INTERPENETRATION QUESTIONS

Something that came up in a game the other night was the question of Interpenetrations.

Q1. Does an Interpenetrating Unit have to have the front of it's base pass completely past the front of the Unit it is attempting to Interpenetrate?

Q2. In the case of S, FL and T Units they are placed behind the Unit Interpenetrating them even if the Interpenetration is incomplete. Does this mean that even if I clip the back corner of one of those Units they move to the back?

Q3. Another question, when a Unit is Interpenetrated and it is placed behind the Interpenetrating Unit, does it maintain its original frontage/facing or does it conform to the frontage of the Interpenetrating Unit?

Dennis

Yes to all those.
Last question- the unit it is interpenetrating does maintain it's original facing and placed behind.
Richard

Q1 We have always played that the trailing edge of an interpenetrating has to clear the stationary unit, (with the exception of Q2 of course).

Q2 Yes

Q3 As Tarty says.

TD

Aurelius wrote:Q1 We have always played that the trailing edge of an interpenetrating has to clear the stationary unit, (with the exception of Q2 of course).

yes that's what I meant to say

I agree that in the Q1 case, the interpenetrating unit must clear the interpenetrated unit. We've also played this to require that such interpenetration is completed in a single movement phase.

Sometimes that means the interpenetrating unit moves to the back of the unit to be interpenetrated in one phase, then carries out the interpenetration in a second movement phase. There are a few situations where this makes interpenetration impossible (eg T trying to move forward through a deep pike block).

In the Q2 case, on the other hand, once the T, CL, S or FL starts to move back, it keeps on going until it can find clear space to stop.

RogerC

Thanks guys, that's pretty much the way we've been playing it, however, in Q1 does the (whole) Unit have to completely Interpenetrate a Unit or does just the front of the Unit have to clear the front of the Unit being Interpenetrated?

Whole unit Dennis. So if you don't have enough move to go the whole way then you need to take a second move.

Thanks Mate. We've played it that as long as the front of the Interpenetrating Unit clears the front of the Unit being Interpenetrated, then the Interpenetration is complete. Reason for this is that depending on the angle that the Units are facing, in some cases Interpenetration will never be achieved in one move.

I'm pretty certain we dont play it like that - which of course probably means we are wrong, however - can I ask a rather important follow up - all the above applies to voluntary interpenetration.

How do you deal with involuntary interpenetration, specifically troops pushed back in melee - for example a unit of T or FL that has another friendly T or FL unit behind them?

Ts of FLs pushed back in melee interpenetrate other Ts and FLs and get placed behind.

So why do you think the same does not apply if they are going forward?

You appear to be enforcing two different standards - voluntary interpenetration forward you must clear the front of the base to interpenetrate, but involuntary interpenetration they do so immediately they contact - do you see the contradiction?

voluntary interpenetration and involuntary interperpenetration are not the same as otherwise there was no need to make 2 different paragraph.
Actually involutary inter. is more a push back since the impetuous troops are no longer forced to cross "solid" friendly units (as it was before the amendment).

The general rule is that you have to complete the crossing and in some cases you need more than 1 movement phase to clear.
Some troops (S, FL, T, CL) make an exception and leave the way once the interpenetration is over even if this was not enough to clear. So T/S/CL/FL are pushed back (keeping the same frontage) once the interpenetrating units stops.

Hi Lorenzo - thanks for that - can you explain what happens when a unit of non impetuous FL is forced to recoil by losing a melee and there is another unit the same directly behind - and what is the effect on the second unit?

5.10.2
second sentence

If S, FL, T and CL forced to retreat, they interpenetrate any troop type and are placed behind them as soon as the crossing begins.
All other troops (except for Elephants), when forced
to retreat, do not interpenetrate but push back...

so they "cross" with no other consequences