fanaticism and losing Cavalry Charge bonus

[Jagger]

In Napoleon's Russian Campaign, I noticed that Russian troops have a fanaticism rating.  I searched the manual and not a word about fanaticism.  So I am wondering What fanaticism does and when does it apply?

Reading the manual, I came across these descriptions concerning cavalry charges:
• The defending units must not consist entirely of Infantry in Square
formation with Leaders and/or Cavalry. However, if only Skirmishers,
Artillery, and Supply Wagons occupy the defending hex with Infantry in
Square, then the charge is negated.

Reading this section, I could feel a headache coming on.  I tried translating and came up with this:
-The charge bonus does not apply if defending units are composed entirely of infantry in square with leaders and/or cavalry.
-The charge bonus does not apply if defending units are composed entirely of infantry in square with skirmishers, artillery and supply wagons. 

However it still does not quite make sense.  I really am not sure why they didn't simply make it one sentence in which squares with leaders, cavalry, skirmishers, artillery and supply wagons negate the charge bonus.  Or just say squares negate charge bonus regardless of other units sharing the same hex. 

So did I get this right or am I still missing something?

[Liebchen]

However it still does not quite make sense.  I really am not sure why they didn't simply make it one sentence in which squares with leaders, cavalry, skirmishers, artillery and supply wagons negate the charge bonus.  Or just say squares negate charge bonus regardless of other units sharing the same hex.

 I agree, it's a really poorly worded explanation.

[Jagger]

However it still does not quite make sense.  I really am not sure why they didn't simply make it one sentence in which squares with leaders, cavalry, skirmishers, artillery and supply wagons negate the charge bonus.  Or just say squares negate charge bonus regardless of other units sharing the same hex.

 I agree, it's a really poorly worded explanation.

Napoleon's Russian Campaigns is 16 years old and still some head scratchers in the manual.  :)

[Sgt_Rock]

Send an email to Rich Hamilton about the Fanaticism rating. He either will find it for you or have John Tiller add in something in the User.pdf file for the next round of updates.

Napoleon in Russia used +4 for the Russian infantry fanaticism rating. Charlie Cutshall reduced that to +2. Its an additive to all morale ratings, basically. Rich can give you a more definitive answer.

[Mr Grumpy]

Back in the day when I tried out the Nappy series I was disappointed/frustrated with the wording/explanations in the manuals, I must have sent poor old Rich twenty questions about how the game engine functioned because of text that did not make sense or was poorly worded.

[Jagger]

Back in the day when I tried out the Nappy series I was disappointed/frustrated with the wording/explanations in the manuals, I must have sent poor old Rich twenty questions about how the game engine functioned because of text that did not make sense or was poorly worded.

[Sgt_Rock]

A friend mentioned that in the "npb.pdf" document (the Napoleonic Battles manual) its says this about Fanaticism on page 38:

Fire Modifiers
Enfiladed: the increase in effect of fire directed against a target unit which is not facing the firing unit.
Cavalry: the increase in effect of fire directed against mounted cavalry.
Fanaticism Value: the increase in Morale that certain specified units receive.

It does not discuss if it applies to rout recovery. I am not sure if it raises the morale in Melee attacks for the comparison check (morale vs. morale) of the units in the melee on both sides. I do not think it does.

"Certain specified units" really means only infantry from what I remember. I do not think that cavalry or artillery receives the Fanaticism bonus.

Most of us agree that the fanaticism bonus for the Russians only applied within "Mother Russia" and not at battles like Austerlitz.

[Sgt_Rock]

Back in the day when I tried out the Nappy series I was disappointed/frustrated with the wording/explanations in the manuals, I must have sent poor old Rich twenty questions about how the game engine functioned because of text that did not make sense or was poorly worded.

A rewrite of the manual would be nice. I have worked for John Tiller since 1999 and I have to remember when reading his replies to my questions that he is a programmer and not a professional writer. I love technical writing (I used to write computer security manuals for a DoD contractor) and I am engaged at present in putting together a new Napoleonic computer games series with another programmer. One of the things I have found is that its easier to discuss what you want to do - far harder to write it all down and expect your audience to understand it!

The Command Test section of the rules was one of the more confusing parts of the manuals until I broke it all down into its parts and discussed it with a fellow gamer.

[agmoss99]

The fanaticism bonus only applies to Russian infantry. It's +2 - as Bill says it was +4 in the old NIR series. Basically it only affects the chances of rout of a unit. It means the Russians can withstand more of a pounding without running off.

Oh and with cavalry - beware. The cossacks don't have a charge bonus unless charging routed infantry.

[-72-]

The fanaticism bonus only applies to Russian infantry. It's +2 - as Bill says it was +4 in the old NIR series. Basically it only affects the chances of rout of a unit. It means the Russians can withstand more of a pounding without running off.

Oh and with cavalry - beware. The cossacks don't have a charge bonus unless charging routed infantry.

Technically it looks like if you want to play around with a pdt file you can make it something different than +2. The +2 figure is just what comes with the default pdt coding.

The amount there is only how much extra units get with a morale check (+2 is 20%).

What it applies to is going to be set in an OOB file (coding is a '-' in front of the morale number assigned) -so in theory, if someone changes around the oob file it could apply to any side. The PDT Fanatacism amount applies to all sides using that PDT (in other words it isn't individually assigned per nation or unit).