Confusion

As astute readers will have gathered, there are several situations where units become confused. Confusion often happens in the Combat phase when a unit is forced to move into other troops or impassable terrain or in the Shooting phase when a unit is driven back by missile fire. For convenience, we have summarised all the circumstances where units can become confused in this section.

When do units become confused?

  1. Burst through by evaders.

    Unengaged friendly units burst through by evaders are automatically confused. Such units won’t be able to move further during that Command phase but recover at the end of the Command phase and so suffer no further penalties that turn. See the Movement section for more details.

  2. Driven back by shooting.

    A unit is confused if it is driven back by shooting and any dice roll for the drive back distance is a 6. See the rules for driving back enemies in the Shooting phase section.

  3. Driven back/falling back into impassable terrain.

    If a unit is driven back by shooting into terrain it can’t cross, or is unable to avoid falling back into terrain it can’t cross, it will halt at the edge and is confused on the D6 roll of a 6. See driving back enemies in the Shooting phase section.

  4. Driven back/falling back into enemies or combat.

    A unit driven back by shooting into, or unable to avoid falling back into, enemies or any units engaged in combat, whether friends or foe, halts 1cm away and is automatically confused. See driving back enemies in the Shooting phase section.

  5. Unable to Fall back to 1cm from enemy or combat

    If unit Falls Back from combat and is unable to move so that it is at least 1cm from any enemy unit, or any friendly unit that is engaged in combat, then it is confused automatically.

  6. Forcing friends to make way.

    If a unit is driven back by shooting, retreats from combat, or is unable to avoid falling back, through a friendly unengaged unit, the player has the option of moving the friendly unit to make way. A unit which moves into friends forcing them to make way will become confused on the D6 roll of a 6. See the rules for Making way later in this section.

  7. Driven back through friends who do not make way.

    A unit driven back by shooting so that it intersects a friendly unengaged unit that the player is unable or unwilling to move to make way is automatically confused. The unit that has been driven back halts upon contact; the friendly unit does not have to roll for confusion as it is not making way.

  8. Making way.

    A unit that makes way for another unit is confused on the D6 roll of a 6. See the rules for Making way later in this section.

    Stands which are forced to retreat from combat into unyielding friends, enemies, units in combat and impassable terrain are destroyed. Hence the possibility of confusion is not considered! See the Combat phase section for details on retreats from combat.

    Note that it is quite possible that a unit has to roll multiple times for confusion as a result of a single move – for example, for making way and for forcing friends to make way at the same time. In these situations make the appropriate number of tests.

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Confused units

A confused unit is judged to have become disheartened or disordered. The troops are unwilling or unable to obey their officers and in combat they fight either unenthusiastically or in a poorly coordinated fashion. The unit remains confused until the end of its Command phase. At the end of its Command phase the unit automatically recovers.

  1. A unit which is confused cannot use Initiative and it cannot be issued Orders. This means that a confused unit will not usually be able to move at all in the Command phase. See the Command phase and Flying Units. Note that confused units are able to move in other phases and must do so where the rules require it.

  2. Whilst it is confused, a unit suffers a −1 Attack modifier in combat. Units commonly become confused during combat if retreating units are forced back into unengaged friends. See the Combat phase.

  3. A confused infantry unit cannot support in combat. See the Combat phase.

When a unit becomes confused, it is a good idea to make this visually apparent in some way. A convenient method is to ‘jiggle’ the stands into an irregular formation to represent disorder in the ranks. The unit can then be rearranged back into formation at the end of its Command phase. If a confused unit is in combat it is often better to use a marker or turn a stand round, as disturbing the unit’s formation may make it hard to work out retreat moves.

Making way

Unengaged units are allowed to make way for friendly troops that have been driven back, that are retreating or that are themselves making way as a result of a drive back or retreat. Units that are engaged in combat, constricted by terrain or unable to move for whatever reason cannot make way.

When a unit makes way, stands can move up to the normal move distance for their formation. When a unit makes way, it can either move aside or move back.

Moving aside

When moving aside, all stands in the path of the friendly unit are moved and all other stands remain stationary. The player rearranges the stands that move around the stands that remain stationary. If the entire unit lies within the path of the friendly unit then all stands must be moved, in this case the player begins with the stand that must move the shortest distance to get out of the path of its friends. This stand is moved the shortest distance out of the path of its friends without changing its orientation. The remaining stands are then rearranged into formation around the first. Note that units that are moving aside can change their formation as they do so. See Figure 1.

moving aside
Figure 1.
troll

Moving back

When moving back, a unit simply keeps pace with its friend and moves in the same direction. The move doesn’t necessarily need to be to the unit’s ‘back’. In the case of infantry units that are making way for other infantry units when all the stands of the unit that is making way lie in the path of the friendly unit, it can be moved behind its friends and stands can be arranged into support. See Figure 2.

move back
Figure 2.

Making way for friendly troops may result in several units shifting, each moving aside to allow room for the next unit. All units that move to make way, plus the original unit, must test for confusion as described already. The original unit will have to test for each unit that it forces to make way, so the more units it moves through the more likely it is to become confused.

Units making way cannot move into contact with enemies or units engaged in combat. Otherwise, the usual rules apply, eg. units cannot move over impenetrable terrain, must maintain formation, and so on.

Units which are unable to make way or which the player refuses to move to make way are considered to be ‘unyielding friends’. A unit forced against unyielding friends halts on contact and becomes confused automatically (see earlier). A unit retreating from combat is destroyed if forced into unyielding friends (see Combat, blocked retreats.

Note that making way does sometimes give units the opportunity to redress formations to their benefit. Making way is not necessarily a disadvantage other than the attendant risk of confusion.

soldier mace