Slitherine

The discussion about the pike/spear interaction on the beta forum got me thinking. How exactly do you count ranks?

Say that you have an eight element unit of pikes, arranged two wide and four deep. That obviously counts as 4 ranks. Now, let's say in the first round of combat, the pike fail a death roll and lose a base, leaving only one in the fourth rank. How do you count this? Is the whole unit either 3 or 4 ranks deep at this point? Or do you count by rows, so that the dice for one row are 4 ranks deep, and the other is 3?

Couldn't find an answer for this in the beta rules, so I was wondering how to play it.

Thanks again

Peter

You count by files so a 7 base pike formation will have one file with 4 ranks that gets ++ and one file with three that gets just a +

Hope that helps.

Each front rank base has its own POAs. Some will therefore count as 3 ranks deep and some as 4.

Once again, that's just how I thought it played. I just wasn't sure since the beta rules didn't explicitly say so.

Thanks again guys

Peter

The same thing happens with a hoplite/spear BG in 2 ranks. Once the 2nd rank starts to thin out as a result of lost bases some of the files will lose the + POA for spearmen in 2 ranks.