Slitherine

Have played a few games now and keep running into finer point here are to questions I have

Can Arty fire stand and shoot at close range? As part of a reaction to an assault. And if so if the assault goes in what happens to the guns if they lose and there is no inf to run to?

On page 71 it state that a broken unit must attempt to rally in the first recovery phase after it becomes broken. Then it states on page 72 if a unit either fails to rally or doesn't attempt to then it is destroyed. 
So do you have to attempt to rally a broken unit if you can or can you leave it?

Thanks for the answers.

Crabbie

Can Arty fire stand and shoot at close range? As part of a reaction to an assault.

Yes. Pass your CT for being charged (need a 4+ for artillery) and you shoot the assaulting troops at close range

if the assault goes in what happens to the guns if they lose and there is no inf to run to?

If the artillery are broken from combat (or wavering if fighting enemy cavalry) they are destroyed.
Otherwise the artillery become abandoned, dropping two cohesion levels (page 47).

The rules about 'running to infantry within 2MU' are a little misleading. The rules are more easily understood if you simply look at the artillery unit -are the guns crewed or are they abandoned? Thinking about where the crew may have gone, or what unit they may be hiding in, is a red herring in my view

Friendly infantry being within 2 MU is only relevant in that :

1. you drop 1 cohesion level rather than 2 if voluntarily abandoning the guns, or if forced to by failing the CT when assaulted by infantry; and

2. if a previously abandoned artillery unit has friendly infantry within 2MU that retire, the abandoned artillery drops another cohesion level.

do you have to attempt to rally a broken unit if you can or can you leave it?

In your first recovery phase after a unit breaks, you may try to rally it.
If you fail the required CT, or decide to not to attempt to rally (ie if your Commander is out of range or busy recovering a different unit) then the broken unit is destroyed and removed from the table. - so you don't have to attempt to rally, you can just remove the unit instead.

Actually this happens more often than you would think. Given that you need a 6+ to rally from broken, but only a 5+ to recover cohesion on a disordered or wavering unit, players often 'let a broken unit go' in favour of attempting to recover a wavering unit that is still in the line.

Cheers
Brett

Thanks Brett so gunners alway fall back to the if if broken cool.

Stanley

Friendly infantry being within 2 MU is only relevant in that :

1. you drop 1 cohesion level rather than 2 if voluntarily abandoning the guns, or if forced to by failing the CT when assaulted by infantry; and

2. if a previously abandoned artillery unit has friendly infantry within 2MU that retire, the abandoned artillery drops another cohesion level.

There is the other important fact:
3. Artillery can only voluntarily abandon guns as a reaction to a charge if there is a friendly infantry unit within 2MU. Otherwise they MUST stand and fire.