Slitherine

To qualify for rear support then the Battle Group behind has to be directly behind the unit, within 8 or 12 MU's (amongst other things), however no mention is given of the facing of the unit behind - i.e. it could be at 90 degrees or even pointing in completely the opposite direction, but would still count as support.

Is this intended? if so then might be worth a sentence to say so.

dave_r wrote:To qualify for rear support then the Battle Group behind has to be directly behind the unit, within 8 or 12 MU's (amongst other things), however no mention is given of the facing of the unit behind - i.e. it could be at 90 degrees or even pointing in completely the opposite direction, but would still count as support.

Is this intended? if so then might be worth a sentence to say so.

That is the way I have always played it including the games I have played with Simon.

We are considering changing this in some way so that the unit must be in a position to support - Terry had the thought to say that the supporting unit must have the suppoorted unit to front. I quite liked it.

Si

I can see whereby the unit in front might receive support from a unit to the rear if at different angles - i.e. the dog-leg or crochet (sp?), however facing 180 degrees the other way just seems wrong.

This might be difficult to word/explain and the solution from Terry might be easiest.

If a surrounded army formed a circle, then arguably the supporting troops would be facing the other way. I remember reading an account of one of Alexander's battles that suggested his second line would about face if the vastly superior numbers of Persians surrounded the Macedonians.

This might be a different type of rear support, but it would still be a morale booster. The added benefit is that no more needs adding to the rules.

Roger

Hmm, tricky one. In the game against Alan Montgomery's Republican Romans we ended up with non-linear battle lines. We allowed units to count support even if not facing. It was okay. Otherwise you get a unit in support who turns to face off a flank attack suddenly isn't counted as supporting (even though it's doing a good job of countering a flanking move) and you get a unit facing in the same direction, about to get attacked in the flank, classed as providing "good" support.

Neil