What advantage is there to being the charger vs. chargee?

[Loki223]

I have only played 2 games and my friend and I are trying to figure it out from scratch using this forum and the main rule book.

My friend has never war gamed before and I have played maybe 25 games of DBM and bunch of Warhammer fantasy.

So I may ask some silly questions from time to time.

Are there any advantages for being the charger?

In the 2 games that we have played i have seen no clear advantage to initiating the charge.
It seems that if I charge, both players work out combat at the same time "impact" bonuses seem to be the same whether you are the impactor or impactee.

so what is the plus side of manuevering to get a charge on the enemy instead of just moving forward and recieving a charge?

what am I missing if anything?


thanks in advance.

[rtaylor]

The Igo-Ugo sequence of play requires some abstraction. FoG assumes that troops that prefer to charge will countercharge if they are charged. (That's why lancers get their impact PoA whether or not they charged.) FoG dispenses with pro-rated charge movement because the countercharge would be initiated just before contact. It's flddliness we can live without.

Look at the list of impact PoAs and you will see that spearmen and pikemen (and maybe some other foot) forfeit an impact PoA if they charge shock mounted (i.e., lancers), so they are better off receiving a mounted charge at the halt.

[Faskew]

Most foot v. foot troops and mounted v. mounted troops are considered to be charging each other, more or less, regardless of whose turn it is. Only foot would hold still to recieve a mounted charge. So there's usually not much advantage for charging in the Impact phase. (Although some troop types, like Defensive Spears, get no POAs if they charge, etc. )

The main advantage of charging is that you can have some control over which units will be in contact and how they will be placed. Granted, during the Impact phase there's little difference. But if your position your troops right, you can often get an overlap advantage, either by charging two BGs against one or bring up support BGs for Melee during the Movement phase.

Also, sometimes you may gain an advantage if you charge an isolated BG before enemy friends can get into a support position.

So for me charging is not a combat-factor thing, it's mainly a postion and control thing. But that's just me. 8->

Fred Askew

[Loki223]

Ok, thanks for the input. to me position and control are all benefits but I wasn't taking into account the abstract of the counter charge. I am to used to WH fantasy where charging gives you a first strike like benefit.