Elites in PK

PK House Rules

by Eric Burgess

It seems to me that for the Napoleonic period the way "Elites" are dealt with may be just slightly missing the mark. There are, generally speaking, two types of infantry units that are considered to be Elites - Light Infantry and Grenadiers. Those that are actually identified by the supplement to be Elites get a +1 to the Fire Adjustment. This is certainly justified for the Light Infantry types; they were well-trained in marksmanship compared to the rest of the army and were chosen to be small and wiry.

The Grenadiers, on the other hand, were chosen for just the opposite reason, i.e. big bruisers who liked to brawl when given the chance, or long serving veterans. My impression is that the Light Infantry types should get the plus for Fire Adjustment and none for Melee Adjustment, while the Grenadiers should get just the reverse, since they are supposedly veterans who have experienced melee. There is a case to be made for giving the Grenadiers a plus for fire also, again because of experience - but I lean towards the sharpshooters of the battalion getting that. Currently, neither gets a plus for melee.

Thus, my opinion is that there should be two "Elite" entries in the Unit BDV modification tables: the current one (plus 1 for Fire, nil for Melee) and an Elite Melee (nil for Fire, plus i for Melee). The weighting of Elites in the cavalry should probably be pretty similar, i.e. some units were good brawlers and others could actually hit something with those wimpy carbines!

We can do the same thing with Guard. Move one of the UP1's from fire to MELEE.

More PK House Rules

Back to Piquet Dispatch Vol. 1 Issue 4 Table of Contents
Back to Piquet Dispatch List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1999 by Piquet, Inc.
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