Hardee's Manual of Arms!

[Scouty]

Hello! Welcome to Hardee's Manual of Arms. By reading this Manual, you are training and disciplining your troops to victory! There are a few things to note before we begin. NOTE 1: These positions and movements don't necessarily have to be followed by the inch, feel free to interpret it differently. Or you can follow it by the inch. NOTE 2: These positions and movements are based off of real Napoleonic/American Civil War (From where most of my knowledge comes from) tactics. They have been interpreted from real life to LEGO form. In a way. Like note 1 says, feel free to not follow what the Manual is presenting. NOTE 3: There are two parts to an order. First is the preparatory, which is the first part of a command. Second is the execution, where the order is done. Leave a little gap of time between the two commands. NOTE 4: ENJOY!

We would like to thank the recently made 42nd Regiment of the Army of the Blue Coats for volunteering in their war effort and doing all the tactics for us.

Let's get to know the 42nd Regiment a little bit. We can show the sort of ranks we are dealing with here!

First is our General, leader of the Regiment's Corps.

Next is the Captain, who leads the 42nd Regiment.

Then it is the First Lieutenant, who helps the Captain with the duties.

After him is the First Sergent, who looks after the men.

Then is the Flag Bearer, who holds the flag. The position will see a relatively big number of men, since they are great targets for enemies.

And finally, the humble Private, the foundation of an army.

And now, the Manual!

PART I: POSITIONS

Before we start showing the Positions of a Soldier, let's show the soldier himself.

Here, he shows off his Shako:

And here is his knapsack, where he stores all of his personal affects while on the campaign.

And now, the Positions of a Soldier! The Soldier will shift between different ways of holding musket so that he does not get fatigued. It is helpful on long campaigns.

Shoulder Arms- The main position, where, before moving to other positions on the body, the command and soldier must go to.

Side View

Note that the hand is inverted, this way the musket hugs the shoulder of the soldier.

Right Shoulder-Shift- Another position for the soldier. The minifigure hand is inverted, still, and grabs the bottom of the stock of the musket, slightly above the butt. The hammer of the musket rests on the soldier's shoulder. It can be reversed and used on the other side of the soldier. The soldier will go to the Right Shoulder-Shift when on the Double Quick Time (To be discussed later)

Side View

Port Arms- Good for guard duty, port arms lays the musket across the torso of the minifig.

Side View

Trail Arms- Good for while walking in dense places, like forests.

Side View

Parade Rest- It is good, during a period of non-activity, to let your soldiers rest. The command Rest is given, and they can go, but must stay nearby. Parade rest is used for special occasions, such as presence of a dignitary like a General or somebody like the President (what ever Ruler you have). It is a tough position for the minifigure, but looks sharp in the ranks! With the right hand still inverted, the soldier grabs the stock slightly above the trigger guard.

Side View

See how the hand is?

Firing For a minifigure in two ranks, the soldiers in the rear will have to hold the musket differently than the soldiers in the front. A soldier in the front rank holds it like so:

A soldier in the rear rank, will hold the musket with the hand not inverted, unlike above.

We will discuss firing later on in the manual.

In the Ranks There are a variety of ways to place your soldiers. In column, like Napoleons troops, or in line, like the British and such. The Manual calls for the soldiers to be in line in two ranks. A rank consisting of a front and rear. Front Rank and Rear Rank. Files are the soldiers who are back to back, consisting of one soldier from both the front and rear ranks. For troop movements, which will be discussed next, the soldiers will count, in files, from the right to the left in twos to coordinate commands. To your standards, you may place where you see fit your captains, lieutenants and flag bearer (Whom you can also incorporate into the ranks).

PART II: MOVEMENTS

Now we get to move our feet.

We'll start with the simple Front.

The command LEFT...FACE will turn your soldiers to the left. Before the command, say "Without un-doubling" to prevent them from going into a column of fours (see below)

The command FRONT will bring them back to the front.

The command RIGHT...FACE will turn your soldiers to the right. Before the command, say "Without un-doubling" to prevent them from going into a column of fours (see below)

And front them again.

It is important to know how to move your soldiers and changing their front. You never know when an enemy might attack you from somewhere that is not the front.

However, moving a line of soldiers is awkward and lanky, so bring them into a COLUMN OF FOURS.

The command LEFT FACE will bring your soldiers into a column of fours. Ones will step up between the twos and twos will simply turn.

After forward marching, you can give the command BY FILES RIGHT/LEFT...MARCH. In this case by files right was given. It's important that your men stay dressed (or in a straight line) at all times. Don't let them bow (Go into a shape of a bow) or anything like that. Especially when marching forward.

The command HALT will stop your men. If your soldiers are at any position besides Shoulder Arms, the soldiers must automatically shift down to Shoulder Arms.

You can note that the spacing between the soldiers is larger than when they are in ranks. The gap must be able to fit a minifigure, which is about three studs. In ranks, they are spaced by two studs.

The command FRONT will take your soldiers from a column of fours back into line.

