Art De La Guerre

[KevinD]

Suppose a heavy unit charges and it contacts the corner of a light infantry but it could not legally charge the light infantry because another unit was its most threatening enemy. What happens. Does the light infantry just stand there or must it evade?

Example. CHARG charges straight ahead (to the left on the page). CHARG will be in HEAVY’s ZOC. Does the LI flee?

What if CHARG wheeled toward LTINF and charged. It will still enter HEAVY’s ZOC. Can it force the LT INF to flee even though it can’t charge it (because it will be crossing HEAVY’s ZOC)?

(Suppose it can’t slide before charging because it’s friend OTHER blocks this option. OTHER is fact and elephant who does not want to fight the LI in front of it but wants its friend to clear out the pesky LI so it can go kill someone more worthy of its attention - like HEAVY or one of its colleagues.)

H> <C
E> <H
A> <A
V> <R
Y> <G
…..L O
…..T T
…..I H
…..N E
…..F R

I think that since CHARG must charge HEAVY as it will be the most threatening enemy, and after conformation it will be in position to support HEAVY, it need not evade as per the second bullet under “Troops that must evade”, p. 47. Is this correct?

[Zoltan]

Each charge/response is resolved sequentially.

P.47 is clear - if CHARG charges first it will conform to HEAVY and therefore LINF can opt to stand (not evade) in simple support.

If OTHER then charges it faces the prospect of LINF continuing to stand. 

So no, in your scenario you can’t force LINF to evade.

[Ramses II]

Much depends upon where the HI start from. In your diagram, since CHARG starts in the ZoC of HEAVY, it will ignore all other ZoCs (see MTE p35-36) and move to contact, and it will slide along the flank of other units (P41).
The Light infantry may need to evade if they are contacted frontally first - however your post suggests that this is not the case - rather that the LI would end up on the flank of CHARG in support of the HEAVY target. In this case P47 applies as Zoltan notes. Here is the text

[KevinD]

Thank you both.