Contact in assault

[Theophanes]

Hi comrades!

On p.40, Assault – Contact, the text says: "a unit must contact the nearest visible base edge of the enemy unit and each base edge may only be contacted by one unit."
Does this mean that if I have two units in the enemy unit's front arc that are both able to make contact, only one of them can actually contact that front edge?
And what about the second unit — if it has enough movement, can it move around to contact one of the flanks instead, or must it remain in support of the first unit?

Thank you for your help

[Big Insect]

You are correct.
If you have 2 units to the front of an enemy unit and both are in assault range, the 1st unit contacts the front edge of the enemy unit - it is the primary attacker.
The 2nd unit, if it has enough range to assault, can hit either one of the enemy units flanks, to act as supporting the 1st attacker.

If you had 3 units and each of the 2 supporting units had enough range to hit the 2 opposing flanks, then they can both hit and both support.

Similarly, if you had 4 units and enough range, then the fourth unit could also hit the rear edge of the assaulted unit.

However, all the criteria for a unit to be able to assault will apply to each of the 4 units.
So getting 4 units to hit on all 4 sides of a unit in a single assault move is actually a challenge but it can be done, with careful planning.
Cheers
Mark

[Theophanes]

I'm not sure I understand that:

Just to clarify: in the first example (with only two units), are both units considered assaulting units and therefore contributing their full combat factors?
Or is only one unit treated as the actual assaulting unit, with the other counting as support (and therefore only adding +1 die), even if it makes contact on a flank?