Four elements destroyed at once

[landmeister]

I found the following situation at a recent game. I had a four Pk(F) elements column fighting aganst an enemy Ax. In his bound my opponent contacted my four flanks with two enemy elements: his first one contacting the front and second rank flanks and the other one my third and fourth rank flanks.

As the front rank was in front combat and my second and third ranks were supporting that combat, none of my elements turned to fight. I lost the combat and my opponent asked for all four elements to be destroyed. I found no rules applicable against his claim so I lost the whole column. Was he right?

[LawrenceG1]

No. You should only have lost 2 elements.

Only the "initially destroyed element" has a zone of death, i.e. the one at the front doing the fighting with its combat factor from the table at the top of page 36 (or if it was a rear attack, the one at the back doing the fighting).

"initially destroyed element" is mentioned three times in the paragraph at the top of the bullet list.

It has to be said, though, that "initially destroyed element" is never defined, so could easily be misinterpreted by an over-enthusiastic player.

[landmeister]

I see. I guess that when the third and fourth elements were contacted on their flanks none of them should have turned to fight because the third one was supporting the front one. Was that correct?

[LawrenceG1]

Yes

[landmeister]

Ok. Thank you.