I've been toying with the idea of doing a ground force or amphibious setting using S:NE for a while now, but never got that far. However, while one of my supplements is almost finished, I've been tinkering again and have the bare bones of a setting.

This is not an in-depth look at ground forces combat, and it is meant to be fairly generic (admittedly it is meant to be more gunpowder-era oriented than ancient warfare). I must also add that some things might be wrong, which is why I'm posting this up (to get some constructive criticism).

All ground forces would be represented as hull-3 vessels, and represent company-level forces. Each infantry company has four platoons plus skirmisher squads (which is represented by four 'Infantry Platoon' weapon batteries and one 'Skirmisher' battery). Each cavalry 'company' has four squads (which are represented by four 'Cavalry Squad' weapon batteries). Artillery batteries would have four gun teams (which are represented by four 'Gun Team' weapon batteries)

There will be four levels of Infantry and Cavalry, named Green, Regular, Veteran and Elite. Green companies have 3 hull and nothing else. Regular has 3 hull and 1 armour, Veteran has 3 hull and 2 armour and Elite has 3 hull and 3 armour. This is to represent both casualties and the loss of morale before that company breaks--an Elite company could stay in the field for twice as long as a Green company.

Artillery 'companies' would be just hull 3 and also have Fragile Systems--this is to represent the fact that artillery are much smaller in terms of numbers.

Weapon batteries:

The Infantry Platoon would be Range 3, BAS 1, Guided+Scatter. This means a SR firepower of 3, a MR firepower of 2 and a LR firepower of 1. The SR firepower indicates combined HTH weapons and close-range volley fire, with the volley fire getting weaker at range.

The Infantry Skirmishers would be two banks of Range 3, BAS .5, Guided and Accurate. This gives a firepower of 1 at all ranges.

The Cavalry Squad is a Dual-Mode weapon. In mode 1, it would be Range 3, BAS .5, Focused and Scatter. In mode 2, it would be Range 3, BAS .5 and Diffuse. The first mode is meant to indicate a stand-off pistol volley, as it is only effective at range 2 (2 firepower at that range, no firepower at SR/LR). The second mode has a SR firepower of 2, a MR firepower of 1 and no firepower at long range. This is to ensure that Cavalry, despite their faster speed, always have to enter Infantry range, as Cavalry ranged fire was shorter than Infantry ranged fire.

--If I can be presented with sufficient evidence that cavalry had equal ranges to Infantry ranged fire, then I'll give Cavalry the Infantry Platoon weapons instead. Dragoons do not count, as they fought on foot, IIRC, and I'm looking at Cavalry as a force that fought on horseback, which from the admittedly limited reading material I've got indicates they had primarily pistols.

The Gun Team is a Dual-Mode weapon. In mode 1, it would be Range 6, BAS 1.5 and Guided. In mode 2, it would be Range 3, BAS .5, Diffuse+Scatter. The first mode is designed to depict standard firepower, as it has a firepower of 2 at all ranges. The second mode is designed to depict canister/grapeshot, as it has a SR firepower of 6, a MR firepower of 2 and no LR firepower.

Speeds I'm thinking of for each force is Infantry as speed 2, Cavalry as speed 4 and artillery as speed 1 (enabling some measure of re-deployment) or speed 0.

What do you think?