Brain Bradford has compiled most of the rule queries from the yahoo
discussion Group. Click here for word format
version.
How many men do units represent in the rules?
I would suggest that POW units represent the following:
Tercio's 1,500 - 2,000 men
Infantry units 750 - 1,200 men
Skirmish units 250 - 500 men
Cavalry units 500 - 750
Artillery batteries 5 - 10 guns.
Who may fire by rotation? While I can see an abbreviation for
salvo for some armies, for FBR there is nothing stating who can in
the army lists.
All shot troops are considered to fire by rotation unless they pay
additional points to fire by salvo. (Except for skirmish shot who fire
individually).
For battalion guns do I count the strength of the unit firing and
multiply the range factor by this? For example: Swedish M/P unit
strength 12 -- at short range it would get 12 x 1.5 (18) for the
muskets, and does it then get 12 x 0.5 (6) for the battalion guns for
a total of 24?
Yes battalion guns add to the firing of the unit so (1.5 for shot +0.5 for battalion gun gives the unit a multiplier of 2 i.e. 12 * (1.5+0.5) = 24
How do you add up the factors for <1? What value is <1 (0.9, 0.8,
ect. For example, my artillery is firing at strength 12. Is this 12 x
<1 -- how the heck do I do this?
<1 means the unit will always fire on the <1 column of the casualty table ignoring all multipliers etc. (i.e. they can only hit on a 6).
Also, am I to assume that the <1 for pikes means that they can
shoot too?
Yes Pike may fire, as are considered to have some missile troops included as skirmishers (crossbow or arquebus), but only a 6 die result will cause a casualty.
The rules say that a shaken unit may, as a reaction to a charge,
fire but not move. Does this only apply to units that are shaken
before the test for reaction or can any unit that is steady and then
not pass morale, becoming shaken, be able to fire?
If a unit is shaken after the charge home moral test, whether due to this morale test or previously it may choose to fire but not move. A unit must be steady in order to react to a contact in any other way.
We played a late Imperial Army and it had a Dragoon unit that
fought 1:2 P/S, LFS -- Is this a mounted unit or not? How do you
move such a unit, as mounted or foot?
Dragoons move at mounted others rate but will fire & fight as foot.
In a charge can any unit fire at the charger? In other words is
there opportunity fire? We had a situation where some Imperial
Reiters were contacted by some Swedish Horse. The reiters failed
their test and became shaken, but flanking them was another reiter
unit that could have fired into the flank of the Swedish unit, but
could not because of the contact--this seemed a little extreme and we
have had other incidents like this, with cavalry and infantry
charging units that had other cannons/inf/cav protecting them on the
side or a flank.
Any unit may fire upon a charging unit provided the target priority allows and provided the charging target is a valid target (i.e. in firing arc of the unit wishing to fire) The units only cont as in melee once a round of Hand combat has been fought.
We had a situation come up where a two P/S units were moving
together as a unit, one behind the other. The front unit was
contacted. Does the rear unit support that turn? If yes, then what
would happen if the rear unit was caught in the rear or flank, would
the front unit support it?
No, the rear unit would not fight in the first round of melee but may
re-enforce in the next initiative phase if the leader pays the initiative points.
A player in out group keeps complaining that troops that would
use "fire and fall back" tactics when charging, such as reiters or
skirmish foot/horse, given most’s current morale levels, will more
often than not fail to fire and retire when charged. There is a +2
for class 1 troops, but reiters have none. Are we misinterpreting
something? Most of our games see reiters get annihilated. They run
up to caracole range and then on the next turn are charged and they
fail to evade and are destroyed. Historically didn't they run up,
fire their pistols, then withdraw to do it again?
Reiter get a +2 when choosing to fire & withdraw when contacted by Infantry, which were the troops these units were designed to fight. Reiter did not have the maneuverability to avoid contact with mounted troops, they will rely upon their firing to stop the enemy cavalry charging home.
In a test for a charge I understand that the unit which is charged
and fails its reaction may become shaken, or worse, rout. However,
does this also apply when making a test to close? As I read the
rules it said that a charger that fails to close is just moved back
1" from the target. Is this correct? Furthermore, is this test to
close done along with the roll for reaction casualties (the charger
having been shot at) or do you roll for casualties first, taking the
result, and if I pass then make a roll for the close?
Unit's that moved into contact are first fired upon then take a moral test, whether the unit takes casualties or not it will take one moral test and go by the result. The unit will suffer the result of the moral test even if this is a rout or retire shaken If the unit gets a shaken morale result it will become shaken and 'halt' 1" short of the unit they charged.
In the morale section it says -1 per unit of equal or higher class in
command lost in previous bounds. Does this mean that when checking
morale my class 4 Swedish Horse would theoretically care nothing for
the 7 units of class 2 reiters that were lost in its command? This
has no affect to my die roll?
Yes this is the case.
We had a situation where a Tercio was charging a Swede Horse. In
rolling for reaction the Swede passed and countercharged, however,
the Tercio failed to close. Does the Horse still contact the Tercio
and does it have to roll to close?
The threat of the Swedish countercharge is considered to have stopped the Tercio. The Swedish cavalry will not contact the Tercio as part of the charge reaction. The Swedish cavalry may only contact the Tercio in the initiative phase later in the bound if the leader pays the initiative points. Troops counter charging do not actually move.
