Flank charge clarification

[Luddite]

Hi all, the following came up in a recent game that we struggled to resolve so i'd appreciate your comments.



Red Impact Phase

The red cavalry charges and the impact it fought.

Red manoeuvre and melee phase

The Red cavalry conforms bringing it into side contact with the infantry.
I was ruled that the INF was NOT in overlap because it hadn't 'moved into the overlap position', and therefore didn't fight in the melee.
Is this correct?
p75 seems to say that it isn't correct and that the INf should have been in overlap?

Red impact phase

Since it isn't in overlap (as ruled), the INF charged directly forwards to contact the read element in the red cav unit and declared a flank charge.
Is this correct?

This whole thing seemed a bit odd to me so your comments would be most wlecome.

What SHOULD have happened?

[kevinj]

Firstly, the Blue infantry should have been counted as an overlap. It doesn't matter if you move there or not, if you're in an overlap position you fight.

Secondly, if the BGs were placed as in the diagram, if the Blue inf moved directly forward its front would not contact the Red Cav, so could not charge without wheeling. Because the BG stars within 1 MU of the target the flank charge cannot include a wheel (P56) and so the only option would be to count this as a frontal charge. However, as the base that would be charged is already in melee to its front, this is not allowed (P57).

[bbotus]

Also, once the the blue infantry and red cav are touching, then the blue infantry cannot charge the red cav. To charge, it must move away first and then charge in the following turn. So if the blue cav was not there in the 2nd or 3rd diagrams, then the blue infantry could only engage in melee with red by following the procedure laid out on page 76 "BGs Already In Contact But Not Yet Committed To Close Combat". In this case the "Side Edge To Side Edge Only" section would apply.