Rezonville (or something like it)

Allied forces approach Rezonville.

 

Scouting ahead of the Allied main army, two squadrons of the South African Mounted Infantry approached the village of Rezonville, which they found already occupied by Imperial Hussars and Lancers, whom were also scouting ahead of the Imperial army. 

Starting positions - Allies to the left, Empire to the right. Imperial cavalry is already in the town.

As the Allied army approached from the ridge which tapered off just outside of Rezonville, the South African scouts decided to engage the Imperial cavalry immediately.

Cavalry clash in town.

In the resulting melee neither side seized a significant advantage, although the lancers escaped with a single casualty. Both sides withdrew their cavalry as the infantry approached, in what was shaping up to be the largest battle in the Empire-Alliance war thus far (70 infantry, 10 cavalry, and 2 guns per side).

Cavalry clash as seen from the church bell tower (which needs a bell!).

With the majority of the Empire infantry in position to occupy and take cover in the village, the Allies planned to move their artillery to the end of the ridge and shell occupied houses until they were useless as cover.  The Empire, however, countered these moves by advancing the Guards on its left against the Allied right, tying up a gun.  I'll use photo captions to report of the rest of the game...

Allied infantry advances along the ridge.

The cavalry is scattered, with Hussars fleeing down the main street of the town. The Empire infantry advances.

At upper left, the Imperial guard units begin their diversionary attack on the Allied right. In the center, Allied troops start to stream towards the town.

The Guards diversionary attack underway.

French line infantry moves to support the Allied right from the attack of the Guards.

Allied Gurkas and Bulgarians attack the Cheshire Rifles volunteers and West Surrey line infantry who have taken cover in the town.

Allies finally get their other gun situated atop the end of the ridge...

...while the Empire has got a counter-battery gun set on a small rise just beyond the town.

The Guards now taking intense fire from the Allied defenders on the ridge, while the attack on the town heats up.

The West Surreys and Cheshire Rifles defending the town.

The Guards continue to advance and pour fire upon the Allied gun on the ridge, reducing it to just 1 crewman, but at a dreadful cost...

The Allied Zouaves and 2nd Bombay infantry units crest the ridge to join the attack on the town, with the Zouaves pausing to rake the Guards with flanking fire, 

With this volley the Scots Guards go understrength and begin to fall back. The Irish Guards keep shooting away.

Hoping that the Guards will push through and create a gap or a understrength target for easy pickin's, the lancers move into position to charge.

Instead, the Irish Guards are reduced to half strength, then charged by the 1st Turkish and overrun, while the Allied Mounted Infantry moves up the flanks. The Imperial Lancers move back towards town as the Guard's diversionary attack is decidedly broken.

Meanwhile, the two Bulgarian units and the Gurkas have been heaping fire into the houses occupied by the Allies.

But the Gurkas are redued to half strength by counter-fire, and the Lancers are able to charge them from the rear and overrun them, and then crash into the weaker of the two Bulgarian regiments.

The Bulgarians hold their own though and they remain locked in combat into the next round.

While the Bulgarians do defeat the Lancers, they are reduced to half-strength and begin to fall back. The Allied French and 2nd Bombays join the attack on the town.

2nd Bombays exchange fire with the town defenders.

Since the Allied Zouaves had managed to approach the town at full strength, they risked a full assault on the West Surrey line infantry occupied one of the houses.  They are successful in carrying the house and the West Surreys are completely overrun.  However, on the Royal Rifles counterattack and retake the house and push the Zouaves back out.

Meanwhile, the Welch Fusiliers are able to scatter the other Bulgarian infantry unit, then combined fire from the town and the Fusiliers scatter the 2nd Bombays as well.

The "third wave" of the assault, constituting the Turks and French, now comes to the front. They chip away at the Cheshire Rifles some more and disable the Imperial gun assisting in the defense of the town.  Meanwhile, the Zouaves are able to break the Imperial Bengal infantry.

Casualties are very high for both sides, in excess of 40 figures on both sides!  The battle balances on the edge of a knife!

The Royal Rifles keep up a furious rate of fire...

...as do the volunteer rifles.

In the end, however, it is another round of fire from the Zouaves that causes a casualty on the Bengal that ends the game with a narrow Allied victory.

This game was played using the gridded-Charge! variant used previously, and after the flurry of 28mm games in late November and earlier this month I was a little rusty! I had to mulligan some shooting attacks because I was counting long range at -1 to hit when its really just supposed to require 3 hits instead of 2 to remove a figure.  Some of the cavalry vs. infantry melees were also messed up because infantry needs 2 hits to remove a cavalry figure but cavalry only needs 1 to remove an infantry figure.  

