Tactics Questions - Line and Column, Stacked or Not Stacked

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Actually you can move within the stacks.

What you will want to do is to move the others to behind what you believe your most potent unit that you want to fire will be  --if so some reason that unit is not at the top of your stack - just move the others to the bottom of the stack.

The reason that you do that is because even reordering within a stack is considered movement for fire modifiers.

Then after you fire with this initial unit, you can then move others to the top of the stack and then fire.

Reading the above gave the impression that you only can fire with that top unit ... true, but you can still move others in front of it after that unit fires.  I'd probably go so far that in a lot of scenarios with the British you want/need to do this in order to be at your side's most effective.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. I am not sure if this would work playing in phases, however?

Is it wise to attack in columns vs lines. Like I said in my initial post, the manual says it is better to attack in column formation and defend in line formation, which doesn't seem right.

Good point about the phases ... I usually let my opposite number choose the options. I forgot how it worked the last time I was playing in phases (the last full battles were of Rossbach in SYW).

Columns though -for the Napoleonic Wars period, is probably right - that column is the best formation to attack from (excepting for the British in post French Revolutionary titles) - meaning that they are talking about an assault column which is different than columns for movement along roads.  Of course, they make for a big target.