Defensive fire when in contact

[Blathergut]

Cool. Thanks for the detailed reply, Terry!!!! Ol' Dead. will be running large Russian units everywhere now!

[Saxonian]

This situation came up in the tournament last month, the first time I had come across it, and the situation was as follows:
My large infantry unit was charged by a small cavalry unit, and so formed square.
The charge came in on an angle so that only one end base of the infantry unit was contacted, even though the centre bases were 'covered'.
There was an artillery unit nearby, which took the opportunity to fire on the exposed end of the large infantry unit at +1 to hit because they were in square, promptly dropping them a cohesion level before combat took place.

All of this is according to the rules, and I have no issue as far as that is concerned.
But it just doesn't feel right.
It seems to create a vulnerability in large units that can never happen to small ones - when faced by a large unit, position your charger to come in on a slight angle and then have a chance to drop the assault target a cohesion level through shooting before combat, with very little risk of the shooter being hurt in return - with that shooting unit then possibly in position to provide flank support as well .

This is bad enough for infantry vs. infantry or cavalry vs. cavalry, but for cavalry vs. infantry it gets worse with the shooting POA.

Until this all came up, I had always assumed (incorrectly!) that shooting at or by units in combat was not allowed. This was something that happened in FOG:AM or R, but those rules have much larger units, and step forward their assaults - both of which make a difference.

It seems somewhat unfair that a large unit suffers from this, while a small unit will never be affected.
And it seems to encourage the sort of micro-management of angles, and allows part-unit shooting, that these rules try to eliminate.

My preference would be to keep things simple - no shooting into or out of a combat.

[terrys]

My preference would be to keep things simple - no shooting into or out of a combat.

I'm coming round to your way of thinking - especially since ALL of the bases count as fighting.
As you say - it's also simpler.

I'll be reviewing the next update in September - August is just too busy a month !!!

[BrettPT]

No shooting from or at units in contact would get my vote as well.
Simple and intuitive.

[viperofmilan]

No shooting from or at units in contact would get my vote as well.
Simple and intuitive.

I agree.

[deadtorius]

Gotta say its easier to figure out so sounds like the way to go.

[geoff]

Just checked the latest errata. Unless I missed something you can still shoot at 6 base units in combat at one edge/corner. No 6 base infantry units for me then!

[KeefM]

Dang.

Maybe Terry just forgot to include it ??