Break Tests and Combat Reform

A Break test is a Leadership test, but first the difference between the winner's and loser's combat result is applied as a penalty to the loser's Leadership. If the 2D6 roll is at or under that modified value, the unit holds and the combat continues next turn; over it, the unit breaks and flees. This modified Leadership is used only for the Break test itself and any combat reform attempt that follows.

For example, a unit with Leadership 8 that lost by 3 tests against a modified Leadership of 5 -- rolling a 7 fails, since it's higher than 5, so the unit breaks and flees.

A unit with higher Unit Strength than its enemy (and at least Unit Strength 10 itself, with a rank of five or more models including the front rank) is Steadfast -- it takes its Break test on its own unmodified Leadership, ignoring the loss penalty entirely, no matter how badly the round was lost. Disrupted units and Skirmishers can never be Steadfast.

A unit that doesn't flee can attempt to bring more of its models to bear with a combat reform -- easier for the winning side, but possible even for a disciplined unit that lost.

A unit that wins the round (and the enemy doesn't flee, or the round was a draw) may immediately make a combat reform -- an ordinary reform except its centre point doesn't have to stay fixed, most often used to turn and face an enemy that hit its flank or rear, or to widen its frontage. Three restrictions apply: it can't reform to take a model (friend or foe) out of base contact if it was in contact before the reform; it can't reform to contact a different facing of any enemy it's already touching, though it may end up touching a different enemy model on that same facing; and its forward arc must stay in base contact with an enemy unit throughout.

A unit that loses but doesn't flee can still attempt a combat reform, by first passing a Leadership test (using the same loss-penalty modifier as its Break test, or its unmodified Leadership if Steadfast). Failing the test means no reform; passing allows the same combat reform described above.

If both sides want to reform, resolve any required Leadership tests first, then roll off to see who reforms first. A unit engaged on more than one facing at once can't make a combat reform at all. In a multiple combat where one unit flees, reforms happen only after every pursuit move is resolved. If two units end up only partially in base contact (most often because a rear-charged enemy lost its rear-rank casualties first), the lower-Unit-Strength unit is shifted sideways -- after any other reform -- until every front-rank model on both sides is back in contact.