Hello and welcome to Strategic Studies & Gaming. Presented by Move2attacK Games: Face to face strategic games for humans.
My name is General Hindsight and I am an official armchair general.
I am here to help those you understand military terms and the military history behind strategic gaming.
A common question I get is "What is the difference between strategy and tactics?"
It is simple. Tactics are your combat methods to win battles to achieve your strategic goals. Strategy is the larger picture to choose your battles wisely to win the war.
Tactics change due to landscape, the weather, the condition of your men and the condition of the enemy. The biggest game changer for tactics is technology.
For example, if you are fighting a Napoleonic era battle the common tactic of the time were close knit infantry units, shoulder to shoulder to concentrate their fire power on the enemy.
Cannon was used to attempt to break up those formation, so cavalry could swoop in with sabers and lances to pick off routed enemy forces, winning the day.
Cavalry before muskets were the heavy tanks of the battle field. A man alone on foot was no match to a man on a mighty war stallion.
Even with the introduction of the smooth bore muskets a man on horseback was still the greater threat on the battlefield. Muskets were not very accurate. When a musketeer took his first shot at charging cavalry man, more often than not he would miss.
The musketeer would have to reload, swap down his barrel, pour in his powder, ram in his musket ball and wad, and then prime his weapon. By the time he was ready to fire a second time, the man on horse was already upon him and cutting him down with one slash of his saber.
Generals needed to find a way to protect their musketeers. At first they learned to accompany their musket men with pikes men. The Pikes men created a fence of sharpened spikes to fend off cavalry assaults, protecting the musketeers as they reloaded.
When the bayonet was developed, infantry were able to be their own pikes men. With fixed bayonets, men tightly packed shoulder to shoulder could hold off the impact of a cavalry charge.
Cavalry was no longer the most powerful weapon on the battlefield. Close knit infantry was. Only other infantry or field artillery could break an opponent's infantry formations. Once they were routed, cavalry would then be used to mop up, pick off fleeing men one by one, insuring that they did not rally, regroup, and rejoin the battle.
