Must Form Square

[Ken Jacobsen]

On page 89 of the main rule book it states that a unit that forms square in response to a cavalry charge cannot deliver closing fire – clear enough.  What if:

A French cav unit charges a British inf unit.  The Brits form square, the French don’t close and finish their remaining movement.  But, a French inf unit then charges the newly formed British square.  Does the prohibition from firing (because the unit is too busy changing formation) still apply, meaning the French inf can close to Hand-to-Hand combat without getting shot?

[Mike]

As I remember it, a unit can only make one charge response per turn.  So since forming square is the unit’s response, it cannot respond a second time when charged by the French Infantry in hand-to-hand combat.

[Garry Wills]

As Big Al has said elsewhere the rules do not exclude more than one charge response. So in this case  I would say that closing fire is allowed. The rider being that a unit can only give closing fire once per move (p.54).

 

Garry

 

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