I am really uncomfortable about allowing WE to barge friendly units because of the potential for abuse.
When making normal moves, people usually move the transport first and then place the infantry around them. While this is usually because the troops are disembarking, this is normally what happens even if the troops started outside the vehicles - not least because of LoS questions. You are not forced to move units in a given order, so people move / position their units to make the best use of the available space. Applying these principles to countercharging it would be up to the player whether to move his infantry or transports first, but after that, if there is not sufficient space to position a unit, it must stop short of its movement capacity.

Otherwise, the WE could be used to 'manipukate' the positions of friendly units when firing or as part of the initial assault which is not what is intended

My understanding is that it's rhetorical, it's exploring the problem that comes up if a WE can barge enemies, but friendlies are fixed in place.

'You can move over infantry units with other units,
as the stationary infantry are assumed to get out
of the way. '

It is the infantry that move to get out of the way, rather than the WE/Vehicle that pushes/barges them aside.

Moving over is fine, the infantry unit is not actually displaced on the table top, what ginger is saying is what happens if the WE wished to stop ONTOP of a friendly infantry unit. Under the normal movement rules it cannot, but in a charge situation if allowed to barge friendly units it would.

It certainly would, given the counter-charge distance of the WEs we're talking about here - 5cm. Only rarely would it not end its move on top of a friendly infantry unit.

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And that 5cm is just enough to guarantee that a Gorgon will ALWAYS be able to get to the front to take the first hits. This is not a good way to go and the interpretation by Neal actually seems a bit lazy.

Please forgive my bluntness Neal.

I have GREAT respect for what you do for our community but to allow War Engines to barge friendly units out of the way has a genuine and serious effect on game play.

I've played against the huge Krieg formations in over a dozen games in recent months. That Krieg infantry formation is meant to be an attrition force. It's huge but expected to lose many infantry during the game. Along come the 4+ reinforced armour shield and these companies take little to no casualties and the dice roll-off becomes irrelevant. I'm not interested in talking about tactics because to allow War Engines to barge friendly infantry removes all need for tactics at all.

I'm well aware the this direct quote from the Master FAQ:
However, barging only allows the WE to move enemy units.
is an answer to a seperate question. I'm also aware that this quote is the obvious way to play War Engines and friendly units in all situations.

War Engines can still obey the rules for counter-charging/barging and the ability to move through infantry as long as the move totally over the friendly infantry (or around). Anything else is to open to manipulation and makes tactics fairly pointless. Armoured Vehicles have to obey the Zone of control rules but move around intervening units. Infantry are the same. War Engines can obviously barge (enemy) units and still obey the same rules that effect all other formations.

If a War Engine barges an enemy unit that is already in base contact with friendly infantry, the friendly infantry must be moved to stay in base contact with the barged enemy unit. To allow anything else is just not playable (or fair). Yes this means that the friendly infantry are moved during the counter-charge but that's to stay in base contact with the enemy that already charged them (not to be barged by the War Engines itself).

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Tyranids (and cc specialists in general) already get the shaft against skimmers, now they get the shaft against fms that include WEs too. Urgh! And I agree w/ Onyx that this throws a lot of careful planning and tactics out of the window.

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Then you have other weirdness, as a War Engine assault value can be easily manipulated. Sticking with the Banelord example, if you make contact with a single Grot stand, the titan would suddenly go from 8x5+ attacks to 8x2+ attacks. Or, the opposite for an opponent attacking a low-CC war engine - get one stand in contact and you can slash the assault effectiveness of the target by a wide margin. War Engines are intended to be durable, stable, predictable units. It's supposed to be hard to get a WE off-balance in an assault. That kind of potentially radical swing in assault attacks doesn't fit.

This.

The analogy doesn't quite fit Neal as the Banelord doesn't have infantry in its formation that may, by the rules, be unable to get out of its way by either counter charging before or after its own counter charge rule.

This question really is only about formations that have ground WE transports in their make up. Its the ability to physically move a friendly unit on the table that is the point of debate. You don't do this when moving over, and can't stop on units as part of a normal move and as I read them the barge rules does not give you the ability to move friendly units when charging.

Here is the situation I think many want to avoid.

The Krieg infantry company are assault by an eldar guardian formation in a FF. No units can use their counter charge to make it to CC. The Krieg player has placed infantry in such a way that a gorgon can move to the front, but would have to be placed over one of the infantry units and therefore become a 4+ RA shield for the infantry. This is the friendly barging that I believe isn't allowed by the rules.

A Banelord could easily end up intermingled with an infantry formation, triggering this issue.

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True, but then the player with the banelord has made that decision and should pay the consequence of it.

I'd note that providing a 4+ RA shield for the infantry is exactly what the Gorgons are there for, they're the lynchpin that allows the Krieg list to work as a FF-based IG assault army.

All that having been said, I've flipped a several times on this question over the years, and it could easily be that the best interpretation is Mephiston's.

It's probably worth mentioning that when we did the original playtesting on the Krieg, my gaming group at least did not allow the Gorgons to Barge friendly units in this manner, and I don't think it'll unduly hurt the army if this tactic is nixed.

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This. Additionally, why should the Gorgons' ability to shield be different if the infantry was in CC and not just engaged by units at FF range?

Bottom line, should it be possible to outmaneuver the Gorgons or should they only be dealt with by shooting (either TK against the gorgons or barrage against the infantry hugging them).