024. The Battle of Quatre Bras - d'Erlon & Allied Troops Arrive - CLOSED

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1. Scenario: 024.QB v2.
This is an alternative giving a French player an opportunity to use d'Erlon I Corps but with variable arrival timing making quite an intresting unknown
for both players.

2. Seeking for weekly rate of +/-7 turns (less on workdays and up to a few turns a day on weekends)
3. Only 3 and very simple to follow House rules:
HR1: No unlimbering artillery in obstructed hexes
HR2: No unlimbered artillery in the same hex with infantry squares (have to move either unit if pushed into such position by melee)
HR3: No cavalry unit below 299 (2XX) men is to be split by squadrons
4. Optional Rules image below
5. “PBEM encryption” and “No PBEM Save”
6. Will play any side

Notes on the selection of Optional Rules:
• Column pass through fire OFF - the rationale here is that packed formations are already penalised through Target density modifier. Also, from Fire damage perspective, 3 battalions of 200+ units should not be at the disadvantage to one large battalion of 600+. This OR favours the attacker however is somewhat it offset by Movement Threat Disorder ON and Line Movement Restriction ON.
• Flank Morale Modifier OFF – this the simple way to reduce gamey aggressiveness than what was ever shown on the actual battlefield: switching off all morale-boosting optional rules: Flank morale bonus and Rout limiting. These rules ON favour the use of big masses of men: a bonus due to covered flanks on top of already high morale ratings across the scenario so the digital men are ready to fight to the near elimination. This leads to massive, all-out attacks, which must be replied with similar concentration of forces.




The rational of the House Rules:

• HR1: No unlimbering artillery in obstructed hexes.
Artillery was hardly ever positioned in the woods due to:
1. Lack of access for the ammunition wagons from the artillery train to have an ammunition supply
2. Lack of access for the battery's horses to reposition if under a thread
3. To avoid massive casualties from the trees splinters if fired upon.
As The game engine does not model points #1 and #2 and actually provides the opposite effects for point #3 giving 30% protection for the wood hexes the positioning of artillery in the woods creates unhistorical battle flows where woods become strategic "safety islands” providing cover for artillery and infantry and making them immune to cavalry. While historically Napoleonic warfare commanders avoided woods due to command-and-control reasons.
The same rule is to be allied for artillery in towns and villages: a typical 8 gun artillery battery required lots of space (100 meters of the front and about 50 meters to the depth) which could be hardly ever found in the narrow streets of the 18th century settlements. Furthermore, artillery avoided positioning amongst the wooden structures due to risk of fires and casualties due to splinters (same as positions in woods) which game engines treats with the opposite effect as an extra cover.



• HR2: No unlimbered artillery in the same hex with infantry squares
By gathering numerous sources together, it can be generalized that:
1. Squares could provide cover for individual gunners, but not for batteries as integral units.
2. Gunners seeking refuge in a square would not have been able to continue firing.
3. The process of taking cover in a square would severely disrupt a battery for the rest of the day, leading to a loss of command and control as the battery would be disintegrated into several parts: the artillery train would be sent to the rear, battery horses would be sent to the rear, some men would make it to a nearby square, some gunners would pack up and head home for good, and the unlucky ones would attempt to take cover under the guns with questionable odds of surviving the day. Overall, such a battery would be scattered, unmanned, out of ammo, immobilized, and with damaged, misplaced, or captured gear.
"Quite often, when the gunners were immediately threatened by cavalry, they simply left the pieces and ran from the battlefield. After Waterloo, Wellington wrote that the gunners who ran into squares before the cavalry and then returned to serve the guns once the charges had passed were rather the exception than the rule."
4. For the aforementioned reasons, the common tactical response of artillery commanders threatened by a cavalry charge was to pack up early and reposition, rather than risking the disintegration or loss of the battery.

As of version 4.06 and given a 100-meter by 100-meter hex environment, the game engine handles the above points differently:
• Even a small square of 100 men, with a maximum possible front of less than 7-8 meters, provides guaranteed anti-cavalry cover for any battery, regardless of its size. However, the historical deployment of a typical 8-gun battery would require a significant amount of space: around 100 meters to the front (the space for the guns and intervals in between) and between 30-100 meters in depth (depending on the situation), allowing for the limbers, the battery's draft horses, and the artillery train wagons with their own horses. Thus, a typical 8-gun battery deployed into battle would require nearly a full hex to operate as a unit and could not have been protected as an integral unit and covered by a battalion square of any size.
• As of version 4.06, if a battery is located within the same hex as an infantry square, it will continue to fire as usual without any negative fire modifiers. The "behind the scenes" processes of gunners taking cover in squares and the act of sending an artillery train and battery horses to the rear are not being modelled, and there is no negative impact on the artillery battery's cohesion, rate of fire, ability to manoeuvre, etc.



• HR3: No cavalry unit below 299 (2XX) men is to be split by squadrons
squadrons of below 100 cavalrymen are immune to fatigue accumulation as they mostly get eliminated to the last men BEFORE they get a chance to gain material fatigue. As a result cavalry regiments can be “utilised“ literally to the last man.

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