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In order to calculate how many artillery rounds per battery to allocate in the construction of a BG scenario, the obvious starting point is the number of rounds actually carried. Fortunately these are well documented for many Napoleonic armies (column 4 in the table below) along with general rates of fire, in this case the time taken to fire 20 rounds (column 2). Converting this figure into rounds per 15 minutes, or one BG turn (column 3), makes it easy to divide the rounds available by that number resulting in the 'rounds per battery' in game terms (column 5).

The average for these pieces can be seen to come to 8.5 rounds per battery in game terms, or under nine turn's worth of fire - half this if firing in both the offensive and defensive phases. This is perhaps alarmingly small for those used to being able blaze away all day with grand batteries as the game allows. But nine turns, or 2¼ hours, is much more like the activity of a grand battery: 30-60 minutes worth of preparatory fire was their norm, with ammunition saved for the possibility of further engagement if needed. Fire over longer periods is often described as 'desultory' or 'intermittent', and with good reason. The period of inactivity between 10.00 and 17.00 at Friedland would allow no more than a few shots per battery, especially as accounts of the battle describe the Russian ammunition as already running low following their morning attack. Like those gunners, BG gamers need to preserve their stocks of ammunition for when it is really needed.

An overall average figure is fine to work with, but BG allows us to specify the amounts of ammunition for each side separately, along with the ammunition loss when a battery is destroyed. Knowing the expenditure for each type of ordnance is not much help individually, because the game requires an overall figure per battery regardless of type. What we can therefore do is calculate the average ammunition figure by nationality over the range of pieces between 3pdr and 12pdr natures.

In the following table the first part of the calculation, in the first five columns, is as above, but the averages (column 6) are worked out for each nation's artillery. Further to this we should allow for the actual rate of fire in action being rather slower than in test conditions, because of smoke or friendly troops obscuring the target or the target itself behind covering terrain, the effects of enemy fire or threat to the battery, etc. Along with this we should consider fatigue of the gun crews and a willingness on their part to be sparing with their ammunition, after all, they would not be sure how long it would have to last before the next resupply and would resort to rapid fire only in emergencies. We can also allow for a small amount of reallocation of ammunition from the caissons of guns lost in action, though as this would be something of a logistical nightmare under enemy fire I think this allowance should be small indeed. Overall, all these causes I take to add 20% to the basic ammunition endurance figure, resulting in the number in column 7 below. This is now the number of turns' of fire we multiply by the number of batteries present to give the overall artillery ammunition total for that side per day.
The length of the scenario is then used to calculate the total of ammunition usable in that time by taking 8 hours as the norm and reducing totals proportionate to the time available. Though the player knows the duration of a short scenario from the start, the real gunners would not, so they would regulate their fire just as though the battle could go on all day or into the next.

The figure for ammunition lost when a battery is destroyed (column 8) is 50% of the battery's starting total and the average for the side is used in the PDT to reflect this. Not all of the battery's ammunition would be physically lost with the guns being overrun or destroyed by fire, but as far as the rest of the army would be concerned it is lost in every other respect at least temporarily. I allow an increase in ammunition availability for multi-day battles to allow for replen from the rear echelon, as described below. This sort of replen seems not to have been conducted for engaged formations, for obvious reasons. While running out of first line ammunition is embarrassing, losing second line stocks to enemy action smacks of carelessness.

On a scale of logistical difficulty, I would place cross-formation resupply worse than even supply from the rear, not least for reasons of communication and administration. Each battery should be able to fire its allocation with little leeway for finding any extra (usually all the batteries in a division, if not a corps, would be in action together and parcelling out unused rounds from unengaged batteries would be impractical as well as extremely ill advised). The increase in basic stock by 20% covers this.

So while not all of the wagons attending a 'destroyed' battery are no longer extant, their availability to other batteries would be subject to making the decision, giving the order, receiving the order, following it and implementing it.
In game terms there is the added advantage of encouraging players to be more careful with their guns. No battery commander, or formation GOC with guns attached, would leave their pieces as exposed as they are often seen in BG. Anything that discourages the 'one last shot to take some with us' syndrome looks good to me. Even if they don't limber-up until the enemy close, at least being limbered they have a chance of getting some of the guns away and saving that ammunition. The message here is: guns do not have ammunition to play with all day and if you throw your guns away your supplies will drop at a greater rate too.

For 5-minute turns the totals found are simply multiplied by three.

Individual battery reckoning

Overall ammunition quantities are all very well, but do not reflect the reality of ammunition usage by individual batteries. The only way this can be reflected is for players, or ideally the umpire, to track individual battery fire manually. Batteries can be listed, each with a number of boxes equal to the 'rounds' available. If this method is used, the additional 20% is not added to each battery's ammunition and cross-supplying can be carried out between adjacent batteries and also recorded manually.

In each fire phase, as a battery fires a box is ticked. When all are ticked, the battery must withdraw to replenish and is effectively out of action. Using this method, the actual number of rounds in total is irrelevant provided it is at least as high as all batteries require. If replenishment within the time scale of the battle is considered possible, a larger total should be provided and the time taken for a battery to resupply decided on.

A number of boxes in each battery's record can be marked as canister (C), being crossed off when fire is used at short ranges. When all these have been used, the battery is unable to effectively fire at short range and cannot therefore protect itself. It should be withdrawn to longer range or to replenish with canister if a source is available.
For all howitzer batteries, the same can be done for incendiary rounds. This was generally up to 5%, so allow 1-2 shots per battery in deliberate attempts to set fire to targets. British use of shrapnel can be taken as part of each shot, as the effect is in the pdt for all longer ranges, so specific recording of expenditure is not needed.
The proportion of a battery's ammunition that was canister varied around and average of 22%, reaching 27-30% for Prussian, British and Russian 6pdrs, heavier pieces like 12pdrs often being as low as 10-15%. These are shown on the downloadable tables.