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Hi,

I'm trying to get my head around the rules well enough so that when I persuade the wife to have a game, I'm less likely to just have my head stuck in the rules page flicking to work out how things work - when this happens, the game usually ends up never played again :-(
I was hoping there was a "basics" sheet to download, but what I thought was that turned out to be the Karist/Epirian weapon summary sheets. My wife enjoys Bolt Action because we can nearly play it from their summary sheet (eg. Bolt Action ref sheet)
Is there anything similar in the works for Maelstrom's Edge to help us get started?


Anyway, I had a few questions pop up in my head when trying to sort out CQ fighting as I read the rules.

Close Quarters Fighting

Step 1: I charge
Step 2: Opponent gets Defensive fire
Step 3: I perform CQ attacks with the models that survived
Step 4: If I cause 1 hit they make a Discipline check.
(next step assuming they don't retreat)
Step 5: Opponent attacks back with CQ attacks


My questions:

1. Does the opponents CQ return attack (Step 5 above) force discipline checks/retreat on the original attacker?

2. In a face off if a Charge order is issued is there defensive fire?

3. In a face off, can a player just make an Advance & Fire option and just move out of combat and then shoot at the other unit that was in the face off, without any repercusions from being in melee? (other than the opponent most likely getting defensive fire as the range is likely to be 6" or less)


Thanks.

We are currently working on a general play summary page (should be out within a week or two tops, hopefully). Although to be honest, due to how much info you can really fit onto a double-sided page (and you don't want to do any more than that or the 'summary' pages start to become quite cumbersome), its more of just a very general checklist of the steps needed to resolve stuff like shooting, CQ fighting and page number references to the RB on where to find those sections if you don't remember how to resolve them. Although, I've found even having that to be a big help to me in my games.

---

CQ fighting in MEdge is much more abstracted than some games (like the current edition of 40K), so it can certainly cause some head-scratching moments until you kind of 'get' that CQ fighting is just occurring in the general vicinity of where the two units are located (and not specifically where the individual models might happen to be at the time). When two units finish CQ fighting still in contact with each other ('facing off'), really the only way that affects the game is that other units wanting to shoot at either of the facing off units automatically counts them as fleeting targets (as they are hard to hit properly without hitting friendly models). There isn't any kind of 'locking' units in combat in this game.


As to your specific questions:

1) Yep, page 65 does mention that reactive CQ fighting can cause a CQ discipline check (which, if failed, causes the unit to retreat).

2) Yep. It could have been worded a bit better, but even if none of the models in the charging unit have to move (cause they're still in base contact with the enemy), they still count as making a charge move, still trigger defensive fire, and still count as having moved when resolving that defensive fire.

3) Yep. They can totally leave and if they move more than 6" and then fire, the unit they were previously fighting would not get to fire defensively at them.

Thanks for the reply.
Those are pretty much how I'd interpreted them - I just hadn't convinced myself I'd read it clearly enough.

I have no qualms about 'locking units' in close combat. My current favourite ruleset (Iron Cross) just treats CQ fighting as another round of shooting with no locking of units, so that's never going to be a problem.

I'll look forward to the rules summary. I realise condensing a rulebook onto a few pages would be impossible, but it's always great to have the basics to hand - especially since I haven't dared 'break the spine' on my rulebook and it shuts itself so I can't leave it open on a desired page on the gaming table.

Thanks again.