Routing, not shown: AS/VII LG h
In Pursuit: AS/XV Ex RC (w/ 4 hits)
The voting:
Option | Votes | |
|---|---|---|
| Pyrrhus back to left, attack w/ southern HC, get others into play | 5 | |
| Pyrrhus continues right, rallies and recovers | 5 | |
| Same, but attack with the [2] and [4] PH | 2 | |
| Same, but attack with the [5] PH (only) | 1 | |
| Same, but attack with all three PH | 1 |
A very strong contingent wanted to move Pyrrhus back to the left, but the faction wanting to get the elephants into play was even larger. As one voter pointed out, the choice comes down to attack (move Pyrrhus left and keep attacking with the cavalry) or defense (shore up the phalanx in the center), and either is plausible.
My problem with the defensive strategy is wondering where the Epirotes are going to score enough points to cause the Romans to withdraw. Sure, the Roman right flank is in trouble, but Megacles by himself is much less of a threat than Megacles plus Pyrrhus. The Eagle is pinning a lot of hope on those elephants!
A strong minority of folks wanted to attack with some or even all of the phalanx, but I didn't implement that for this move. Aside from the fact that most folks didn't mention the attack, I think the chances of a routed phalanx aren't worth routing a couple of cohorts. Hurts the Epirotes more than the Romans.
Most popular illegal move this time? Rallied units -- TQ hits are parenthesized on the map -- can't be given orders, so they can't recover, move, or attack.
Routing, not shown: AS/VII LG h
In Pursuit: AS/XV Ex RC (w/ 4 hits)
Before moving, Pyrrhus orders the nearby slingers to fire, and they hit for the first time in many activations. The cohort flanking the left of the PH is now one hit away from routing!
Pyrrhus then moves right, rallies the HI, recovers the two eligible PH, and moves an elephant left. (Most "right flank" votes mentioned giving a vote to the lone elephant within range without exact specifying what to do with it. So the most explicit voters "won"!)
And that's the end of turn 3. There's a lot of rout movement going on, so I made a new situation map so that we can start with a clean slate for turn 4.
I thought that all the rout moves were going to be easy, but the routed cohorts in the cavalry ZOC on the Roman left gave me a bit of trouble. Can they rout move out of ZOC or not? I ended up ruling "not", using a combination of 7.23 (leaving ZOC: the foot units can't outrun the cavalry, hence can't leave) and 10.33 (failure to rout due to ZOC eliminates the unit). So ten more rout points scored against the Romans.