Art De La Guerre

[SteveR]

I had a unit of light infantry. Half of the front edge was in woods, half in the open.

a little over 1 UD away was a unit of Medium sword. It also has half of the front edge in woods, half in open.


Page 42 contact restrictions, second bullet, says that "if the enemy being charged is a heavy troop... the entire front edge of the LI must end in the terrain after conformation for the charge to be allowed"

So it looked to me as if I could not charge the LI into the Medium sword.


Page 54 Conforming LI into open terrain says "LI attacking enemy partially in rough or difficult terrain are not required to conform if this would take them into open terrain"

So it looked to me as if I could charge the LI into the medium sword and only contact the portion in the woods and fight. The inverse of the heavy troops not being required to enter difficult going case.


So which is correct?

[babyshark]

I believe that your LI could charge the MI if you could arrange for the front edge of the LI to be entirely in the terrain when it made contact. (Perhaps by way of a slide prior to the charge movement?) Whether this would be a good idea is still open to question.

Marc

[SteveR]

Thank you Marc,

I thought about that. But page 42 specifies that you must be entirely in the terrain following conformation, not at the point of contact.

Since the MI does not have a ZOC it would be possible to arrange though.

If Page 54 exempts you from conforming out what is the purpose of the page 42 statement? That following conformation as much as possible/required your entire edge must still be in the terrain? Pretty rare for this not to be the case I would think.

[Ramses II]

Marc is correct; under these circumstances (charging the front of an enemy unit) the LI are not required to conform into the open any more than mounted are required to conform into terrain. In both cases they are exempt from conforming into unfavourable terrain.  

[SteveR]

Thanks to you both.

I got fixated on the difficult terrain issue but can see how if it were rough going that the page 42 restriction would apply.