Furious Charge In ADLG

Introduction

In February this year, I raised an issue on the Art de la Guerre Forum about furious charge, armour and missile support. A long, somewhat fraught, and very confused thread ensued.

To get an authoritative answer, I decided to contact the author, Hervé Caille. He answered the main questions and the thread became dormant. But for me there were still open questions worth clarifying. After a few more emails to Hervé all the issues have now been resolved.

Looking back at the thread some people had the right idea but some clearly didn't. So what I'd like to do here is explain why people were confused and document the resolution (not least for my own future reference).

Background

In ADLG, the furious charge ability is very important as it can be decisive. Units with furious charge receive two significant benefits in the first round of combat: an opponent's armour does not apply and, if they win the melee, they remove an additional cohesion point from their opponent. This can result in the removal of units very quickly indeed.

In version 4 of ADLG, a new special ability was introduced that of missile support. This provides an additional melee factor for any defender in the first round of combat and negates the effects of furious charge in certain circumstances.

There are two sections of the rules that are relevant here. On p18, there are six exceptions stating when furious charge does not apply. In addition, on p63, there is a section governing the cancellation of special abilities (including missile support, furious charge etc.) when units are attacked on flank or rear.

Questions

The first question I asked was: what happens when an armoured unit with missile support receives a furious charge to its front. The answer, confirmed by Hervé, is as follows:

• The armoured unit does not benefit from its armour during the melee (p17).
• The missile support provides a bonus in the melee (p20).
• The furious charge does not apply post-melee because it faces missile support (p18).

From this you can already see the source of the forum confusion: furious charge does and doesn't apply! Furious charge applies during melee (cancelling the defender’s armour ability) but does not apply in the post-melee phase due to missile support.

More importantly, this demonstrates that an ability which cancels furious charge in the post-melee phase does not carry back into the melee phase: the rules on p18 apply solely to post-melee, not to melee.

The second question I asked was: what happens when a unit with missile support faces both a furious charge to its front and an enemy unit on its flank. The answer, again confirmed by Hervé, is as follows:

• The missile support is cancelled during the melee (p63).
• The furious charge does apply after the melee because the missile support was cancelled.

This is an example of an ability cancelled during melee carrying forward into the post-melee phase.

Confusion reigns?

These examples clearly show the main reason behind the online confusion. An ability that is cancelled during melee is also cancelled afterwards, but the reverse is not true.

To emphasise the point: combat factors and effects carry forward from the melee into the post-melee phase, but the exceptional cases of furious charge do not carry backward from post-melee into melee.

The introduction of the new missile support ability has exposed what is essentially a strict timing issue. Combat resolution occurs in two distinct phases - melee and post-melee - and the relevant rules must be applied in a fixed, linear order though this is not made explicit in the rule book.

Resolution aide mémoire

For ADLG players the situation is best remembered as follows:

• Any ability cancelled in the melee also applies when applying the rules on p18.
• The exceptions on p18 only apply when calculating the loss of an additional cohesion point (post-melee) and do not apply in the melee itself.
• Furious charge is cancelled by flank contact in both phases (p63 & p18 respectively).

Simple really but neither intuitive or explicit.

Furious charge and armour

This is another potentially tricky area. As part of the email exchange with Hervé he provided more examples, but first he stated his general approach as follows:

If furious charge is cancelled [p18], only the additional loss is cancelled, not the cancellation of the armour [in the] 1st round. So in every case the armour of the defender is not counted when the attacker has the furious charge.

This is consistent with other cases that cancel the armour: [against] elephant[s] and if the opponent has the same armour

Here are the examples:

• An armoured unit behind stakes, an obstacle, or fortification faces a furious charge.

  • The armoured unit loses its armour in the first round

• An armoured unit faces a furious charge in terrain that penalises the chargers.

  • The armoured unit loses its armour in the first round

• An armoured unit faces an armoured unit with furious charge (even in terrain or behind fortification).

  • The defender does not count its amour in the first round
  • The attacker counts its armour in the first round

It's worth noting that in most of the above (with the exception of the last in open terrain) furious charge does not apply post-melee (p18). They also provide additional examples of the furious charge exceptions not carrying backwards.

Closing remarks

The strict timing issue existed in version 3 but, because armour does not cancel furious charge, it was a latent issue. The introduction of missile support in version 4 exposed it and made it more important.

A simple sentence on p18 will resolve this and in the meantime this belongs in the errata.