Artillery damage now very scary to see...

In Empire when a cannon ball cut through your lines you would hardly notice it except for a few little bodies left behind where they fall. In NTW that has really changed. When a line is hit it takes out the entire file and there is a huge gap in the line. You can then see men scrambling into position to fill the gap. Its hard to watch your line infantry advance into cannon fire when you see that can kind of damage. How terrible artillery must have been on the battlefield in those days.

I think it's an awesome sight to behold.

It just struck me today, out of the blue, how horrifying it must've been to be a foot soldier during the Napoleonic wars. The very thought of being ripped apart by a cannonball gives me the creeps...and imagine surviving it! I wonder if that hadn't been worse...

Originally Posted by Biggles

It just struck me today, out of the blue, how horrifying it must've been to be a foot soldier during the Napoleonic wars. The very thought of being ripped apart by a cannonball gives me the creeps...and imagine surviving it! I wonder if that hadn't been worse...

Think that's bad imagine how it was for civil war troops using 100 yr old tactics with 100 yrs of advancement in artillery technology. Eekk

Originally Posted by Spaxspore

Think that's bad imagine how it was for civil war troops using 100 yr old tactics with 100 yrs of advancement in artillery technology. Eekk

Or indeed in WW1. Using tactics not much better than 100 years before against machine guns and artillery

Originally Posted by Biggles

It just struck me today, out of the blue, how horrifying it must've been to be a foot soldier during the Napoleonic wars. The very thought of being ripped apart by a cannonball gives me the creeps...and imagine surviving it! I wonder if that hadn't been worse...

Napoleon himself said 'It takes more courage to suffer than to die.' So yes, surviving must have been worse.

that's the thing I like about it
even the catapults in MTW gave more damage than ETW cannons.

I always loved using arty, and even more so in NTW. Now massing it really works the way it did in real life. Arty batteries can take out half the enemy if they don't use terrain. This is my favorite thing so far.

Yeah no kidding, artillery rocks in NTW. It's absurdly tough! Units get hit, and even those soldiers who aren't killed outright are knocked down and take some time to pick themselves up again. You can watch as their morale drops more and more as the fire intensifies, until they're just getting hammered to death...
YAY Artillery rules again!

Was watching that from the enemy perspective, slowed down and it is very impressive compared to soldiers just falling over 'bowling pin' style from ETW. Might have been my imagination, but looked like some who didn't get hit, sort of 'flinched' as the shots came in....not sure though...

Originally Posted by Dizoakius Maximus

You can watch as their morale drops more and more as the fire intensifies, until they're just getting hammered to death

This is historically correct. The effect of solid shot was primarily psychological; while it caused (comparitively) few casualties, its effects were horrifying. I'm glad CA finally got this; in E:TW I had to watch even militia stoically eating my fire all the way up to canister range. Only the cavalry seemed to get some sort of morale penalty from artillery fire.

Originally Posted by IAB1789

This is historically correct. The effect of solid shot was primarily psychological; while it caused (comparitively) few casualties, its effects were horrifying.

God knows I wouldn't want someone shooting big damn iron balls at my face.
Yikes.
Although I think cannister is worse psychologically speaking...sometimes people would just when the little balls starting whizzing around.

Just now I had a bunch of my guys routing past my canons. I loaded grapeshots, and instructed the canons to fire in the fleeing men's direction. Took out the whole lot of them in one volley.

Originally Posted by Dizoakius Maximus

God knows I wouldn't want someone shooting big damn iron balls at my face.
Yikes.
Although I think cannister is worse psychologically speaking...sometimes people would just when the little balls starting whizzing around.

In my experience, you don't really notice rifle fire (I've never been under musket fire: canister shot is essentially just a big tin of musket balls). You just hear the cracking as the bullets go by, but it doesn't feel dangerous. I imagine a big thing like a 12 or 18 pound cannon-ball would sound and feel dangerous. One description of canister shot is that it sounded like a flight of birds going over, whereas cannon balls moaned (the sound effect from the movie Master and Commander is probably about right).

Originally Posted by IAB1789

In my experience, you don't really notice rifle fire (I've never been under musket fire). You just hear the cracking as the bullets go by, but it doesn't feel dangerous. I imagine a big thing like a 12 or 18 pound cannon-ball would sound and feel dangerous.

indeed. i heard that the concussion of a round shot going by to close to your head could bruise a mans face. It was in a history book. Or maybe it was Sharpe's Enemy...

Yes , thats how the whole trench ware fare came out of it.

Hell with this! Im digging a hole and sitting here.


Wasnt until the invention of the tank did it really break things open in military tactics.

I think what really increased the effect of the cannon,at least as far as dispersing lines,is that now it seems that falling units can stumble into and knock others down,which is certainly a new feature,which i also witnessed when a horse threw its rider into my square,the riders body actually knocked some of my boys down,and of course the fact that cannon fire now levles units off of their feet rather than the lame animation it had in Empire,which was the same as if they had been shot with musketry

I also noticed round shot killing some but not all, some stumble grab there musket and get back up. Love that touch of detail.

I love taking out half a unit of cavalry with one or two shots and then seeing a horse or two flee the carnage dragging a corpse.

Everytime I'm in Gettysburg and go to the site of Pickett's Charge, I look out over that mile and a half of open ground and shudder...how those men could have just marched, shoulder to shoulder under a never ending hail of shot, shell, and cannister....those guys were tough!