Reply To: Games with "Lingering" Combats

[Sam Mustafa]

I would think that if a unit is attacked in the flank or rear, it would pretty much be an automatic about face.

But what if the unit can’t turn to face, due to the proximity of other units, or due to impassable terrain, etc?   Or what if “turning to face” would require something silly.  For example:  I charge your march column on its flank, but I don’t break it.  In order to turn to face me, do you really swing the whole column around so that its front base can face me, while the rest of the column wheels around behind that base like some marching band?  (Assuming, even, that you have all the space required to do that?)

That’s what I was talking about earlier, with regard to additional rules needed to change formations in these sorts of instances.  I suspect that a LOT of rules are needed to cover all the different ways this can play out.

I think they should be allowed to fire into a melee, but casualties should be taken by both sides. 

In one of our play tests, we had a situation in which the rule said you can’t shoot into a melee, but then you get situations like this:

A-1  B

A and B are on the same side.  A is fighting 1.  B is behind 1 and has a clear shot at “1” but… what now?  Should he be allowed to shoot at just “1”?  Or does his shooting endanger A, also, even though he couldn’t possibly hit A?  If A and 1 weren’t in combat, but were just 1mm away from each other, there would be no question:  B could shoot at 1 without worry.  But if you move A that 1mm into contact…  now suddenly he’s in danger of getting shot by his buddies?

More rules required.

 

Hail Caesar allows certain troops to attempt to exit melee. 

A good point;  I’d forgotten that Hail Caesar does have lingering combats.  I also noticed that H.C’s combat chapter is more than twice as long as Black Powder’s.  I haven’t played H.C., so I don’t know if that’s the reason it requires so many more combat rules.

Page 31 stipulates that a unit in combat can’t move.   So…  what happens if I attack you on your flank?   Do you just sit there all game until I finally hack you to death?  Does that apply to cavalry also?   And I assume that H.C.’s rules for squaring-up opponents makes contacts more… regular.  (Although squaring-up often has its own issues, as you can be forced to square-up into a spot from which you then can’t retreat, despite having been able to get in there, obviously…  but that’s another story.)

I ask because I’ve only read the rules, not played it, and it’s not clear to me how or if these things are addressed.   How does Hail Caesar handle situations like the ones I described above?