Killing Generals and Direction of Pursuit

[dave_r]

Had a couple of interesting situations last night. Hammy took a photograph of the pursuit one so I will start with the killing of generals first

If a BG has two Generals with it and that BG breaks - there is a chance that the general will be killed if they are caught in the pursuit. (For info this happened because I had one TC fighting in the front rank and an IC who then joined to attempt to bolster them).

If the BG is caught and the pursuing unit then throws a 10 which general is killed? Do I choose? Does my opponent choose? It would seem logical that the general in the front rank is killed, but this isn't mentioned anywhere.

Pursuit. I had a BG which was acting as an overlap - the BG they were facing broke, so I pursued with both my units. There was an enemy BG directly in front of the BG that was acting as an overlap - but I have to wheel to hit the unit I was pursuing. How much do I wheel?

Obviously if I wanted to avoid the enemy BG then I wanted to wheel sufficiently to avoid them, my opponent said (not unreasonably) that if I wheeled by the minimum necessary then I would still hit the unit in front. My question is how much do I have to wheel by and can I choose by how much?

[babyshark]

If a BG has two Generals with it and that BG breaks - there is a chance that the general will be killed if they are caught in the pursuit. (For info this happened because I had one TC fighting in the front rank and an IC who then joined to attempt to bolster them).

If the BG is caught and the pursuing unit then throws a 10 which general is killed? Do I choose? Does my opponent choose? It would seem logical that the general in the front rank is killed, but this isn't mentioned anywhere.

Why wouldn't you roll once for each general? If they are both routing with the broken BG they should both have a chance to get trampled in the panic.

Marc

[peterrjohnston]

Pursuit. I had a BG which was acting as an overlap - the BG they were facing broke, so I pursued with both my units. There was an enemy BG directly in front of the BG that was acting as an overlap - but I have to wheel to hit the unit I was pursuing. How much do I wheel?

Obviously if I wanted to avoid the enemy BG then I wanted to wheel sufficiently to avoid them, my opponent said (not unreasonably) that if I wheeled by the minimum necessary then I would still hit the unit in front. My question is how much do I have to wheel by and can I choose by how much?

Pursuers follow routers, wheeling if necessary. If there are enemy BG's in that path,
you contact them, counting as impact combat the next turn. You can't avoid them unless
skirmishers stopping short or you pass a CMT (IIRC).

Rgds,
Peter

[dave_r]

You need to see the photograph. Problem was that if I wheeled so that I ended up directly facing them then I missed the BG in front. If I wheeled so that my front toenail contacted the BG I was chasing I hit the BG infront...

Complicated, it was.

[JanChris]

Pursuit. I had a BG which was acting as an overlap

I don't have my rules here but i think a BG acting as an overlap only does not pursue.

[peterrjohnston]

You need to see the photograph. Problem was that if I wheeled so that I ended up directly facing them then I missed the BG in front. If I wheeled so that my front toenail contacted the BG I was chasing I hit the BG infront...

Complicated, it was.

You move the routers first, then the pursuers, in order of decreasing speed, IIRC.

[peterrjohnston]

Pursuit. I had a BG which was acting as an overlap

I don't have my rules here but i think a BG acting as an overlap only does not pursue.

Oddly I thought that at first, but on closer reading decided otherwise. Perhaps I need to read it again!

[SirGarnet]

Overlappers pursue under the normal rules if no one else is fighting against them other than as an overlap.

Wheel as necessary means you don't wheel more than necessary to hit the routers, so looks like you run into the other BG in front.

Don't know about killing commanders. It says "Can roll to kill the enemy commander if there is one with the routing battle group." If someone wanted to be cheesy and annoying, they could argue there's no roll since there are two, not one, commanders with the BG! Kicking that in the corner, it also says to "Roll only once even if there is more than one pursuing battle group in contact" so absent any other guidance, roll once.


As for which one dies, isn't it obviously the one in the front rank who failed to do his job and is being tripped up by his own men as he flees, rather than the guy sitting a horse way in the back where he can see the troops turn to run and show leadership by galloping madly ahead of them to the rear, waving his sword gallantly?

[rogerg]

It seems obvious that you roll for both generals. They are both at risk in the rout. It is not as though there is only one pursuing soldier who has to choose who he chases.

The overlapping pursuer presumably attempts the shortest move that will contact the routers. This is likely to be the minimum wheel. A pursuit is an attempt to catch something. If the move could include diversions it would not be a pursuit but a 'wanders about so that eventually meets' move.