Slitherine

Just want to make sure we had this one down correctly. In our last game both of us had several cases where we were shot to halted and then wanted to attempt a complex move. We rolled the first CMT to see if we could move from halted, then a second CMT roll to see if we could attempt the complex move. Fail the first one and you don't bother with the second attempt. Austria got stuck due to failing first CMTs too often.

Sounds right?

The actual requirement after taking 1 or 2 shooting hits is for a "CMT to advance" (see p.54). An "advance" is defined in the glossary on p.104 and not all moves would qualify as an advance. For example, IMO a 180 degree turn followed by a half move ending facing the original front (or rear) is not an advance within the definition on p.104 since no part of the unit would be further forward than the original front of the unit. In this circumstance you would need to make a CMT to do the 180 turn followed by a move (p.45), but not a second CMT to make an advance. Alternatively, if the unit were disordered and you wished to move forward to within 2 MU of an enemy then you would need 2 to take CMTs: the first to advance (p.54); the second to advance to within 2MU (p.42).

Andy D

Agree with panda. You are doing this very wrong.

Actually I was trying to fall back, at the time ending facing my original rear would have been my intention, wanted to fall back from massive French who were outnumbering me. early on in the game I was blocked by second line of troops who started beside me and then as I had to face the Froggies they ended up behind me, causing no end of problems.
So as long as you are not intending to move forwards towards your front facing at the end of the turn, you can move with a single CMT for complex move alone then. have to keep that one in mind

I would say that making a half move to the rear to reduce the amount of fire taken or get out of assault range has been a consistent feature of my recent games (in part due to the higher quality troops in the 1809 ToN lists, in part due to understanding the game better). The ability to do this fairly consistently to get out of trouble when outnumbered is IMO a real advantage for drilled and veteran troops over conscripts (who are much more likely to fail the CMT) and can buy you time to press home any advantage you have elsewhere or to reinforce the outnumbered units. It is also worth noting that a "move to the rear" is exempt from the normal limitation that "brigade group moves" cannot include turns or formation changes (p.41), so it is possible to use a divisional commander to retire several adjacent units from his division on a single CMT requiring a 4+ to pass.

Andy D

something else to keep in mind.
In this case it worked out more or less the same as I kept failing my first CMT so in effect it made no difference. I had wanted to fall back to the big hill I got for failing initiative by 4 but kept getting stuck even though I had managed to clear a bit of a path out back. in then end we ran out of time. France was up by 2 broken units but still had a way to go to break the Austrians. Austria pretty much gave as good as she got, and her cavalry proved to be somewhat better than the Frenchies, who learned not to charge into a large square. The got sent off routing and failed to rally

have to take our victories where they fall don't we.

If you are not advancing then you don't need to pass the initial CMT, had exactly that ruling at Britcon over the weekend.

Andy

Yep agree with Panda.