Why Do Brigades contain specialty units?

[kwhitehead]

This is more of a curiousity question about the way the game was designed. Brigades are made up of elements which are more or less regiment size. Most of the the Brigades you can build are really demi-brigades. That is, they contain only two infantry elements plus some attachements. Most brigades during the Civil War had at least four infantry regiments in them.

The second oddity is that they usually contain elements from other branches like cavalry and artillery. Only during the first few months of the war were such organizations raised, usually called Legions. The cavalry was the first thing removed and a little bit later the artillery was formed into separate organizations. Most of the weapon types shown in the elements for artillery included in infantry were discontinued by early 1862.

I haven't played into 1863/64 so I don't know whether the game phases these odd formations out or not.

[Heldenkaiser]

I asked about this a couple of months ago ...

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=13319

[kwhitehead]

I asked about this a couple of months ago ...

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=13319

That thread does discuss the inclussion of the artillery and cavalry elements but it would be intresting to know why they did it in the first place. The units purchased from the reinforcement screen are really demi-brigades (they only have two infantry regiments in them). They could have put together the brigades that had attached artillery just by including two infantry demi-brigades and one artillery. These type units only existed for a short while, First Bull Run, before being reorganized.

And as for cavalry you would be hard pressed to find an example of a mixed infantry/cavalry brigade after Jan 1862. Also most of the artillery in these units are sizes not made during the Civil War. The few that existed at the start were leftovers from the Mexican War and town squares. They were rather quickly removed and melted down for recasting.

It is also curious that the game designers choice the demi-brigade for their base unit rather than brigade size for infantry and battery or battalion for artillery.

[Redeemer]

Dead horse, well beaten... lots of threads on the subject and Gray has looked at it, but most solutions haven't been feasible, maybe he has an update??