Slitherine

I had a game recently, where we couldn't resolve the following situation:

Austrian heavy cavalry were in the position to charge French infantry in the flank. The French infantry declared they were forming square. They failed their CMT. Therefore they went into square but dropped a cohesion level. The French player claimed that as they were now in square they weren't hit in the flank, as a square has no flanks. The Austrian claimed that as the charge was at a flank initially (page 33), the French were therefore hit in the flank (and so lost a further cohesion level and other penalties). Who's right?

And if the Austrian is right (i.e. the French were hit in the flank, a follow-up question ...
What if the French had passed their CMT to form square in response to the charge? Could the Austrian still claim that the charge was launched against a flank?

Many thanks
Martin

It seems to me that you form square to avoid offering your flank to the enemy cavalry. Therefore, your opponent should not have caused the extra cohesion loss for flank contact on your French infantry. Otherwise, it would defeat the object of forming squares when the enemy cavalry are close.

If you form square it doesn't matter which direction the charge came from - you have no flank to hit.
Being hit in the flank by cavalry only happens if the infantry choose not to form square or if they are hit during the first half of a pursuit or pass-through move.
Infantry forming square still do so even if they fail their CMT - unless the cohesion loss(es) caused them to be broken.

Thank you for the clarification.