Supports and drilled

[mark]

Hello there
I have a couple of questions from the Hail ceaser game we played last night, we are a bit new to HC so please bear with me .
We played Germans against Romans , we had Roman unit “A” with Roman unit “B” behind , now a German war band charged Roman unit “A” from the front, now the Roman commander elected not support Roman unit “A” with Roman unit “B” in the ensuing melee, my first question is , is supporting another unit optional ? or does “B” have to support ,
we searched the book but could find no answer to our question so we carried on.Now after the melee The Roman unit “A” lost and was forced to give ground , as both “A” and “B” were drilled , the Roman commander moved “A” back through “B” without disorder ? is that right ?
Now what was the German players option ? he could not do a fresh charge on Roman unit “B” he could not do a sweeping advance , because “A” had not been destroyed ?
Now if Roman unit “A” had been shaken in the melee and by retiring behind Roman Unit “B” he was in a supporting position, and “B” was charged in the next German turn , would “A” be allowed to support ? as he was shaken and shaken units can not move to support , if all this makes sense
thank you

[Big Al]

There is no obligation to support a fighting unit. If a player chooses not to move a unit up to support, he does not have to. This is different to Black Powder, where a unit has no choice if it is in a position to support.
However, if the unit to the rear is touching the fighting unit (it’s front is in full contact with the rear of the unit in front) it is supporting.
A unit must be in contact with the unit being supported. If there is a gap, then it is not supporting and the player does not have to order it to move into a supporting role.
So, if unit B was in contact with unit A, then it is supporting. It doesn’t have to be declared.

In answer to the rest of your question:-

Firstly, the retiring unit cannot interpenetrate the unit behind. It cannot move through it. Unit B must move out of the way. Normally, it would test to do this, but it is drilled, so does it without testing. The unit retiring is automatically disordered, regardless of it having the “drilled” Special Rule. This is because it is too busy worrying about the enemy that forced it back to be taking up marching drill. The Special Rule does not apply when the unit is being forced to retreat by a break test result. To back this up, read the rule for “Drilled” again. You will notice that it specifically mentions “move out of the way of other drilled units that are giving ground in hand to hand combat”. That means it applies to unit B, but it does not mention that it applies to a drilled unit that is giving ground.

So, Unit B either moves back up to one full move to allow Unit A to retire, or it moves sideways to allow unit A to retire. If it refuses to move, then Unit A is destroyed, as stated in the rule for Giving Ground, which further proves that Drilled does not count when the unit is retiring because of a break test result!
Now, the German unit has the usual “Move By A Victorious Unit” to make, which means that it can follow up and maintain contact with the defeated Unit A and give it another good kicking!

Hope that clarifies it all for you.

[mark]

wow !!
Thanks thats really cleared that up The Roman player has been getting away with that one for awhile
All joking aside thanks for a quick and clear reply I shall print this off ready for next time
thanks mark

[Big Al]

No problem. At least now you can have some fairer games.
It pays to read the rules fully so that you can challenge such things knowledgeably. The author does not frequent this forum, but does sometimes on the Facebook group. To be fair, I have answered most questions on the rules, with his blessing. However, if you are on Facebook, I recommend joining Hail Caesar Wargaming. You’ll get responses from others, as well as me.

[Author]

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