The voting:
Option | Votes | |
|---|---|---|
| Activate Philocles, move up to Milon's right flank | 5 | |
| Activate Philocles, advance seven hexes | 1 | |
| Activate Philocles, advance to river bank | 1 | |
| Trump w/Megacles, advance PH | 1 |
My thoughts:
Here is an even stronger consensus than last move.
Philocles can't really prevent the Roman RC from coming over the river, as 8 MPs doesn't let him reach the edge of the water. It does let him reach attack range of the Romans, who are AS against LC. That being the case, I don't see any big advantage from advancing farther than four hexes. Why do risky manuevers when you're already ahead?
I did like the idea of trumping with Megacles, since you can begin recovering and/or repositioning the heavy cavalry and free Pyrrhus to get the elephants moving against the imminent cavalry advance from Falco. I'm not so sure about advancing with the PH, though. That's a lot of potential rout points moving towards the Romans, who are already trying to close as quickly as they can.
But the majority vote, if conservative, seems sensible enough to me.
Another diagram-caused problem is that the right side of the board isn't shown (it doesn't correspond with the edge of the diagram). So the Epirotes can't really close off their flanks without spreading themselves thin. Too thin, I think, when your opponents are more numerous and attack superior. So the advance is a simple one:
I've added a few hex columns to show the advance. The game map actually extends two more columns; I'll add them, too, in the future if it matters.
So now it's time for voting again:
One more voting session after this one and we'll actually be at turn 2...