A friend and I played a second game of Pacto yesterday via Facetime, Seleucid (me) v Roman (Gordon Garrad) and it worked a treat; the combination of Pacto and video calls has rejuvenated my figure gaming life - thank you Simon. I recommend it to anyone not getting in any games at present.
The game was a great success for the Seleucids, no thanks to any skill on my part, but because of the greatest run of luck I've had since a game of SPI's Napoleon at Waterloo in 1977!
There was one rule question that came up that I would be interested to hear thoughts on. The Seleucid elephants crashed through some Italian infantry in one turn and pursued in step 5.3 of the fighting phase into some Roman cavalry within pursuit distance behind, the rules state that the combat is fought in the next charge phase. The question was whether the cavalry had the option of breaking off in step 5.4 of the fighting phase or whether they were locked in combat until the next charge phase. We decided on the latter with predictable results!
NB I'm still using the original rules as my copy of the compendium hasn't arrived yet so the answer may now be stated, we also don't have the full Pacto rules, only the 4-page online document.
Having had the chance to see the Pacto QRS the answer is that in Pacto the only break offs are Cv, Cm or Ch from slower foot - so in this case the Cv could not break off ...
Thanks for that, do you know where the Pacto QRS can be obtained from, it doesn't seem to be with the 2020 materials as far as I can see? Is it included in MeG2?
If we had been playing the full game do you think the answer would have been any different?
It is a good question.
The definition of break off says it is moving back out of combat - as you have not actually had combat at this stage (that happens next charge phase) I think the answer is you couldn't break off.
Hi Alec
First of all welcome aboard and delighted you are enjoying it. Tell your friends!
The answer is correct but the question is a little wrong.
If you end up in combat you cannot break off in Pacto.
The only break off allowed is cavalry from slower foot.
BUT... pursuits
8. If any unbroken other enemy are met, they may run away or skirmish if allowed to do so, but do not shoot (we consider there has been a mass of friends running towards them).
So your cavalry could have run away if they had wanted to to avoid being contacted (I assume they were unskilled Jav and are therefore missile focused).
Si
PS I will put the 2020 Pacto QRS on the website as a stand in until the compendium has made it tout to everyone. Very little changed.
Thanks Simon - putting up the Pacto QRS will be very useful if there are differences with the full game.
Regarding the question, running away or skirmishing would probably have been the wise move even though the cavalry unit in question was very close to the rear edge and would have had to have rolled down even with a skirmish move to avoid reaching it, with the associated KaB test. Hindsight though is a wonderful thing!
PS I greatly enjoyed your Two Simons Magnesia podcast which shows how good MeG is at reproducing historical battles. I also am particularly enjoying how Pacto recreates the feel of small battles such as took place during dark age Britain which are eminently suitable subjects for playing via video link due to the small battlefield size of Pacto.
Excellent to hear.
Keep enjoying and joins us on the 27th for Cannae.
And drop us some photos of games here or on FB.
Si
Simon, just looking at the Pacto QRS and there seem to be a couple of inconsistencies:
1. The Turn Sequence allows both MF1 & MF2 moves in step 5.5, the Prompted Actions Table has removed both, whilst the Pacto changes document, that was online and has now gone, said no MF1 moves are allowed. Am I right in thinking MF2 is still permitted but not MF1?
2. The Prompted Actions Table states that SUGs are allowed to expand and contract in the notes to the M2 and M3 actions though has removed M7 and M8. Are the the unmodified notes to M2 and M3 are just oversights?
There are no MF1 and MF2 moves in Pacto.
Si can explain what is happening with the QRS 8)
M2 and M3 is a good question - IIRC the Pacto rules say that units are always 1 file and so the expansions would seem to be an error left in.
Quote from: AlecJH on May 28, 2020, 04:55:34 PM
Simon, just looking at the Pacto QRS and there seem to be a couple of inconsistencies:
1. The Turn Sequence allows both MF1 & MF2 moves in step 5.5, the Prompted Actions Table has removed both, whilst the Pacto changes document, that was online and has now gone, said no MF1 moves are allowed. Am I right in thinking MF2 is still permitted but not MF1?
2. The Prompted Actions Table states that SUGs are allowed to expand and contract in the notes to the M2 and M3 actions though has removed M7 and M8. Are the the unmodified notes to M2 and M3 are just oversights?
As mentioned that is the prototype so not the final version. A stand in for you.
There are no MF1 and MF2 moves in the final version. But M9 can be used to turn the entire TuG.
There is actually a legacy of expansion bits in the notes which I should have removed from there notes.
Ignore them. There are no expansions or contraction. The UGs are single files.