A Chimera uses its Impetuous activation and declares Move. As required by Impetuous, it must move its full distance to get as close as possible to the enemy DZ. What do its three Pupniks do? A) They don't move. Peripheral says "Peripherals are always activated with the same Order as their Controller." An Impetuous activation isn't an Order, so it doesn't activate the Peripherals. Only the Chimera moves and leaves the Pupniks behind. B) They Move because Peripheral says "Peripherals are always activated with the same Order as their Controller, executing the same Short Skills of the Order," and we extrapolate that they also execute the same Short Skills of an Impetuous activation because it's like an Order. But, they don't have the Impetuous skill so they can Move along the 6" path of their choice, and aren't required to go towards the enemy DZ. C) They Move and must follow the Impetuous restriction and go as far as possible towards the enemy DZ, even though they aren't Impetuous, because...?
Related question: can Pupniks benefit from Partial Cover? They don't have the Impetuous skill, so it would appear that they can?
Relevant part of the overall Peripheral skill: > If any scenario condition or Skill causes the Controller to gain the Impetuous Special Skill, the Controller's Peripherals will also be affected. By a strict reading of the rules having the Impetuous skill on the Chimera's profile causes the controller to gain the skill during the game, therefore the Pupniks will also be affected by the skill. Though its not spelled out in black and white I assume the Pupniks would be activated at the same time as the Chimera.
We also have the FAQ that says: Do Impetuous activations generate AROs? Yes. The Trooper counts as having had an Order spent on them, and the normal Order Expenditure Sequence applies. So in at least some ways an Impetuous activation counts as an order being spent. I'm content to rule out (A) on the basis of this and the "Peripherals will also be affected" line. (A) was never a plausible option anyway, but it's good to have a rules basis for eliminating it. How about (B) vs. (C)? Accepting that the Pupniks are activated by the same activation/pseudo-order as the Chimera and must declare the same skill, are they bound by the same restrictions on Move that the Chimera is? Given that they're "affected" by Impetuous but don't themselves have the Impetuous skill. Likewise, can they get Partial Cover mods?
If something causes the Controller to gain the Impetuous skill, that something also affects the Peripherals. It doesn't say that the Peripherals are affected by the Impetuous skill directly. RAW the grammar appears to say that the thing that gives the Controller the Impetuous skill would also give the Peripherals the Impetuous skill (i.e. the grant of the Impetuous skill affects the Peripherals the same way it affects the Controller). But that doesn't make sense since a natively impetuous Controller like the Chimera doesn't have Impetuous Pupniks. Accepting that when a Controller has the Impetuous skill it affects the Peripherals in some way, that doesn't answer the question of how it affects them. It doesn't give them every effect of the skill, otherwise they would each get independent Impetuous activations (and also if the Pupniks were meant to have all the effects of Impetuous, you'd think they would just have the Impetuous skill).
Second bullet You always activate the Controller. The Peripherals will do the same actions. You are not allowed to spend an order on a Peripheral.
I think you're making this far more complex than it needs to be. If the controller is Impetuous it affects the Peripherals too, the Pupniks don't need the Impetuous skill because the Chimera has it. They'll activate at the same time because they're Peripherals but otherwise they're under all the same effects such as restricted order declarations, forced movement direction, unable to benefit from partial cover, etc. This is a classic "Water cooler moment" where it's possible to read the rules two ways, one that makes sense, and one that breaks a whole bunch of stuff. Use the one that makes sense.
There is also the argument that an Impetuous activation means you'll have to follow the rules for Impetuous if you are activated impetuously. I know, I know, Impetuous references "Trooper" a lot and in N4 peripherals aren't troopers.
In N4 they are though https://infinitythewiki.com/Terminology Peripheral Special category of Trooper that is unable to contribute or spend Orders by itself and, therefore, takes no space in the Army List. It is activated when its Controller, the Trooper on which it depends, spends an Order, replicating their actions. The Cost of a Peripheral is shown in its own Troop Profile but is also added to its Controller's Cost.
To be clear, I think it should work the way you do. It came up on Discord and it would be good to have a convincing answer. To that end, what's your rationale for the assertion that "otherwise they're under all the same effects such as restricted order declarations, forced movement direction, unable to benefit from partial cover, etc."? If it's just that playing it otherwise would break the game, what would it break?
I mistyped. Meant to write that in N4 they are not Troopers unlike in N3 where they weren't treated as a separate thing from troopers at all. But it's there. They are a trooper that can do not a single thing of the things that defines a troopers from deployable elements. Marvellous. That makes it a lot easier, though. Impetuous activation? Were you activated and are you a trooper? Follow the Impetuous activation rules. (Having the skill isn't a requirement to use the skill if another rule tells you to use the skill, having the skill basically only means it's always there)
More of a general quote for when people come up with stupid readings of rules. But in this case, when it says that they're affected by Impetuous, it means they're affected by Impetuous, this means you apply the effects of Impetuous (modified by the fact they're a Peripheral and can't be activated individually)
I like this reasoning. Impetuous says "Impetuous activations only allow a fixed set of Skill combinations." It then goes on to put restrictions on what "the Trooper" can do. It makes sense to read this as referring to all Troopers activated by the Impetuous activation, not just the one that has the Impetuous skill. The Pupniks aren't activated by an Order, so they can't do what they could do if activated by an Order (move freely). They're activated by an Impetuous activation, so they must do what a Trooper does when activated by an Impetuous activation (move towards the DZ).
Just to tie into here because I haven't seen it talked about. Presumably this situation would also apply to an Irmandhino with V-5 Elektronik?
