Slitherine

questions about rear support

if a 10 elements BG (is it possible?) has 2 BG of each 4 elements of non skirmishers and equal quality 4 MU behind them. Does it give rear support? According to my understanding of the rules: no. And normally it should! can't we just consider bases and not only one BG for rear support?

and some figures of ambiguous situations would be appreciable

sincerelly

I can't see anything in the definition of rear support that requires the supporting bases to be from the same BG.

The rule refers to bases supporting a battle group so I would think that 2 bases from one BG and three from another is perfectly adequate for rear support of a 10 base BG.

10 base BGs are possible

I concur with Hammy - the rules on rear support talk about the number of bases behind the BG to be supported rather than a BG of X number of bases.

Yes the total can come from any number of different BG, as long as the bases pass the two conditions in position and are of the right grade - see other stream on this if you need clarrificaiton of how it works.
Si

Which reminds me. In Middle Republican, the 4/4/2 formation for the legions

4444|4444
4444|4444

___22
___22

The 4's are the Hastati/Principes, the 2 the Triarii. Obviously 2 counts as rear support for both if it straddles the join between the units. But if you have 8/8/4

88888888|88888888
88888888|88888888

______44|44
______44|44

(underscores to avoid spaces being stripped)

The | is the gap between the two front rank elements in the Triarii, and the join between the two 8's in battle line. The joins are lined up. Do the inner side edges of the Triarii bases count as partly directly to the rear of both Hastati/Principes BG? And thus the Triari provides rear support to both again. I assume so, but best to check...

If not, it's easy enough to pivot the Triarii to count, but that seems a bit daft.

Rgds,
Peter

Put the triarii in a 4 deep column behind the join and all is OK. Expansion is a simple move if you need to.

The best way to provide rear support in the 8,8,4 organisation is to have the Triarii in a column.

peterrjohnston wrote:Which reminds me. In Middle Republican, the 4/4/2 formation for the legions

4444|4444
4444|4444

___22
___22

The 4's are the Hastati/Principes, the 2 the Triarii. Obviously 2 counts as rear support for both if it straddles the join between the units. But if you have 8/8/4

88888888|88888888
88888888|88888888

______44|44
______44|44

(underscores to avoid spaces being stripped)

The | is the gap between the two front rank elements in the Triarii, and the join between the two 8's in battle line. The joins are lined up. Do the inner side edges of the Triarii bases count as partly directly to the rear of both Hastati/Principes BG?

No

But you can always put the Triarii in a column.

Bit slow there Richard, Hammy and I managed the same answer a minute before you

True, but it seems less of a "historical" deployment... anyway, cleared that up in my mind.

(Ignore my pivot crap, not enough coffee to start with ).

Rgds,
Peter

peterrjohnston wrote:True, but it seems less of a "historical" deployment

I agree, so field them in 4 4 2s which to my mind better represents the flexibility of the manipular legion. (NB nothing to stop a legion being represented as 4 4 4 4 2 2)