Now, the front has changed. But we want it back to the way it was. The command LEFT/RIGHT WHEEL...MARCH will do exactly that. In this case left wheel march was ordered. The whole line will wheel, exactly like, well, a wheel.

We will skip a little, and say the men are in a column of fours again.

The command BY FILES INTO LINE...MARCH will also bring your men from a column of fours to a line. In this case, the soldiers will Double-Quick time (to be discussed later), shifting their arms to the Right Shoulder-Shift, and fall into line.

But now they are facing the hill, and they don't want to go up the hill. The command ABOUT...FACE is given to turn your soldiers around. Should you give the command front, the soldiers will revert to looking at the hill again, since that is the original front.

Let's march around. The command left...face is given.

After the command forward march is given (discussed later), give the command BY FILES RIGHT/LEFT...MARCH to turn your men. You can also group the commands, for example: "By Files Left, Forward...March!" Such is what has happened here.

You want to go back though. Give the command COUNTER MARCH BY FILES RIGHT/LEFT...MARCH to do just that.

The command by files right...march was given.

Halt stops the men.

Right face is given. And now we are back in our original front!!

MARCHING There are three types of marches. Common time, used during drills such as this, is the slowest, at 90 steps per minute. Quick time is 120 steps per minute. Double-Quick time, which is like (though NOT IS) a run, is 160-180 steps per minute. Of course, you're welcome to interpret this to LEGO Minifigure form however you wish. At times, cadence is given, to keep the men in step. Cadence will proceed such as: "1...1...1, 2, 1" repeated until all the men are in step. The 1 corresponds with the left foot. The 2 corresponds with the right. The 1 and 2 should be said when the heel touches the ground. IMPORTANT.

To move your men forward, the command FORWARD...MARCH is given. The soldier WILL STEP FIRST with his left foot and proceed from thereon. On the command halt, the soldier will stop on the foot which is on the ground. The command is given to our men here.

Halt!

[Scouty]

CAVALRY - Line infantry is very vulnerable to cavalry, that is why they go into Square. The command FORM SQUARE is given. You can set up your square to your standard. Just note that your men should be in a position called Guard against Cavalry, which means they will hold their muskets, with bayonets, up in the air, to scare the cavalry away. Officers and the colors should go in the middle. These are to the standards of the Army of the Blue Coats, however.

Lookit the cavalry run!!

FIRING PT. II

And now to firing. There are many firing commands. There are four parts to the command to fire. First is how you want to fire. Next are the commands READY...AIM...FIRE(R.A.F). The soldier will fire as soon as he hears that F of fire. Space the commands evenly so that no one is unprepared. The idea of these commands is to give a constant fire to the enemy, or perhaps a deafening blow to them.

Our first one is FIRING BY COMPANY...READY...AIM...FIRE. Here, the whole company (Or in our case, Regiment,) will fire. It creates a great wall of lead for the enemy, but it leaves your men unloaded for a little while. After firing, the command RETRIEVE...ARMS is given, and they will go to the ready. LOAD can come after that.

Other firing types are: FIRING BY FILES, FROM THE RIGHT TO THE LEFT...R.A.F.. This command will have the men firing from one side down to the end, by files. After they have fired, they can fire independently until the command CEASE...FIRE is given, where the soldiers will go to the soldier after completing loading. ALL SOLDIERS SHOULD BE LOADED. The command INDEPENDENT FIRE can be given to let the men fire independently and at their pace.

Another is FIRING BY RANKS...REAR RANK...R.A.F...FRONT RANK...R.A.F. The trick to this firing type is that there is a constant fire. The first to fire is the rear rank. After the men of the rear rank are half loaded, the front rank will open fire. After half of the front rank men are loaded, the rear rank will fire. This process continues.

You can also have the front rank kneel. The men in the front rank should change hand positions so they can hold the musket properly.

SKIRMISHING

It is a good idea to send out skirmishers in front of your army. For a couple reasons, like to test enemy strength, or to break up oncoming enemy lines. It's also good to hold a reserve when sending out skirmishers, in case if they get overwhelmed.

We return to the men of 1's and 2's. The men will be separated in fours (which are called platoons), and then they will spread out. The 1's will be first up front, and the 2's about 3 or 4 studs behind. Both 1's and 2's will spread out by 3 studs. They can be spread out further, at your discretion. Your men can stand, kneel, or even lie down. They may also take cover behind anything, like a tree or fence.

When a command advance is given, the rear 1 or 2 will advance three or four studs ahead of the front line. In this case, it was the twos.

To come back, the command RALLY BY FOURS is given. The soldiers will then rally to the fours.

To get them back into line the command RALLY BY COMPANY is given.

PART III: CONCLUSION

This Manual has covered the overall basics of War tactics. Thank you for reading this Manual! We hope you have learned much from the manual, and enjoyed the presentation!

Forward to victory!!

Discussion Thread

The 42nd Regiment of the Army of the Blue Coats marches to battle!