Unit History Questions...

[AzNtoccata]

Okay, this doesn't really have to do with gameplay or anything but I just wanted to know what era particular units represented.

First of all, do legions represent swordsmen from the Roman legions to Middle Age swordsmen? What invention or event signals the beginning of the caravel unit (was Columbus' ship a galleon or caravel?) And do riflemen represent the development of Civil War type rifles to the modern automatic assault rifeL?

[Henrik]

Riflemen have civilwar rifle I think and Columbus used a caravel or a carrack I think.

[JosefGiven]

I reckon that the Riflemen in Civ II represent the first units to use 'rifled' firearms. By this I mean guns with a spiral groove running along the inside of the barrel in order to make bullets spin upon leaving the muzzle, and thus travel more accurately. This is opposed to the Musketeer's musket, which is smooth-bore. Also, I think rifles were the first portable firearms to utilise fully self-contained cased ammunition cartridges. This, again, is opposed to muskets which fired lead balls which were inserted after the gunpowder charges required to propel them.

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Josef Given
josefgiven@hotmail.com

[Henrik]

You are so right, I just hadn't the enrgy to write all that.

[Grumbold]

The introduction of 'rifled' gun barrels and the migration from smooth bore powder and shot muskets to the single shot cartridge rifle was a long slow process. Small units of rifle sharpshooters were in service in the British army in the Napoleonic period (hello Sharpe) but were still not standard equipment by the time of the American Civil War when a lot of gun improvements were introduced. Sealed cartridges were an overlapping but generally later invention permitting much greater rates of fire, better wet weather use and helped lead to the machinegun.

[DrFell]

Wow, i never really thought of legions being swordsmen...