Rules Question Thread

[Big Al]

Does anyone with authority read these posts? If so, would it be possible to put some sort of “sticky” announcing that the table on page 49 is incorrect and that people should ignore it and refer to the QRS at the back of the book? It would save a lot of time. People wouldn’t keep repeatedly asking the same question and we wouldn’t have to keep answering it! (Well, we can live in hope!)

[Charge The Guns]

That’s a good point Big Al. Perhaps we should kick off with a ‘post your BP2 errata here’ thread? This would give people something to reference, and we would start collecting together all of the spotted typos / errors / etc. in one place ready for submission to the errata process. Hopefully someone will pick it up as a sticky at some point.

[Bert]

Hi,
In my mind, Impassable terrain was for example a Large river..
I often play AWI and ACW scenarios, and there are many woods areas. Due to this, many units have often no choice by retire in woods. I find it hard to eliminate them.

[Bert]

Hi
I have 3 questions :
1 – Charge :
Assume a Blue Line Infantry unit with 2 moves want to charge an Red ennemy in his flank (but not in the proximity) and there is a friendly Blue unit between them.
1st move : I pivot my line then move through the Blue Friendly unit.
2nd move : Unit’s leader see the ennemy and declare a charge move to contact Red ennemy.
Or
It’s not possible because a Charge must be declared at the Command part (and as this time, there’s no Line of sight to the ennemy)

2-Shooting in the back :
I understand the advantage for Shooting with Enfilade (Target’s flanks). But there is nothing for shooting an ennemy unit it’s rear ?

3-Shooting at Limbered Artillery.
Nothing about this. I conclude that a Limbered Artillery is not “Vulnerable” as a March Column (-2) ?

Thank’s
Bertrand

[Big Al]

1) As long as the line infantry has enough movement to completely clear the intevening friendly unit after the pivot, it can do it all. However, you must declare the intention to charge when you issue the order. It does not matter if the unit does not have sufficient moves to complete the charge. You won’t know that until you roll for it.
So, yes, the unit can pivot and pass through the friendly unit for the first move and then charge for the second. The only criteria for the charge is that the unit leader has a clear line of sight to the target at the beginning of the charge move. Note – by move I mean one of the moves that results from a successful Command roll, which could be 1, 2 or 3. I do not mean turn!

2) That is correct. What extra would you expect? There is no armour to the front, just as there isn’t to the rear, so it is no different. The reason Enfilading gets an advantage is because of the depth of ranks meaning that you are more likely to hit something. It is the same if you fire at a unit in column of March, either to its front or rear.

3) That is correct.
You could rule that it suffers the same as the column of March, as I mentioned above, and count it as enfiladed if shot at to its front. To be honest, most of the time, Artillery is manhandled once on the table.
Horse artillery is only a smallish unit and very fragile. To count it as enfiladed, would be a bit harsh and render it completely useless due to its fragility. It only has a stamina of 1 and counting Enfilading would guarantee that it spends the entire game Shaken, as it can never recover. That means that it could never advance toward an enemy position once it takes a casualty.
I know some people get a bit upset by the manoeuvrability of horse artillery, but the low stamina rating does balance it out very well.

Hope that helps

[Bert]

Ok Thanks very much, that helps.
Otherwise a last thing : Does Enfilade apply when shooting at a “Traversing Target” ?

Bertrand

[Big Al]

It can do, but the traversing unit has to be at exactly 90 degrees as per the diagram. Difficult because the traversing unit is not going to oblige if it can help it.
Generally speaking, you are going to be lucky.

[Bert]

Hi
When a unit may become disordered in combat.
When the rules say that disorder can happen both shooting and combat. When a 6 is rolled in combat, is just a Hit ?. An Disorder comes about when a unit has to take a break test ?

[Big Al]

I’ve just answered something about this on the Yahoo group. That is correct, a roll of 6 when shooting causes disorder and in combat, disorder is a break test result.

[Mark Stanoch]

If a victorious unit performs a Sweeping Advance do any supporting units move with the victorious unit?

[Big Al]

No. Only the victorious unit moves.

What you have asked about is a Hail Caesar thing, not Black Powder. Supporting units work differently in the two different sets of rules. In Black Powder, unit’s do not have a choice to support or not and they don’t fight when they do. Similarly, if they are in a position to support and the fighting unit breaks, all units in supporting positions take a break test. This happens even if the unit did not count for support – for example, there are two units in the right quarter that could support, but only one counts as supporting. Both would take a break test if the supported unit loses and breaks. Excess casualties are not passed onto supporting units, like they are in Hail Caesar, either, so the break test would be a straight die roll.

[Mark Stanoch]

Can units wheel within their front quarter when they are within 12” of any enemy in it? See the picture included in the link below: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10215417851252937&set=gm.2214198305281219&type=3

In this case the Austrian infantry regiment wheeled to its front in order to enfilade fire the Prussian cavalry. Is this legal?

[Big Al]

Well, to start with there is no wheeling in Black Powder.
Yes, it is legal as long as all movement is into the front quarter and no part of the unit moves further than its allowed movement.
Basically, what the unit cannot do is move into either of its flank quarters. Some believe that a unit can only move directly forwards or backwards, but the rule states that it can only move into its front or rear quarters.

[Mark Stanoch]

Thanks. I guess the correct term is “pivot” not “wheel”, correct?

[Mark Stanoch]

Battalion guns: are they attached to a unit so that they move with the unit or do they move independently?

[Author]

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