duc de limbourg
I think you are missing the point here we are not talking about skirmishing games of a few coys
we are talking about 4-8 battalions per side on table with 24- 40 figs per Bn.. .
as for putting a 40 fig guards regiment in a single fig. line that would be around 60 cm - 2 ft long and it just would not work. .
Can you imagine a brigade of british in 3 lines covering 6ft and then you would get 3-4 french bn in tight column of 2 coy wide 3 deep on a small a frontage of 9cm. they could all hit the same battalion and the british at the ends could not have the range or the angle to give supporting firer
Thats why there are no rules that puts Bn in a single fig line when you have 24 + figs in a unit it will just not work! It will not run right as the scale will be all a miss as well.. most close order volley in 28mm are around 9-12 and thats just half the lenght of your single bn line..
I have to go with Littlearmies on this one single figs in a line
happy gaming LR
But that would reflect the actual ground scale better.
A guards Battalion of 1000 would take up about 280 m, a French column by division would take up 70 m. Assuming 20 mm per figure gives you 800 mm for the guards of 40 figures and 200 mm for the assault column (of 30 figures) if a French Company is 5 figures and a guard company 4. This gives a rough ground scale of 1:350.
The depths of both formations are still excessive with that ground scale. The British will take up 20 mm but should be less than 10 and the French will be 60 mm but should be about 35 mm.
If you go with deeper formations then the ground scale will go up (to get the "correct" length of line) so the depth of units will be even more exaggerated.
eg a two deep line would give a British Battalion 400 mm long and 40 mm deep. That ground scale is 1:700 so the line should only be 4 mm deep - it wasn't called the thin red line for nothing. As for the Battalion in assault column that should now be less than 20 mm deep but will in fact be 120 mm deep. By doubling up on the depth you are creating an entirely false picture of what a Napoleonic battle looked like. Stack a few battalions together to get a regimental column and it will take up a socking 480 mm when in reality it should be 70 mm.
edit. The firing distance of 12" for a musket is about right with a 600 mm line. Maximum range of a musket with any hope of hitting anything was less than 150 yards which is about half the length of the British Guards in Line. The muskets literally couldn't hit a barn door at ranges greater than that so a large unit in line couldn't shoot from one end to other with any chance of hitting anything.