I'm a gamer and am currently involved with Dean Essig developing a system to replace the Civil War Brigade Series/Regimental Subsystem. If any of you game, you may be familiar with Dean, The Gamers or Multiman Publishing.

I raised the question about the ranges and effectiveness factors used in the system to represent artillery fires. As in any volunteer operation, he who asks gets told to find the answer.

The artillery system applies a range to the various types or classes of guns typically found during The War. A multiplier is applied to the number of guns in the battery based on that range. Assumptions are made that smoothbores are more deadly than rifled guns as range decreases - cannister, faster rate of fire, etc. Therefore the multiplier gets bigger as you get closer, a Napolean gets a 4 at 100 yards while a 3 inc rifle or 10pdr Parrot gets a 3. It drops below 1 once you get out towards the maximum range of the piece.

I found a list (bless the web) showing ranges for most weapons based on elevation. What I need are the doctrinal or practical reasons for limiting fires below that number.

If in fact artillery didn't engage infantry or cavalry beyond 1200 yards regardless of maximum range I need to know.

What ranges would counter battery be engaged in.

What was the loss of accuracy as range increase. For those who understand the term, what was the CEP of a battery's fire as range increased. For those that don't, 50% of rounds fall inside a circle of X diameter and 50% outside. A SCUD short range ballistic missile has a CEP of 1000 meters.

These factors will be used in establishing new tables.

Any assistance or direction to primary sources will be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Chip Pharr