Hello everybody!

Longtime lurker on this forum.
Have read a lot, and learned a lot from the different threads and different peoples interpretations of the rules.

However, there is one rule that I could use some help with since I haven´t been able to find the answer in the rulebooks or on the forums:

A player is fighting an enemy and manages to kill or rout the enemy, then in the next round of fighting he/she wants to join another player who is already fighting another enemy.
Now does he/she

• Choose any combate stance and attack the enemy in usual order OR
• Must he/she choose the stance the other player is using?

My guess is that the first option is the correct one, but i can´t find it anywhere in the books or on the forums.
Any help is appreciated.

Combat stance isn't positioning on the battlefield, it's attitude to risk when fighting. The character can engage the same foe as other character without having to pick the same stance, other than it would have to be one of the three melee stances to attack with a melee weapon or rearward to attack with a ranged weapon.

For example, the character kills his opponent and then goes to engage the other adversary. The other player has his character fighting in forward stance. The first player decides to have his character protect the other character's back. He chooses defensive stance and uses the Defend Companion combat action.

For the melee stances:
Forward = all out attack, very little defence
Open = balanced attack and defence
Defensive = defensive fighting, only attack/ripost when safe to do so

I agree with Valarian and I would say yes to your first choice of statements: the player-hero can choose a new stance, either rearward (if he qualifies) or a close combat stance, at the top of the next combat round. If he chooses a close combat stance, he can also choose a new engagement.

Of course, your question is assuming that the companions outnumber the adversaries. If they do not, then the player-hero would remain in close combat and the Loremaster would assign a new enemy to engage him.