Darkman wrote:....The ammo problem seems to be a normal thing. I do not know what the normal amount of ammo carried is, but lets say 40 rounds. At 2 rounds a minute and then stripping the dead of their rounds a unit would be able to fire for about 40min. But then they would need to resupplied if this was not forth coming they would start to move away.
Just having a bit of a ramble here
Hi Darkman,
There is a slight misunderstanding how Voltigeurs or Jaegers are used. Their aim was to harrass and poke the enemy long enough to provoke him to do something foolish. At the start Jaegers were picked man out of the line troops who were able to shoot "straight", gamekeepers and such who know their muskets or rifles. So the ammunition expenditure wasnt that high because of very aimed shots, shoot to kill. No salvos or massfire, just single and very precise shots. Carriyng between 40 and 60 rounds with them and having a baggage train (90 shots per men).
The real slaughter starts if the enemy has nothing to cover the formed bodies of troops, staying or sitting there as some kind of target practice for the Chasseurs/Jaegers/Schuetzen.
For Light Regiments the "formed body" of troops that is placed behind the skirmish line has not only the duty to feed in men into the skirmish line but also to resupply them. Even to run back to the baggage train and bringing forth allready filled cartridge boxes.
Take into account that no other army of the Napoleonic Wars has such a high proportion of Light Infantry as the French. Austrian and Prussian were struggling to come up with something equal. The British Army started the war with a good proportion in light troopers but had often to strip the Line Infantry of their Light companies to supplement the skirmish line.
The Russians at first faced the same problems like Austria and Prussia but because of the sheer resources in Manpower they raced forward with lots of light infantry Regiments (only with the lack of knowing how to use them in another way than Line Infantry).
The French had more than 30 Light Regiments supporting over 100 Line Regiments. At best between 20 - 30% of the french troops in the field were able to skirmish. The Voltigeurs of the line infantry moved no further than 100 yards away from their formed brothers only to be able to reform if necessary.
So looking for the use of Light Infantry in RtE (or elsewhere) I would'nt care about ammunition.
Hope that helps
Günter
PS.: The basing that Clarence and Dave are talking about isnt very new for me