Art De La Guerre

[gnw1976]

In a situation where the elephant destroys its opponent (B1), in the elephant players turn, must the elephant pursue? or can the medium infantry on the flank (A2) pursue?

Page 69, 5th bullet point "Pursuit is mandatory for elephants and impetuous units except...."

Page 69, 7th bullet point "If several units are in melee with teh same enemy only one of the units can pursue, at the player choice (sic). If one of the units is impetuous, it must pursue unless another unit pursues into its path".


So, my interpretation is that if the elephant were impetuous foot or cav, then they must pursue and the medium infantry cannot.
But the rules suggest that the medium infantry can pursue instead of the elephant. It seems odd to me that they are treated differently than impetuous in this instance.

[KevinD]

I would think ( by analogy to impetuous troops), the elephant only needs to pursue if the medium foot on the flank does not pursue first.

[Za Otlichiye]

The rules as written say the El must pursue and the MI cannot. The spirit is unclear.

AFAICS, the "into its path" would only come into play if the impetuous unit was partially conformed on a flank, and the non-impetuous pursuer did not pursue the full 1 UD (which non-impetuous pursuer can do), or if it's LI fighting LI (in penalizing terrain) and the impetuous unit is fully conformed to rear edge of the enemy, so that the victorious LI pursues a full 1UD, just clearing the impetuous friend on the flank, who can also advance a full UD...

[KevinD]

Once the MI pursue, which they are allowed to do, the El do not have a path forward and its pursuit is blocked. Pursuers do not push troops blocking their pursuit. They also don’t wheel or slide to avoid obstacles. This is the same as the situation with impetuous troops.

[Hazelbark]

[muz177]

This is how we play it, but I would think a change such that any impetuous troops or elephants have pursuit priority over other troops - would be a better outcome.

[Brave Coeur]

[Hazelbark]

[DarkBlack]