Questions about melee combat rules in White Bear-Red Moon/Dragon Pass

[Dr. Mabuse]

I need some help with the basic melee combat rules in White Bear-Red Moon/Dragon Pass game.

Rule [7.10.3] state that “At most three of the major units in each stack can fight in the melee. If there are more than three major units in a stack, the fourth major unit from the top and any unit stack beneath It is not allowed to fight in a melee”

 

I have trouble figuring out how that rule interacts with the rules for taking damage and counterattacking

 

The combat sequence is (if I got it right 🙂 😞

Total attackers CF of the top three combat units (and any heroes among them).

Roll a die and cross-index with the total CF to find the number of CF lost by the defender.

The defender loses units based on CF (modified by terrain) from the top of the stack.

Surviving defender counterattack the same way, doubling their CF and ignoring attacker’s terrain (in most cases).

(there are a lot of additional moving part like heroes, reserves and retreats, but i am ignoring that for the questions)

My questions are:

1.       Only three can attack. How many defenders can take damage? Only the top three (because only they can fight in melee) - or from the top among all the units in the defending stack? 

2.       The counterattack. Only three can attack. Who gets to counterattack? The surviving units of the original three “in melee” units? Or the three topmost major units at the time of the counterattack?

Any suggestions for a confused gamer?

[Cloud64]

Well, having played Dragon Pass last summer,  we played it this way

1) ALL defenders can take damage, from the top down.

2) The three topmost major units after casualties are taken get to counter attack. Beware the defensive doubling – it is devastating.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Cloud64

[Dr. Mabuse]

Many thanks. 
I like how it makes the outcome of melee combat fairly unpredictable. 
It feels like it will be to the fun at the gaming table - and be appropriate for battles in an ancient world which (IRL) often had very unequal casualty numbers.