Elias Nordling  - Aug 19, 2005 9:51 am (#4750 Total: 4762)  
"Elias is God's gift to developers/designers . . . exactly 
which god we're not sure." RHB 	 

Got mine the other day. Am preparing to play Carolina Rebels. I have one
rules question: 

In the rules for Shock, a player rolls to see if his troops get to
reaction fire at the shocking troops. The term reaction fire is also
used for firing when enemy troops enter your ZOC, but no mention of the
shock reaction fire is made here. 

So, my question is, can a unit that has reaction fired due to enemy
units entering the ZOC still reaction fire again against enemy units
shocking them, or is shock reaction fire included in the "once per
activation only"? 

Richard H. Berg - Aug 19, 2005 10:58 am (#4751 Total: 4762)  
"I'll try to be nicer, if you try to be smarter" 	 

Elias . . . hmmmm, just noticed that. Funny it didnm't come up before.
Let's make it interesting. When an enemy uniut moves into one of your
ZOC the latter has a choice, either (a) use Reaction Fire to the unit
entering the ZOC when that happens or (b) wait to see if it is going to
Shock, and then use Defender Shock Reaction.

Not sure if this doesn't need a bit of tinkering, but I'll check it out later . . .

Michael Dye  - Aug 19, 2005 11:40 pm (#4752 Total: 4762)  
My Grandson, Austin Michael Marsh, 1st birthday 	 

Received Carolina Rebels today. In looking over the rules I see they say
that units in open formation may not use shock attack. However, the
Formation Effects Chart says that units in open formation may use shock
attack with a -1 DRM to the defender. I'm assuming the chart is correct,
but want to check and make sure.

Elias Nordling - Aug 20, 2005 3:39 am (#4753 Total: 4762)  
"Elias is God's gift to developers/designers . . . exactly which 
god we're not sure." RHB 	 

>Not sure if this doesn't need a bit of tinkering, but I'll check it out later . . . 

The potential problem with this that I see is that it makes the Rebel
militia runaway a no-brainer, as they would get to fire once for
certain, so why gamble on the shock reaction table?

Richard H. Berg  - Aug 20, 2005 5:46 am (#4754 Total: 4762)  
"I'll try to be nicer, if you try to be smarter" 	 

>"In looking over the rules I see they say that units in open formation
may not use shock attack. However, the Formation Effects Chart says that
units in open formation may use shock attack with a -1 DRM to the
defender. I'm assuming the chart is correct, but want to check and make
sure." 

The chart is correct . . . the rules should say that units in Open
Formation can shock but at reduced effect.

>"I see is that it makes the Rebel militia runaway a no-brainer..." 

Well, that's pretty much what they did do every time (wekll, almost
every time). However, I've thought about this and decided on an expanded
rule for Reaction Fire . . . 

There are 3 typeds of Reaction Fire: Reaction to Fire, Reaction to
Movement, Reaction to attrampted Shock. The first is obvious and stays
the same . . . 

The next two are an eithe/or situation. 

A unit may use Reaction Fire when an enemy unit enters its ZOC/frontal
hexes, using the rules as written . . .. but if it does so on such
movement, -1 to FireDRM 

Or it can wait and use Shock Reactioin Fire, after the moving unit has
annoucned its attention to Shock. In this case, it must go thru the
Shock Reaciton dieroll mechanic, but gets a +1 to its Fire. 

Hope that covers everything . . . . 

Again, either/or . . . and it should add a bit of decision-making fun to the process.

Wonder why i didn't think of that originally . . . that's why these
games are living,. breathing creatures.

RHB

Elias Nordling  - Aug 22, 2005 4:45 am (#4756 Total: 4762)  
"Elias is God's gift to developers/designers . . . exactly which 
god we're not sure." RHB 	 

In the Cowpens scenario of Carolina Rebels, do the skirmishers get the
benefit of the special militia retreat rule too?

Elias Nordling - Aug 22, 2005 5:12 am (#4757 Total: 4762)  
"Elias is God's gift to developers/designers . . . exactly which 
god we're not sure." RHB 
	 
Hmm. It seems to me the historical Rebel tactic at Cowpens is kind of
pointless in the game. The sucessive lines of defense can do nothing
better than disrupt the attackers (and if they are charging cavalry,
they are disrupted no matter what, so there isn't even any point of
firing!), which is fast and easy to recover in the game.

Richard H. Berg  - Aug 22, 2005 8:06 am (#4759 Total: 4762)  
"I'll try to be nicer, if you try to be smarter" 	 

>"...do the skirmishers get the benefit of the special militia retreat rule too?" 

Yes . . . as a gnereal rule. However, here, perhaps, we can put in one
of those Battle Specific rules that reflect pre-battle orders. For the
Skirmishers, if they choose to Flee, instead of being Elikinated, they
are, instead, Disrodered, and placed within 2 hexes of Morgan. That
pretty much covers what happened . . .

>"The sucessive lines of defense can do nothing better than disrupt the attackers" 

That was the intent of the first two lines . . . it was Morgan's
regulars and then Washington's cavalry that broke the Brits.

RHB

Elias Nordling  - Aug 22, 2005 3:41 pm (#4760 Total: 4762)  
Elias is God's gift to developers/designers . . . exactly which god 
we're not sure." RHB 	 

>That was the intent of the first two lines . . . it was Morgan's
regulars and then Washington's cavalry that broke the Brits. 

I'm with you so far. But the cavalry will disorder itself no matter what
if it charges, so there's really no need to go through the combat
process. And if you get to continue, you can then immediately undo the
disorder and thus the work of the two first lines in a single
activation. This makes the work of the first two lines more or less
fruitless.

Richard H. Berg - Aug 23, 2005 10:12 am (#4761 Total: 4762)  
"I'll try to be nicer, if you try to be smarter" 	 

CAROLINA REBELS CHANGES

REACTION FIRE: There are 3 types of Reaction Fire: Reaction to Fire,
Reaction to Movement, Reaction to attempted Shock. The first is obvious
and stays the same . . . 

The next two are an either/or situation. 

A unit may use Reaction Fire when an enemy unit enters its ZOC/frontal
hexes, using the rules as written . . .. but if it does so on such
movement, -1 to Fire DRM 

Or it can wait and use Shock Reaction Fire, after the moving unit has
annoucned its attention to Shock. In this case, it must go thru the
Shock Reaciton dieroll mechanic, but gets a +1 to its Fire. 

# ******

SECOND DISORDER RESULTS: If a Disordered unit incurs a second Disorder
result from Fire it remains Disordered but must immediately Retire to
Reform; see below. .... 

Retire to Reform: Units forced to Retire to Reform are, at the instant
this result occurs, picked up and placed in, or within 2 hexes of, their
army’s Retire Hex (see the scenario for this). The unit is in Retired
status. To have retired status removed, that command must be activated,
upon which Retired status from all units in that command is removed, but
the units (which are now simply Disordered) can do no more that
activation. 

Retire Hexes: Cowpens: Continentals: 1509; Brits: 4709 Hobkirk:
Continentals: 1120; Brits: 3208 

# *****

FOR COWPENS: If Continental Militia Skirmishers choose to Flee, instead
of being Eliminated, they are, instead, Disordered, and placed within 2
hexes of Morgan.

RHB