Ignore original rout destination when seeing new KEU?

DVexile

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The Russian unit at the start of its rout must declare I8 as its destination as the 548 is not in LOS and thus is not a KEU.

The Russian routs first to H7 at which point the 548 is now in LOS and becomes a KEU.

The newly seen 548 does not prevent the Russian from continuing to I8, but can the Russian now optionally ignore I8 and chose K7 as a new rout destination because I8 is no further from the 548 than H7?

Relevant rules excerpt:

A10.51 DIRECTION: ... At the start of its RtPh, a routing unit must designate its destination and must attempt to reach it during that RtPh [EXC: if using Low Crawl]. If a newly-Known enemy unit prevents this, a new destination is re-figured from that point. ... [EXC: ... A routing unit may also ignore a building/woods hex if that hex is no farther from a Known enemy unit than its starting hex ...]

Does the above mean that the rout destination can only be changed when encountering a new KEU that actually prevents reaching the original destination? Or can the EXC at the very end of the rule apply when discovering any new KEU?

Relevant Q&A:

A10.51 A broken unit starts to rout toward the nearest building/woods hex, but during its rout the building/woods hex is not farther from a Known enemy unit than its present hex. Can the broken unit now choose to ignore the building/woods? Or must it continue to rout toward that target?

A. It must continue (assuming it is otherwise able to). [An97; Mw]

The one ambiguity with this the Q&A is whether discovering a new KEU is a different situation.

Fun wrinkle:

If the Russian instead chose to rout through I7 now it would be prevented from reaching H8 by the newly discovered 548 and thus would have to select K7 as a new rout destination. It would also suffer interdiction in I7 though.

Thoughts from the rules gurus?
 

klasmalmstrom

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Does the above mean that the rout destination can only be changed when encountering a new KEU that actually prevents reaching the original destination?...
Pretty much - that EXC can be claimed when a new rout destination must be determined.


Fun wrinkle:

If the Russian instead chose to rout through I7 now it would be prevented from reaching H8 by the newly discovered 548 and thus would have to select K7 as a new rout destination. It would also suffer interdiction in I7 though.
Yes, if you really wanted to rout to K7, then that's the route to take.
 

apbills

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AND if you wanted to you could Rout to K4
How can K4 become the rout target?
In the situation presented, I8 MUST be the initial rout target (3MF). If the unit routs to I7, now seeing the 548, after interdiction (and assuming it is not pinned) it must once more determine a rout target, which in this case MUST be K7 (3MF). It can then rout to J6 and finally gets to its new rout target in K7. At both times when the rout target is determined K4 is 5MF away, and the I8 and K7 buildings are not ignorable and only 3MF away when each was determined to be the target.
 

Larry

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You could permissibly rout through I6 on the way to I8, because that only takes 4 MF and is legal. From there, the squad can see the 547. K8 K7 is now equidistant to the 547 and becomes ignorable. By taking the long way home, K4 now becomes a legal destination.
 
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Jwil2020

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Ah, another fun wrinkle. But I think you meant to say the unit now in I6 can now ignore K7 because it is equidistant from the 5-4-8. (Which I assume it now has LOS to). Who says the rout rules mimic reality by taking control out the player‘s hand? :)
 

Larry

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Ah, another fun wrinkle. But I think you meant to say the unit now in I6 can now ignore K7 because it is equidistant from the 5-4-8. (Which I assume it now has LOS to). Who says the rout rules mimic reality by taking control out the player‘s hand? :)
yes.
 

apbills

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You could permissibly rout through I6 on the way to I8, because that only takes 4 MF and is legal. From there, the squad can see the 547. K8 K7 is now equidistant to the 547 and becomes ignorable. By taking the long way home, K4 now becomes a legal destination.
It appears that way and maybe missed due to misinterpreting "A routing unit may also ignore a building/woods hex if that hex is no farther from a Known enemy unit than its starting hex, " as meaning the starting hex at the beginning of the RtPh instead of the hex where it was required to re-determine the target.
 

Larry

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I read "re-figured" as in "completely recalculated" based on what the unit now sees. A10.51.
 

zgrose

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FWIW, I agree with Larry with respect to the starting hex is the hex that the routing currently occupies once a new KEU forces a new rout target.
 

Stewart

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I read "re-figured" as in "completely recalculated" based on what the unit now sees. A10.51.
Asked to Perry about 2 years ago...correct otherwise You'd have one helluva mess determining paths.
 

Stewart

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How can K4 become the rout target?
In the situation presented, I8 MUST be the initial rout target (3MF). If the unit routs to I7, now seeing the 548, after interdiction (and assuming it is not pinned) it must once more determine a rout target, which in this case MUST be K7 (3MF). It can then rout to J6 and finally gets to its new rout target in K7. At both times when the rout target is determined K4 is 5MF away, and the I8 and K7 buildings are not ignorable and only 3MF away when each was determined to be the target.
.

It's not the initial stated destination, but you can plan on going there with smart routing as Larry nailed on the head.
When players say you have no control of your routing units, this example proves them wrong.
You, literally, can choose between 3 different locations.
 
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Stewart

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Is this something that could get put in the Q&A collection for posterity?
It was simply a game question. Essentially what Larry stated.
If one runs through the Rout using the original location, it gets crazy fast.
 

PresterJohn

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Sounds like a great job for an AI module - to provide a diagram of all possible rout paths for a router at the time of declaring that the unit is going to rout.
What could go wrong?
 
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