Artillery rules might need some work - does an artillery unit start withdrawing when it has been reduced to half strength like infantry and cavalry? If so, this is harsh as artillery are only crewed by 4 figures, and an artillery unit with 2 crew figures would only be throwing 4 dice to hit anyway.  The Allied plan was to shell the town with the aim of simply reducing the efficacy of the cover as opposed to actually causing casualties, but the crew of the gun which was in range of the town was rapidly reduced and then destroyed by counterbattery fire of from an Imperial gun.  Silencing an enemy's guns via artillery duel is certainly realistic enough (there's a particularly futile scene in The Debacle by Zola where French artillery is annihilated by more modern Prussian artillery), but there's a gamification threat where players could start tending to resolve artillery superiority before anything else, which feels more WWI than the Wells-ian toy soldier feel I'm aiming for. 

I did use the prisoner rules as currently drafted (roll a dice for an casualty from a melee, on a 6 its a prisoner; if the unit is half strength, a prisoner is taken on a 4-6), but this resulted in only 3 prisoners taken by the Empire and 2 by the Alliance, and meant that the Irish Guards died to the man. Again looking to Wells, perhaps something more formulaic and less dependent on dice would give the desired result?

Set-up loosely based upon on, and name taken from, part of the Battle of Mars-la-Tour, August 16, 1870.

Ripple Field (1643)

This was the third and final game of my virtual (or proxy) version of Ambuscade! played over the course of three days.  After the work of setting up and playing newish rules for Late Roman and Italian Wars Lion Rampant using a grid, it was nice to return to the English Civil War, which I had already recently played on a grid, and did not have to come up with much of anything new.

Prince Maurice's Royalist army.

The scenario was Ripple Field fought in 1643, about 2,000 men per side, with Prince Maurice's Royalists facing William Waller's Parliament army before the town of Ripple. 

William Waller's Parliament army before Ripple.

Both sides were almost mirror images of each other.  Waller had 4 units seasoned foot, 3 units trained band foot, and 3 units of Haselrig's Lobsters, and a single demi-culverin.  Prince Maurice also had 4 units seasoned foot and 3 units trained band foot, but also had four units of harquebusiers and a light gun.  Also of note: for each side, the train'd bands were opposite the better season infantry. This was perhaps worse for Parliament as the train'd band infantry was holding the center, while it was only on the Royalist left.

After first moves.

Waller's infantry moved forward while Maurice's repositioned itself.  Maurice's cavalry advanced en masse and Haselrig sent two of his three Lobsters forward to meet them.

Royalist cavalry advancing.

Parliament trained band shotte.

Royalist trained band infantry.

The Lobsters seemed to hold their own at first, but then the numbers of Royalists combined with some flanking fire from Royalist infantry caused a unit under attack by Prince Maurice to break and rout.  Using his Pursuit rule (see below), Maurice chased this unit right to the Parliament board edge.

Royalist left/center.

The rest of the Lobsters also faired poorly, with their caracole attacks not proving very effective, or coming out the worse for melees with the Royalists.  The Parliament trained band infantry in the center was also not fairing well, either, with a shotte unit retreating through pikes, disordering them.

The mess of the Parliament right/center.

Pirnce Maurice had galloped through the town of Ripple and attacked disordered shotte units in the Parliament center! However, he routed these and pursed them back in and through the town!

Maurice running rampant in the town.

On the Parliament left, the better quality infantry was able to capture the Royalist falconet and chase off the Royalist trained band infantry.

Waller's seasoned infantry on Parliament left on the offensive

A good shot from the falconet, however, did put the demi-culverin out of action.  In the center, Parliament and the remaining Lobsters had mounted a fierce counter attack, and although taking heavy casualties, they succeeded in disordering several Royalist units.  However, the Royalists were able to successfully rally, and on the following turn, it was Parliament units that failed rallies and routed, with a charge against, and routing of, Haselrig hisself being the end of the game.

Haselrig flees the field.

Parliament was fairly trounced, 4 victory points to 1 (the 1 for capturing the falconet).  However, the Royalist rallies at the end certainly beat probability, so the game could have easily gone the other way - even if Parliament had scored 2 points for merely dispatching more units, combined with the 1 for capturing the falconet, would have been enough. 

