Well I am finally at the point where I feel comfortable with the rules including complex melees which is nice. I want to thank you guys for the help with questions and answers it was a huge help having this site in dealing with the learning curve.
I did a solo playtest last night and ran into a situation that I was hoping I could get some knowledgable feedback on. I was fighting the Roman and Carthaginian starter armies and the melee started with the Spanish cavalry meleeing with the Roman. Then Some light horse jumped in and a BG of Triarii then some more LH hit the Triarii in the flank as shown in the following pic
I was trying to see what skirmishing cavalry could do in melee and this legitimately happened within the scope of the game. They basically hit on 5s and did little although if they get lucky they can and did get 2 hits. So I can see adding them in future but not alone as once they get stuck in against cavalry they are done. So when the LH and Triarii hit I turned the appropriate base and fought the impact.
Finally the Romans did defeat the Spanish BG and the LH fighting the Triarii got a bloody nose and did not re-engage after its break off, and were left with the lone LH on the left and here is the situation.
Its the Carthaginian's turn and this is the melee phase. My question is do the Romans fight with 1 base this melee then conform in their next (Roman) maneuver phase?
I was thinking they can feed 1 file into the melee which would be the 2 cavalry on their right with the commander in behind. This file would move to the bottom left in contact with the rightmost LH and now be facing left in contact.
The top left Roman cavalry could then not do anything nor fight as 1 file has already been fed into melee and it cannot turn to conform because it is not its turn to do so.
If the right file could not be fed in for some reason then could the top left Roman cavalry base turn 90 deg and be fed in? In this specific case can this be called feeding a melee or is it strictly a conform issue. I mean the top left Roman cavalry base, if its in contact but facing a different direction than an enemy meleeing it. If it is not facing another enemy can it be fed as above or must it conform in its own maneuver phase, thus not fighting for one turn? Even though it is in contact it is not in a position to provide combat dice through either combat or POA for overlap. So I would guess that it could turn and be considered to have been fed into melee?
Thanks for any comments.
Brian
