Artillery firing factors, final number of dice and ranges

I think this may have been touched on in a previous post but if anyone can confirm I'm doing the following right or wrong that would be great. Heavy and Medium Artillery does seem very mobile in the game for the period ie

A unit of Art B  VBU 1  moves twice into long range ending disordered. It then shoots at a unit of Light Cavalry. So the factors are:

1 (VBU) - 2 (moving) - 1 (disordered) - 1 (v Lt Cav) + 1 (range modifier) = - 2

But then on 6.1.1 above the firing table it says "In case the number of dice is reduced to 0 or less one die is rolled anyway"

So the gun after all that still gets to roll 1 dice? I can't see any other rules affecting artillery.

Also Artillery B seems to have quite a short maximum range of 4BU, equal to long range muskets. I'm thinking of extending that to 8BU with 0 modifier. Any thoughts?

Cheers

Yes the artillery  ranges are too short and smoothbore muskets have too long a range - should be 2 BU max.  Since the author has moved on the the next shiny thing I don't expect him to go back and review it anytime soon.

Reaction fire with artillery at long and extreme ranges with that "minimum one die" also needs looking at. As written why wouldn't you try to react fire everytime?

Reaction fire is definitely worth a go!

For Artillery A & B I've been thinking of the following:

Can pivot and fire with - 1 modifier.

Any other move means they can't fire, then need 1 turn to 'form battery' to prepare before they can fire again the following turn (similar to Impetus if I remember rightly).

The only reason artillery is moving at all is that the ranges are too short. Most battles of this period began with a desultory bombardment but in the game artillery never starts in range.

The last game we had artillery deployed further forward than the rest of the army, everyone seemed to like this change. Something different, worked well.

Kind of like the advance deployment in fortifications you had in FOGR? I like it!

@stecal, @Tarty, after the fourth game with a nearly useless artillery and the strange look of moving artillery in order to try to hit something I chime into your opinion, that Artillery does not feel appropriate.

I think we will go for double ranges for artillery with the same modificators.

In general: When a unit is hit by artillery and is resoving a cohesion test: Does the +2 modificator due to long range also apply? Sounds a little bit strange in my opinion, that a cannon ball fire is less effective within musket ranges.

"In general: When a unit is hit by artillery and is resoving a cohesion test: Does the +2 modificator due to long range also apply? Sounds a little bit strange in my opinion, that a cannon ball fire is less effective within musket ranges."  

That is a positive modifier to your critical number, not a penalty!  Vs shooting +1 at short range, +2 at long/extreme.  I.e. VBU of 4 -1 hit +2 for long range = critical number of 5 or less. At short range your critical number is a 4.

Thanks stecal for correcting that the modifier applies to critical number. In fact, I did not notice the difference. (and I am still not sure if it makes a difference after 10 min of thinking. Feel free to help me out there).

My expectations were, that a cannon could do damage on a P&M at long distance. Calculating the odds showed a different situation. My heavy artillery gets 2 dice, so the odds to hit something should be 33%.

The odds that something other than a disorder happens then are 17%. (VBU6, 1 hit, long Distance +2).

So I guess I should have concentrated my artillery batteries at one point if I want an effect before the enemy is close.

Now to my question: Do you think doubling the distance is enough for improving artillery or should I look at the range modificators to crit. number, too?

Doubling the range is all I would do. Artillery in this period has more of a harrasing effect than casualty causing. So mostly disordering. Its not napoleonic.

@stecal, thanks again for discussing this with me. I will give this a try.