Most armies will, of course, be comprised mainly of infantry. At least, this is true for land battles. I believe my rules will work for sea battles, too. However, for the period for which I am specifically intending to primarily use my rules, horse and musket, both cavalry and artillery will need to be handled somewhat differently.

Cavalry squadrons and regiments are far more susceptible to attrition and fatigue on a battlefield. A blown horse is not going to be moving all that well and will require some rest. Stepping into a hole can be deadly for both mount and rider, plus also other horses and riders who get caught up in a tangle with the fallen animal.

Much of how cavalry is utilized and fights on the field of battle can be managed through the combat results chits, including blown or exhausted cavalry, cavalry, counter-charges, fighting in bad terrain, etc.

As previously mentioned in another post, cavalry units (most often squadrons) will have a lesser number of SPs than an infantry brigade. So, the relative combat power and manpower is covered through that mechanic.

Where things are different is in how would one represent mass charges, such as at Eylau and Waterloo?

My solution is to have cavalry bases, which can be either one or two larger squadrons or a smaller regiment with several squadrons, combine their ratings together for an attack, and then add this sum to the usually 2d6 roll. While this is not much different from how an infantry brigade is handled, the individual cavalry bases have a greater opportunity to be maneuvered in such a manner as to take a defender in the flank and rear more easily than could an infantry brigade for example. Individual cavalry, whether as attackers or defenders, only roll a single d6 to add to their rating, when determining their combat ration for a combat.

Additionally, cavalry acquire fatigue and become exhausted more quickly than infantry brigades (or battalions for that matter). Unlike infantry, cavalry gain fatigue for each attack they participate in; exhaustion occurs when fatigue equals a unit’s SP.

When cavalry is attacked, it may attempt to evade, using the appropriate tactics card, or it can stay and fight. However, as combat occurs within a single square and single opponent is declared the target of an attack, cavalry units which do not successfully evade are very likely to suffer from combat.

Artillery units also have their own special handling. Battalion guns and integral brigade batteries simply add to the Brigade Combat Value. Separate bases of artillery represent divisional or corps assets, but as they are based separately, they can also be attacked individually. Horse batteries are treated as cavalry squadrons with an artillery value and can shoot at range, so my comments below only apply to foot artillery.

Like cavalry bases, artillery may attempt to evade, although successfully evading attacking cavalry is much more difficult than evading infantry. They can be individually targeted, if not supported by infantry, and they too only roll a single d6 when fighting alone. More importantly, they have only so much ammunition and they move very slowly in comparison to all other unit types, most especially siege guns and heavy artillery.

When played at the battalion scale, artillery bases represent batteries and will also have limbers and caissons placed on the tabletop, which move separately.

Artillery units cannot combine their ratings, unless the period is late horse and musket, such as the Napoleonic Wars and after, since grand batteries really did not come into use until then.  They may, however, conduct long-ranged bombardments. In battalion-level games, artillery may support more than one attack per turn by splitting their rating value among more than one target.

Long-range bombardments cost 1 or 2 time segments and can only be performed by the active player. The active player may conduct a bombardment instead of carrying out an attack. Each bombardment costs one ammunition, per time segment, and only those visible enemy units not adjacent to a friendly unit, and are not inside a fortress, are eligible targets.

Once the target is determined, the active player rolls a d6 and adds the artillery unit’s rating to the result; the defender rolls a d6 and does not add it to his unit’s rating. The two numbers are compared to determine the ratio. The number of combat results chits drawn from the cup (or bag) is equal to the number of time segments expended.

Any chit result that has an effect that applies to an attacker is ignored, even if the chit also has an effect for the defender. Any hits from a bombardment cannot be saved.

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