Range and Cover with 2+ teams

So I am thinking about adding range and cover to the hub and spokes game I am running but I have a question concerning its application that I would like to some answers to before trying it out in the session. any advice is welcome.

So on page 404 of BWG it states that teams need to be set up and that a team could be as small one 1 or as large as ten. Also that the members of a particular team can change between exchanges. So let me set up a scenario.

On the players side there are four players, the enemy is two goblins. The players decide to split up into two teams, one team holding back and one team advancing. The goblins decide to be one team. So during the first exchange player team 1 holds and shoots all three volleys while player team 2 closes all three volleys. The goblins hold all 3 volleys as well. Not lets assume that player team 1 sucks with their dice rolling and does no damage to the goblins int he first exchange. Player team two does well with their dice and close on the goblins till they are “too close to shoot” and can enter into a Fight with the goblins.

So my question is once player team 2 enter into a Fight with the Goblins, can Player team 1 still fire into the combat? If so how do you handle the rules and time differences between the Fighters and the Range and coverers.

A second sub-question can also be built off this scenario. Lets say instead of there being two goblins in one team, there are 4 goblins in two teams. Player team 2 advances as above and gets into a Fight with goblin team 2 Goblin team 1 and player team 1 are still free from this Fight. Would player team 1 and goblin team1 stay in Range and Cover? would I run the fight to its conclusion (since Fight happens at a much faster pace) and then go back to Range and Cover for all the remaining teams? should i just through foam dice at all the players around the table and if the player gets hit they take a b4 wound because i am a mean gm?

Thoughts?

Once one team gets into Fight!, all teams are in Fight!. Archers can still fire into the melee, but they do so ever so slowly compared to the whiz-bang clash of sword and shield. What, a bow fired every 7 actions or so? So just script it out (Nock, Nock, Draw, Draw, Draw, etc…) And the still need to Position and Engage and all that jazz.

In the second scenario, if you wanted to keep the R&C separate for whatever reason, then I think an R&C Volley is equivalent to 20 Fight! Actions. That should help adjudicate the relationship between them.

But if i understand Fight! correctly, a person firing in fight, once they shoot, they lose positioning advantage and the melee person gains this advantage. If Player team 1 is using a great bow and they are at extreme range, that means they are at around 350 paces away from the melee where player team 2 is and the goblins are. In that player team 1 has not moved forward, how do you handle player team 2 having advantage over the goblins while, after player team 1 shoots their arrows, the goblins have advantage over player team one who is 350 paces away? I hope it doesnt sound like im trying to be difficult, just trying to understand.

Everything outside of Fight! range is abstracted as the same, whether it’s 5 feet or 350 feet. It doesn’t make a difference to the mechanics.

Sometimes, this abstraction rubs people’s imaginary spaces the wrong way, of course. But then again, there’s always a narrative device that might explain it. That’s a key ability for a BW GM - explaining the abstract in a believable manner. Maybe the goblins close the distance as the archer reloads, pulling the fight close and closer to him, as the archer’s allies keep getting between them?

Also check out this thread. If logic suggests it, the GM can call for physical actions to be successful to approach someone. You can engage someone, yet unable to hit them.

Haha, that old thread of mine keeps getting dragged up. ^^ This little rule was really something that took a while for me to wrap my head around, so it bears repeating.

Example, positioning test, mid-Fight
Player: I want to run across the gully and engage one of the archers that is firing into the melee. Engaging with my axe.
GM: OK, roll it. But since you have to cover a long distance first, I’ll require 3 physical actions to be scripted before you reach them. And avoids don’t count as movement! Roll!

I think this was one of the places where my question was kind of pointing. I would like to see peoples examples of how they have explained this particular abstract so that i can have some inspiration in how i could start explaining it in my own game and working out those particular GM muscles.