River crossings and ENG

[waynebaumber]

Hi all,

This came up in Tony L and I's game in Indian Unity #5 "The Sugar Factory", and it concerns ENG, once they have moved into the river hex, other units them stack with the ENG after waiting a turn, they then begin to cross. My question is does the ENG have to activate to help them cross, the rules say the ENG has to stay in the hex but does not state if he has to activate. In our game we played as per the rules and the ENG fired in a separate activation. Was this correct?

[Matt W]

Wayne,

I have always played that the ENG is fully consumed with the crossing and therefore may not do anything else. In reviewing the language in the section you are right in that there is no statement that the ENG may not fire, simply that it may not move.

As a house rule I would continue to hold that they cannot fire if they have, or will assist a crossing. If they fire I would expect no crossing attempt to be made.

[waynebaumber]

Wayne,

I have always played that the ENG is fully consumed with the crossing and therefore may not do anything else.  In reviewing the language in the section you are right in that there is no statement that the ENG may not fire, simply that it may not move.

As a house rule I would continue to hold that they cannot fire if they have, or will assist a crossing.  If they fire I would expect no crossing attempt to be made.

Matt,

Seems logical to me, specially as soon as the ENG is Disrupted or Demoralized the whole stack is. One for Ed 5 of the rule-book.

[Greyfox]

Agreed on activation and inability to fire. I would cosider a river crossing a movement action, think ferries or assault craft, that the engineers are taking back and forth across the river. They facilitate the building of combat power on the enemy side of the river. As the bridgehead expands engineers can build a pontoon bridge or the forces in the bridgehead will either attack to secure a fording site or an actual bridge.