Units moving out of 'Difficult' terrain.

[T13A]

Hi

Just a generic query, say in the rules you play that units move at half speed in woods and you have a unit in 'march column' (for sake of argument) where the front of the column has moved out of the woods but part of it is still in the woods, on its next turn does it get a full move or does it still move at half speed (just using woods as an example of 'difficult terrain)? 

Just wondering if there is a general consensus on this or people play it in different ways.

Cheers Paul

[Raider4]

Just a generic query, say in the rules you play that units move at half speed in woods and you have a unit in 'march column' (for sake of argument) where the front of the column has moved out of the woods but part of it is still in the woods, on its next turn does it get a full move or does it still move at half speed (just using woods as an example of 'difficult terrain)? 

If any of the unit is still on the woods, then you still get the half speed move. Surely? At least until you clear the woods.

[fred.]

We play that if any part of the unit is still in the terrain, then the whole unit is slowed by the terrain. 

But once they clear the terrain they can move at full speed, for the rest of that turn. 

Eg, a unit has a 6" move speed, and the wood costs double the move distance. 

They start in the middle of the wood, can move 3". Say that gets the unit half out of the wood, so that only 1" of the base is still in the wood, then next turn they move 1" out of the wood (costing 2" of movement) then can move a further 4" in the rest of the turn in the open. 

[Last Hussar]

I'd go with worst modifier any part of the unit is in, like Raider. I always assume unit footprint on the table is the area the unit takes up on the field.

Consider the unit approaching where the woods are only part of the frontage. The following example is for a horse and musket line, 4 bases wide:

There are woods that blocks the rightmost base as the unit advances. This would block the base - they can't move at full speed because of woods. The rest of the unit would have to slow to keep the line intact.

[Chris Pringle]

In the rules we usually use (BBB), if any part of the unit is in Difficult Terrain at the start of the turn, the unit incurs both an activation penalty and (if it manages to activate) a movement penalty.

[Big Insect]

I think the issue is not a problem when you talk about a single unit, as that is either in the terrain (restricted) or out of the terrain (not restricted).
The challenge occurs when you have a formation (order group) where some of the units are in the terrain and some of the units are out of the terrain.
As a general rule - I'd played it that if you want to order the entire formation as one entity, then the whole formation moves at the rate of the slowest. That seems logical to me, as the commanding officer would be trying to keep the formation in order.
If he/you wanted the units outside the terrain to move ahead, you'd give them a separate order to do so, dropping those in the wood from the formation for command purposes. Or you could drop the units outside the terrain and attempt to order the units in the terrain to move around them and out of the terrain.

[steve_holmes_11]

It depends...

I dislike little fiddly mechanics.
These mostly revolve around movement, facing, terrain interactions and who can charge.

DBA and its successors were revolutionary in their day, and brought a lot of good to a hobby beset with turgid rules.
Their downside was elevating millimetrics to a kind of religion.
Volumes dedicated to "Optimal mooning strategies" and the Khazar mounted drill team".

No set of rules survives contact with a determined player.
I'm becoming a lot more interested in grid based games which cut out much of the fiddle.

Now - bring on the mooning Khazars!!

[Last Hussar]

Just an aside.

How was it regulated in real life? How did they stop the head of a column rushing off while the end was still slowed by terrain?

Not rules related or anything, just wondering.

[Big Insect]

Just an aside.

How was it regulated in real life? How did they stop the head of a column rushing off while the end was still slowed by terrain?

Not rules related or anything, just wondering.

I suspect, from what I've read, that the rarest of commodities 'common-sense' tended to prevail 
If the vehicles at the head of the column, out of the bad going and enjoying the sunshine, were not under an immediate threat/fire they'd probably be happy to await their lumbering colleagues and one suspects that their junior officers would be encouraging that. Keeping the units in formation etc.

However, if ordered to move on at full speed or in an attempt to find some better cover to obscure or protect themselves from enemy shooting, then they'd use their Initiative and I'd suggest they be going hell-for-leather!

But whether there was any clear doctrinal approach I am not sure. I've not read of one.

[Last Hussar]

I'm thinking more pre 20th century, especially 'something and Musket'. If you have a brigade in what rules refer to as 'March column', once the head of the unit (say battalion) is free of the woods, how did the officers stop them marching off as a natural pace, leaving the last companies behind?

[Ithoriel]

I suspect that in the horse and musket era one tried to keep formed troops out of things like woods unless there was a road (or at least a track) running through it.

If it became unavoidable then, assuming they didn't emerge from the wood to find themselves in close proximity to the enemy they would advance a short distance to make room for the following elements, dress ranks no doubt and wait contentedly for everyone else to catch up.

Personally I prefer rules which make you stop at the edge of things like a wood, move slowly through the wood and make you stop on exiting the wood if slow speed takes the whole unit clear of the edge.

Moving through woods and built up areas was not something most pre-modern armies seem to have been keen on unless in skirmish order. Moving in to them to take up defensive positions becomes more of a thing once firearms make it an effective tactic.