By Fire and Sword (what we did right and wrong first game)

Jeff and I played our first By Fire and Sword second edition battle. The following are little things we got right and wrong on our first try.

Change Facing Action. (4.3.6) While turning the Unit can not enter the zone of control of an enemy. I think this was more luck than actually knowing the rule. At one point Jeff changed facing and rotated his unit 90 degrees to shoot in the back of the Cossacks. This was actual legal as he did not enter the zone of control of the Cossacks. (i.e one inch away). Just something to keep in mind.

Jeff's Musketeer Squadron was in a Defence Order so get two AP. One was used to change facing 90 degrees and the next was for shooting. This we got wrong. When shooting at units engaged in close combat, do not forget rule 6.4. A unit that is in contact with enemy Units may be target of a fire. In this case, after the Target tests for resilience and assigns disorder tokens, each unit in contact with the Target must make a moral test. The Threat level of a test is equal to the number of failures in the To Hit Roll an no other Threat modifiers are applied to it. If the Threat is 0, the moral test is not taken. 

So in this case Jeff's Dragons would have to take a moral test with the failures of the to hit roll. 

The other thing I think we got wrong was the shooting. I think we reversed the rules. Shooting at Effective range is done with the stats on the card. Shooting done at Direct range (4 inches or less) get to reroll all failures to hit.

Moral check(8.2.2) for Unit being shot at. The treat is equal to the number of disorders taken. You get a +1 if you fired at effective or direct range and the shooting Unit's primary reference point is in the side or rear zone. So in the case of Jeff's Musketeer squadron shooting at my Cossacks Style Cavalry, he would reroll his failures to hit and when the Cossacks test moral they would have a threat of all the disorders +1. I think we were adding 1 threat for being shot at. This is not a thing.

Retreat Action. (4.3.5) This we also got wrong. A unit moves backwards (REF on the back edge) within the Movement Arc. So you do not have to move straight back. Not a real big deal in our battle, but just a reminder that you do not have to move straight back.

Disengage (7.4.6) This is a must read for Units that have Excellent Riders. (So all the players playing PLC) A cavalry Unit with the open Order or Excellent Riders rule may conduct a Disengage after any close combat, after which it continues to remain in contact with the enemy (even if it did not charge and did not win the combat) However if the Unit did not win the combat then it must change the Order Token to Regroup.

So if you win the combat, the excellent rider rule allows you to disengage and keep your melee order token.

Close combat resolution. (7.4.5) If you win the combat and decide to pursue, you keep your Melee Order. If you refrain from Pursue, you can make change facing as a Free Action. Cavalry can only refrain if the commander performs an intervention for one order.

End Phase (2.4) I might be wrong here, but at end phase we were removing regroup orders. I can not find anywhere in the rules were it states this. In my opinion, if a unit has a regroup order it will remain with the regroup order until it is changed. Start Phase (2.1) states that you turn over all face up tokens. No mention of removing regroup tokens. 

Army Motivation. (11) As I was walking around I found that almost everyone was doing this one wrong. The army moral must be checked every turn at end phase or when you lose a unit. If you lose a unit and the cost was silver your Army moral goes down by 1 immediately. If the cost was Gold then it goes down 2 immediately. Starting at the second round, at the End Phase the player controls less key areas or objective Markers than the opponent -1 Army moral. This happens every round after round 2. So it is really important to contest all the objectives. At the End Phase the player has fewer Units within 12 inches of their own table edge than the opponent -1 Army Moral. So if your opponent decides to leave forces behind, make sure you match these forces.

Ammunition. You only get a limited amount of ammunition. Pistol for close combat and Ammo loads for shooting. They are not interchangeable. So unless you use a standard action to reload (4.3.1) you have none left. (i.e. after your first charge you can not use pistols again) I think I got this one wrong.

Well I think this is most of the mistakes we made.