Flank / Rear Charge whilst facing front

[Brainsnaffler]

Hi everyone, I have been studying the rules to get me up to speed and make the game run as smooth as possible, but one of the rules confuses me a bit.

In the impact phase, the rules say you cannot initiate a flank or rear charge if any of your bases is within the front arc of the enemy being charged. Why?
I would think troops would much prefer to wheel and hit the enemy in the side rather than running into it's front ranks.

[rbodleyscott]

Hi everyone, I have been studying the rules to get me up to speed and make the game run as smooth as possible, but one of the rules confuses me a bit.

In the impact phase, the rules say you cannot initiate a flank or rear charge if any of your bases is within the front arc of the enemy being charged. Why?
I would think troops would much prefer to wheel and hit the enemy in the side rather than running into it's front ranks.

They might well prefer it, but the enemy might have other ideas!

Alternate movement is only a game mechanism. As far as possible the rules are written so that troops can do what they could do if both sides were able to move simultaneously - which in real life they could.

Also, we don't want to make flank/rear attacks too easy to achieve. In other rules system they have been very easy to achieve so that they dominate game tactics to an unhistorical degree.

[Brainsnaffler]

Aaahh! I see. I guessed the possible answer would be that if the enemy troops could see them, then obviously they wouldn't let them charge their flank, but I thought with the move being legal, there wasn't a realistic way they could stop them. Of course your correct, if you look at it in abstract and more real terms, the charge wouldn't be made.