Wish list (1)

[Eckerslyke]

One thing about stacking that many skirmishers in a hex they lose the defensive bonus of skirmishers and take fire just like a formed unit.

But I think you can only select one of the group as the target, so however severe the firing may be upon the hex, all but one of the skirmishing groups will escape unscathed from each volley. It also makes it possible for them to fire in all directions, like a square, but (not sure, but I suspect) without the same reduction in firing effectiveness which a unit in square would suffer. And 'friendly fire' casualties would be an inevitable side-effect.

My feeling is that there are perhaps only three occasions when a skirmisher unit would be formed in a real-world battle. 1) when the unit commander wants to extend his unit's influence by occupying an adjacent or nearby hex, or 2) to leave a group in occupation of the current hex while the formed unit moves away, or 3) to have the skirmisher group stay in the same hex with the formed unit, providing all-round firing capability while the main unit's facing remains the same (like a sort of rear- or flank-guard). Please correct me here if I'm wrong.

If I'm right, then using them in any different way in our virtual battles undermines realism. So I'm strongly inclined to feel that an upper limit of one skirmisher unit per hex (unless forced there by enemy action) would be a reasonable restriction.