Horses in War of Rights

[brentcarter]

Cavalry only maps & battles.

[Lenny]

I'm sure you would have to make some system for it, but it could work out well with some minor tweaks.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Ultimately, I want to see horses teamed to the limbers of the artillery so that it can be player controlled and mobile.

I am also looking forward to seeing mules in game as well for the mobility of the quartermaster wagons.

(To dream ... )

Yeah man that would be cool. Being able to shoot out the enemy horses so they cant re-maneuver their arty would be interesting

[Alasdair]

I suppose it's fair to assume that horses would be implemented in a limited capacity. Though it would add another layer to battles, the current focuses are strong enough to not feel like something is missing.

Plus, there's still solid cavalry regiments on M&B to satisfy that craving when I feel like trampling people underfoot.

[dirtyjack]

I would start simple with giving officers the horse option if they want to be mounted. Maybe NCOs later to encourage an in-game messenger system between lines. Once they got the basic system implemented, they can go larger scale with dragoons and cav units.

[thomas aagaard]

I never, ever, want to see mounted cavalry in War of Rights. As you all know the days of 'the kind that are mounted with sabers gallantly charging the enemy' were long gone by 1862.

Actually the days of cavalry charges was not there yet.
It takes 2-3 years to train a new regiment of cavalry... If you got experienced NCOs and officers.
And even longer without them.

By 64 Union cavalry had finally learned how to fight both on foot and mounted. They often charged home with drawn sabers against CSA cavalry. It was way more decisive than taking the firefight on foot... especially because the csa cavalry by this stage of the war often did not have sabers.

The reason why we rarely read about it is because it didn't happen as part of big battles, but when regiment and brigade sized cavalry formations clashed in the days before and days after a big battle.

I think a late war cavalry battle could be very interesting... but it was just not part of the Maryland campaign.

Test

Originally something I posted on another forum in a debate about revolves vs sabers... but all of it are cases of union cavalry using mounted charges as a way of winning a fight.

All of it are about the battle of mine creek. reports from different union officers.

Here is what Col. John L. Beveridge, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry wrote in is report.
"On the 25th, after the battle of Mine Creek, when the brigade was ordered to the front, the regiment occupying the center of the column in the order of march, where the ground would permit by doubling up the column, was ever at the front, and made one gallant charge upon the enemy with sabers drawn, in column of squadrons. The enemy did not wait to receive the charge and no damage was done to either party."
OR. series 1, books 41, page 378

Major Abial R. Fierce, Fourth Iowa Cavalry
My regiment had just formed on the extreme left of our line when I commenced the charge. The three companies on the right of my regiment charged through the line of the Tenth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, which was formed in their front. In that charge we crushed the enemy’s right completely. We pressed them so close that I cut eight rebels from their horses with my own saber. My regiment captured over 200 prisoners with two stand of colors.
page 336
(he is complaining earlier in the report that his unit don't get sufficient credits for the victory... so I would take his claim with a grain of salt.)

Colonel Chas. W. Blair 14th Kansas cavalry
The head of the column was here checked by a heavy fire from the field, and it was evident that another battle was to be fought. Accordingly the general formed his brigade in close column of companies, and made them a little speech while forming to the effect that it made no difference whether there were 1,000 or 10,000 men on that field, he wanted them to ride right over them and saber them down as fast as they came to them. The men responded with a yell, the dismounted skirmishers tore down the fence in the face of a galling fire, and the column swept through it like a tornado.
page 605

To be fair one officer Col. John F. Philips, commander of the 1st cavalry brigade wrote:
My brigade was precipitated on the enemy’s center and left with tremendous energy, when the fighting became general and terrific. The impetuosity of the onset surprised and confounded the enemy. He trembled and wavered and the wild shouts of our soldiers rising above the din of battle told that he gave way. With pistol we dashed into his disorganized ranks and the scene of death was as terrible as the victory was speedy and glorious. Major-General Marmaduke, Brigadier-General Cabell, some colonels, several line officers, four guns, one stand of colors, and a large number of prisoners were captured by this brigade.
Page 352.

What is clear is that the union cavalry after using dismounted skirmishers in the opening part of the battle to clear fences, won the battle by a direct mounted charge... where sabers was very clearly used very effectively.

[Melonfish]

Cavalry of this period generally used their speed and mobility for scouting or taking up advanced positions and blocking, fighting as infantry (though with the faster firing carbines).
Cavalry charges did happen but mostly via skirmish actions or as thomas points out, against other cavalry.
I'm that regard cavalry vs cavalry maps with the ability to dismount would be rather epic.
I wouldn't however add cav to an infantry skirmish map, they'd be massively OP with regards to speed alone. How we deal with cannon is going to be another issue tbh.

[Charles Caldwell]

I cant for the life of me see how Cavalry will work in this game. The Maps are too small to make Cavalry effective, and they are too big a target! It'll be like shooting big fish in a small barrel. I mean, just shoot the horse and turn a dashing cavalryman into a fancy dressed infantryman in one shot.

[Hinkel]

I cant for the life of me see how Cavalry will work in this game. The Maps are too small to make Cavalry effective,

Since all skirmish maps are based on one huge map (4x4 km), the map is big enough to offer room for cavalry.
I think the entire map would feature over 200 different NW maps

[Pootis]

I can definitively see how Cavalry would work in game- right now, normally, you have to send like 2 guys forward to scout the enemy, and communicating with other lines can be kind of awkward. Plus if those scouts have to keep being sent forward, you can end up bleeding a lot of morale, so Cavalry would be a welcome replacement for that tactic.

My only issue is that the formation boxes will definitively have to be loosened a lot to avoid Cavalry commanders continuously charging the enemy and blowing all of a team's morale when the infantry barely gets time for a volley. The charges against a full line would be suicidal anyway- big hitboxes and all. But they'd help out a lot as potential couriers between lines on top of their skirmish role- run over to a line here, pass a message there, make sure everyone knows what everyone else is doing.

Skirmishing is normally something this game lacks at the moment, but Cavalry would help tremendously with that. It'd be the terror of a line to have a cavalry unit show up on the flank and unload a hail of carbine fire, just to retreat before the line can oblique-fire. Can't wait.