First game rules questions

[Dukewilliam]

I have a few first game rules questions that came up. I looked for answers in the forums but found none, so sorry to be repetitive if that is the case:

We had a CC in which both sides lost cohesion and became disordered. The Resolutions table states that the Active player retires his units in contact and then the Inactive player retires his units in contact. After the Active player retired his unit the Inactive player's BG was no longer in contact. Does this mean he stays put, holding the ground or do both retire as they were in contact with each other when Combat Resolution commenced?

If a Rally roll produces multiple successful rolls (eg: 2 6's), does the affected unit rally a level for every successful die throw, in this case 2 levels, or can a unit only recover one level per attempt regardless of how well they roll?

Under the heading 'Firing Mechanism' on page 49, the second sentence states that LOS is drawn from the front center of the firing unit to any part of the target unit. Everywhere else says that fire must be 'straight ahead'. Which is it?

Thanks for any help,
Steve

[BrettPT]

We had a CC in which both sides lost cohesion and became disordered. The Resolutions table states that the Active player retires his units in contact and then the Inactive player retires his units in contact. After the Active player retired his unit the Inactive player's BG was no longer in contact. Does this mean he stays put, holding the ground or do both retire as they were in contact with each other when Combat Resolution commenced?

It's the other way around, the inactive player retires first. The active player would not then retire as he is no longer in contact (unless you are cavalry who have charged a square, or if you were assaulting a building, when the defenders 'retirement' move is to stay still)

After the defender retires, usually the active player would then pursue. However there is no pursuit in cases where the combat results in both sides being disordered. So in your particular case (again, unless cavalry v a square or if assaulting a building) the active player would stay put and neither retire nor pursue after the combat.

If a Rally roll produces multiple successful rolls (eg: 2 6's), does the affected unit rally a level for every successful die throw, in this case 2 levels, or can a unit only recover one level per attempt regardless of how well they roll?

Only 1 level of recovery per successful roll - regardless of how many 5/6's are rolled. If the recovery attempt was made by a Divisional Commander, your Corps Commander could attempt a 2nd recovery attempt which, if both are successful, would allow a unit to recover from wavering to steady.

Under the heading 'Firing Mechanism' on page 49, the second sentence states that LOS is drawn from the front center of the firing unit to any part of the target unit. Everywhere else says that fire must be 'straight ahead'. Which is it?

Line of Sight (centre of firing unit to any part of target) is different to shooting arc (straight ahead) . You need both to be able to shoot.

cheers
Brett

[Dukewilliam]

Thank you.

I can't find the rule that allows the Corps Commander to rally, can you please direct me? I believe you, I just want to make a notation. Individual rulaes are hard to find because these are among the worst organized rules ever and the rule can be in any section regardless of heading, or in the glossary or an appendix or the introduction. Very frustrating.

Thanks again,
Steve

[BrettPT]

No problem Steve.

The rules on this are located in "The Recovery Phase" section:

Page 67: "Each Commander may only try to recover one unit per Recovery Phase"; and

Page 71: "A Commander can only recover one unit, which may be any unit in the Corps for a Corps Commander, of his own division for a Divisional Commander, or his parent unit for a Brigade Commander.

The subject in the above rules is the commander, not the unit (ie the rule is 'each commander may make one attempt to a rally a unit', not 'each unit may be rallied once by a commander'). As a result, you can conceivably organise multiple recovery attempts for a single unit - up to 3 if the unit has a BC, and both its DC and the CC are hovering around.

It is worth noting however this only applies when the unit is wavering or disordered. A broken unit only gets 1 attempt to rally, (see table on page 70: 'Rallying a broken unit/recovering abandoned artillery: 1 attempt only').

A related but often forgotten rule is that you get a 'free facing change' if you pass a recovery test (see top of page 68).
This can be especially important after infantry assaults. If, for example, an attacking unit forces a defending unit to retire from combat, but has suffered cohesion loss in doing so, the attacking unit could attempt to recover at the end of its turn. If succesful, the unit gets a free 90 degrees turn in the recovery phase to face the flank of the next enemy unit in the line - and blast it in the flank with short-range musketry the following (enemy) turn!

Cheers
Brett

[Dukewilliam]

That is very welcome help, thank you very much indeed!

Steve