Orders for Artillery
The British have a 'brigade' of artillery (2x12 pounders) on a hill overlooking the battlefield. A British infantry brigade is under attack orders and moving towords a Continental brigade holding a road and fence line. What orders should the artillery be under? And once the infantry brigade has advanced too far forward for the guns to fire can you order the artillery to move to a better location? And once they arrive at that location, what order should they have? Do they have to have an order to support a specific attack, or is there some sort of order(s) that you guys use for artillery. Thanks Mike B

If I was playing i would of put the artillery on support orders if it has a brigade general of its own , with orders to support the britsh brigade (officers name ) at start of the game .No supporting unit/briade can be infrount of the brigade it is supporting . you could have the artillery in the same briade as the infantry and still have assault orders on them.( so they could still blat away at the enemy from the hill even at long range!! ) AS long as..... at least 1 close order unit in the brigade advances at least a half move towards the enemy .. fix swords advance to contact happy gaming V

Artillery are given a bit more leeway in their orders as they can usually decide at what point to deploy, long medium or canister range. In the situation outlined I would put the artillery on Engage orders to attack the Continental brigade in question. They could then deploy at whatever range you see fit and follow up the enemy if it retires or retire yourself if they advance without a further change of orders. But not to retire outside of long range. For that, or a different target, you would have to change orders(see pg21). Regards Paul

Thanks for the artillery feedback. We started a small game today: 2 British and 1 Hessian brigades vs. 2 Continental and 1 Militia brigades. We did a blind set up. As it turned out the British Elite Brigade of light infantry and grendiers was up against the milita. It wasn't pretty. I'll post a few pictures late tonight. Speaking (again) of artillery; Do all artillery types, even milita move with ab Avg die? It seems from the chart that they do. Mike B

Looking forward to the pictures. Yes, all artillery move the same. I guess the theory is that moving artillery does not require the same level of precision that moving a formed battalion does, other than not dropping it on your toes. Regards Paul