Prince Maurice’s ROYALIST ARMY

HARQUEBUSIERS

Att. To Hit 4+ / Def. to Hit 5+

Move Rate: 4 squares

Shoot Rng: 1 square / Shoot To Hit: 5+

Morale:4+  / Stamina: 3

Special Rules: Counter-charge; Pursuit

SEASONED PIKE

Att. To Hit 4+ / Def. to Hit 3+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 3 
Special Rules: Pikes

SEASONED SHOTTE
Att To Hit 6+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Shoot Rng: 3 squares / Shoot To Hit 5+
Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 2
Special Rules: Skirmish at half move and -1 to shoot; over 2 in range is -1 to hit.

TRAINED BAND PIKE
Att. To Hit 4+ / Def. to Hit 3+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 3 
Special Rules: Pikes

TRAINED BAND SHOTTE
Att To Hit 6+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Shoot Rng: 3 squares / Shoot To Hit 5+
Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 2
Special Rules: Skirmish at half move and -1 to shoot; over 2 in range is -1 to hit.

FALCONET (Light Artillery)
Att To Hit -- / Def to Hit 6+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Shoot Rng / Shoot To Hit: 
Short Rng (0”-6”):   12 dice @ 5+
Med. Rng (6”-12”): 8 dice @ 5+
Long Rng: (12”-24”): 8 dice @ 6+
Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 1
Special Rules: May offer closing fire with successful Morale check. May share a square with another friendly unit. 

Sir William Wallers’s PARLIAMENT ARMY

HASELRIG’S LOBSTERS
Att To Hit 5+ / Def to Hit 4+
Move Rate: 4 squares
Shoot Rng: 1 square / Shoot To Hit 5+
Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 4
Special Rules: Caracole; Skirmish

REITERS
Att To Hit 5+ / Def to Hit 4+
Move Rate: 4 squares
Shoot Rng: 1 square / Shoot To Hit 5+
Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 3
Special Rules: Caracole

HARQUEBUSIERS- same as Royalist SEASONED PIKE- same as Royalist SEASONED SHOTTE- same as Royalist TRAINED BAND PIKE - same as Royalist TRAINED BAND SHOTTE - same as Royalist

DEMI-CULVERIN

Att To Hit -- / Def to Hit 6+

Move Rate: 0

Shoot Rng / Shoot To Hit: 

    Short Rng (1-2 squares): 12 dice @ 4+.
    Med. Rng (3-4 squares): 9 dice @ 5+ 

(4 dice if ½ strength)

     Long Rng (5+ squares): 6 dice @ 5+

Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 1

Special Rules: Has 6 Strength points. May offer closing fire. May share a square with another friendly unit. Cannot move during game, but receives one deployment move of 2 squares before first player’s regular turn.

RULES FOR GRIDS:

A. MOVEMENT

1. Diagonal moves are not allowed.

2. Cavalry move 4 squares

3. Infantry moves 2 squares

4. Light artillery moves 2 squares

5. Culverins and other heavy artillery cannot move at all, but receive one free deployment move of two squares into a “forward position” at the beginning of the game.

6. Artillery units may share a square with another friendly unit, including another artillery unit.  Dice for shooting and melee attacks by a single units against two units sharing a square must allocate 2 of 12 (or 1 of 6 if halfstrength) dice towards the non-artillery target.  If both units in the square are artillery pieces, divide the dice evenly. 

B. RANGES

7. Muskets: 3 squares (over 2 squares is -1 to hit)
   Pistols: 1 square
   Light Artillery: short range 1-2 squares, medium 3 squares, long 4-5 squares
   Heavy Artillery: short 1-2 squares, medium 3-4 squares, long 5+ squares

8. Line of sight is calculated from center of originating square to center of target square (use a stick).  If the line passes over a square that contains another unit, or obstructing terrain such a a building or woods, then there is no LOS.  If the line touches the corner but does not cross the square, there is LOS (this is possible at direct 45 degree angles).

C. SKIRMISH ORDERS

9. All units armed with ranged weapons, and light artillery, may make a half move and shoot at -1 to hit.  This can be move/shoot or shoot/move.

D. ORDERED ACTIVATIONS/REACTIONS.

10. Move, Shoot, Skirmish actions are considered automatic, and no activation roll is required.

11. If attacking an enemy unit, the attacker must pass a Courage test. Usual modifiers apply.

12. A Countercharge and Closing Fire action requires a Courage test.

E. COMBAT

13. An attacking unit can attack an enemy unit in an adjacent (but not diagonal) square. IF the defending unit is in a building, or woods, or behind an obstacle, and loses the melee, the attacking unit will “carry the position” and move into the square vacated by the enemy.

