I was reading through the "chase" maneuver and couldn't quite grasp the exact procedure here. The maneuver states;

"Pit hunting skill vs 1/2 enemy skill, representing many individual fights where the knight may be wounded."

"... Up to 1d6 random foes, hunting down each one for one normal combat round, separately..."

"Each critical success indicates one ransomable enemy is captured..."

"The enemy rearguard ... Will be encountered on a roll of 20..."


Question 1: when and how is the hunting roll used, since the rules later state "one normal combat round" presumably using weapon skills as normal?

When is the knight wounded by this hunting roll? How does one roll damage for multiple combats representing several fights, and how is the opposing skill and glory gained calculated?

Question 2: What is the roll for the rearguard, and when is it rolled?

Is an extra die rolled to check for rearguard, with no other effect? Is it rolled before every separate enemy, one after the other, or just once? In that case, when?

As always, thank you very much for your input! :-)

BotB2, p. 48.

Seems mostly clear to me.

1. Roll 1d6 for the number of the enemies (the type of which has presumably been rolled earlier).
2a. For EACH of those above enemies, roll Hunting (with +5 apparently) vs. Enemy Weapon Skill divided by 2.
2b. Each of these rolls have full effects, in wounding the PK (if lost) or gaining full Glory (if won). Capture a ransomable enemy on a critical (Hunting) roll. However, the roll of 20 is a bit less clear. What I would take it to mean is that whilst the PK rolled a 20 (whether that is a fumble or a critical WITHOUT the +5 since the Rearguard is not showing their backs!), the GM does not roll "Enemy Weapon Skill divided by 2", but "Enemy Weapon Skill +5" from the Rearguard. Also, I would cut the chase at encountering the Rearguard, since that represents harder fighting; even if you win, you are delayed long enough that the routers manage to escape. This matches my reading of Pursue, where the enemy rearguard is encountered on a roll of 18-20.

To be honest, I find the use of Hunting here quite strange, as it is used to represent actually FIGHTING the routers, not tracking them down. I did prefer the earlier version (KAP 5.1) where you had one round of battlefield rout, where you used your Melee skill, and then you could try to hunt the routers further with Hunting. Especially if the PKs have not spent skill points to Hunting (my players tend to neglect it save for the Group Hunter), they might end up rolling 7 (2+5) vs. 8 (15/2) in a situation that should be to their advantage. Granted, they can always stop, and if they are chasing average infantry, then it becomes quite easy with Hunting, too: 2+5+5 = 12 vs. 12/2-5 = 1. Many of the opponents in BotB2 army lists have quite high weapon skills, though.