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RE: Rules For Penal Troops
Like Camp, I note per Section 10 in RW, the purpose of the penal units' prescribed movement is to assault. Given this and the descriptor that such troops deployed "without regard for casualties" tends me towards a stricter interpretation of the movement clauses such that penal units must move their full allowance. Clearly there is ambiguity, however as the rule does not append, as it might have done, " ... to the limit of their movement allowance."
Given the twice cited "goal" of such movement being assault combat, I tend to think that the phrases "always move closer" and "must move closer" and "continue to move toward" are to be interpreted as internal to the movement action (if I can still move, I must move) rather than external to it (I have to move closer, and can do so or satisfy the same by moving a single hex).
For the second question, I think it is unambiguous that disrupted penal-units-adjacent-to-an-enemy are, by the third paragraph, intended to be treated like any other demoralized unit (including penal) and forced to attempt a morale recovery unless FOW intervenes.
Now consider a disrupted penal unit NOT adjacent to an enemy! Paragraph 2 only refers to UNdisrupted and UNdemoralized penal units (i.e. good order ones) as being forced to move towards an enemy. But, the last line in paragraph 3 states DEM or DIS-adjacent-to-an-enemy penal units as being "the only situation not required to move toward and assault enemy units." So, does our DIS-but-NOT-adjacent penal unit have to move (1 hex) towards an enemy or can it attempt to recover? I feel a Linda Blair moment coming on.
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