What does a berserker do after its target fails to rout?

boylermaker

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One of my squads went berserk, entered an enemy's hex, and broke it with advancing fire. During the rout phase, the broken enemy unit could not leave the hex, and was eliminated for failure to rout. No other enemy units are in LOS.

Am I right in thinking that A15.431, last part of the paragraph, are in effect? I.e., the squad stays berserk until its next movement phase, when it "charges toward the hex originally occupied" by the only Known enemy unit, which had left LOS (left it by virtue of elimination). So it charges its own hex, sees no enemy unit from its own hex, and then ends its move and recovers.
 

klasmalmstrom

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Sounds correct to me - assuming, of course, no other Known enemy units comes into LOS in the interim.
 

Russ Isaia

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I wonder about the timing of the return to normal. Does the Berserk really have to waste another MPh in its target hex, searching desperately for the missing target of its charge I presume, before returning to normal? This Q&A almost says no, but not quite.

A15.431
If the only Known enemy unit has been eliminated by other than the Berserk unit (after it completed it's charge), and there was no other enemy unit Known to the Berserk unit since it became Berserk. What does the Berserk unit do?

A. Assuming it has reached its target hex, the Berserk unit will return to normal.
 

Eagle4ty

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I would assume immediately (or at least at the end of its MPh) as the movement of other units during the MPh could materially change the disposition of opposing units with regards to LOS [EX: revealing a HIP enemy unit] and thus affect the ultimate status of Berserk unit that would have returned to normal in other circumstances. The same could be said for movements conducted during the RtPh or CCPh if it were to be at the end of a player turn.
 

Russ Isaia

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I would assume immediately (or at least at the end of its MPh) as the movement of other units during the MPh could materially change the disposition of opposing units with regards to LOS [EX: revealing a HIP enemy unit] and thus affect the ultimate status of Berserk unit that would have returned to normal in other circumstances. The same could be said for movements conducted during the RtPh or CCPh if it were to be at the end of a player turn.
In the posited case

the Berserk unit completes its charge by entering the target unit's Location,
the target is not eliminated by the Berserk unit but breaks and then dies for failure to rout from the target hex, and
there is no other Known unit in LOS,

the OP's rationale for why the unit returns to normal at all suggests the Berserk unit returns to normal at the end of its next MPh. That leaves the Berserk unit's return subject to the enemy unit's movements in the enemy's Player Turn (show him another unit, and he stays Berserk and charges anew) and the Berserk unit suffers the penalties of being Berserk in the enemy's Player Turn (for example, unable to fire in its next PFPh and Ambush DRM in CC). And, as you point out, the Berserk unit's status can still then be manipulated by movement in the remainder of the friendly MPh and routs and CC withdrawals.

I would play it that the Berserk unit returns to normal at the end of the RtPh. But the best I can find in the rules as support is not all that good: A15.46, returns to Good Order "if at the end of a charge there is no Known enemy unit in its LOS." I have to read "at" as "at or at the end of any phase after" the end of a charge. Guess it will have to do for now.
 
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