This is the most critical and complex section of the rules.
Overview
Since all units have equals strength, one unit cannot attack and advance against another without help. That “help” is called support. If an attack is successful, the attacking unit moves into the province to which is was ordered. If the unit that was attacked had no orders of its own to move elsewhere, it is defeated and dislodged from the province. The dislodged unit must retreat or be disbanded. Retreats are explained later.
An army or fleet can provide support to another army or fleet. Support can be offensive (supporting an attacking move order). By supporting each other, attacking or defending units gain increased strength. For example, a unit holding with two supports has the strength of three : itself plus two supporters. Support can be provided to a fellow unit or to another empire’s unit. Support can be given without consent and cannot be refuses! This causes some wonderfully unexpected moments in the game.
A unit moves its own strength combined with all of its valid supports. Unless it is opposed by a unit that is equally or better supported, it can complete its move. One unit supporting another provides a combined strength of two and so will defeat an opponent’s unit that is unsupported. Likewise, a unit with two supporting units (strength of 3) will defeat an opponent’s unit with only one support (strength of 2).
How to support
A unit gives up the chance to move on a turn in order to support another unit’s order. The province to which a unit is providing support must be one to which the supporting unit could have legally moved during that turn. Thus, an army in Brest (bre) cannot support a fleet in the English Channel (ENG) because an army can’t move into a water province. Likewise, a fleet in Rome (rom) cannot support a unit’s move to Venice (ven) because, although adjacent by land, the fleet cannot move to Venice from Rome.
A fleet that can move to a province with two separate coasts (a fleet in the Mid-Atlantic (MID), for example) can support another army or fleet into that province (in this case Spain (spa)), without regard to separate coastlines.
Supporting a unit
- A unit not ordered to move can be supported by a support order that only mentions its province. A unit that is ordered to hold, convoy, support or not ordered at all can receive support in holding its position.
- A unit ordered to move can only be supported by a support order that matches the move the unit is trying to make. The support fails if the move it is supporting is not the move that was ordered. In any case, a offensive support never becomes a defensive support.