With artillery in wargames it's very common for players to take the long artillery shot with a low probability of success. Yet in the Age of Cannon real Generals never wasted ammunition or exausted their artillery crews on the long shots.
Firing a cannon means wheeling a half ton hunk of iron into place, going deaf with the explosion, trying not to get injured from the recoil rollback, reloading the gun, then pushing the half ton of iron back into position again. As any re-enactor can state it's exausting work that puts you in a sheer state of sweat after two minutes and leaves you drained and lifeless after 20. Yet there you are, in every wargame you can keep firing the same cannon over and over like clockwork, the crew working flawlessly and without fatigue.
Napoleon himself used 150 rounds per cannon as sufficient for an entire day's battle. Lauriston's charge at Wagram was rare in firing almost 200 rounds per gun. But in all cases rates of fire would drop as the engagement would continue: The crew would become injured during recoil, exuasted from breathing smoke, and largely shattered by the boom of their own cannon.
I request that ES include slowing rates of fire for cannon crews to model fatigue. Say a reload rate multiplier of 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4...
This would give an incentive to players to actually watch battles in action and manage reserves. A "send them off until they die" player would be at a disadvantage to a player that pulls out units to rest them, resetting the fatgue curve after enough time has passed. (or travelling one step back in the fatigue curve for each rest interval countdown) Holding your fire "until you see the whites of their eyes" would actually make sense.
This would also allow more distinguishment between different countries artillery --different fatigue multiplier curves, different rest rates to reset these curves, and experience levels effecting each country differently.
[This message has been edited by Innovan (edited 06-26-2005 @ 08:19 PM).]