Intercept Charges

[ssean13]

In the battle of my Medieval Germans vs Craig's Macedonians my knights intercepted charged his light horse. I have two questions as a result of this

1) It says in bullet point eight of the rule, which deals with intercept charges, on page 31 of the beta rules, that an intercept charge "cannot include any shifts, changes of formation or interpenetrations." We had a situation occur where a battle group of knights intercept charge his light horse, but in doing so one base of te knights would contact a base my Lighter men-at-arms (cavalry armed with lancers). We were unsure how to deal with this and stepped backwards the base of knights. The point of contact for the intercept charge was 4 inches from the battle group of knights original position. See the photo below. Did we handle this correctly? If we did, can you please point to the part of the rules that deals with this situation.

2) Second, does the intercept charge occur at the moment the battle group being intercepted enters the zone of the battle group intercept charging it? Or, can the battle group doing the intercept charge pick the point in it contacts the point contacts the battle group it is intercepting? There appears to be nothing in the rules to clarify this. Again see the photo below. Can someone please answer this question and point to the part of the rules that deals with it.

[Empgamer]

Doubtless the long standing play-testers and/or design team will answer this but my reading is that the intercept cannot be executed in this way as the first bullet on p31 reads that an intercept charge must be straight forward and cannot include ANY shifts, changes in formation or interpenetrations. Your knights have had to be stepped back due to a need to interpenetrate your own MAA and we would not allow the intercept unless the knights could move straight forward with no change to their formation whatsoever. The intercept may have been possible if it can take place at a later stage of the charge being intercepted, such that the knights could contact the corner of the chargers while still maintaining their straight line.

[rbodleyscott]

1) It says in bullet point eight of the rule, which deals with intercept charges, on page 31 of the beta rules, that an intercept charge "cannot include any shifts, changes of formation or interpenetrations." We had a situation occur where a battle group of knights intercept charge his light horse, but in doing so one base of te knights would contact a base my Lighter men-at-arms (cavalry armed with lancers). We were unsure how to deal with this and stepped backwards the base of knights. The point of contact for the intercept charge was 4 inches from the battle group of knights original position. See the photo below. Did we handle this correctly? If we did, can you please point to the part of the rules that deals with this situation.

The knights could not intercept as you have shown because they they are blocjed by friends. You have already quoted the relevant rule. There is no provision in the rules for stepping back bases to avoid friends during a charge - friends can only be avoided by wheeling or contracting 1 file both of which are forbidden during intercept charges.

OTOH an intercept charge is not obliged to move its full distance. You can move less than full distance provided that the enemy charge will contact the interceptors at some point in their charge. This ought to answer your second question. (See the first sub-bullet - the interception charge is required to cross the path of the chargers, not to actually contact them before they move).

[ssean13]

Thank you for your reply, it has answered my questions.

A follow up question. Assuming my three knights that were step forward had instead only moved as far as the fourth knight, so all four knights were in line, could my opponent have wheeled the light horse to avoid the intercept charge of the knights and still contact the my cavalry?

[shall]

Too difficult to deal specifically but basically what happens is:

1. They propose a charge

2. You intercept and move your figures to where they can get to

3. They then perform a legal charge at the target as per the charge rules

As a charge can include a wheel a mediocre intercept that only gets int he wqay sligthly might be partly of full avoidbale. A good intercept that really puts the boys in the way is impossible to get around.

So it depends on good sensible things in the game. Eyeballing your photo it seems a close one and they may sneak past or may not - depends on whether they can wheel enough and still get as many in contcat as they would without wheeling (as a rule in charging states that a wheel is aloud as long as it results in as many or more dice (so you can't declare a charge and wheel away to ounly slightly contact).

Hop that helps

Si

Si

[ssean13]

Hop that helps

It does, thank you.