do you ever give repeating rifles to skirms?

[Down with Orrix]

i've noticed that skirms can recieve high ROF luxury weapons such as the Spencer repeater, which can have fire rates as high as 176 with better accuracy than a mississippi. Almost always i equip skirms with Whitworth (TS) which is available earlier, since the earliest "repeater" you can get is the Colt m1855 revolver which gives up a lot of range that the spencer doesn't (Not that its equivalent to a whitworth though)

has anyone ever given repeaters to their skirms and sent them around the flank of a unit? is it reasonable to equip an elite skirm unit with this kind of artillery?

[[TFM]bobcat]

I never use repeater rifles because no matter how good their range is, they are never long enough to outdistance an infantry rifle. even if you can get skirms on the flank where they can do damage, there is simply too much risk that they will be fired upon and with the range they'd be fired upon at, they'd take lots of casualties. skirmish cav is far better than regular skirms in this instance because their speed can ensure they can get out of trouble just as quickly as get into it

[Riki]

I’ve tried to use Spencers multiple times with mixed results, when rookie skirmishers use them they are bad, when veteran units use it a another story: they can be very effective at flanking unspotted and picking off single brigades letting out a couple of volleys and then quickly retreating, they are also very effective against artillery because they can get out whittle their numbers and get into concealment before the artillery has time to turn.
Overall they can be very effective provided that you can micromanage them properly, cavalry is probably more effective, but I prefer to keep my cavalry to plug holes in my line.

[CrashToDesktop]

Veterans with Spencers turn into Infantry-Brigade-Mincing-Machines. For example, when I get Forrest's Cavalry, the first thing I do is take off those damned Sawn-Off Shotguns and give them M1861 Enfield musketoons, and when I get enoug Spencers, I give them that. At Antietam, Forrest along with another Spencer-wielding mounted skirmisher unit and 2 others with Enfields. They got 3k kills each.

Spencers are good.

(I got that many Spencers due to the Skirmisher-scaling-with-your-skirmishers-perfectly thing that's been happening with this patch)

Although yes, Spencers are kind of worthless of rookie cavalry.

[Half life Expert]

I gave a skirmisher unit Spencers once, and I was impressed, but you have to take care of them.

[GerthQuake]

Originally posted by Half life Expert:

I gave a skirmisher unit Spencers once, and I was impressed, but you have to take care of them.

Had a Skirmisher Unit with Spencers on eastern Prospect Hill at Fredericksburg, they racked up something like 2400 kills. Impressed would be the word i'd use too.