Pursuers hitting a fresh enemy

[hammy]

In my game last night everything went fine (appart from my Roman Equites Alares losing to Sassanid levy!!). We only had one minor rules issue which I will try to explain.

I had two BG's pursuing a BG of broken enemy. The rear one of my two BG's was at a slight angle to the front one and was charged in the flank and broken by a BG of lancers. The broken BG had to divert (about 10mm to one side) round the back of my other BG. There was no overlap on that end of the lancer BG. Do the lancers have to shift in the same way as the routers or do they simply plough straight forward so the end element both hits the routers and clips the other one of my BG's?

It looked a bit like this:

Code: Select all

....L
..AAL
..AAL
BBBB
BBBB

L are the lancers, A the BG that broke and B the other BG. There was a slight gap between A and B and A was at a slight (less than 5 degree) angle to B. When A routed it would have just clipped the rear of B.

Hammy

[bddbrown]

I reckon that the pursuers must wheel to pursue the deviant routers.

p.54 (6.01) - "Pursuers follow the routers, wheeling if necessary to do so."

I don't think they deviate/shift in the same way as the evaders.

[rbodleyscott]

I reckon that the pursuers must wheel to pursue the deviant routers.

p.54 (6.01) - "Pursuers follow the routers, wheeling if necessary to do so."

I don't think they deviate/shift in the same way as the evaders.

Indeed. There does appear to scope for arguments about whether their wheel will "clip" the new enemy or not. I would guess that, if the routers have deviated, the pursuers will probably clip the new enemy if the rout started close to them, but be less likely to if they were further away.

Plenty of scope for "UMPIRE!"

Any suggestions as to how this could be made less contentious?
Any "one size fits all" solutions?

[bddbrown]

This is not easy to fix - defining the process of the wheel could be a lengthy, complicated affair.

Maybe it is just easier to allow lattitude with the wheel and say so long as the evading BG is partially to the front of the pursuing battle group. That way, pursuers can use charges / pursuit to contact other enemy revealed by the evade / rout.

[rbodleyscott]

This is not easy to fix - defining the process of the wheel could be a lengthy, complicated affair.

Maybe it is just easier to allow lattitude with the wheel and say so long as the evading BG is partially to the front of the pursuing battle group. That way, pursuers can use charges / pursuit to contact other enemy revealed by the evade / rout.

That is my feeling. Specifically allowing the pursuers to contact enemy revealed by the evade/rout (as long as they don't wheel in the opposite direction to the evaders/routers) might save a lot of arguments.

OTOH, what about the issue of enemy only contactable because of the wheel to follow routers. More scope for cheese/arguments?