Horses on an ACW limber ?

[Dave T]

I'm just starting on 10mm ACW and I'm looking to base for 'old style' fire and fury standards.  How many horses are usual for pulling the limber?

The reason I ask is the Pendraken models comes with 4 horsesand with a slightly larger base I can fit four to a base, but I've seen a lot of models and photos with only 2 horses pulling?

I suspect the anser is "depends on how heavy the cannon is", and in 10mm the guns are not really distinguishable (my napoleon barrels are bronze, all others are black!), but what would be usual for a Parrot sized gun?

I seem to have picked a common idea for newcomers to ACW and picked a battle and a not too far date in the future to acheive it by. I'm aiming for Easter and 1st Bull Run, but I'm being lazy at four infanty to the base.  Thats still arround 800 inf, and as much as I like 6 to a base it will save my sanity.  I'll post some pictres for  feedback when I've worked out a style of base I like.

all the best, Dave T.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Dave - are you takling real life here - in which case it should be 6 or more, although for wargames purposes I'd use 4 for foot artillery and 6 for horse (these nasty Pendraken pepps will almost certainly sell you the extras if you ask.)

IanS

[General Bt Sherman]

Hi Dave,
I use two horses to a limber mainly due to the base size. Anymore and they would take up too much space on the table. Good luck with your Civil War project.
-Bryan

[Dave T]

Thanks, that useful to know.   I was interested both from the 'real' perspective and what was commonly modelled. 

On the grounds I cant think of what else to do with spare draft horse figures I'll stay with four per limber Pendraken provide - I thnk 6 would look excessive on the battle field.

all the best,   Dave T.

[ciaphas]

I went for 2 for many reasons
1 - fewer to paint
2 - able to fit onto the bases I had at hand
3 - 4 or 6 just takes up too much space
4 - my artillery rairly moves so is really just a scenery piece
5 - too many projects and probably a little lazy to do correctly

jon

[Leman]

Long ago I read that as horses became more difficult to source the Confederacy used four horse limbers. Six was the more usual number. In Fire and Fury the limber is used purely as a game marker to show that the gun is limbered and not able to fire. Two horses were settled on by the author as it was felt that a four or six horse limber took up far too much scale space on a wargames table. I still use four horses even in 15mm.
DP