Cavalry (or Infantry) Blocking the Road....To Concentrate or Not to Concentrate

I just got a question from AOA concerning whether there are ways that infantry can go around cavalry that it encounters on the march.  This is a question to highlights what could become a strategic dilemma during the campaign: To concentrate or not to concentrate?

When infantry is on the march and first runs into cavalry on the road, it is likely to be in the midst of a turn. If there is no tactical engagement going on anywhere else in the campaign theatre, (and if the cavalry has not been division a “do not engage” order), it will result in a skirmish that will happen during the turn and before the Division Commander even gets a report. The cavalry will engage the infantry and the infantry will automatically and aggressively attack the cavalry and try to remove from the map utilizing the divisions default marching order, default formations, etc.

If the cavalry does not have “do not engage” orders and does not have a “hold” order, it will fight until it has lost about 5% of its men and then it will withdraw from the locality (map). If this happens within 30 minutes, the infantry will keep marching and the turn will continue. At the end of the turn, the commander of the infantry division will get a report that they drove off cavalry at a certain location and continued the march. The opposing Army Commander will get a report from the cavalry that it encountered infantry at a given location and was driven back.

If the cavalry has a “hold” order, it will attempt to stay on the map at all costs and infantry map not pass it until it has been routed and is done for the day. It will have 30 minutes to route the cavalry during the turn. If this does not happen, the turn will end with infantry having engaged and cavalry still occupying the map and blocking the road. Both armies will then have the option (it is an option and not a requirement) of force marching some or all of its divisions to that locations. When Army Headquarters receives such a report, the dilemma begins: To concentrate, or not to concentrate.

The enemy (who put the cavalry on hold there) may be planning to concentrate forces there for some reason. Or the enemy may be sacrificing cavalry in order to do something else somewhere else. Will the army whose infantry engage concentrate there? Or will the enemy continue with his plans and not re-enforce the division that engaged? You could send everything to that map. Or could send an extra division or two to try to see if the enemy concentrates and hold on for 30 minutes for more units to be force marched there in the following turn. Or you hold your infantry division with orders to withdraw if faced by a larger force and prepare to concentrate in the location to which the division withdraws.

Basically, if infantry runs into cavalry that isn’t brushed away in 30 minutes, the joys of high command begin…. To concentrate, or not to concentrate…  It may be one of the most difficult questions to answer in WIA3.