Offworlder wrote:There are also some things I don't understand regarding Prussian Military.
First thing is that they had the Dreyse 'needle-gun' at the begining of the period, so why do they have to search muzzle loaders? Do they have a superior rate of fire at the begining of the Grand Campaign? (in real life the Prussians fought 3 wars with the 'needle-gun' dominating the battlefield - only the Chassepot in the Franco-Prussian War was its superior)
Navally, it seems that they get access to screw driven and ironclad corvettes at the begining of the game. Was this the case? I'm not so sure...
Not to nickpick, but the Rifled Muskets of the era had vastly superior accuracy and range tot he Needle Gun. When used in trenches in defensive positions, with good artillery cover, the Prussians were slaughtered en-masse by the Austrians. It was primarily poor tactics which cost the Austrians, not poor weapons (Prussian weapons suited Austrian tactics better than the Austrian weapons did).
I think that regardless of tech and development, developing the Rifled Musket was vastly important, as it was not necessarily a step backwards (indeed, the lost of power in the breech of the needle rifle was a noted defect, which the Rifled Muskets did not have).
So, the Needle Rifle is more of a side-step, a quick introduction of a breech loader, which was not necessarily a superior weapon (only so that it allowed the firer to be prone, and have a greater rate of fire, which made up somewhat for its poor range and accuracy, also their opponents kind of helped out too by bunching up in columns).