14. Attacks on Guns:  Guns will always test against Morale to offer closing fire (at close range). If the attackers take casualties and fail the morale test, they fall back to the second square from of the gun. If they pass the morale test, they will “carry the position” and move into the gun square. The gun crew is assumed to flee. No melee is fought.  If the gun is sharing the square with another non-gun unit (see above), the attacker will fight a melee with that unit (if it weathered the closing fire from the gun).  If that unit loses and retreats, the gun crew flees and, again, the attacker moves into the gun square and captures it.

F. RETREATS

15. A unit retreats half a move after losing a melee or failing a Rally test. Retreat moves are always towards controlling the player's starting edge. If the retreat is into a square occupied by another friendly unit, the retreating unit will pass through that unit (and any others) until it reaches an empty square.  Units passed through must pass a Morale test or become Disordered (although they are not required to retreat from failing this test).  If the retreating unit is retreating because it lost a melee, but did not become disordered, it too must pass a Morale test or become disordered due to it retreating through friendly troops.

SPECIAL RULES:

• Caracole:  The unit may make a half Move and then a Shoot action. If the enemy fails a Morale test due to the Shooting the unit may now perform a free Attack activation (if within range), moving into contact with that enemy unit and immediately resolving an Attack.

• Pursuit: If this unit has charged or counter-charged an enemy unit, and the result of the melee is that the enemy Routs (a result of 0 or less on a Morale test), then this unit will move towards the enemy table edge in a straight line and stop at the edge. If this line brings it contact with another enemy, it will attack it. If that second melee also results in a Rout, the victorious unit will not Pursue a second time. If the table edge is a terrain feature, the unit will stop in the square in front of that feature. 

• Counter-charge: When enemy unit has successfully diced to attack this unit, but before it moves, this unit may test for a counter-charge by passing a Morale test. If successful, both units meet halfway between their start positions and both count at Attacking. If test fails, stand in place for enemy charge. May not be used if Wavering.

• Pikes:  Pike units are -1 to Defense Value if attacked by another unit with the Pikes rule. If an Attack ends with both units still in contact (i.e. a tie), the enemy must retreat (unless the enemy is also has Pikes). If a unit with Pikes enters rough going, no longer contains at least 6 models or is Wavering, it does not receive the Pike bonuses. 

• Skirmish: This unit may choose to make half move and shoot at -1 before or after this movement takes place.

Fornovo (1495)

I ran games based on the battle of Fornovo four times in 2018 (playtested once, ran twice at Enfilade that year, and then once for the Portland club after), but never played it myself!  With the need for a simple gridded game as part of the fifth annual (proxy/virtual) Ambuscade gaming event, Fornovo was a good choice, and it was played as the second of three games played in three days. And besides, my Italian Wars collection has grown and changed since 2017, and I can set up a somewhat more accurate depiction now (the 2018 version had too many arquebusiers and not a single crossbowman).

Starting positions, with French at the bottom and Italian league at the top, and the river Taro in the middle. There are two Italian stratiot light cavalry units just visible on the left as well.

In the interest of having a reasonable playing time, the Italians had 12 units plus two guns and the French had 9 plus two guns and four baggage pieces.  In the rush to put three games together in three days I perhaps did not make the victory points as well thought out as I could have.  The French baggage is clearly trying to escape off table, moving 1 square a turn, and the Italians should get points for seizing baggage pieces. 

Italian line at game start.

If I ran this again, I would use more "standard" victory points of most units destroyed and "control of the field," with perhaps a single VP if all four baggage units move off table.  Instead we ended up playing an "escort duty" style game which became somewhat silly towards in the end, in my opinion.

The Italians surge towards the river Taro.

The Italians wasted no time and moved quickly to cross the Taro river.  The French prepared a defense, but were then caught off guard when the Italian stradiots were able to almost make contact the baggage.

The two Italian stradiot units can be seen on the right threatening the French baggage train.

The French quickly adjusted, however, repositioning some of the Swiss pikemen to protect the baggage.

Swiss pikes can be seen to have blocked the stradiots to the right. 

A combination of Swiss pikes and French Gendarmes were then able to drive off the stradiots - but the front of the baggage train had lost a move so perhaps they did their task?

Italian guns firing on the French.

Meanwhile, the Italian men at arms were coming across the Taro and began tangling with French gendarmes and Swiss pikes.  The idea was to soften them up a little until the landsknecht pikes and numerous units of crossbowmen could cross the river and bring superior numbers to bear (hopefully).

