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Reply To: Some good viewing for Napolenonic fans…

April 22, 2019 at 11:02 am #1380695

elessar2590

18207xp

@robert that’s the gist of it.

But actual battles aren’t so simple.

For Example if you need your Infantry to take a hill then enemy Cavalry will defeat you whether by cutting you down in line or forcing you to crawl a long in squares.

Battles are rarely about killing the enemy but more focused on things like punching through a position, taking an objective or moving to a position that threatens the enemy.

Squares do make you more vulnerable to cannon fire but the fact that every single time commanders are under artillery fire and yet still form square means that the Cavalry are the greater danger. At Waterloo we see (I believe twice, both near Le Haye Sainte) Infantry in Line massacred by Heavy Cavalry and both took heavy losses.

Infantry don’t form squares to Face Cavalry that charge them head on, a Line is just as good so long as you can’t be flanked and Cavalry will almost always peel off rather than charge.

In fact we have the heroic 28th at Alexandria (1801) who took a charge from the front while in line and simply ordered their second rank to about face and keep firing although that is a massive exception and the Regiment was rewarded for it, they wore a Badge on both the Front and back of their headwear.