[Sheogorath]

have you heard about the thin red lin when 80 british and french soldiers made a russian cavalry charge of 2000 falter!

You mean the Thin Red Line, where 2200 elite British troops against 400 Cossacks?

[Ozzman1O1]

i think i meant the charge of the light brigade actualy

[hoom]

Have you ever heard that of the 673 who started the charge, only 118 were killed & a further 127 wounded?

That means 428 survived the charge up the Valley of Death, the battle (heavily outnumbered) at the battery at the head of the valley & the withdrawal back down the valley.
Albeit they lost at least 478 horses, with only 195 soldiers still having horses after regrouping.

[Sheogorath]

-Ozzman
Thats odd, 'cause you SAID thin red line >_>
The Charge of the Light Brigade was seven hundred British cavalry and some French cavalry against an unknown number of Russian gunners.
If you want a REAL 'against-all-odds' situation, try the Siege of Petropavlovsk.


-hoom
Doing the math, thats %36 casualties, which is actually pretty heavy. And they were, mostly, fighting against gun crews once they got into the melee, there were some Cossacks, but Cossacks dont do well against organized and trained troops.
I believe the standard for most Western armies to withdraw from battle is about %10-15, which is considered 'medium' in the scale of casualties. One reason the Japanese freaked people out so much in WWII was that they would take as much as %30-40 casualties before they withdrew to regroup. That was not in-line with most nations tactics at the time.

[Ozzman1O1]

just read abaout the battle of balaclava please in wiki and you will see

[Stuperman]

I imagine that a typical land battle will involve lining your men up against the edge of the battle map, and then waiting for the enemy to come into range, almost as exciting as watching paint dry.

[Frederick the Great]

As I understand 18th Century(that's 1700's for some people)major battles started with a artillery duel to soften the enemy up.Infantry formed the centre usually with cavalry on the flanks.Infantry battalions were formed up in a line formation about four ranks deep thus making the maximum use of volley fire.These battalions would be shoulder to shoulder forming a vast line and some even had artillery attached using small 3pdrs or howitzers.
Few battles were encounters between two armies and so with the use of cavalry as scouts,one army would defend making use of terrain while the other attacked making use of weaknesses in the defender's line or out manoeuvring him.
Infantry tactics were usually to close within musket range and blast away at the enemy infantry and those with the better moral and discipline standing while the others falted and routed.If this didn't work then a bayonet charge was enough to see them off.
Cavalry usually stayed well clear of infantry because of the devasting volley fire and don't forget at the start of the century some infantry were still using pikes in small numbers.Cavalry tended to concentrate on the enemy cavalry or exploited gaps,flanks and rears of the enemy.They were also used for scouting and breaking lines of supply.If cavalry did charge infantry frontally then it would have to be timed perfectly with devastating effect as the infantry square was not used until later in the Napoleonic period.
Light infantry (skirmishers) were becoming better trained and more tactical using gorilla warfare and picking off officer's and N.C.O.'s and harassing line infantry formation's e.g. American militia with their long barreled musket's during the American Revoltion.
Fog of war or battlefield visability would be at a minimum once the battle got under way because of the cloud's of smoke caused by firing gunpower weapon's.