Slitherine

Colonies&conquest : the wokou pirates have mixed battle groups, 1/2 impact, 1/2 arquebus . all are unarmoured . It is clear that they cannot claim "protected status" in their mixed BG as they are not medium foot but warriors and no pikes .

But what about melee : they have no armor .So their opponent could easely claim +PA for better armor, front rank but that POA cannot be claimed against shot . So do the second rank ( assuming the first rank still survives and is composed only of IF ) count as "shot" as it will count into the melee and so cancel better armor POA ?

POA are based on the classification of the front rank bases. So it appears that they would suffer armour disadvantage unless the front rank base has been lost and replaced by a shot base.

In a sense it seems odd . The second ranks counts, in some cases gives POA but does not cancel ennemy's POA ...so when the front rank dies, and the second rank goes tothe front, the unit becomes more effective ....

I'm having a quick look at the list myself. There is a bullet point (page 90 of c&c) in the list that states to the effect the front rank base (impact foot/sw) remains and the second rank is removed. This superceeds the rule point above... So no advantage around armour if the second rank is arquebus ...

If your best plan involves losing the entire front rank of an average foot unit as "stage 1"....

Unfortunately, with average troops that plan won't work