Reply To: New to ACW – A couple of questions
Well after the last couple posts you guys have wrote I think I am a lot more re-assured, still a lot to take in, so I think what I will do is just take forces of equal size and play a few games to get my head round everything. The fundamentals I don’t think will be an issue as they are more or less the same in any combat game just with some tweaks / additions. it’s mainly the conversion I am struggling with, not the measurments that is easy enough, it’s more the weapons. It feels like I have to grab tit bits from each book get get the information I need š or I have the pieces to a jigsaw in multiple boxes.
@Gary Wills – Looking at the order of battle for Wilson’s creek again, both the general and brigade commanders all have a rating of 8, so if I have a unit in line formation with no modifiers, no roads, no difficult terrain, and I do a command roll resulting in 5, thats 3 less than 8 so I get 3 moves so I could move straight forward for 36″ (or 36cm in Epic). Now if that unit is in March Column, it only has a modifier of +1 for being in column right? Taking the commanders rating to 9, so lets say I roll a 6 or less, that is still 3 moves I am getting so I can still only move 36″/36cm? So I can’t see why I would bring my troops on in March Column where at some stage I have to use a move to change formation. Does that makse sense? The only time where I can see and advantage (from reading the difficult terrain rules) is if I have a unit moving along a road with difficult terrain either side, which would make a line formation move at half pace, so moving in column would make sense. So the next question would be, is all the battlefield classed as difficult terrain except otherwise noted? I,e; roads, woods or impassable terrain? It basically says that difficult terrain is scrub, sand, heavily plough soil, which could practically mean the whole of the american land, lol.
As for the artillery, I can see the artillery ranges on pg 45 of the core rules, but no mention of points and some of the types of artillery are not listed. But on pg 45 of the GH supplement all artillery is listed š but no pts, however when I look at pg 79 for the Eastern Theatre of the GH Supplement it does give me pts values so I think I can come up with something there.
Just as an example of what I am looking at Pg 18 of the Epic booklet, Battle of Wilson’s Creek, looking at the order of battle under the Union army, the 4th Brigade has 1 artillery unit of 12pdr howitzers (6 guns). On pg 13 the 12pdrs are not listed on the range table, so how do I know what range they can fire at, so I think I would just go by the 40″ in teh GH supplement? On pg 14 they are also not listed for their stats, so how strong are they, what is their morale etc? So I look at Pg 45 of the core rules, again, not listed on the range table. So finally I look at pg 45 of the GH supplement and see them listed at Range 40″ but I still have no other stats. So now I think why on earth would you list something in the order of battle and not have it’s stats listed in the Epic Battles Regiment Stats table? At first I thought I may be trying to do a literal conversion of every weapon and I shouldn’t be, and that the aim of Epic was to keep things simple, so just treat the 12pdrs as 6pdrs using the stats on the Epic Battles Regiment Stats table, BUT, on that table the last entry isĀ Artillery – 6 gun – 3 stands – 6pdr smoothbore. So it IS telling me that it is a 6 pdr, so where are the stats for the 12pdr?
Here is the range table on Pg 13 of the Epic booklet;
Shotgun, Pistol 6″
Smoothbore musket 18″
Rifled musket, breech loading rifle, repeating or magazine-fed rifle 24″
Smoothbore carbine 12″
Rifled Carbine, breech loading carbine, repeating or magazine fed carbine 18″
6 pdr smoorthbore artillery 36″
Here is part of the Epic Battles Regiment Stats table (artillery only)
Artillery – 4 gun – 2 stands – 6 pdr smoothbore
Artillery – 4 gun – 3 stands – 6 pdr smoothbore
Now here is the order of battle for Wilson’s Creek on pg 19 Epic booklet
Brigadier General Nataniel Lyon
1st Brigade – 3 x Infantry, 1 x Artillery (6pdr smoothbore, 6 guns)
2nd Brigade – 3 x infantry, 1 x Artillery (6pdr smoothbore, 6 guns)
3rd Brigade – 6 x Infantry
4th Brigade – 4 x Infantry, 1 x Cavalry (rifled carbine, tiny), 1 x Artillery (12 pdr howitzer, 6 guns)
As you can see the 12pdrs are not on either of those tables? So now I have to go to the GH supplement to get the stats. There are two lines of teh GH supplement for 12pdrs, one has a (6) next to it so I presume this is the 6 gun entry I am looking for.
@Big AI – Interesting point about the scale, someone mentioned about the number of stands in Epic ACW on FB page saying something similar that they are reducing a standard sized regiment to 3 instead of 5 which sounds reasonable because if you look at the largest battle in the Epic booklet “Battle of Salem Church” the Union infantry alone totals 155 stands, lol, that is mad!!!
Anyway, I really really apreciate the time and effort you guys have put into your replies, I know it can be a pain explaining something over a forum. But when you don’t know anyone personally who plays I can only ask on line.
I think for now I will concentrate on the scenarios or just use balanced forces for quick pick up games and worry about a pts system later. I definitely won’t be giving up on teh game though as I have invested quite a sum in it, lol. And I love the whole idea of the command system. Looking forward to teh Napoleonics coming out next year as well. Hopefully they will do an AWI one after that, lol.
