Bath tubbing with Honours Of War

Here some notes from Keith, the author:

This all got me thinking. On p.61 of the rules I make some brief comments regarding ‘bathtubbing’ for bigger battles, in particular emphasising that ignoring the scale issues around this practice have never bothered me. But maybe I was wrong. I have never really had a problem in the large historical battles I have represented, but it seems others have. So let me make the following suggestions.

1. Make sure you ‘bathtub’ your artillery correctly. If in the real battle side ‘A’ had 45 guns, that gives 11 model guns under the normal HoW rules. But if you are using 1 on-table infantry or cavalry unit to represent (for example) 4 real life units, than that figure of 11 needs also to be divided by 4, giving 3 models on the table.

2. It may be that artillery ranges are the thing most affected by the bathtubbing process, due to their length. So maybe reducing them could be an idea to try. I would suggest reducing by roughly a third, to give:

Light guns – 20/35/50
Medium guns – 25/50/80
Heavy guns – 30/70/120

Note that howitzers now have the same ranges as medium guns under a rules amendment. 

3. I would also suggest making infantry musket + battalion gun range 20cm, to fit in with the reduced canister range for light guns, with a -1 firing modifier (but no additionally reduced range) for battalions without battalion guns.

I will probably give these suggestions a try when I next attempt a big historical reconstruction. Leaving out artillery limbers may be another worthwhile tweak, as these may take up an unrealistic amount of room on a re-scaled battlefield. 

I would also recommend the new rules regarding counter-battery fire, which mean that if you are getting pounded by enemy artillery, using counter-battery fire may be more worthwhile than previously.

Keith