In the initiative costs it states:
Unit to face -
Tercios 90 or 180 degrees (3 initiative points)
Other units 180 degrees (2 initiative points)
We do not quite understand this. Can Tercios turn, pivot, or oblique
move at 89.99 degrees and it costs nothing? Would a turn of 180.01
degrees cost 6 initiative points? Does this also mean then that a P/S
unit can turn, pivot, or oblique move at 179.99 degrees for free and
would pay 4 at anything over 180.01 degrees?
The Tercio turning 90 or 180 degrees is a formation change NOT movement. The unit maintains its position but just changes face. This has been put into the rules as in some terrain units do not have the movement allowance to change face by using movement alone. A Tercio may always choose to use its movement allowance to change face by any angle other than 90 or 180 degrees. Other units may only change face by 180 degrees.
Can salvo-firing troops also fire by rotation and advance when they wish to approach an enemy but not charge home?
Can they fire salvo and not charge home (ie. stay stationery)?
Salvo-firing troops use this mode of fire & no other. Any units may choose to remain stationary after firing if they wish. The moving after firing restrictions have been designed to represent the
tactics of the troops and their training.
Two questions concerning charges in RPOW:
1) In a charge my P/S unit wishes to stand and fire at a charging
Cavalry unit. However, my reaction roll is failed and I become
shaken. May my unit still fire at the unit charging me or was my
only chance to do so eliminatated because I failed my test?
2) Same P/S unit fails its morale and retires shaken or routs. It
runs back 4" but what happens to the charger? Does it now stop in the
defender's position or can it now pursue? If it can pursue how far
can it pursue?
1) A unit may always fire (if armed with missile weapons) even if shaken in the charge moral test. The test lowers the firer’s efficiency.
2) The cavalry will follow up 2" if mounted or 3" if skirmish
If it is a Class 5 and has an enemy in range, must it charge?
If in charge reach Class 5 troops must charge the nearest enemy unit in
reach unless the player pays 2 initiative points to hold them back or 1
initiative point to charge them at a different target.
If unlimbered artillery have to retire by morale test result, do the crew retire leaving the pieces on place? Can they return to the pieces in the following turns?
Yes, the crew leave the guns in place and retire at Skirmish foot speed
The crew may return to the guns at a later date. Deserted guns remain
on the table and if captured by the enemy will give them extra terrain
objective points.
Unit 1 wishes to charge unit 2! Unit 2, passes test and counter charges. Unit 1 Fails test and stops 1" away, will unit 2 still counter charges?
A unit counter charging does not actually move, therefore will not contact the chargers if they halt short (It is considered that the threat of the counter charge has halted the enemy & therefore done its job). This of course does not stop the counterchargers using there own movement phase to contact the chargers while they are disordered.
Does a unit have to take a morale test to join a continuing melee?
If reinforcing an existing melee by adding its weight to the rear of a
friend already involved then no morale test is required to join. Your unit must have the movement allowance to contact the enemy if your friend was not actually in the way. If contacting the enemy unit in its own right, then a morale test would be required.
A unit in melee is reinforced on the back by a friendly unit in the
second turn of melee: if the first one routs or retires shaken, what
does it happen to the "reinforcing" one (if it pass the test, obviously)? Is it shaken for having be interpenetrated?
If the unit being reinforced routs/retires and the supporting unit does not then the melee will continue with the enemy unit moving into contact with the supporting unit (if it does not also retire). This will count as an ongoing melee with neither side charging/pursuing.
In the rules it states that if a unit does not stand up to a charge
then the cavalry will follow up 2" and skirmishers 3". What about if
the unit following up is infantry, non skirmish type? Do they follow
up and if so how much? It would seem it would remain in place my
understanding.
In the renaissance rules we have not given infantry any follow up move when their opponents evade, retire or rout as a response to the charge reaction. This is to allow skirmishers to retire & shoot when faced by foot troops.
In a retire a unit may interpenetrate others and shake them to get
out of the way. It says in the rules that pike units will not allow
themselves to be interpenetrated. If units cannot interpenetrate and
cannot move through terrain and they are still in melee contact they
will surrender.
Today several tercios broke and the only way to flee was through
other tercios. We did not know if tercios, although they have an
element that is "pike," count as a "pike unit" since they have some
shot too? If this is a pike unit, boy have we been playing wrong for
a long time.
Only all pike units ('pk' on 3cm frontage by 9cm deep) units will refuse interpenetration. this is because P:S units tend to operate as separate elements except when attached by cavalry, and are not the compact mass that are pike only units. In the definition of Tercio's at the front of the rules we do specify they count as a class 3 P:S unit on a 1:2 pike to shot ratio.
In a pursuit (having beat a P/S unit my class 4 pike crashed into a
cavalry unit 2" behind. Now it says in the rules that the melee for
this pursuit happens next melee phase because it was my bound, so
this was not diced out. In the next players bound they expended a
point to pull away from melee, since they could outdistance me. Is
this correct?
The cavalry should not have been able to disengage until after a round of melee had been fought.
a. if you followed up in your bound then the cavalry would have had to take a charge reaction in their bound, followed by firing & melee then movement.
b. If you followed up in you opponents phase then a round of melee should have been fought before his movement.
During a charge the attacker made contact with a unit that had a
supporting friendly unit in its rear. Can the rear unit support?
Also, if the supporting unit was on the side could it face and then
join the melee?
supporting units may not join in the fight until one round of melee has been fought (the unit to the rear is not considered to be in contact for melee purposes unless they move into contact as part of a 'charge'
Two opposing pike blocks were engaged frontally, both were steady,
