Feeding More bases into a existing Melee

[zhghmcc]

Hi lads,

I had my 1st game of FOG with a player form my club, who has had 5 games. I came accross this weird section. We both have different views of the outcome.

The situation was.....

.....Start....................Impact Phase.................... Manoeuvre Phase...........

.....AAAAA..............................................................................................
.....AAAAA..............................................................................................
.....AAAAA....................AAAAA................................................................
.....AAAAA....................AAAAA.................................AAAAAAA.................
...................................AAAAA.................................AAAAAAA.................
...................................AAAAA.................................AAAAAAA.................
......BBBBBB.................BBBBBB...............................BBBBBB...................
......BBBBBB.................BBBBBB...............................BBBBBB...................

(A) Enemy Spear - Active Player (B) My Spear

The attack was (A) charge (B), hit in impact phase, then in Manover phase he feed troops out to expand.


On page 37, it say The Manoeuvre Phase: The active player moves any of his troops that did not move in the impact pahse.
but on page 72-73, it talks about feeding more bases into a Melee.

I pointed out that the Melee is called an EXISTING MELEE and can not be clashed as an exisiting melee as it is within the same TURN.

Is it possible to get a rules clarification on this please?

[rbodleyscott]

This is probably one for the FAQ as it has come up a few times lately. Troops can expand to feed more troops into the melee in the turn they make contact.

The word "existing" in the section heading is merely to indicate that you cannot create a brand new melee (with another BG) using this mechanism. The melee is assumed to exist as soon as the impact combat is complete, although the results of it are not adjudicated until the melee phase. (The troops don't take "time-out" in between). I am sorry that the wording isn't clearer on this point - it seemed obvious to us, and the issue was not raised in a year of play-testing - though it has been raised a few times since publication.

If you look at the detailed wording of the section it says:

"A battle group that is already in contact with enemy can expand its frontage by one file (a base frontage) on on side only."

This is not regarded as a "move" and having charged in the impact phase does not preclude it.

On reflection it is easy to see how the wording can cause confusion.

Anyhoo, the official ruling is that they can expand as per your diagram. We probably need to add it to the FAQ.