Slitherine

Last night we had the following odd situation:

A BG of legionaries 3 bases wide was charged by a 3 wide BG of knights. The impact was inconclusive (OK, 4 hits each, I lost a base, my general died and I failed a CT but that is a different issue) so I moved a BG of men at arms into overlap in the movement phase.

In the melee phase I failed to disrupt the legionaries so the knights broke off.

In the Roman turn the legionaries wanted to fight the men at arms. They are allowed to wlak into melee but wanted an impact as they had an advantage so the legionaries declared a charge with a slight wheel to hit the side of the men at arms. This seems to be allowed by the rules but doesn't count as a flank charge. So far so good but the knights sensed an opportunity so they declared an interception charge....

If the knights move their full interception distance forwards they end up exactly where they started their break off move from and the legionaries don't move a milimeter. This seemed odd, especially as it would seem that because the legionaries count as charging (even though they haven't moved at all) the knights have an advantage.

I hope that lot makes sense. Overall it was another thing that felt a touch odd.

Hammy

It is only unusual if you rationalise it that way. It could be argued that the legionaries were preparing for their own attack and so were not in a steady formation to receive a mounted charge. This would then be a feature of the rules that obliges the infantry to remain halted when faced by the threat of a mounted charge.

That does seem a bit of a Napoleonic era argument, I do not know if it holds good in our period. In the not so good old days of 5th Edition, I seem to remember something about foot being caught moving by mounted being very bad news for the foot.

rogerg wrote:It is only unusual if you rationalise it that way. It could be argued that the legionaries were preparing for their own attack and so were not in a steady formation to receive a mounted charge. This would then be a feature of the rules that obliges the infantry to remain halted when faced by the threat of a mounted charge.

That is the rationale behind the impact foot POAs. (Think "Order of Battle against the Alans").

Moreover, it would be exceedingly odd if the foot could charge a different BG with impunity, ignoring the cavalry that just broke off from charging them. (Preparatory to another charge).

Perhaps the more odd thing is that had the knights been cavalry then the legionaries would have not been interceptable.

That is a good point. Perhaps interceptions should be the distance of the normal move of a BG. This would have the added advantage of not having to remember the interception distances. If you are close enough to charge in your next bound, then you can intercept in the enemy bound. Seems reasonable as an initial idea.