Q- I need to use a 24# field howitzer in my OOB, but it's not listed in the official JRIII charts. "at should I do, call it a heavy gun?

A - Since the 24# howitzer tube is slightly less than a hundred pounds heavier then the Napoleon, I would not rate the 12# field howitzer as a heavy gun. As a comparison, the 32# field howitzer has a 1,920-pound tube. So, for movement, it would be the same as a Napoleon. Now using the 12# Napoleon as the standard, and rating the 24# field howitzer in relation to it, we get a 15mm range table as above.

Q- Does artillery get a +2 opening volley modifier?

A - This is not an "official" ruling, but consider the option of allowing the "+2 DRM" for opening volley for artillery provided the guns are not firing the same turn they unlimber. Hence, a battery rushed to front and going into action as soon as it unlimbers would not get this benefit. I generally favor the concept of artillery having an opening volley benefit, if prior to that firing it had spent one complete turn not moving or was in a fixed position.

Q- The question of counter-battery fire came up in a JRIII game. Is it totally eliminated or did I just miss it somewhere?

A - Counter-battery fire is smoothly integrated into the game. Note that an unlimbered battery has a target modifier of "-3" DRM -- shoot at it like any other target; except that if you get a hit, you must roll to determine if the hit knocked out a horse or a gun section.

Q - Does the "hit by artillery" morale check affect artillery crews too?

A - It most certainly does.

Q - Why where 12-pounder howitzers omitted in JRIII?

A - The 12# howitzers were omitted because they almost never appeared as a battery of all 12# howitzers. Almost always, they were deployed as a section within a mixed battery. In the west a 4-gun battery of one section of 10# Parrots and a section of 12# howitzers was not rare. But, I am sure on some occasion a full battery of four 12# howitzers was deployed. They can be approximated by using the 6# GUN range table with a (+1 DRM).

Q - A regiment that was supporting a single gun battery routed, and when the battery did a morale check for seeing this, the rules seem to say that a battery has its normal morale unless involved in a charge. Does an unsupported battery reafly have its normal morale on anything but a charge?

A - Your interpretation is correct on artillery morale. A battery only suffers the unsupported morale penalty if it is charged. All the battery memoirs I have read suggest that this was the only time a ]one battery really got worried. The rest of the time it was stoic defiance -- we can hit them harder than they can hit us. While that often proved to be a misplaced optimism, is was very common among the gunner.