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Foot and charging

Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 12:03 pm
by pogo
Not directly a rule question, just intrigued

"Foot regiments may only charge foot that is Shaken, in Open Order, in a March Column, or defending an Obstacle"

What is the rationale behind this ?

As I read it, 2 foot Regiments stand shooting at each other, preferably from short or medium range, until one of them can make 3 hits and the other one fails his test, then the none shaken charges in, hopes to win the melee and force another test ?

The impression that I had from reading battle accounts was of a more frequent "push of the pike" physical combat between foot units ?

Re: Foot and charging

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 12:21 am
by quindia
Intelligent answer tomorrow... There is a reason and it has to do with the feel of the game...

Re: Foot and charging

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 12:22 pm
by quindia
Ok... to be honest it has been a while since I looked at these rules so I had to go back at look at my notes.

Forbidding foot to charge steady foot is to simulate the fact that ECW foot seemed to creep toward each other, engaging in a short range firefight first. Most ECW units also seemed to have a general lack of interest to actually close unless they had a decided advantage. From the reading I've done, casualties in the ECW were remarkablely light unless a unit broke and ran. The pike were more to hold each other at bay rather than actually run someone through. Rather than have have formed pike units lumbering into each other resulting in unrealistic casualties, I chose to enforce the firefight to gain advantage first.

Look at the process that allows horse to charge steady foot. First the horse unit needs to make a morale test (no test needed to charge shaken foot, units in march order, etc). with a -1 penalty. The foot unit then has the option of standing and firing (perhaps causing a second morale test) or forming a pike stand (probably the better of the two options). If a horse unit succeeds in charging home against a pike stand (the formation not the models on the square), they only hit on a 6+ regardless of any other modifiers. Combine that with the 4+ save and they will be hard pressed to win a melee combat against steady foot.

The rules I write do have reasons for their inclusion. In the end they are based on my interpretation of the period and my opinion, but I also view my games as toolkits rather than rules - if you prefer to let your foot charge simply adopt the process for the horse!