More on Charging, Intercepts and ZOIs

[stenic]

Sorry about this, but intercepts get us every time.

E are enemy Elephants facing down, L are enemy LCh facing down (and at 25% casualties). H is my Hch facing the LCh L.

For the record this was Classical Indians vs Late Assyrians - a very tight game.

Code: Select all

     EE


  LLL
  HHHH

Distance between L and H is an 1/8th of an MU, E is 5 and 7/8th MUs from the front edge of H and so the front edge of L is outside of E's ZOI (4MUs)

In L&E's turn H outshoots L and L loses a base so that the situation is as per above.

It is now H's turn and impact phase occurs. H has a choice; the nellies are within a max VMD (6MUs) so do not have to test not to charge, bu they may elect to if desired. In which case L may evade if they want to.

Question is, can E intecept, if so why? And if not, why not?

Confusion arises about do you considering the VMD, step forward and at what point things happen. Even using the sequence of events only helps if you know who can do what and who can't.

We played E could not intercept as E could be the target of the charge (assume a charge path straight ahead), also, even moving the full ZOI would not block the charge as at that point E would still be behind L's front edge.

In our case L evaded hoping to get away. They rolled 5, turned and ran off straight back, brushing past E's flank. H then rolled 6!! +2MUs so H ran forward and hit nellies E with 1 base and stepped forward into the rear of the very worried LCh. Mayhem ensued.

Did we play it right for the right reasons?

Thanks,

Steve P

[spikemesq]

I think you got to the right result, but the reasoning is a touch off.

The Elephants were not a target of the charge. They were not in the normal move range of the charger. They were, ahem, an outlier. Nevertheless, they could not intercept because the charge path did not enter its ZOI until after interceptions and evades. At that point they (according to some) become a target of the charge, but only for purposes of evades (which Elephants don't get to do) or for tests if Fragged. The window for interceptions was closed.

Thus, the LCh evaded properly, and the VMD allowed the chargers to reach the El properly.

Spike

[batesmotel]

I think you got to the right result, but the reasoning is a touch off.

The Elephants were not a target of the charge. They were not in the normal move range of the charger. They were, ahem, an outlier. Nevertheless, they could not intercept because the charge path did not enter its ZOI until after interceptions and evades. At that point they (according to some) become a target of the charge, but only for purposes of evades (which Elephants don't get to do) or for tests if Fragged. The window for interceptions was closed.

Thus, the LCh evaded properly, and the VMD allowed the chargers to reach the El properly.

Spike

As a slight clarification, the Elephants are not eligible to intercept since the charge path before the evade does not pass through their ZOI. As a rule mechanism, Intercepts only happen before evades so there is no possibility of an Intercept occurring in this Impact phase with the Elephants and your HCh.
Hopefully that will make the overall situation a little simpler.

Chris

[petedalby]

You played it right.

Looks like we're making progress Spike?

[stenic]

Thanks guys, that makes sense and glad we ended up wit hte right result. Certainly felt right at the time.

Steve P