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Hey there! I still consider myself fairly green when it comes to Warhammer since I've still only played barely ten or so proper games, so I don't know if this is something people have discussed before, but I still want other peoples opinion of this

Me and a friend came to the conclusion that we don't entirely agree with the way some of the movement works. Basically, if I have a unit (x) facing "South" and my opponent has a unit (y) facing "North" in this way:


All we are able to do is either move away, turn to face each-other (or away from each-other, if that seems like a good idea) or charge some other unit I didn't bother to add to the example. So, the rule-book says it would not be possible to both reform and charge at the same time. That is fine for balance and "realism" (Heh...). Yet, we still find it awfully silly that there is no option to make sort of a "disordered" charge, basically getting to grips with the enemy, but not getting the momentum of a proper charge and all the bonuses that carries with it.

So to "fix" this, we made a house rule;
"If you have a unit in a similar position to the above picture, you can, if you have a musician, reform to face the enemy, and "walk" into them.
You can also use a "wheel" maneuver to get into close combat, if it would be beneficial."
(I agreed to be able to march as well since his dwarfs have so little movement, forgetting they don't need to test for it. But I still think it is fair since my Ogres walk the same distance dwarfs are able to march so, eh...)

To balance this, and make it (hopefully) not seem as the best option all day- every day, there are some downsides as well.
1. The "charging" unit will not receive the charge bonus for combat resolution.
2. The "charging" unit will not get any of its extra effects for charging (for example no impact hits for ogres, no +1 strength for dwarfs and so on...)
3. The unit receiving the "charge" gets all it's usual bonuses for being charged (like dwarfs shield-wall, if charged at the front of course)

The "charging" unit will get flanking bonuses however, as it only seems right.

This to me seems fair enough, since by doing so, you will potentially expose a units flank or rear, opening for some pretty nasty charges.
I think this also would change up how charge redirecting would be done with saber-tusks and the likes, for better or for worse


I'm hoping the idea comes through clear, if not, just ask.

Now, I'd like to hear other, more experienced opinions on this idea. Thoughts?

I think you have just messed up my favorite troll tactic! Shame.

No, this isn't a good idea.

Reforming a unit to face another direction is at best a very disorderly task. A swift reform just represents the fact you are able to reform and still get some movement.

However, if you are right next to the enemy the act of reforming to face them will be too chaotic for your soldiers to both reform and attack them before the enemy is able to respond to your movement. It would simply disrupt the formation of the unit to much to do this.

It would also create balance issues, namely no charge reaction from the unit getting attacked.


The current system in fantasy works just fine. No need to change it.

I think it makes sense really, after all the commander just shouts "Run left men!" and bhamm you are now in combat, if a bit disorginised.

Personally I play that you can move a unit in any direction you like but anything other then forwards and its half speed.

Read a few (real) battle reports from the Middle Ages
basically two battle lines that smash into each other, one break, the other wins
There's a good reason there's not much in the way of fancy manoeuvers and wide flanking moves
A large mass of men doesn't respond well (if at all) to things it cannot perceive well

Reactions to the order "Enemies are on our left, CHARGE THEM!"
-front ranks kinda get it and try to move there
- further ranks get the start of the sentence, don't hear the end in the ruckus caused by armoured bodies shuffling around and panic because they got flanked > big mess
- back ranks hear a muffled "CHARGE something", they push forward .. into the panicked middle ranks

The unit dissolves into a big mess and half runs away, the rest following shortly

Hm. Yeah, I suppose it makes sense as soon as you up the scale, I've been looking at it from a very small scale still (roughly 1500.Pts), so a disorderly mob of six ogres going "Stunties left, get em'!" made sense to me
Make that, say, a unit of 40-50 dwarfs with two armies surrounding them and it will look quite different indeed, no matter how determined they may be

I guess my imagined and inexperienced idea of realism needs to make way for rules that work, and speed up an already (somewhat) clunky game.


We came up with it when I had a single sabertusk effectively charge block his 500 or so points of hammerers, BSB and lord from doing anything other than preparing to get charged or charge the lone sabertusk. Due to how I had it positioned and the whole "Closing the door" rule, charging it would accomplish nothing other than having them caught out of position with an open flank, so letting him move them into the Ironguts next to them made more sense in my head. (He still lost though).


Dunno' if I'll get the guy I play against (VERY small amount of players in my area) to play it the intended way for now though. Maybe if we had more people to play with, and got to play more often, it would never even had come up

Warhammer Ancients fixes that stupid version of "closing the door"
single miniatures, units under 5 models and skirmishers are the one that have to "close the door" and not the charging unit (as long as said charging unit is not itself part of the above list)
Also panic is more brutal in WAB as it kept most of the older WHFB rules for it. 12" panic bubble, fleeing units cause a 6" panic check BEFORE you can attempt to rally, BSB only affects break tests