2 more questions about the chinese lists.

Dave, a fellow loser, is wanting to run a Chinese army and has a couple of queries about their lists.
1: In the list it says you cannot have more crossbows than deployed archers. Does that mean if you do not deploy any archers you can have just crossbows?
2: It says that a large group of FL/T move and fight like a T. Does this mean if you have an FL with a VBU of 5 and a T with a VBU of 4 you fight at 4?
I've never read it that way but Dave would like an official answer not my version of it.

Geoff

Only Lorenzo can give an 'official' answer, but I've used and faced Chinese armies several times, so have encountered these issues.

1 If I deploy zero archers, the crossbowmen cannot outnumber that zero, so there are none of them. I do not understand how the words can give the effect that deploying no archers allows the deploying of crossbowmen,. In fact, some archers/crossbowmen must be deployed in most of the Chinese lists, so there will always be some archers and there may also be some (but not more) crossbowmen.

2 They fight with a VBU of 5 and any impetus of the FL. I don't believe the general rules about large units (LUs) are changed. Rule 2.5.1 says that 'The only unit that performs a cohesion test is the front unit', so I am pretty sure the characteristics of the front unit are used in any melee.

The wording of the lists arises because EI5, for the first time I can think of, created LUs of mixed characteristics (FL +T). We need to know how that LU will move. So the Chinese lists say it will move as a T (so be disordered moving in difficult terrain), be interpenetrated as an FP (so not as an FL or T). I can see it also fights as a T, but normally that makes no difference, as Ts and FLs fight in the same way.

You may also want to note that, on the old forum, Lorenzo confirmed that these characteristics remain even after the rear unit of the LU is eliminated due to casualties. So if the rear T is lost, the remaining FL part of the LUstill moves as a T and is interpenetrated like an FP. Once an LU, always an LU.

RogerC

As DAX used to say, +1 to RogerC for his answers!! Just to add my understanding is that the archer/crossbow numbers relates only to T units and not to S units.

Yes, just T units and not S.