There are three units of Italian men at arms in the center left, doing their best to put pressure on the French. 

Unfortunately, because the French were slowly but steadily moving one square towards the table edge every turn, this mean that the Italian center and left (where the majority of their crossbows were) started the game facing the French center and right, by the time they cross the Taro only the French right was still before them. 

Swiss pikes prepare to receive attacks.

What was worse was the French guns and Gascon crossbowmen at the end of the French column were able to sit still and repeatedly fire upon the Italian cavalry and infantry who continously tried to traverse before them.  The Italians were thus stuck making half-hearted attacks against the French rear/right and not bringing enough strength against the French front/left where the baggage was.

French King Charles VIII's unit took several casualties at the start of the game and spent the remainder leading from behind his army.

Those pesky Gascons and French artillery!

The Italians did end up dispatching a Swiss pike unit and did end up capturing a French gun, but half of the French baggage slipped back to France, the remaining Italian units on the table were almost entirely at half strength or less.  

End-of-game or close to it. 

Even though 40% of units starting the game had not been removed from the table, the Italians conceded the game early as there was little appetite for last-ditch attacks by half-strength units throwing six dice against 12-dice-throwing defenders.

This was yet another exercise of the recent grid-based games and also of playing Lion Rampant with no activation rolls for movement or shooting (a morale test was required to charge or counter-charge, or for guns to offer closing fire).  As with the previous games, both sides were much more able to make tactical decisions and try and implement them, and in this particular scenario, the Italians were able to bring their army across the river and to engage the French quite quickly - in the prior four plays large portions of infantry on both sides spent most of the game in or close to their starting positions.

Some of the beat-up Italian units, a men at arms with four casualties and a disordered Landsknecht unit.

This game makes me wish there were more set piece battles in the Italians Wars - many involve asymmetrical deployments or one side behind substantial defenses.  I may have to rethink how I represent historical battles (perhaps loosen up on deployments and just use history to suggest terrain and army composition - this is how a lot of my English Civil War games get set up), or even consider creating a fictional campaign to generate battles.

Here are the unit profiles, and some of the modified rules used for this game:

FRENCH ARMY

FRENCH GENDARMES

Att To Hit 4+ / Def to Hit 5+

Move Rate: 4 squares

Morale: 2+ / Stamina: 4

Special Rules: Counter-charge on successful Morale check; Pursuit

SWISS PIKES

Att To Hit 4+ (5+) / Def to Hit 3+ (4+)

Move Rate: 2 squares

Morale: 2+ / Stamina: 3

Special Rules: Pike Block (use first To Hits unless in rough terrain or until unit suffers 50% casualties; always use 4+ Defense To Hit vs other pike units)

CROSSBOWS

Att To Hit 6+ / Def to Hit 5+

Move Rate: 2 squares

Shoot Rng: 3 / Shoot To Hit 5+

Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 2

Special Rules: Skirmish (move half and -1 to hit);-1 to hit if target more than 2 squares

CULVERIN

Att To Hit -- / Def to Hit 6+

Move Rate: 0

Shoot Rng / Shoot To Hit: 

    Short Rng (1-2 squares): 12 dice @ 4+.
    Med. Rng (3-4 squares): 9 dice @ 5+ 

(4 dice if ½ strength)

     Long Rng (5+ squares): 6 dice @ 5+

Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 1

Special Rules: May offer closing fire with successful Morale check. May share a square with another friendly unit. Cannot move during game, but receives one move of 2 squares before first players regular turn.

ITALIAN LEAGUE ARMY

MEN AT ARMS

Att To Hit 4+ / Def to Hit 5+

Move Rate: 4 squares

Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 4

Special Rules: Counter-charge on successful Morale check; Pursuit

LANDSKNECHT PIKES

Att To Hit 4+ (5+) / Def to Hit 3+ (4+)

Move Rate: 2 squares

Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 3

Special Rules: Pike Block (use first To Hits unless in rough terrain or until unit suffers 50% casualties; always use 4+ Defense To Hit vs other pike units)

CROSSBOWS

Same as French.

STRADIOTS

Att To Hit  5+ / Def to Hit 6+

Move Rate: 5 squares

Shoot Rng: 2 / Shoot To Hit 5+

Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 3

Special Rules: Counter-charge; Skirmish (move three squares, -1 to hit if target more than 1 square); Slippery

CULVERIN

Same as French.

