Line Battle Rules Discussion

[joethepro36]

2.) Reforming the line during a charge is frequently done, especially when the opposing team is fighting with two separate lines. However, the 29th have in the past had encounters where the opposing clan would basically sit behind cover, charge out of cover and then, after everyone has fired a free shot on the opponent, reform the line again behind cover. This offers minimum risk, yet almost the same (or even more) possibilities to hurt the enemy line as a regular volley. How do we want to prevent this from happening?

This is a really good point to make and I appreciate you bring it up.

Reforming a line during or after a charge is something I do on occasion if the situation demands it. My gut instinct is to say that a referee in match should be the judge here whether or not it is permissible in the moment. Obviously doing it at long range to avoid counter-fire from an enemy line is abusing the rules here but reforming the line to reload and get another shot ready for a charge on a second line at close range is okay imo so long as the line is entirely formed up when reloading and standing still during the reload.

[Unas]

as the line is entirely formed up when reloading and standing still during the reload.

Usually in the 29th we always handled it like the first charge of a round. As soon as you want to charge, it is okay to break formation. The line started to reload while in line (immediately after the last volley) so we finish reloading while already spreading out. So in case we want to reform the line during a charge, we usually just reform, make a line, reload and spread out and continue charging again while reloading. We may also do this in case a skirmishing party is spread out a lot. We finish off one part of them, then reload and attack the other part.
We do this so the team that won the actual linebattling part of the round maintains its advantage and skirmishing does not get too powerful. But that is subject of discussion.
But yes, the general idea of having a referee to prevent the original problem is the only good solution I can think of at this point.


Another question would be about counter-skirmishing. Say we start skirmishing in a close round after reaching skirmish numbers first. So say a 3v4 situation. What happens when we shoot one or even two of the charging guys? The enemy has then also reached skirmish numbers or has even less guys than the original skirmishing group. I dislike counter-skirmishing in general since it can become quite tedious if two opposing teams are just hiding and reloading for minutes and minutes. However, if you want to forbid counter-skirmishing, a close round could just become a battle on who gets down to skirmish numbers first and there are simple ways on how to abuse that.
In the 29th the general way on handling it would be to stop skirmishing as soon as the charging team has reached lower numbers than the skirmishing team. We would then issue a counter-charge. That means, reloading will be permitted then and we will go on the offensive again. I would like to know how other clans see this matter, since again, this is one of those issues that may be subject to change and is not discussed in any fundamental linebattle rules.

[Darktum]

I am hoping they do not block LOS, but the question would be better added to errata in addition to other modeling concerns. As is the rules as written actually say it would block LOS.