"A question on charge and combat resolution" Topic

We had an issue that arose in our last battle, that I wasn't quite sure about.

We had a unit that charged another unit during the normal charge movement phase. Then after that, another unit moved into contact with the charging unit's flank.

What we were deciding was did all of these combats happen simultaneously?

It didn't seem logical that a unit would charge into combat, and then another unit just march into it and they all hit at the same time.

We agreed that the charge combat would be fully resolved and then the other combat would be resolved after that.

We didn't see that clearly spelled out though.

I wouldn't get too caught up that the phases of a turn are representative of the order that things happen on the battlefield. Turn phases are just simulation mechanics and things don't really happen in real life that way.

The idea that a unit would move to support an allied unit being charged does not seem all that far fetched to me and it ending up as one big swirling melee seems quite probable.

Since Battlesystem does not have a separate and distinct Charge Phase, I would play it as on fight.

By the book, all melee is simultaneous except in situations where Melee Advantage comes into play, ie longer weapons like pikes, spears, etc and attacking a unit from the rear (pg 41).

Otherwise, like Scot mentions, it all plays out simultaneously as one swirling melee.

I like the simultaneous combat resolution, the charging unit gains an advantage for the charge, and the other side will take the charge and hit back with everything they got. In first edition, often chaotic and low intelligent units will charge after failing a discipline check or when seeing a hated enemy. Makes for real interesting games.

I added a "counter charge" house rule that allows the other side an option to gain the advantage of a charge as well.

Duane

I always resolve the charging unit's attacks first, as they are running, pell-mell, into combat (charging). There is the old mechanic of setting weapons to receive a charge (spears, pole arms, etc.), which opens the can of worms for longer reaching weapons.

In most cases, I would allow the charge resolution to pre-empt all others, save the unit receiving the charge, who I would allow to attack simultaneously in a counter-attack. I would resolve the attacks of the flanking units who walked into melee, after the charge attack. To resolve them all at once, seems to dull the advantage of charging.

With regards to rules from page 41, I would look deeper into the Intermediate/Advanced rules sections, as the way the book was written, there are rules in the later sections which over-ride/contradict the rules laid out in the Basic section. The lack of an Index really sucks, so you can only rely on your memory for where rules are updated in the book, between Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced sections. Cheers!