18th century total war

Chapter 144 Weapons Determine Tactics
Of course, Karl did not criticize the sharpshooter as useless in the battle report, even though he clearly pointed out that the reason why the infantry lost so much in this battle was because the sharpshooter was fighting soy sauce the whole time... oh no, it was an auxiliary unit , not rushing to the front line at all.

Especially when the two sides are fighting hand-to-hand with bayonets, sharpshooters are unable to give full play to their marksmanship and become a 'useless weapon' that can only be used to guard the perimeter and rear formations.

However, Carr particularly praised the sharpshooters for their contribution in intercepting the flanking enemy regiments.

Especially choose the complex jungle terrain, easily defeat the leading troops of the four legions with absolutely inferior forces, and capture more prisoners of war than their headquarters!

This is the only place where the sharpshooter shines in many battles.

Therefore, Karl proposed that the sharpshooters should be organized into specialized mountain and jungle troops. Only a small amount of equipment would be needed on the frontal battlefield, and they could be used as auxiliary units for the Guards infantry.

After reading Carl's battle report, Li Wei couldn't help feeling:
"Sure enough, every trendy player in history is not an idiot. Skirmishers, light infantry, hunting soldiers and other soldiers who pay attention to marksmanship have always served as auxiliary arms in the era of queuing and shooting. It is inevitable.

The performance flaws of muskets in this era are too great. The effective range of muskets is more than 100 meters, and within this effective range, there is no way to accurately hit the opponent, even a sharpshooter.

How long does it take for an average male to sprint 100 meters?
How many chances can you give a musket to fire?

Without a dense line of square formations, how many bayonets can a sharpshooter withstand with a skirmish line alone?

However, if sharpshooters are allowed to form a dense linear phalanx, they will inevitably face bayonet hand-to-hand combat, and it would be more cost-effective to use guards infantry.

With a front-loading rifle, the effective range is doubled, but the rate of fire drops by a full three or four times. The drop in rate of fire is enough to make up for the time wasted when the enemy charges and runs...

This is another unresolved cycle.

It is no wonder that no matter which European power is in this era, the construction of skirmishers is not as important as that of line infantry. It is not that they ignore the importance of skirmishers, but the performance of muskets in this era determines that skirmishers cannot undertake the main combat mission after all. of arms.

In the American Revolutionary War, the U.S. Continental Army achieved impressive results in skirmishing operations, which was compared with the U.S. Continental Army's repeated defeats in frontal combat.

If guerrilla straggler tactics were really so good, the American Continental Army would not need France to sell blood to save the country...

What's more, line infantry can occasionally be used as skirmishers, but it is more difficult for skirmishers to play as line infantry. After all, the queue requirements and morale requirements of line infantry are too high.

In my Black Dragon Legion, the morale requirements can be ignored. In terms of formation, the sharpshooters are not too weak and can meet the standards of ordinary regular armies of powerful European countries at this time.

However, the Guards are stronger than sharpshooters in this regard, why should I use sharpshooters?
Whether it was the reports of Colonels such as Karl or Polcha, they all emphasized the brilliant record of the Guards infantry in this battle.

To put it bluntly, if there is no infantry guards in front, sharpshooters will not have much chance to show their marksmanship!
Just relying on shooting, the enemy soldiers are not fools, it is impossible to stand and be shot all the time, they dare not charge, will they find a place to hide from the bullets?

Therefore, the final decision of the outcome must be the bayonet charge, and only by charging forward can the enemy be defeated.

If only relying on confrontation, as long as the bullets cannot penetrate the bunker, it will be reduced to a stalemate of mutual consumption.

It seems that I was a little ill-considered in recruiting a large number of sharpshooters before, but in the guerrillas, the sharpshooters are indeed very important. After all, the guerrillas seldom fight head-on decisive battles.

These sharpshooters are not without play.

It's just that on the frontal battlefield, I still need to train a lot of infantry guards.

In the era of front-loading guns, no matter how dense the muskets were arranged and how good their marksmanship was, they could not withstand large-scale crowd charges. Even militias and guerrillas could pass through the firepower net of musket salvos as long as they had enough morale.

After a round of salvo, you can basically rush to the enemy's eyes.

Therefore, marksmanship is not the most important in the era of queuing and shooting, unless it enters the era of breech-loading guns, it is the stage where sharpshooters really play their main role!

When machine guns become popular, marksmanship will become an important indicator of a soldier's tactical ability.

In today's era where the performance of muskets is insufficient, the victory or defeat of a battle mainly depends on the ability of soldiers to fight with bayonets. "

After reading the front-line battle report, Li Wei humbly accepted the proposal of Karl and Bolcha's senior officers, intending to increase the proportion of guard infantry in the Black Dragon Legion and completely classify sharpshooters as auxiliary arms.

Of course, the sharpshooters usually shoot cold shots from behind, so the losses will not be too much during the battle. At present, these numbers are enough to form a mountain corps alone.

While Li Wei was changing the focus of his training camp's troops, Karl had already led the main force of the Black Dragon Legion into the Gironde Province, and all the towns he passed along the way surrendered without exception.

There were even quite a few capitalists who voluntarily knelt under the banner of the Black Dragon Legion and became leading parties.

Compared with the lower-class civilians, the bourgeois industrial and commercial bosses are more considerate and kneel very neatly.

After all, the bosses of industry and commerce are generally based in the local area. Even if they can flee with their whole family, is it possible that they can take the factory and shop with them?
If they give up their family business, it won't take long for these industrial and commercial bosses to return to the civilian class...

From frugality to extravagance is easy, and from luxury to frugality is difficult. In order to keep their family business, these industrial and commercial capitalists would rather take refuge in the Li Wei regime, which is considered perverse in the eyes of most people. At least Li Wei will not kill all industries and commerce. Minister Wallace, led by the Wallace Business Alliance, most of its members are industrial and commercial bosses.

As for the financial capitalists, it is very convenient for these people to run away. After all, they are not burdened by fixed assets such as factories and stores, and it is easier to withdraw large amounts of cash and take them away.

Therefore, few financial capitalists surrendered to Li Wei, and most of them fled to Paris, the safest city in France today, or overseas countries.

The entry of the Black Dragon Legion is equivalent to a round of political and economic cleansing of the Gironde province.

It’s not just the town councils that were just established a few years ago that are failing!
Just when Carl entered the city of Bordeaux without bloodshed, the system reward prompt sounded again from Li Wei's side.

(End of this chapter)