Winning units in hand to hand combat, do they test if they have excess hits?

[Victor Chamberlain]

If a unit wins the melee but has more hits than stamina does it test?  Sorry for the newbie question which I am sure has been asked before.  If no test is required after combat then what happens to the excess hits?

[Garry Wills]

No it doesn’t test. The excess casualties are just removed. I know it seems odd but that is what happens. The winners of the melee are still shaken and so are vulnerable to any counterattack.

 

Garry

[Big Al]

Yup! As Garry has said. The rule book actually describes it as the victorious unit is so euphoric about winning that it ignores its casualties and so doesn’t have to test. As it has received excess casualties, the unit is now shaken, asHarry has mentioned. This means that it cannot initiate combat, but will still fight if attacked. It suffers -1 to all combat and shooting rolls, so is vulnerable.

[Mike]

The answer to your question is provided by Garry and Big Al.  The only thing I would add is to better understand Black Powder keep in mind “hits” do not equate to casualties per se, but rather the morale state of the unit.

So as Al noted, by winning the combat, your unit is feeling “euphoric” and so no “Break Test” is required.  But it also exhausted and worn and fragile, hence its current Shaken status.

In subsequent turns, the unit could be rallied and its morale status improved (up to one hit only on the unit… that last hit reflects that the unit has suffered some morale impairment that no amount of encouragement by their general can overcome).  So the casualties the unit suffered are not suddenly being risen from the dead, but rather the remaining men have recovered their morale after the carnage.

I don’t know if this helps, but it took awhile for me to separate the concept of casualties (not a factor in Black Powder, from morale status which can move up and down).

[Victor Chamberlain]

Thanks all, much appreciated

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