General at Risk modifier

Umpired a game last night and had a "first" come up.

A unit of cavalry gets around the flank of an army containing Large Units and undertakes a flank charge.

Hits are scored, attacking cavalry pass their cohesion test and are disorderd, large unit flank attacked rolls a 6 taking 2 losses (critical number was a 4 obviously).  They have thus lost the combat and are automatically routed.

Which is nasty.

Now, the Large Unit also contained the Commander.

So the 6 represents a threat to him.

What modifier should we have used for the losses the Large Unit took that melee?

Do we use the 2 that occurred because the cohesion test roll was 2 above the critical number

OR

Do we use 8 because that represents the total losses suffered because the Large Unit routed from fresh as a result of losing a Flank Attack melee?



We went with 2 but I can see an argument for the other case as well.  Your leader has just been rolled up from the flank, his brand new unit that was so confidently advancing just got smashed to oblivion and fled the first time they engaged in combat, so you get real shaky real fast.

Page 44: "+ Losses taken by the General's Unit calculated in the last Cohesion Test."

I would say eight ( 8 ), given that the losses would have been calculated as part of the cohesion test if it had been survivable. The cohesion test incorporates losses at the point of defeat, retreat or rout.

Interesting.

I understand why you went for two ( 2 ). 

Eight makes a more fun story though, doesn't it?

Heh heh Starkers, you know my propensity for attacking flanks so I'm all keen for 8 but it does fundamentally change the game based on a single poor dice roll....

I don't know about fundamentally changing things. It does reinforce the risks of large units with exposed flanks. And that's a Good Thing.

starkadder wrote:I don't know about fundamentally changing things. It does reinforce the risks of large units with exposed flanks. And that's a Good Thing.

On the latter, not so sure, that should be reinforced by autodestruct anyway.

On the former - it makes it a whole heck of a lot easier to rout an entire army as the result of a single 6 being rolled at the wrong time.

We would use 2. The actual loss is only 2 but because it is a flank attack the effect causes the unit to rout.

I'm with GC on this one - the losses are 2, the rout is an effect of the cohesion test not the result of the test itself