Flank attacks

[list_lurker]

In all the games we have had several flank attacks, all of which seemed largely ineffective. Is this a conscious decision in the rule design?

To look at an example Roman legionaries into the flank of Unarmoured bowmen. The legions are already ++ against the bowmen, attacking the flank has no benefit fort them! combined with the fact that disruption caused by being hit in the flank is larger irrelavent as typically only 1 or 2 elements are in contact. It means that the combat (impact phase particularily) is with lower numbers of dice 1 or 2 per side.

Is this intentional?

also, the rules state that the group contacted is disrupted. What happens if they are already disrupted?

[IainMcNeil]

I would imagine the Legionaries would rout the unit in one turn in this situation!

Impact phase, the bows are disrupted and the Legionaries get 2 vs 2 at ++, so are very likely to cause a cohesion test.

The bows could rout at this point, but lets assume they pass the test.

In melee they are going to get trounced again, losing dice and fighting at -ve POA's so are going to test, probably with at least one minus. By this time its very like the bows will have dropped at least one more cohesion level taking them to fragmented/wavering. They are never going to recover and its only a matter of time before they rout.


Flank attacks by light troops are intended to be weak, unless you are also fighting to front in which case they can be more effective. It simply was not realistic for some slingers to take out a pike phalanx unassisted!