As with the previous activation, the Epirote cavalry first moves into
the RC front hexes to prevent Reaction Facing Change, then the flank
attackers move in for the kill.
The voting:
Option | Votes | |
|---|---|---|
| Attack w/3-4 units | 1 | |
| Attack w/6 units | 1 | |
| Attack "heavily" | 1 | |
| Attack "to finish off Drusus" | 2 |
My thoughts:
Voters unanimously agreed that Drusus should be mopped up, but there was some disagreement over exactly how many attackers Pyrrhus should commit.
One correspondent pointed out a flaw in my previous thinking -- although cavalry must pursue if the defender routs, it doesn't have to conduct a followup attack -- that's voluntary. It's an important point, giving the attacker much more flexibility than I thought possible in dealing with off-map pursuit.
But in this case, if the Epirote forgoes that followup attack, the defending Roman cavalry will still be around next turn. Drusus has a reasonable chance of rallying any of his routed units; if he succeeds, then Pyrrhus has to worry about taking care of them all over again. Seems wasteful to me.
So, I vote for a heavy attack also, using six units so as to surround the RC with ZOCs and guarantee their elimination. Pyrrhus will use his seventh order to position himself so that all his HC are in range for next turn. This corresponds reasonably well with all but one of the votes.
As with the previous activation, the Epirote cavalry first moves into
the RC front hexes to prevent Reaction Facing Change, then the flank
attackers move in for the kill.
The units that have already moved this turn take another TQ hit, but note that is the first move for one of the HCs -- all it did in the previous activations was recover TQ hits!
As the HC advance, Drusus withdraws across the river.
There are three shock combats, each with two HCs attacking the
flank or rear of the corresponding RC.
Pre-Shock checks inflict 2 TQ hits on the northernmost Epriote HC, and 3 and 2 hits respectively on two of the RCs.
Combat results are 2(6) (because of superiority) except when they're 2(8), so the Roman cavalry is eliminated at the cost of six more hits distributed across the Epirote HC, who advance as shown in the accompanying diagram. (It's hard to see facing on these diagrams because the units are so small, but the northernmost HC is facing SW, the lone HC in the southeast is facing NW, and everyone else is facing north or northeast.)
Pyrrhus is now (finally) Finished. There are a lot of [4] markers on the HC, but two of the units carrying four hits are TQ 8 (the others are 7's), so they're still in decent shape.
The Romans now have 35 Rout Points, about 20% of the way onto their rout point limit of 185.
No need to stop for a vote here, as the last poll already covered the next activation.