Movement phase

During this phase, the player may move some or all of his units.

In order to move a unit the player must select it then use one of the two movement roses. The first one is located on the unit, the second one is located on the right side in the game interface.

During its movement, a unit's movement allowance is automatically updated to reflect the cost of the hex entered, which depends on the terrain and the moving unit (see "Movement Cost Chart").

It is possible to alternate between units so long as their respective movement allowances are not all used up. Movement is from one hex to another contiguous hex. Some terrain features may prevent movement (unbridged or unforded rivers, steep slopes).

A unit may never enter or pass through a hex occupied by another unit. Thus stacking more than one unit is not possible in Morne Plaine.

Whenever a unit moves into a hex controlled by an enemy unit, its movement ends immediately (see "Zones of Control").

Effects of terrain on movement

The Terrain Effects Chart gives the number of movement points a unit spends to enter a given hex, depending on the terrain type it contains or of the hexside crossed.

Terrain effects are cumulative.

To enter a marsh hex by crossing a stream, a unit spends the costs associated with these two features.

Roads

The cost to enter a hex crossed by a road is the cost associated with the main terrain feature of the hex (entering cost of a woods hex for instance). The benefit provided by the use of a road is effective only if the unit comes from a hex crossed by the same road.

In the beginning of the turn moving to a road hex is always free if the unit is already on a road hex.

Crossroads

Crossroads are a special case, as a unit can jump from one road hex to another without going via the crossroads. In such a case the road bonus does not apply, and the unit pays the normal cost of the terrain entered.

In addition, it will not benefit from the 0 cost of the next road hex entered subsequently.

It is thus always preferable to move via the crossroads, which allows you to move further.

Road-track crossroads

The cost to enter such a hex always depends on the route initially followed. Thus if a unit is following a track, it will pay the track movement cost, whereas if it is following a road, it will be the road rate that applies.

Zones of control

Zones of Control (ZoC) bring restrictions to the movements of the opponent's units. As a general rule the six hexes immediately surrounding a unit make up its Zone of Control.

The exceptions are the following

The towns and woods. These hexes cannot be controlled. Conversely, the units located in a town or in woods do not control the adjacent hexes;

River. The hexes adjacent to the unit separated by a stream, a river or a double slope symbol (or more) are not controlled;

Artillery units and the demoralised units. The artillery units and the demoralised units do not exert any ZoC.

Fort. Even inoccupied, a fort is considered as a place with a small detachment, thus with weapon.
Units inside a fort are not under enemy ZoC.
On the contrary, a fort exerts a ZoC in all adjacent hexes.
If a unit has to retreat after combat, it cannot enter into a fort under enemy control

Entering an enemy ZoC

Any unit can enter an enemy ZoC. Entering an enemy ZoC costs no additional movement point, but the movement ceases immediately.

Leaving an enemy ZoC

Infantry. An infantry unit and an artillery unit can leave an enemy ZoC only if the destination hex is not itself in an enemy ZoC. This action costs one additional movement point.

Cavalry and leaders. A mounted unit can leave an hex controlled by infantry units freely and with no additional cost. However a mounted unit can leave a hex controlled by a mounted enemy unit (cavalry or leader) only if the destination hex is not itself controlled by a mounted enemy unit. This action costs one additional movement point.

Cavalry charges

Only mounted units can charge. A successful charge makes the enemy retreat and affects his morale. In addition the successful charging unit gets a bonus in the combat phase that follows if its attack aims at the charged unit.

Reminder : bedouine units using dromedary are never considered as mounted units

Charge automatically takes place during movement. It consists in a specific movement segment called a "charging action".

A charging action is a two-hexes straight movement that ends adjacent to an enemy unit. The charging action is valid if the target enemy unit is in line with the movement of the charging unit.
The crossed hexes (except the initial hex) must be of clear terrain, thus excluding any other type of terrain (roads and tracks have no effect).
Units in woods, dunes, palm grove and towns cannot be the target of a charge. The terrain type of the hex occupied by the target unit has no influence on charge except in these two cases.

