Fleeing
General Discussion
Infantry and cavalry units flee when successfully charged, when cavalry already shaken and further are worn down by firing, when infantry fail a Morale Check when they are already shaken and are further worn down by firing, or when infantry fail a Morale Check when they are already shaken and lose a firing attack of their own. If infantry, they can then seek shelter in woods or Built-Up Areas; otherwise, fleeing units flee away from the enemy and towards their own map edge, continuing to flee in subsequent turns unless rallied for 2 PIPs. Causing units to flee is the main way to destroy them in Grande Tactique. Artillery do not flee, but have their own version of being routed (namely being silenced).
Note: for diagrams showing the flight procedure described below, see the Cavalry Charge Diagram Slideshow.
Fleeing and pursuit distances
7” infantry fleeing
11” cavalry fleeing from infantry and artillery
11”+(2d6)” cavalry fleeing from cavalry
6” cavalry pursuing infantry
cavalry pursuing fleeing cavalry pursue 1” less than the distance the pursued cavalry fled
Fleeing infantry and cavalry
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Fleeing infantry and cavalry units become routed. Mark them with a Routed marker.
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Artillery do not flee or rout, instead becoming silenced if successfully charged or worn down by enemy artillery fire; see the section about Artillery.
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When fleeing, infantry move 7”, cavalry move 11” when fleeing from infantry or artillery and 11"+(2d6)" when fleeing from cavalry.
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The fleeing distance is calculated after the fleeing unit first establishes its direction of flight (see below) and then turns to face the direction of flight.
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Squares that rout come out of square immediately and automatically.
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Firing units automatically stop firing when they rout (remove Firing marker).
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Direction of flight (in order of preference):
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Note: The path of flight can never take the fleeing unit behind an imaginary line extending sideways from the front edge of the unit that caused the flight.
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If infantry, towards woods or BUA, if they can be reached this turn.
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Directly away from the unit that caused the flight, if there is a gap between friends and enemies at least the base width of the fleeing unit. The path of such a flight across clear ground does not need to be in a straight line.
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If no such clear path exists, the unit flees directly away from the unit that caused the flight in a straight line.
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The direction of this straight line must be adjusted by the minimum required so that the fleeing unit does not pass through enemies.
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Flight through friends disrupts friends:
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If the straight line (adjusted as above) forces the fleeing unit to pass through eager friends, move the fleeing unit through them and mark the friends shaken.
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If it forces the fleeing unit to pass through shaken friends, move the fleeing unit through them; the shaken friends rout in turn (possibly passing through other friends themselves in a chain reaction).
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If there is no open route around enemies with a gap the size of the fleeing unit’s base frontage, the fleeing unit is destroyed by being surrounded by enemies and any attached general is taken prisoner.
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Note: this means that units contacted from front and back who are forced to flee will often be destroyed.
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If you flee off the map, you are counted as destroyed.
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Routed units continue to flee in subsequent turns (7” for infantry, 11” for cavalry) if they are not rallied and if they are infantry and don’t reach woods or a BUA. Infantry do not flee from woods or a BUA unless forced out by charging infantry, in which case they flee out a full fleeing move (7”) in the normal way.
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An attached general cannot detach himself from a routing unit (he is being swept away): he must first expend 2 PIPs to rally the unit.
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If a unit routs as a result of a lost Locked in Combat resulting from their own charge out of woods or a BUA, it remains (in a Routed state) in the woods or BUA it charged from.
Being In a State of Rout
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A unit that flees is automatically marked as Routed and remains so until rallied with 2 PIPs.
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Routed units continue to flee in subsequent turns if not rallied. They perform this automatic fleeing at the end of a PIP Phase on which they were not rallied.
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Routed infantry do not leave woods / BUA, unless forced out by an enemy charge.
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A charge against routers is resolved in the Charge Phase. Do not roll for morale for either attacker or defender; instead, the following happens automatically:
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Routed infantry die if subsequently charged by cavalry.
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Routed cavalry die if subsequently charged by cavalry.
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Routed cavalry subsequently charged by infantry flee 11”.
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Routed infantry subsequently charged by infantry flee 7".
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Note: cavalry performing follow-up charges may choose routed enemies as a target if they are otherwise eligible, though they may never charge the same unit more than once in a single turn.
Collapse of Morale
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If all but one of a division’s units are routed, destroyed, or have fled off the map, the division’s morale collapses and, for the rest of the game, that division’s routed units can no longer rally. (The non-routed unit continues to function normally.)
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If a corps has lost half its original units, none of its units can move towards the enemy, but otherwise they behave normally.
Old Guard
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Uniquely in the game, Napoleon’s Old Guard infantry gets a +2 to all morale checks, replacing the +1 for veteran units. (This does not apply to the Middle Guard, Young Guard, Guard Cavalry, Guard Artillery, or elite units of any other nation.)
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If a unit of the Old Guard flees, however, all friendly units within 9” become shaken immediately and automatically, and all friendly units within 3” flee immediately and automatically.
Voluntary Withdrawal
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To voluntarily withdraw a unit, move the unit towards the edge of the map and, once it’s there, declare that you are withdrawing the unit. The unit then goes into a separate pile from those driven off by routing. This bears on the reckoning of the scale of victory.