As both written and pictorial records show, many commanders (mostly the French and their allies) had small squadrons of cavalry attached to them during their battlefield "tours." A general was usually accompanied by from 6 to 40 troopers, who were drawn from a parent unit. These troopers were never used as combat troops but merely as a protective force. This doesn't mean that such troops never fought, but they were only permitted to fight when a general was directly threatened in combat. It is, of course, possible that an entire squadron (or unit) might be under the personal command of a general. But such troops would not have the status of "guides," being considered instead as regular troops. HOWITZER FIRE Very shortly, Jean and I will go over the subject of howitzer fire. I think that for the club's rules the following idea should be utilized for low angle fire: 1. Select the target and equivalent range. 2. Roll one die for each "gun" firing; 1-2 means automatic under; 3-4 explosion on target; 5-6 automatic over. 3. If appropriate, remove casualties as for balls. 4. Determine effects of explosion of ball; overs will have the center of the explosion 8" behind the target; unders will have the center 8" to the front; use howitzer pattern and die to determine the effect. An additional rule for artillery should be in the vein of Empire. We do have teams for our guns and they should be subject to bits. Thus a gun hit should also be rediced to see if it falls on the team. Finally, a word on counter battery fire: If allowed at all, such fire should be carried out in the following manner: All 12 lbs. should have two units of fire per game that may be used at the battery commander's discretion. Once these two chances for firing are taken, no more counter battery firing may take place during the game. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 26 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1978 by Jean Lochet This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com