Charge indicator

After any one-hex movement on clear terrain a red arrow appears showing that a charging action is possible and will be automatically carried out if the unit keep moving in the same direction.

This indicator takes into account the presence of an enemy unit, the type of the terrain crossed and the type of the target hex.

The charging action is interrupted as soon as the mounted unit is deselected. The mounted unit may carry out a new charging action later in the movement phase provided its remaining movement allowance is high enough.

The charging action must be carried out in one piece. Deselecting the unit (or selecting another) cancels the current charging action.

Effect of a charge

When a unit is charged its morale is automatically checked. A random number from 1 to 9 is determined. If the resulting number is greater than the unit's current Morale Value then it fails the test.

Modifiers

All following modifiers can be cumulated.

Difference between the Combat Strength. If the values of the Combat Strength are not the same, the difference between them will add bonus or penalty to the random die roll

Charge through Slope.
- Charge uphill through Slope : value of Morale + 1
- Charge downhill through Slope : value of Morale - 1
- Charge through a stream : value of Morale + 1

Example 1 : A light cavalry unit whose Combat Strength is 3 charges an infantry unit with a Morale Value of 4 and a Combat Strength of 5. The random number will therefore have a -2 correction (difference of the CS of the charging cavalry and of the unit charged). The random number is 6, the final result is thus 6-2=4. The result is lower than or equal to (here equal to) the current Morale Value of the unit charged: it faces up to the charge, that has no effect. If the infantry unit had had a CS of 3 instead of 5, there would have been no correction to the random number. The final result (6) would have been greater than its Morale Value and the charge would have been successful. Therefore a charge is more likely to succeed when intended by a strong cavalry unit against a weak target.

Example 2 : A heavy cavalry unit (CS=5) charges a unit of the Guard (CS=8, MV=6). The difference of the two combat strengths is then 3. The Guard will face up to the charge provided the random number does not exceed 6+3=9 (since its Morale Value is 6). This is not very difficult indeed since the random number cannot be higher than 9. As long as it has not suffered any losses a Guard unit always faces up to a charge !

Leaders and morale checking in charges

The leaders have no Morale Value, however they can be the target of a charge. In this case the value taken into account as their Morale Value is simulated and corresponds to their Combat Strength + their command radius (number of "stripes").

Outcome of a successful charge for the charging unit

The charging unit automatically takes the target's place, and its Combat Strength is multiplied by 1,5 (rounded down if necessary) if the attack that follows is directed at the unit charged.

Outcome of a successful charge for the unit charged

Infantry and cavalry. The unit is retreated by one hex and its Morale Value decreased by 1. If this retreat makes it enter a ZoC of enemy units other than the charging unit, it loses an additional number of Morale points equal to this number of zones of control. If the unit cannot retreat (presence of other units, fort controlled by enemy, map edge) it is eliminated.

Leaders. The consequences regarding retreat are identical. The consequences regarding the Morale Value are ignored.

Artillery. An artillery unit never retreats after a charge. If it fails the morale check, it is eliminated.

Reminder: if the morale check is successful a reaction fire may occur (see "Reaction fire").

Demoralised units. When the Morale Value of a unit drops to 0 then the remaining points to lose are subtracted from its Combat Strength. Therefore during a charge a unit may lose successively morale points then CS points.

An infantry unit with a MV of 1 and a CS of 3 is charged. It fails the morale test and has to retreat. When retreating it enters a ZoC of an enemy unit other than the one that charges, this makes it lose one additional morale point. Therefore it loses two morale points. As it had only one morale point before the charge it finally loses 1 morale point and 1 CS point.

The criteria that lead the choice of the hex where the unit retreats are described in the chapter "Retreat after combat".

Charge through bridge

Cavalry may charge through a bridge if the bridge is over a stream only. If the bridge is over a river, cavalry may not charge.

Latest revisions 2008/02/19 à 14:07:20 par polak
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