Platoon Firing VS Fire by Ranks. Empire: Total War

18th century firing methods effectiveness comparation in the game Empire: Total War. British infantry with different firing drill types but the same vanilla stats engages in this bloody clash. The game is vanilla with exception of units uniform. And musket firing sound. And more smoke. And also tight formation for some.

[icepic]

It's weird how in earlier total war entires, you have unit formation tactics, such as line firing or phalanxes, yet in later entries such as total warhammer they're nixed. Wish they could have that firing discipline mechanic for armies such as the empire, at least. It'd give em an edge against the dinosaurs, rat abominations, and slaves to darkness.

[nicklarocco]

Newton: finally after years of research... I've figured out you can have infantry fire one file at a time! Truly I am a man ahead of my time.

[Wasyliyjef]

The definition of a ruined orgasm is when You move your unit into position, where they can use their superior firing tactics to demolish incoming enemy cavalry and then there is this one guy who has to reload.

[joakimberg]

Fire by rank would win against a charging enemy though. No doubt about it.

[feanorn]

Always liked fire by ranks more because its better for winning the battle fast. Platoon is only superior if the battle lasts long.
I wish there would be an option to choose which one you want and not like: "You researched platoon fire ? Now you re FORCED to use it."

[mechalo]

platoon firing infantry have a little more loose formation, so that's why they have less casualties. Fire by rank is better in late game when you have fast reloading infantry.

[nsahandler]

Fire by Ranks is a shock technique used to halt/demoralize advancing forces with three full volleys fired in quick succession.

Running away is pretty easy when the 15-30 people in front of you drop dead before actually getting to the bayonets.

[MrMasterJones]

God damn this was a good game. We really need a ETW2

[hamzamidilli]

Sweet European line infantry while the others cant even shoot at the same time

[NotFinnish]

Platoon Firing favours lower reload skill... which makes no sense

[AndrewGivens]

Interesting that, when I recently wrote about the British anti-column tactic of 'a volley, a cheer and a charge' in the Peninsula, where the volley was used to stun the column, and the shock of the charge was then used to break it (rout it), I had a *whole* lot of people coming back at me with this stuff about platoon fire being used by the |British instead, for "continuous fire".
Yes, i tried to tell the people - that's not what happened in fights where the British wanted to stop a column dead and then repulse it though! It would take too long and, despite what Wikipedia (huh, again!) says, it does *not* result in "concentrated" fire; it results in *sustained* fire.
So, yes, a square would clearly use platoon fire and it would also be useful for a line in a firefight where there was not yet any clear tactical advantage for either side, because it's better for well-directed sustained fire.
But a battalion in line facing an assault by a column of hollering Frenchmen? With about a minute to do something, that's where firing by ranks and then a nice smart countercharge worked. This is what was used against VI corps at Busaco. And it's what happened at Talavera. Great battles.
But, people don't listen. They have their favourite pet theories and stick to them. No, the British fired by platoon, and that's it.
Whatever.

[fred]

Platoon firing also has the advantage that you can have a line four ranks deep and they all fire.

[InceyWincey]

You’re supposed to do both. You open with fire by ranks for the first 2 volleys (because you’re meant to be in 2 ranks but apparently only the British had any brains) then you switch to platoon fire because it is faster.

[fsaxjack]

I'm given to believe that, historically, Fire By Rank is actually apocryphal, or at least was considered situational and only employed in some armies. There's a great video by Brandon F. called "How 18th Century Armies Shot At Each Other" if you want the full story, but the gyst of it is:

Fire by Volley (first rank kneels, third rank stands offset to the second, and all three fire at once, though it can be adjusted for 2 or 4 ranks) for a big, brutal impact before a bayonet charge, but it does leave the formation wide open during reloads if that's all the do

Firing by Sections/Platoon Firing involves pairs of Sections/Platoons, with one firing a full volley like above, and the other waiting for the first to reload before firing again - basically, there's always at least one Section out of two ready to volley fire and react to surprises

Firing by Rank is basically exactly what you see here, but there is little evidence that it was regularly used - Firing by Sections gets enough of the same benefits without more complex drill and more difficult coordination, nor the need for more effective communication over a larger group.

