Question about flank attacks, etc.

[chazaroo]

We played our second learning game today and I have a few questions:

1. My medium cav hit a warband unit in the flank. The warband was not otherwise engaged. The warband has 9 attacks. Since he has no opponents to his front, can he use all 9 attacks on the flank, and simply suffer the -1 to hit penalty because he's being hit on the flank? Or is he limited by the restriction about at least half of his attacks have to be in the forward quarter, thus reducing his attacks on the flank to 4 and still suffering the -1 to hit penalty?

2. A warband declarse a charge against my cohorts which are being screened by my skirmishers in front. The warband doesn't don't roll well enough to actually make contact and ends up about 2" in front of my skirmishers, and about 4 inches in front of my cohorts. During my turn can I use the skirmishers' initiative and move the skirmishers back through the cohort (assuming the have the move to clear the units), and then use the cohort's initiative to charge the warband?

3. A small skirmish unit has between 8-12 figures. A small unit has a frontage of between 80-120mm. Does this mean a skirmish unit, or any open order unit for that matter, must still maintain a frontage of about 80-120mm while in open order, even if this means forming a "cloud' of figures like the example on page 20 of the rule book? Or an a 12 man skirmish unit spread out to a line that will be about 16" wide?

4. My understanding is that if a division commander fails a command role he may no longer issue any commands to the division for that turn. Today my opponent ran a warband list and repeated failed his first command role with a number of his commanders. His units simply sat there not moving - which seemed weird. Is this correct? Or is there some other way to move warbands or other undrilled units if their commander fails his command role?

Thanks,
Chuck

[Big Al]

Hi Chuck

I answered these for you on the Yahoo Group, but not all members here are on that group and may be interested.

1) Yes, a unit can only allocate half of its attacks to a flank. It also suffers the -1 modifier to hit.

2) The cohort must have clear line of sight to the enemy at teh start of the initiative phase. The skirmishers are blocking that. You would move the skirmishers by initiative and then order the cohort to charge. If you don't move the skirmishers the cohort would be unable to charge because it would require 2 moves, one to get through the skirmishers and the 2 inches you mentioned isn't enough room to allow that.

3)See page 20 about Skirmishers. You can place the bases 1 inch apart. Page 22 explains about movement and changing formation with them.

4) That is right. Certain formations allow units a free move even if an order is failed and some Useful Rules given to units might allow it too. Other than that, tough! That's one of the things people like about HC. Your troops do not always do what you want them to. You have to take the view that messengers didn't get through to the units or that the commander had a coughing fit or something. The idea is that it removes the "God" like view of the battlefield that a player has and a real commander didn't. It gives players the dilemma of command where not everything goes according to plan and you get caught out. To be fair, it doesn't happen that often and adds both fun, frustration and tension. Stick with it and you'll see the point to it. It wasn't unusual for orders to be missed in real life, it's even why Friendly Fire incidents have happened. Mistakes are made and orders missed, disobeyed or misinterpreted. The Charge of the Light Brigade is an
example.

[Cubster]

The Charge of the Light Brigade is an example.

Sometimes the inaction from a bit of insubordination from the more junior officers can be a good thing! If only Cardigan had insisted on questioning the orders a little further and deeper ...

[chazaroo]

Thanks for your responses Al. Is it better to post these questions here or on the Yahoo group? Or is posting them in both places ok? I posted here because I've had Rick Priestly respond before, and it's always great to hear from the author. I posted on the Yahoo group to see what would happen, and I got a lot more responses there.

One follow up question. You responded to my question about skirmisher frontage with the following:

3)See page 20 about Skirmishers. You can place the bases 1 inch apart. Page 22 explains about movement and changing formation with them.

I've studied those pages and I don't think there's a clear answer about this. It appears to me from looking at the pictures and diagrams in the book that a skirmisher unit is still basically restricted to it's unit frontage, so it would be required to operate more as a cloud than a long, thin screen. On the Yahoo group one of the responses was that it could do either. Is there a clear answer on this? I think this is important because skirmishers were way too powerful both in WAB and in earlier editions of WHFB.

[Big Al]

You asked if it must maintain a 80-120mm frontage. The unit frontage quoted is the frontage that the unit has when formed into two ranks (battle line) with the figures standing base to base, but in action the unit doesn't have to maintain that formation or frontage. That was why I mentioned the two pages.

At the top of page 20 there is the section headed Open Order. Read the last sentence of that section. It says "When a unit adopts open order the model's bases are spaced up to 1" apart so they form a chain or loose mass." This explains that you can set your unit up to any frontage you like so long as there is no more than 1 inch between each figure base.

On Page 22, the second diagram in the right hand column shows the skirmishers ranked up in a single line and also in open order with the figure bases set up to 1 inch apart. The text just explains how to set them up around the central figure or leader model, which is why I referred to it.

A unit can operate in one long single ranked line if you wanted. However, with 12 figures set at 1 inch apart would be a line roughly 515mm long! Quite unwieldly, unrealistic and useless, but technically, you can do it. It wouldn't take much to clear them and bear in mind that when attacked the figures would have to form up into line around the figure that is contacted, which can mean that some models won't have enough movement to form up.

Hope that is a little clearer. I probably could have explained it better, I understood it and took it for granted that someone else would see it as I did.

[Big Al]

I meant to add that it is perfectly ok to post your questions on both forums. Not all the folk on either frequent both. Rick does answer questions on both when time allows. The posts on the Yahoo group do go straight into members' email and are more likely to be seen and answered directly. This forum requires frequent visits by the members, so posts might not be seen for a while.