SPECIAL RULES:

• PIKE BLOCK: A unit of 6 or more models which is not in rough terrain or Wavering with this rule has both Attack and Move at 6+ and the unit Attacks and Defends with +1 to their dice scores. Pike Block units do not receive the +1 to Defense Value if attacked by another pike unit. If an Attack ends with both units still in contact, the enemy must retreat (unless the enemy is also has Pike Block). If a unit with Pike Block enters rough going, no longer contains at least 6 models or is Wavering, it does not receive the Pike Block bonuses.

• SKIRMISH: This unit may choose to make a half move and execute a ranged attack either before or after this movement takes place at -1 to hit.

• PURSUIT: If this unit has charged or counter-charged an enemy unit, and the result of the melee is that the enemy Routs (a result of 0 or less on a Morale test), then this unit will move towards the enemy table edge in a straight line and stop at the edge. If this line brings it contact with another enemy, it will attack it. If that second melee also results in a Rout, the victorious unit will not Pursue a second time. If the table edge is a terrain feature, the unit will stop in the square in front of that feature. 

• SLIPPERY: (a) When charged by an enemy unit this unit will automatically move two spaces towards their starting table edge, unless they opt to counter-charge (test to do so).  The attacker will follow this unit up to its full movement, and if it ends up adjacent to the target unit it, melee is resolved with target using regular defense value. (b) This unit has the Pursuit rule, but may opt to making a shooting attack at -1 if it is eligible to engage in second melee instead of attacking.

• DOUBLE-PAY MEN: When attacking an enemy unit with the Pike Block rule, the target enemy unit will defend on a 4+ and not a 3+. 

RULES FOR GRIDS:

A. MOVEMENT

1. Diagonal moves are not allowed.

2. Mounted Men At Arms move 4 squares, stradiots move 5.

3. Infantry moves 2 squares

4. Light artillery moves 2 squares

5. Culverins and other heavy artillery cannot move at all, but receive one free move of two squares into a “forward position” at the beginning of the game.

6. Artillery units may share a square with another friendly unit, including another artillery unit.  Dice for shooting and melee attacks by a single units against two units sharing a square must allocate 2 of 12 (or 1 of 6 if halfstrength) dice towards the non-artillery target.  If both units in the square are artillery pieces, divide the dice evenly. 

B. RANGES

7. Crossbows: 3 squares
   Arquebusiers: Short 1 square, Long 2 squares
   Light Artillery: short range 1-2 squares, medium 3 squares, long 4-5 squares
   Culverins: short 1-2 squares, medium 3-4 squares, long 5+ squares

8. Line of sight is calculated from center of originating square to center of target square (use a stick).  If the line passes over a square that contains another unit, or obstructing terrain such a a building or woods, then there is no LOS.  If the line touches the corner but does not cross the square, there is LOS (this is possible at direct 45 degree angles).

C. SKIRMISH ORDERS

1. All units armed with ranged weapons, and light artillery, may make a half move and shoot at -1 to hit.  This can be move/shoot or shoot/move.

D. ORDERED ACTIVATIONS/REACTIONS.

2. Move, Shoot, Skirmish actions are considered automatic, and no activation roll is required.

3. If attacking an enemy unit, the attacker must pass a Courage test. Usual modifiers apply.

4. A Countercharge and Closing Fire action requires a Courage test.

E. COMBAT

5. An attacking unit can attack an enemy unit in an adjacent (but not diagonal) square. IF the defending unit is in a building, or woods, or behind an obstacle, and loses the melee, the attacking unit will “carry the position” and move into the square vacated by the enemy.

6. Attacks on Guns:  Guns will always test against Morale to offer closing fire (at close range). If the attackers take casualties and fail the morale test, they fall back to the second square from of the gun. If they pass the morale test, they will “carry the position” and move into the gun square. The gun crew is assumed to flee. No melee is fought.  If the gun is sharing the square with another non-gun unit (see above), the attacker will fight a melee with that unit (if it weathered the closing fire from the gun).  If that unit loses and retreats, the gun crew flees and, again, the attacker moves into the gun square and captures it.

F. RETREATS

1. A unit retreats half a move after losing a melee or failing a Rally test. Retreat moves are always towards controlling the player's starting edge. If the retreat is into a square occupied by another friendly unit, the retreating unit will pass through that unit (and any others) until it reaches an empty square.  Units passed through must pass a Morale test or become Disordered (although they are not required to retreat from failing this test).  If the retreating unit is retreating because it lost a melee, but did not become disordered, it too must pass a Morale test or become disordered due to it retreating through friendly troops.