Slitherine

Like most players I have always assumed that skirmishers can only assault other skirmishers or wavering or broken non skirmishers.
Page 28 lists who can and can't assault, for skirmishers under "Assaults are not allowed in the following circumstances" 4th bullet: infantry Skirmishers the front of non-skirmishers.

So have I been thinking wrong all this time? Can my skirmishing Grenzers actually charge into a unit of Blue Frogs if they charge them in the flank or rear? Kind of makes the skirmishing troops something to keep a closer eye on if this is the case.

Attacking flank or rear of enemy +/- POA
Skirmishers in close combat - POA
So you get 4 dice if a small unit, skirmishers hit on 4's enemy hits back on 5's and auto dropped cohesion for flank attack, small enemy unit gets 4 dice or less depending on their current cohesion state Suddenly those boys in the brown coats are looking a whole lot better than I ever gave them credit for....

That's right!

The flank/rear assault is a joy with skirmishers. I have worked out a trick with my Cossacks where they will force the flank of an enemy LC who generally tends to face one of them. The other zooms up to about 1MU from their rear and if the enemy declares a charge ont the Cossack it is facing the other intercept charges, dropping it a cohesion level. It's 4 dice on 4 dice, me hitting on 4, him on 5. The second Cossack it there to mop up any survivors from the enemy!

I defeated Philip's Dutch once because he forgot this rule!

He won the intiative but was somehow out-deployed by my Austrians. An isolated Dutch Infantry division turned 90 degrees to march across the table to remedy this.
I raced up skirmishing Grenz to pin the division. He forgot that skirmishers can charge flanks and ignored them.

The Grenz charged the flanks of his infantry and it was mostly one way traffic after that...

Strange as it was Philip's large LC unit that my Cossacks routed!

That's true. But you know what they say, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

In this case its more like try not to forget that rule, again and again. Will keep a sharper eye on those little bugger's from now on.

Remember skirmishers get less dice and -ve for to hit in melee.

Skirmish Lights charge a regular units, the defenders drop a CL for being hit in flank rear, so dice are then even, the defender is -, the skirmisher even (+ for hitting flank - for being skirmishers. ) 4 dice needing 4's for the skirmishers , 4 dice needing 5's for the defenders. (assuming everything else is even). It's the drop in CL for being hit in the flank which should mean the skirmishers win.

Technically skirmishers are up in melee, but never forget the dice gods are fickle, and you can still roll lots of 2's and lose. I have lost melees that I had an advantage in dice or hit numbers before.