Frontal charge that ends up contacting enemies flank

[Quadratus]

Gamers,

I am sorry to ask what is probably an obvious and over-asked question but here goes.

Last night my Romans charged a unit of Cavalry. The units were offset from eachother and my charging Romans ended up hitting the cavalry on their flank.

Since I did not begin my charge from a position that would allow a flank attack to happen how should this unit conform to the enemy?

What we did was (after impact phase) during my movement we back the Romans up and aligned them with the front edge of the Cavalry BG. and then fed in a single base.

Some of the veteran gamers in the group (who like a lot of things about FoG) complained about this one aspect since the alignment to the front took the Romans out of charge range for a closing group of medium foot who could have charged me in their turn if I remained where I had hit the cavalry in the impact phase.

Could someone point me in the right direction?


Thanks.


Matt

[Warchariot]

You did it correctly, the rule is on page 71, first bullet..."charge that did not qualify as a flank or rear charge, the battle group must pivot to conform with the front edge" It so happens I had a similar situation but when I confromed it left my BG set up for a rear charge against them, which wouldn't have happened if I didn't have to conform. So the rule falls both ways. I learned to look before you leap so this wouldn't happen again.

Cheers

[babyshark]

Right. IIRC, the authors are explicit in the rules that this is simply a mechanism used to ensure that later rounds of combat do not involve any confusion regarding who is fighting whom and (especially) whether a BG is "fighting in two directions." I was concerned at first about it too, and the potential for odd outcomes that it creates. (For instance, forcing an attacking BG to conform into disordering terrain.) After more thought, and after playing some games, I have concluded that it is a necesary mechanism, and the the odd effects are rare enough that they do not outweigh the benefits.

Marc

[Luddite]

Also (barring forced charges for shock troops etc.) you don't HAVE to charge. Far better to manoeuver to a position to hit a flank and charge next turn eh?