Austerlitz Play-By-EMail

Let as say we have an infantry unit that can form a square, with EF 8, and a cavalry of EF 8 also.

If the cavalry attacks then there is a 90% chance that it will pass its morale check.
Then there is a (90-10) 80% percent chance that the infantry will form square, and then a (90-35) 55% chance that the cavalry will break the square.
Chance that cavalry wins: 90%*20%+90%*80%*55% = 57.6%
Chance that infantry wins: 10%+90%*80*45% = 42.4%
Is there a difference if the infantry is in square prior to the attack?

If the infantry attacks then there is a (90-20) 70% chance that it will pass its morale check.
Then there is a (90-35) 55% percent chance that the cavalry will break the square.
Chance that cavalry wins: 30%+70%*55% = 68.5%
Chance that infantry wins: 70%*45% = 31.5%

Are my calculations correct?

Yes, if the infantry are already in square then they do not have a morale check to form square. Therefore the cavalry must pass morale to charge, and then again to attack the square. This might be helpful for units with low morale (EF) if you think the enemy will use some good cavalry against you. But, infantry in square are exposed to enemy fire... If you have EF 8 infantry then they will probably be able to pass the morale check to form square and therefore might NOT need to start the battle in that formation.



I'm not sure about this second part. If infantry attack cavalry then they do not have to form square (since the cavalry did not charge). Therefore the infantry mearly need to pass morale to attack, and if succesful there will be hand-to-hand combat.

thanks a lot

Can I just say that I thought infantry squares were virtually impregnable to a cavalry charge? (Only three recorded examples in the entire era). 55% would seem far too likely to succeed based on that evidence.

I agree, that seems high to me. I don't know if Jurgen ever experimented with different morale check modifers for the cavalry charge.

Yes but i don't think that infantry was really able to form square successfully without having first bust their a...s in training.
Was it so easy for half the infantry to form a real square?
I don't think so.

Hmm not so sure about this a large portion of the British at Waterloo that ended up in square were not 1st line units but they appeared to manage this quite effectively, to say nothing of the various allied contingents like the Hanoverians who were more akin to grade 3 -4 morale!

cheers

I love it when discussions continue 4+ years later, where did you uncover this!

A little bit bored, was looking for the Sim battle site or at least a link to it and came across this thought it worthy of a reply?

http://www.simbattles.austerlitz.biz

A. and Y. Zhmodikov in their book “Tactics of the Russian Army in the Napoleonic Wars” detail an incident when a unit of French dragoons (mounted) formed square against an attack by Russian cossacks. British infantry formed a line in echelon to repulse an American cavalry attack at Crysler’s Farm.

something wrong with the link? all I see is a light blue page????

It seems to be working OK. There may be a type-face problem, the font is Verdana which should be a supplied Windows font. I've opened it on a Mac as well.

my antivirus checker is blocking it this may be something to do with it.
This site seems to be registering as a threat?

It was hacked and a malicious index.html was uploaded with javascript redirect. I've removed and uploaded a blank page. It does not look like the other pages were hacked. The password for the ftp has been changed.

Fixed, the site is back up and operating.