Skirmishers charging

squamry · Post by **squamry** » Fri May 16, 2008 9:44 am

A situation from a solo game currently in progress

111222

SSSMMM

1 and 2 are skirmishers engaged in a shooting exchange with skirmishers S and medium foot M. S have become disrupted and 1 would like to charge S whilst it has an advantage. As it would have to end in corner to corner contact with medium foot M is this possible?

rogerg · Post by **rogerg** » Fri May 16, 2008 9:53 am

I have not seen this in practice before. However, as the charge only impacts on the LF and not the MF I cannot see any problem. The MF will join in during the melee phase with a couple of overlap dice. it might be a bit less risky just to keep on shooting!

hammy · Post by **hammy** » Fri May 16, 2008 10:07 am

The rules on charging with skirmishers restrict what you can charge, not what you can contact.

There is mention of stopping 1 MU away from the front of enemy troops you cannot charge but as you never go in front of the MF that is not relevant.

IMO this is a perfectly valid charge but the likely 2 dice a ++ from the MF in melee might make me think twice. That and the fact that the LF being charged will probably evade anyway....

Just shooting is I think more likely to cause a test on the LF and they will have a-1 for disruption so you have a decent chance of getting them fragmented.

Grandviceroy2018 · Post by **Grandviceroy2018** » Sun May 25, 2008 3:03 am

can foot skirmishers WALK into a melee against non-skirmishers?

i know skirmisher foot have a lot of restrictions about whom they can CHARGE, but can they WALK into an existing melee? i know they can not charge unbroken formed troops, but could they walk in on the side, rear, flank or anywhere? I could not find a definitive answer in that section for the game i was running today for my club.

for the sake of the game, since there was a question as to if it could happen, i adjudicated it to say 'no,' but promised to ask on line for clarification for a later date....

Luddite · Post by **Luddite** » Sun May 25, 2008 9:43 am

grandviceroy wrote:can foot skirmishers WALK into a melee against non-skirmishers?

i know skirmisher foot have a lot of restrictions about whom they can CHARGE, but can they WALK into an existing melee? i know they can not charge unbroken formed troops, but could they walk in on the side, rear, flank or anywhere? I could not find a definitive answer in that section for the game i was running today for my club.

for the sake of the game, since there was a question as to if it could happen, i adjudicated it to say 'no,' but promised to ask on line for clarification for a later date....

Walk? What does that mean? They sort of wander up nonchalantly and hope nobody notices them?

In order to make contact you have to charge, and the restrictions on LF charging are quite clear i think...

WhiteKnight · Post by **WhiteKnight** » Sun May 25, 2008 12:45 pm

I think what the Grand Viceroy means is, "Can LF move ( in the manouvre phase ) into a position to act as an overlap and count as fighting in the melee phase?" in which case the answer is yes but they are often fighting at a very disadvantageous POA and with very few dice, plus they are often putting themselves in a position to be charged with a chance of being caught if/when they evade. All in all, it's often a very small immediate advantage that brings a later, bigger disadvantage. Better on the whole not to use LF in this way except maybe on the extreme flank of a battle if the LF are in no danger from enemy troops, especially mounted!

Martin

Grandviceroy2018 · Post by **Grandviceroy2018** » Sun May 25, 2008 9:22 pm

So, LF CAN join in a melee in the maneouver phase.

That means they can join in as the overlap against non-skirmish foe; this is actually important, especially for an army with a lot of lights -- even if they add in a single die roll, that one die could be the difference between a draw and a win for that side in the melee (thus causing the enemy to have taken more than they gave, and hence a cohesion test etc,)

In the maneuver phase could they join in on the flank or rear of the unbroken non-skirmishers? I know they can not charge into unbroken non-skirmishers in the impact phase, but can they march in to an existing melee in the maneuver phase on the enemy flank or rear?

(this came up in a game i was gm'ing yesterday -- i could not find anything in the maneuver phase rules to allow or prevent it, and decided the player could not -- but told him i would check on the forums).

been playing the game for about a month now, run or played in six games. i like it very much, but look forward to having a few things clarified in the next edition or faq.

nice design job.

nikgaukroger · Post by **nikgaukroger** » Mon May 26, 2008 7:20 am

grandviceroy wrote:
In the maneuver phase could they join in on the flank or rear of the unbroken non-skirmishers? I know they can not charge into unbroken non-skirmishers in the impact phase, but can they march in to an existing melee in the maneuver phase on the enemy flank or rear?

They can only join as an overlap and overlaps are defined on page 75 - to contact the flank or rear you have to charge.

SirGarnet · Post by **SirGarnet** » Mon May 26, 2008 7:32 am

As Nik said. Overlaps include both front corner to front corner contact with enemy along with side edge contact with friends AND side edge to side edge conatct with enemy. What you can't do is turn in to face the enemy you are in overlap with unless you can no longer fight as an overlap - it might be posible to engineer this sequence of events where you can't count as an overlap by moving someone else into overlap on the same side, but it seems unlikely to be worth the effort.

Mike