Sidearms v Polearms

[charla51]

It was late last night and we may have got this wrong, but it appeared that a figure on foot with a sidearm cannot strike a pole-armed figure on foot in one-to-one combat. What happened was that the two figures engaged at 1" distance; the pole-arm lost the fight (but cannot be struck) and backed off 1".
It appears to us that even if the sidearmed figure was charging, and followed up 1", he would still be out of reach of the pole-armed figure to be able to fight and strike.
If a pole-armed figure is outnumbered, can he be engaged base-to-base by the extra opponents?
Hope this makes sense. And many thanks in advance.

[Ebob]

The circumstance under which this would occur are probably quite rare. With just two models engaging in this manner - the sidearmed model is free to move and if he hasn't moved yet he may move to base contact.
This situation can only occur if the sidearmed model has moved first and either moved to within 1" of the pole armed model (which was a dumb move) or the pole armed model has moved second. In the first round you're right that the sidearm model cannot return blows, but in the second round he may get to move first - in which case he moves to base contact and egages the pole armed model.

[george]

Yes it was dumb. I was running through the rules with a friend, and went straight to combat -totally forgetting Initiative...As I said, it was late...

Many thanks again,

George