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« on: August 05, 2014, 10:19:08 pm »
By the time of the American Civil War, the rifled musket had a significant advantage over the smooth bore. With it's round ball, the smooth bore had an effective range of up to seventy five yards, the advent of it's rifled cousin & the conical minie' ball, had increased effective range to three hundred yards (even more in the hands of a trained marksman). Quite a few details need to be brought to mind however when talking about the 'accuracy' of these weapons on the civil war battlefield.
First of all there was the 'charge' of powder in the cartridge, the bigger that charge of powder the more the weapon recoils, too small a charge and the range is drastically reduced, faulty percussion caps, a fixed bayonet, and under certain conditions the clouds of black powder smoke. Then there was the 'quality' of the men doing the firing, combat veteran regiments often did a lot more damage than much larger 'green' regiments, as reported time and again during the war, greener troops tended to fire too high.
Hardly any of these effects however, are useful in the clinical 'game' environment.
In my opinion, if they make the rifled weapons as accurate as they really were, then it's doubtful if you'd have a viable game unless large numbers of players are involved. On the other hand, making guns as inaccurate as they are in NW, would be a mistake...in my opinion.
Someone said earlier in this thread that it's 'how people play the game' that matters the most & I would agree with that, however.....If the Devs are going to include even a modicum of historical accuracy then a charge against a solid body of enemy troops with loaded weapons should result in very high casualties for the attacker. Some charges during the war undoubtedly did work, but when they worked it was rarely, if ever, against an enemy that was fully prepared for it. Charging an enemy during the Civil War, who were ready to meet that attack, with loaded weapons, was to invite disaster.
On the other hand, a well timed bayonet charge should still be possible. Against an enemy that has just fired a volley for example, or against an opponent who has suffered many casualties, or are on the move etc. But to 'move with the times' so to speak, to represent the advances in weaponry from NW, then the days of the 'rambo' charge should be well and truly over. In this game, the gun should rule the bayonet, no question about it.