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Playing as Swiss with an elite foot general. Presumably the most skilled halberdiers and two handed swordsmen fighting to break open holes in the enemy line. Swiss pike push back enemy. Great. Elite foot push back enemy. Great. Then catastrophe. Elite foot does not follow up the recoil. Swiss pike is now overlapped on both flanks. Die miserably.

Understand that 'Elite' has implication of being more controllable. Elite Spartan infantry for example won battles by NOT pursuing. But here, I don't think it realistic for the Elite Swiss shock troops to sit at home while the pikes kill themselves.

Zero point army card for the Swiss? Elite foot may follow up recoil?

General rule? I would have said the same thing for Alexandrian Hypaspists, except army list has decided that spear armed Hypaspists are mythological or better classed as Raiders than elite Spartan hoplite foot. (I know the arguments. I don't see them as Raiders though because their swords still stink compared to Roman/Galatian; trained to take on rough terrain missions as well as battle line; scant evidence they fought in loose order in battle line.)

So, I think elite foot should, being elite, have option of following up a recoil. Added complexity because it is an option? Fairly minor. Elite foot armed with spears are giving up a factor against mounted in compensation. Giving an added choice, if it doesn't slow the game down too much, enhances game experience.

As a general rule, anything that gives the general the choice of what his various troops do (recoil or not recoil, follow up or not follow up, whatever) is something we allow never (or in special circumstances, with a single card saying "this on time only, not doing it" that cannot be reused).

There is no radio or psychic communication between the commander and his troops that allows him to force his will upon them, based upon whether it is an advantage or not in the current tactical situation -- so any situation where the commander might choose X or Y is inherently non-historical, because the commander never had any way to make that decision in the real world as events were happening.

michaelguth wrote:But here, I don't think it realistic for the Elite Swiss shock troops to sit at home while the pikes kill themselves.

As an important side note, the Swiss army evolved through the 15th century toward fewer and fewer Elite Foot -- they weren't considered (or used as) shock troops by the Swiss.