"To clarify - I understand that the proposed change is to eliminate the skirmish formation for both regular and irregular light infantry...not just regular light infantry. Are irregular light cavalry still considered in skirmish formation?"
Brett's reply:
You are only partially correct with respect to skirmishers as companies of....running around in front of your....infantry.BrettPT wrote:There will be no such thing a 'skirmish' formation in v2. Skirmishers are companies of invisible little chaps running around in front of your (reformed, LI or skirmisher attachment) infantry units that allow your infantry to shoot at medium range.
Regular LI are just like reformed infantry, except they have 5 dice at medium range and their movement is not slowed in bad terrain.
We have some special rules for Irreg LC and Irreg LI, but they are not 'skirmishers; as such.
That describes what Bressonet / Marbot terms "tirailleurs de marche et de combat", which scout during the march and cover formed infantry during combat where companies were selected from their parent formations to support battalions, regiments, brigades or even divisions. It does not describe "tirailleurs en grande bande", which form a "corps principal"..."meaning a cohesive command (a battalion-sized formation or larger) capable of independent action. However, it seems that the circumstances where "tirailleurs en grande bande" would be used were relatively rare and typically used in restrictive terrain where formed supports weren't viable. There's some good discussions on the Napoleon Series site:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/cgi-bin/ ... d;id=39319
http://www.napoleon-series.org/cgi-bin/ ... d;id=36463
Having noted the distinction, it's also worth noting that the concept for FoGN is that FoGN infantry units are composed of several battalions which are arranged by the unit commander according to circumstances. Players arrange the units in "tactical" or "extended" formation which represents the foot print of the unit and not necessarily the formation of the constituent battalions. Presumably a light infantry unit in restrictive terrain may likely have "tirailleurs en grande bande". So, as long as the unit has appropriate factors the rules have accounted for this use of light infantry. However, it's worth looking a French revolutionary armies - not something with which I'm all that familiar - to see if the revised rules handle these appropriately as these armies seem to be the origin of the "tirailleurs en grande bande" formation. I think there's a mention of revolutionary armies in one of the Napoleon Series discussions.
I hope that's useful.