16 – Close Assault

CLOSE ASSAULT

All close assaults occur orthogonally. No diagonal attacks are permitted. The attacker can close assault from an orthogonal square adjacent to the defender, with any fighting bases that have unwounded SPs on them, and in addition, if there is more than one base close assaulting, must have a battalion command base in the assault.
The defender can defend with any base, on the position that is under attack, that has an unwounded SP on it. A prepared defender has no flanks or rear.
The attacker takes 1 die for each unwounded SP assaulting to a maximum of 3D6, and the defender takes 1 die for each unwounded SP defending, to a maximum of 2D6,
All the collected dice are rolled at once and matched up; attacker’s highest against defender’s highest and so on. Unmatched excess dice are ignored, equally matched dice are ties, the remaining winning dice each cause 1 casualty on the loser.
This sequence can be repeated up to the maximum of attacks that the attacker can roll (e.g. 4 times for veteran attackers), until the attacker wins, or gives up, or either side loses a break test. The whole assault from start to finish takes one move unless a result is not reached, in which case the combat may carry on for further attacks in the next hour.
Every point that the attacker wins allows one base to break into the position. Every point that the defender wins allows them to push an attacking base back out of the position.
Large positions may be broken down into smaller areas, each containing one or more defending bases.

SPECIAL ASSAULT RULES

VETERAN INFANTRY can close assault in the move that they win the firefight, inferior infantry assault in the next move. If veteran infantry take the position in their first round of close assault, after one round of firefight, then the action is complete from start to finish in one move.
TANK TERROR. Regular, or poorer troops who are unsupported by friendly tanks or effective anti-tank fire, have a 50% chance of surrendering to tanks attacking them for the first time (4 + on 1D6 to pass). If however the tanks press on and leave the area, the troops will go back to their positions and will automatically fight thereafter. This rule is intended for infantry facing predominantly tank units, not facing infantry or motorised infantry units supported by tanks.
TANKS IN CLOSE COUNTRY Once tank terror has been overcome, infantry in close country may choose to fire at all tanks in range that are stationary in their square, unsupported by infantry as if they were light targets. This represents the infantry’s ability to seek out a tank’s blind spots. Alternately, they may close assault the tanks as normal.
FOLLOW ON ATTACKS Having completed an attack sequence, the attacker can chose to fight or move on without pausing to reorganise. With the exception of unit overruns (see below) the subsequent moves count towards disorganisation as if the unit is still in battle. Reorganisation begins when the attacker stops moving, fighting, or being under fire, and takes one move out of combat, receiving no fire.
COUNTERATTACKS The defender may counter-attack if he has uncommitted troops to hand. If these are veteran (morale permitting) or elite they may do it immediately the attacker has taken the position. If the defender does this then all except veteran and elite attackers, who are still in supply, will count as disorganised. If the defender has Regular or worse troops, the counter-attack will go in in the next move (morale permitting). At this stage, the attacker may well still be disorganised. Properly timed, a counter-attack can be devastating; but it is a hard act to pull off.
UNIT OVERRUNS The exception is a unit which overruns another unit without having to fight it during the close assault phase, because the defender has no unwounded figures with which to resist the assault, or the unit is broken and therefore cannot resist.
Note: Unsupported tanks can overrun infantry positions that cannot cause casualties through anti-tank fire, without achieving fire superiority, but if the infantry do not break, surrender or withdraw due to morale, the tanks must continue on through the position or suffer attrition in subsequent moves from infantry close assault on the position.