Initial Contact, Skirmishing and Deployment Zones: Part I

When one army's force enters an occupied town or location for the first time, there will be some kind of contact as it enters the map. The location and extent of this initial contact is influenced by the orders given to the advancing units and deployment zone. The orders dictate the extent of initial contact and the deployment zones limit the potential locations of the contact.

The advancing army will have a lead division and a lead brigade for that division. The lead brigade will have at least one regiment out in front as skirmishers. The defending army will have at least one regiment per division on a skirmish line, with skirmishers being across the main roads leading from other towns.  When at force enters a map, its skirmishers will advance down the road until they make contact with enemy skirmishers. Depending on the orders given, this could result in:

1. The advancing division stopping out of musket range, bringing up a battery and shelling the enemy skirmish line (Division Movement Stance Orders: Cautious)

2. The advancing division's skirmishers move forward and engage the enemy skirmishers and the rest of the division waits to the rear (Division Movement Stance Orders: Probe)

3. The advancing division's skirmishers engage and the rest of the division pushes forward, supported by any other arriving divisions, in an attempt to drive back the skirmishers and strike any enemy main line present (Division Movement Stance Orders: Aggressive).

Cautious players may want to avoid any engagement when entering a map, other than shelling the enemy. This allows the player to deploy and better plan the next steps, but.... it will not gather much intelligence and loses much of the initiative on the field. If the enemy is not visible, the skirmishers will not advance into the defending deployment zone in the map.

A Probe stance will result in skirmishing along the main road between lines. The skirmishers may take prisoners (men reported missing by the enemy at the end of the turn). If prisoners are taken, the enemy division from which they came will be identified in the turn report. Skirmishers may also get close enough to view parts of the enemy main line.  Action is likely to be between deployment zones or at the edges of the deployment zones.

An Aggressive stance takes on full initiative for the fight and attempts to strike the enemy main line. This is a bold move that makes it more difficult for the enemy to react to an attack by moving the advancing force to the front quickly and trying to engage and tie down elements of the enemy line. Forces with an aggressive could penetrate into the defender's deployment zone in the first turn.

The only way that there would not be contact on the 1st Turn that an army enters a map is if they had a cautious stance and the defending enemy was deployed so deep in their defending zone that the advancing force could not see their skirmish line. (Of course, if the defending force was deployed deep in their defending zone and the advancing force had a probe or aggressive stance, they advancing army would enter well into the defending deployment zone in their first turn on the map.) Something to think about when it comes to deployment and marching orders....

See rules 4.1.2, 4.2.2, and 4.3.6