Routing, not shown: AS/VII LG h
In Pursuit: AS/XV Ex RC (w/ 4 hits)
The voting:
Option | Votes | |
|---|---|---|
| Rally HC, Recover HC(x2), Attack w/HC[1], move SE, Rally PH, SK fires | 5 | |
| Same, but in addition the leftmost PH shock attacks | 1 | |
| Same, except the [4] HC attacks instead of recovering | 1 | |
| Same, but move Megacles to stack with an HC (instead of SK fire) | 1 | |
| Pyrrhus moves right, no other details | 2 | |
| Pyrrhus stays on the left: rally, recover, attack w/HC[1] | 3 | |
| Same, but the [4] HC attacks instead of recovering | 1 |
The turnout here was very good. Either my guilt trip from last turn worked, or I was correct that everyone is secretly (or not so secretly) rooting for the Epirotes.:^)
Several votes (over the last few moves and from different people) have had the boo-boo of moving a leader more than nine hexes. In the 1st edition rules, leaders had an MA of 16, but the 2nd edition changed that to 9. I don't know if this would change any votes, but it does mean that Pyrrhus is at least three activations away from reaching most of his elephants.
There was a good variety of suggestions, but there were enough obvious choices (rally and recovery) that there is plenty of overlap in the votes. The big central decision is "whither Pyrrhus" -- stay on the left and wreak havoc, or move right, rallying the PH and moving towards the elephants?
I really like what the elephants can accomplish (see the intro page for a summary of the elephant rules) but at this point I'm with the "stay on the left" crowd. Rallying the PH is all well and good, but think ahead to the next activation -- what will Pyrrhus do then? On the left, there's plenty of recover and attack options. In the middle, he can stiffen the PH line a bit, but too many units are in ZOCs and hence ineligible for recovery.
One limitation of my maps that might have changed a few votes is that it isn't clear that the [4] unit north of the river is out of command range of both Pyrrhus and Megacles. It will be interesting to see how this is handled over the next few moves!
Nevertheless, the majority will is pretty clear:
Routing, not shown: AS/VII LG h
In Pursuit: AS/XV Ex RC (w/ 4 hits)
Both rally attempts succeed, and the recoveries are automatic, but the missile fire inflicts no hits.
The single attack routs the cohort, but the pursuit dr='0' and so the HC breaks off without eliminating the routed unit. This does allow a sneaky trick, though -- as the routing unit moves next to Megacles, he performs an Orderly Withdrawal to get the stranded HC into command range! (I randomly selected the rout path and the Epirotes got lucky).
Pyrrhus rolls for Momentum and succeeds with a dr='1'. Then we're finally at the end of turn 3, so all routed units will flee towards their home base.
What should Pyrrhus do? Remember that rallied and "finished" units (TQ hits in parentheses) can't move nor attack, and you can't recover units that are in enemy ZOC.