Melee

Two units are in melee when their bodies meet on the same row, or on an adjacent row. Contact uses each unit's body plus a short melee slack past the hard The Map|footprint, so chargers can lock without walking into each other. Both sides strike with their melee speed and melee damage. While locked, a unit holds still unless it is Retreating or being pushed back. See Orders.

A charging unit gets its charge bonus on those hits. It also gets its flank bonus when it is on the adjacent row, or on the same row and behind its target. Flank uses melee reach along the lane (footprint plus that same slack). Only the charger gains the flank bonus. When several enemies are in melee reach, a unit always prefers a target it is flanking. Dragoons use a larger flank bonus. Lancers use a normal flank bonus and a larger charge bonus. Hussars gain a pack bonus for every other friendly Hussar in melee reach. Charge, and what you can order in melee, are on Orders. Those unit differences are on Units.

Pushback. Only a Charging unit applies melee pushback. Each charge hit adds that unit's melee pushback to the target's pushback counter. When the counter reaches the pushback-per-pace threshold, the target owes a pace back toward its own keep. Stacked paces apply one instant step per tick. If the target cannot step back because a friendly blocks it, that pace is still spent and the target gains fatigue instead. Targets already moving toward their keep (Retreat, Fall Back, charge reverse, or easing back around a friendly) ignore new pushback and clear pending paces. Grenadiers take half of all incoming pushback. See Fatigue and Breaking and Shooting.

How the bonuses combine is on Damage. Units do not shoot a unit that is already in melee, and a brief gap after contact still counts as locked for shooting. The Keep may still be shot while units are meleeing it. See Shooting.