Slitherine

Lively debate re the above. A a one frontage element column of lf skirmishers has half its front base in a wood and the other half sticking out to cover a units flank. A light horse unit wants to charge the skirmishers but after the impact does it have to conform thereby placing it's own base partially in the wood?
Our view was the rules indicated that it must conform but we also thpought it left room for quite a bit of cheese that FOG rules have strived to eradicate.
John

It does have to conform - so don't charge it

Conforming can catch the unwary and inexperienced so keep an eye on what the conforming position will be when you approach the enemy and if it looks dodgy avoid it - part of the skills needed in the game

In this situation the LH would have to conform if it was possible. If for some reason the LH could not conform then the LF would have to do so wht next turn.

It is not as cheesy as the DBM element with its little toe just in the terrain and another element next to it so you couldn't make it conform. Also remember that if the LH conform to the LF they will still have a good chunk of their BG outside the terrain and they don't have to expand into the terrain.

If you think it through the likely result would be that the LH charge the LF at full effect (2 dice vs 1) then conform bringing probably 1 base of LH into the forrest but leaving the rear rank of the file in the forrest in the open and the overlap in the open. That would mean that in melee the LH fight at full effect and the LF would only fight with one file (1 dice) unless they expanded out to meet the existing overlap which is in the open.

If you actually play this through I think you may decide that the LF are not protected enough by the terrain and to be honest LF partialy out of terrain are rather vulnerable.

The initial imp-act outside could leave them horribly done in even if the LH have to fight in the terrain in the melee phase.

However, perceived cheese would be with heavier troops I suspect - get mounted to conform into terrain with your MF; in fact hope to lose the impact and drop so that when they are in the grotty stuff they cannot break off

nikgaukroger wrote:However, perceived cheese would be with heavier troops I suspect - get mounted to conform into terrain with your MF; in fact hope to lose the impact and drop so that when they are in the grotty stuff they cannot break off

If the foot are not steady, so in uneven or rough they would not break off from disordered HF (and both sides would lose dice in melee). They would break off normally from MF, though with reduced movement for the terrain. I can make sense of that.