Disorder and Cohesion tests

Id like to suggest a change in the wording of future editions that would have saved my group and I some time.

Just to confirm we're correct, if a unit is previously disordered and they are hit they are again disordered. They make a cohesion test with a -1 penalty for being disordered. If they fail, they take the difference in damage but not an accumulated VBU damage. If they pass, they take an accumulated VBU  damage.

If that's correct, then I suggest the rules just be: When a unit is hit, it is disordered.  If they are already disordered they take accumulated VBU damage. Then they make a cohesion check ( but cohesion checks now no longer include the -1 for disorder). It works out the same I believe, but I think it's easier to explain and parse in the rules.

Your suggestion won't work IMHO. There are many situations where a unit takes one actual damage from shooting or melee instead of a disorder effect. So for instance imagine an FL unit with a VBU of 5. They are currently disordered. The unit takes 1 hit in a melee. So their Cohesion Test roll is 5-1-1=3. If they roll a 3 or less they take a disorder effect of 1. If they roll a 4 they lose the melee but only take a loss of 1. Same effect on the VBU. The difference between rolling 1-3 or the 4 is that in the later case the FL retreats. In your suggestion it seems to me that if the FL rolled a 4 it would take two point of damage, not one. There are other problems with your suggestion (does the disorder damage reduce the VBU for melee?)

Right, ok. The -1 to the Cohesion test does make it more likely they will need to retreat. It's not just about the total damage at the end.

Otherwise though, the damage would have been the same.

Old: 5-1-1, rolled a 4 = 1 DAMAGE
MY: 5-1, rolled a 4 = Passed, + 1 Accumulated Damage.

Old: 5-1-1 rolled a 5 = 2 Damage
My: 5-1, rolled a 5 = 1 Damage + 1 Accumulated Damage

I'm not sure what you meant by "does the disorder damage reduce the VBU for melee?".

There must be a way of wording or organizing the text so that this is easier to parse when learning or teaching the rules. At the section on Disorder 2.5.3, it says you take extra damage from getting disordered a second time from being involved in melee. As one learning the game, its very easy to fall into the trap of saying "that unit was hit, it gets disordered, it is disordered already, section 2.5.3 says it takes more damage" but as we know that's not the right way to process the damage.