"Comitatus: Skirmishers Question" Topic

I'm reading through the new edition of Comitatus from Legio Wargames.

Maybe I'm thinking like a rules lawyer (shudder), but I wonder if the rules should say more about replacement of skirmishers.

In the rules, skirmishers automatically avoid most troop types. When an enemy unit would move within close range of skirmishers, the skirmishers are simply removed from the table, the enemy unit completes its movement, and then the skirmishers are replaced on the table. Very elegant mechanic.

But what happens in the case of intervening terrain, or other units? As the example in the rulebook seems to show, do the skirmishers have to reappear in the same relative positions to the enemy unit as they were before the move?

Also, couldn't a "sneaky player" move a fast unit toward the skirmishers, making the skirmishers vanish, then maneuver in such a way that when the skirmishers reappear, they've been hustled off to some flank? Or is that by design, so one unit can clear the skirmishers away, then the next unit advances through the gap?

Well, the skirmishers do not 'vanish' they simply move back as the enemy advances maintaining the same distance between the units. If the skirmishers are unable to move any further back – lets say they are blocked by terrain or troops then they halt and the enemy must halt 1 Javelin Throw away from them as this is the closest you are allowed to approach without charging. The enemy can of course then charge and as the skirmisher's path is blocked they would have to stand and fight.
Simon

Well, the skirmishers do not 'vanish' they simply move back as the enemy advances maintaining the same distance between the units.

Thanks for the clarification. The example in the rulebook (p. 38) just said to "move them out of the way" and then to replace them later, so it wasn't clear to me if you meant to model the retreat of the skirmishing units or not.

Probably a bad choice of language on my part!