Skirmishers supporting a charge.

[Bryan]

Hey Guys,

In the picture the red Infantry unit charges the blue Infantry unit and wants the Skirmish unit to support it in combat.

Can the skirmishers move with the Infantry to a support position as the Infantry charges, or does it have to wait until the next turn before it can move into support.

Our group has a couple of different interpretations of this based on the first paragraph of Pg 59 and the first two paragraphs of Pg 69.

Some say Pg 69 says they can support “once the battle is joined”, which means not in the turn the supported unit charges, but that’s not clear. They also say that “charging” as a support would “bring an adjacent unit they couldn’t fight” into the combat.

Others say that “The battle is joined” the instant the Inf units contact, and that as the Skirmishers don’t contact the blue Infantry, so they don’t bring another unit into combat. Therefore there is nothing to stop the skirmishers moving to a position where they count as supports.

Any thoughts how to clear this up.

Thanks in advance

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[Big Al]

Right, the it would all depend on your order and how you worded it. You should issue a “brigade” order to include both units, something like “this warband and skirmishers will charge the enemy warband.”

as you know, skirmishers cannot charge formed infantry, but the term “charge” does not mean that a unit must make contact. If it is not allowed to make contact, then it just moves as far as it can without making contact. Sometimes, you might use the term to ensure your units will move their maximum distance, even though they’re out of range.

Anyway, you will then move your formed infantry into contact and then move one of the skirmishers figures into contact with the front line of your formed unit. The rest of the skirmishers figures you move and place within the usual distance of the first figure, which could even be up along the flank of the enemy unit (Blue) if you wanted. If another unit was there, then you would set the skirmishers so that they did not make contact with the second enemy unit.

If you ordered your units separately, you would order the formed unit to charge the enemy and then order the skirmishers to move in to support. They would count as supporting in that round of combat, not as your friends have claimed “in the following round”. This is because all of the movement has happened before the combat has begun. Remember, you are still in the Command Phase and have not yet fought a round of combat.

So, you move both units together with the skirmishers supporting and then resolve the combat in the combat phase.

 

Hope that helps.

[Bryan]

Thank you Big Al, you’ve put that clearly and thanks for covering both brigade and separate orders.

[Author]

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