polearm and charging a third party

[mikemonaco]

Ran a playtest with my group last week and we disagreed about how to handle the following situation:
Fighter A, B, and C are all against all -- no sides or allies.
Fighter A is engaged with Fighter B, who has a spear.
Fighter C charges A, moving perpendicularly to B

<------C
A
B

Can B claim the polearm bonus attacking C?

YES: C charged
NO: C did not charge B or an ally of B. Also, his movement was not really toward B per se, so it is hard to see B as setting to recieve a charge
But YES: phalanxes worked that way, you poke the guy who charged the guy in front of you

I'm not really sure what the right call is. The RAW don't really say who the charger has to charge. Maybe I'm overthinking this?

[hcobb]

Is the final result that they are all adjacent or is A at range one to C and B while C and B are two spaces from each other?

[Shostak]

From my reading of your battlefield situation, Fighter C charges A, but does not engage B, so B does not get the bonus defending against a charge. This is consistent with the prohibition against getting the charge bonus from a 2-hex distance. If C engaged both A and B when moving to attack A, B would get the bonus.

[Skarg]

The defensive bonuses for receiving a charge apply to anyone:
* who was not adjacent to you at the start of this turn, and
* who moved adjacent to you this turn, and
* is in your adjacent front hex when
* you have a ready polearm.

It doesn't matter what option the target is taking, who he's friends with, etc.

[larsdangly]

Skarg is correct; who is on whose side doesn't matter. What matters is range and facing after C arrives. If adjacent to and in B's front hex then the bonus vs. charge applies, if not then it doesn't

[mikemonaco]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Is the final result that they are all adjacent or is A at range one to C and B while C and B are two spaces from each other?

A and B are adjacent to C but not to each other

[larsdangly]

Your OP says A and B are engaged with each other; how can they not be adjacent?

[mikemonaco]

Originally Posted by Skarg

The defensive bonuses for receiving a charge apply to anyone:
* who was not adjacent to you at the start of this turn, and
* who moved adjacent to you this turn, and
* is in your adjacent front hex when
* you have a ready polearm.

It doesn't matter what option the target is taking, who he's friends with, etc.

Thanks!
I think what hunging us is this on p. 111:

"A charge attack is defined as an attack in which the attacker moves from a non-adjacent hex to a hex adjacent to his target."

Without the context on jabbing on p. 112

"A jab is a regular attack. A polearm user may not “charge”
to a hex 2 hexes away from his victim and jab for extra
damage; a jab only does normal damage, no matter how the
polearm user or his target had moved."

B was trying to jab at C and still get the charge bonus. Now it's clear why he wouldn't be able to. If C had ended adjacent to B, he could use the charge bonus, even though he charged someone else.

[mikemonaco]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

Your OP says A and B are engaged with each other; how can they not be adjacent?

Sorry I mistyped. A and B are adjacent. C ends adjacent to A but not B.

[]C
B
A

(Brackets to put C at 30 degrees, B is not in a hex directly between A & C, B can jab at C

[larsdangly]

We're getting closer, but just to be clear, did you mean:

[]C
A
B