Elfin Sergeants

Many words come to mind when describing elves (nimble, intelligent, passionate, etc.) but one word that does not spring to mind is courageous. Orcs and not a few humans consider elves cowardly, but one has to bear in mind that elves have a completely different philosophy than those younger lived races that scorn an untimely elfin strategic redeployment-or retreat.

Elves disdain the loss of casualties, so they see nothing dishonorable about a well-timed retreat. Elves try to avoid pitched battles, but when they must fight they sting their opponent and wheel away, sapping the enemy's strength bit by bit with the minimum of senseless deaths.

Retreat is a way of doing business in the elfin army (especially among the regulars) so elves have become quite skilled at pulling out when the going gets tough. Elfin sergeants are of masters of the "limited engagement", and it is the job of the elfin sergeant to sense when things are about to break bad so the sergeant can pull his troops out of combat before it's too late.

Elfin sergeants have no additional Fate or improved attack or defense abilities. A sergeant must remain on the front rank. Although a sergeant is the last casualty pulled from the front rank, the sergeant can only be eliminated if his rank is destroyed. An elfin sergeant organizes elfin retreats, keeping them orderly and allowing the unit to (possibly) recover. If the sergeant's unit is "routed", adjudicate a normal retreat, pursuit and if possible a follow up attack on a routed unit. However, if the unit is not immediately eliminated by pursuit, the unit forms back up and is no longer routed. Irregular Elfin sergeants are statted exactly like their common troop counterpart except their Leadership is
increased by d6. Irregular Elfin sergeants cost 10 more points than their common counterparts. Regular elfin sergeants (who are much older and much better trained) are statted the same (except LEA is +2d4) and cost 15 more, but their unit may retreat an extra 1".