Mark G Fry
Légat
Inscrit le: 15 Juin 2017
Messages: 624
Localisation: Bristol, UK
|
 Posté le: Lun Mar 02, 2026 11:03 pm Sujet du message: Trapped General |
 |
This came up at the recent Burton Double Competition.
At the time Dave & I and our opponents agreed to just 'leave it' as the game had effectively ended elsewhere on the table, and the outcome of this particular situation was therefore irrelevant, but I thought I'd raise it to see what the forums thoughts were.
The situation was that there was an enemy cataphract with an attached, independent general with it, but the general was not engaged in the melee.
The cataphract was completely surrounded e.g. fighting to its front, hit in both flanks and also hit on its rear edge.
Not unsurprisingly it was knocked-out in that melee.
That then raised the question about what happens to the general?
There was another friendly unit within 5 UDs of him, and had he not been surrounded the issue would not have been a problem as he'd have simply 'fled' to join it.
However, as he was now completely surrounded by enemy units, it was our reading of the rules that he could not pass through enemy units as Movement of Commander p.27, 2nd bullet down states specifically that he can move through friendly units (unimpeded) but it says nothing about enemy units.
The general consensus amongst the 4 of us was that he was therefore trapped.
But did he count as a lost general (so get counted as his lost points) or did he just simply 'disappear'?
Maybe a rare situation but it was one that happened last weekend 
Cheers
Mark
_________________
'He could have lived a risk-free, moneyed life, but he preferred to whittle away his fortune on warfare.' Xenophon, The Anabasis |
|
KevinD
Tribun
Inscrit le: 23 Aoû 2021
Messages: 737
Localisation: Texas
|
| Posté le: Lun Mar 02, 2026 11:11 pm Sujet du message: |
|
| Being surrounded doesn’t matter as long as there’s a friendly unit within 5 UD. |
|
madaxeman
Magister Militum
Inscrit le: 01 Nov 2014
Messages: 1759
Localisation: Londres Centraal.
|
| Posté le: Lun Mar 02, 2026 11:20 pm Sujet du message: |
|
| Mark G Fry a écrit: | This came up at the recent Burton Double Competition.
At the time Dave & I and our opponents agreed to just 'leave it' as the game had effectively ended elsewhere on the table, and the outcome of this particular situation was therefore irrelevant, but I thought I'd raise it to see what the forums thoughts were.
The situation was that there was an enemy cataphract with an attached, independent general with it, but the general was not engaged in the melee.
The cataphract was completely surrounded e.g. fighting to its front, hit in both flanks and also hit on its rear edge.
Not unsurprisingly it was knocked-out in that melee.
That then raised the question about what happens to the general?
There was another friendly unit within 5 UDs of him, and had he not been surrounded the issue would not have been a problem as he'd have simply 'fled' to join it.
However, as he was now completely surrounded by enemy units, it was our reading of the rules that he could not pass through enemy units as Movement of Commander p.27, 2nd bullet down states specifically that he can move through friendly units (unimpeded) but it says nothing about enemy units.
The general consensus amongst the 4 of us was that he was therefore trapped.
But did he count as a lost general (so get counted as his lost points) or did he just simply 'disappear'?
Maybe a rare situation but it was one that happened last weekend
Cheers
Mark |
The second bullet on p27, "Movement of Commanders" explicitly says a Commander can move through friends. It would take some utterly ridiculous linguistic gymnastics (allied to the ability to shrug off a full-bore Paddington Bear Hard Stare from everyone else present at the event) to try to claim this means a Commander can move through enemy units.
The final bullet in the section "Attached Commander" (also p27) says that if a Commander is with a destroyed unit he must move towards the nearest friend or be "captured".
The third bullet in the section "Individually based commander" (also on p27) explains the consequences of being "captured".
Perhaps all 4 of you came to and agreed on the right conclusion, which appears to be fully supported by the wording of the rules ...?
_________________
www.madaxeman.com |
|
Neep
Signifer
Inscrit le: 09 Jan 2023
Messages: 397
|
| Posté le: Lun Mar 02, 2026 11:52 pm Sujet du message: |
|
I would say not only can they not move 5UD, they cannot even be placed on the table. Killed if the enemy pursues, otherwise captured, not that it makes any difference except perhaps in a campaign game of your devising.
---
Note the rules are quite explicit about orders reaching command range as the crow flies from the full base behind the unit attached to, regardless of enemy. |
|
FAQ
Rechercher
Liste des Membres
Groupes d'utilisateurs
S'enregistrer
Profil
Se connecter pour vérifier ses messages privés
Connexion
