Horse and musket question

[FierceKitty]

How many gamers of the Wars of the Grand Alliance, the Silesian Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars use rules allowing a protective factor to cuirasssiers under musket fire? And what about canister and rifle?

[Last Hussar]

None of those, but our BP WSS stats give Cuirassiers an advantage

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

They have a higher morale than normal heavy cavalry due to esprit due corpsand heavy cavalry bonus in the games we've played.
Still means they get shot down on the way in though!

[howayman]

Their horses didn't wear armour and are a much bigger percentage of the target.
Without the horse they are just a gadgie in a metal vest, with a sword. Okay and a carbine.

[FierceKitty]

Thought so. Do some research, folks; you may find you want to put in a few rewrites. Duffy cites a French study in which they concluded that 1, 700 of their cavalry had been saved from musket fire in a single battle in the SYW.

[Bernie]

Hi
Which battle was that?

[fsn]

I thought the cuirass was proofed?

My Napoleonic cuirassiers get a very small advantage against musketry, but a bigger advantage against other cavalry and no advantage against artillery. 

[FierceKitty]

Hi
Which battle was that?

Might have been Johannisberg. I'll check.

[Techno]

I thought the cuirass was proofed?

Genuine question from old Mr Ignoramus.

By proofed, do you mean the cuirass had some sort of padding behind the armour ?
Or was it literally a plain, shaped piece of metal ?
Cheers - Phil.

[Hwiccee]

This comes from an anecdote about the battle of Lauffeld/Laffeldt (1747). It is basically some guys guess at how good the cuirass was at this battle and is clearly, at bes,t an exaggeration. It was often cited at the time by those people who thought armour was important and mainly ignored by everyone else. It is hardly serious evidence, either way, and I am surprised Duffy thinks it is.

The reality was that cuirass were worn as little as possible in the field and abandoned completely by the French in 1767. That tells you all you need to know about the effectiveness of it as protection.

Personally I am with mad lemmey - the main effect of being a 'cuirassier' is morale.

[Ithoriel]

Genuine question from old Mr Ignoramus.

By proofed, do you mean the cuirass had some sort of padding behind the armour ?
Or was it literally a plain, shaped piece of metal ?
Cheers - Phil.

Phil,

proofing was process of testing armour by subjecting it to a strike by a weapon. It's where the expression bulletproof comes from.

Slightly better explanation here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofing_%28armour%29

[FierceKitty]

Mmm, but the French gave up a lot of things, and the result was an army that never once beat the English.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Mmm, but the French gave up a lot of things, and the result was an army that never once beat the English.

Oh yes they did - several times.

IanS

[Last Hussar]

The proofing mark/dent from test ball could easily be made with a balpeen hammer.

[FierceKitty]

I mean that they moved away from linear tactics and trained professional troops in the Napoleonic Wars. And an army that Frederick or Dessauer would have chosen repeatedly beat them.