#1 [url]

Jun 20 06 12:31 PM

Chris, assuming it is my post you are refering to, no, the compulsory disorder by being pushed through by the retreaters/routers is only in the first half of the move, they have lost all order and formation and the ability to burst through a friendly formed unit. In essence they are now small groups or individuals doing their own thing until rallied (or not, depending on your die rolls). There is always the chance that the friendly formed units could have opened up their files and let them through (although see Pinned/Routed Ground comments below). At least that is how I would see it in a game context -

Your other options are

1) to stand in front of your own troops when you reach them, and not take the full compulsory movement - this has its own problems about where you then rally, or carry on your movement, from, which ever is applicable.

2) "flow" across the front of the friendly units, but then you'll have to decide how many go left and how many go right as against how many would still try and go straight forward, or would they act like a shoal of fish and all go the same way etc, so you then have to decide which way they would go (die roll?)

3) treat the whole retreat/rout move the same way and burst through the friendly units, causing them to become unformed.

Play what you think best suits your understanding of what is happening, every rule is essentially a compromise between what would have happened against how we can physically represent that event using figures etc.

Remember that if a unit is set out in line/column, although the figures/bases are touching, what we are trying to represent are units with gaps between their sub-units, you just can't see them at the ground/basing scale we are using. When two formed units come together it causes problems as each will be doing its best to maintain its own order at the expense of the other (the gaps etc need to be maintained), but if one has lost it's order then it is much less of an issue.

There is no mechanism in these rules for "Pinned/Routed Ground" (In the Grand Manner for one has this) which prevents the units the retreaters/routers go past/across the front of etc, from moving in their own phase, but I can't see any problems if you want to introduce something similar.

Cheers, Gary