Firing by Files is a Light Infantry tactic, where every man has a File-Mate - one File-Mate would fire, and the other would wait for his mate to reload before firing, making sure that someone always has a shot ready, allowing the light infantry to take advantage of opportunities and defend against counter-attacks.

[danschroeder]

Its like the wave but with murderous gun fire instead.

[juliantimothy]

The Platoon shown is from Left to Right which is technically and militarly wrong. Battalion frontages were divided into 8 equal strength fire platoons numbered 1 to 8 and they fired in pairs. One such firing for fire platoons 1 to 8 numbered from left to right may be fire platoons 1 and 8, 2 and 7, 3 and 6 and 4 and 5 paired firing in sequence from the flanks to the centre of the battalion of outward from the centre.

All the ranks of the fire individual Fire Platoons fired and could then advance or retire whilst loading covered by the remaining 6 Fire Platoons. Firing by ranks means the battalion has to be stationary to enable the formation to fire by Ranks. As such, Fire Platoons give both individual battalions, brigades and the army the flexibility to advance whilst firing or retire whilst firing - It also meant that each battalion always had a pair of Fire Platoons ready to fire whilst the other 6 are in 3 stages of reloading. Assuming Bernard Corwall's here Sharpe of the 95th Rifles is correct about firing 3 rounds a minute there are 20 seconds between a pair of Fire Platoons making ready and Firing taking 5 seconds to make ready and fire, there are 2 more Fireplatoons who have been loading for 15 second capable of making ready and firing and 2 more Fire Platoons having been loading for 10 seconds and the remaining 2 fire platoons loading for 5 seconds with a Battalion maintaing a rippling fire of 2 Fire Platoons comprising 25% of its muskets firing every 5 seconds.

Where Bernard Cornwalls 3 rounds a minute is suspect because by the end of the 18th Century (1800 AD) battalions of the professional Prussian Army through regular Fire Drill has been documented capable of firing 6 rounds a minute using Platoon Fire, ALBEIT, using slightly smaller musket balls that didn't need ramming BUT having reduced range and stopping power through windage (reduced power of shot as musket ball smaller than the musket barrel.

The Regular Prussian Army prior to its defeat and disbandment in 1806 not only practised regular live Fire Drill continuously the Army did everything to reduce the time taken to load a musket as victory was won by Frederick the Great with close range musket fire by well trained infantry useing cadenced marching to keep formation on a battlefield and trained through extensive battalion live fire exercises to maximise the rate of Fire. On the otherhand French infantry men seldom, if ever, fired their muskets outside battle and never in Battalion Fire exercises and I have read somewhere that a French recruit in training at French Recruit training depots were lucky to have loaded and fired their muskets 3

[spiffygonzales]

Platoon firing is better if you're in forests where you can take less losses and keep the ammo going. Also better against charges and WAY better if you need to have your unit more tightly compact.

Situational for sure, but definitely something that shouldnt be underestimated.

[starbreeze]

Experimented a lot with this back in the day and it depends on unit size b/c of poor implementation. If you play with the larger unit sizes (e.g. 160+ men per unit), IIRC, platoon fire ends up _slower_ b/c if you use the standard 3 rows, you have more platoons with a larger unit size. That means the first is actually ready to fire again well before the last has fired. Whereas smaller unit sizes = fewer platoons = no wasted time waiting. FBR is consistent regardless of unit size, b/c each rank fires pretty much as often as it can reload.

As a result FBR can beat PF on larger unit sizes whereas PF beats FBR on smaller sizes (as it's supposed to). But that makes no sense, and they could've fixed it by having platoon sizes scale with unit size (so that e.g. you always have the same number of platoons per unit, rather than men per platoon), but they didn't...

[SchizoidPsycho]

Platoon firing has like twice the reload speed of fire by rank. By the time the first rank is finished reloading and about to fire their second shot, platoon firing is already starting its third shot, and that's even with fire by rank getting a small head start. With a reload speed like that I don't think any firing methods would've changed a thing, if it isn't the formation itself artificially buffing reloading speed.

[ДмитрийКовальчук-ри]

Actually, there is one thing about fire by rank which makes it totally useless in many situations but would be pretty hard to implement as an in-game feature, the whole line can't see sh..t after the first rank fired whereas platoon firing provides some time for the smoke to clear out a bit.