lawrenceg wrote:petedalby wrote:I guess from which, you could argue that the commander's base can be used to maintain continuity - not sure about it though as they are just a marker really.
That was my take on it - yes. If it wasn't intended, why would the rules have it as a specific bullet point?
IMO it is there only to clarify that you lose a normal base, not the commander (triggering a cohesion test for loss of commander etc). The underlying principle is that the displaced troop base is really in the position where the commander's base is. It's only displaced because the authors chose to put commanders on big bases instead of representing them by only a flag or something.
If the elephants did the most hits then the base facing the elephants must be removed.
The removed front rank base must be replaced.
It is not possible to replace it except by shifting the rest of the BG to the right, breaking contact with the legionaries. Therefore that is what happens.
This is all stated clearly on page 116.
The rules contemplate physically placing the general in the front rank to show that he is fighting, providing re-roll bonuses, at risk, etc. Of course, nobody really does this as a practical matter. Instead we tilt the command stand or turn it to show that the general is fighting. (yeah, yeah, some pedant among you will insist that you do it "as written" - whatever).
Per the strict reading, the rules say you don't actually remove a general from the front rank when failing a death roll.
Even under the pedantic application, the no removing generals rule does not even trigger here, since the general is behind the overlap stand, and not the stand in frontal contact with the elephant.
No rulebook at hand, but assuming that it is opaque or silent on the split loser problem, I think Hammy's take holds better logic. If the Kn have lost at two ends, and suffered more hits from Elephants than legions, then they are "losing worse" on the Elephant side. All else being equal, it makes sense to show the casualties (i.e., lost stand) from that end. In turn, it does not make sense for the Kn to break from the legions - against whom they were losing, but not as badly - to reinforce the greater failure against the Elephants. Never mind the fact that other parts of the rules suggest that Kn will not engage Elephants without deliberate moves (e.g., no compulsory charges that might tag an elephant). So if the Kn have to make a Sophie's Choice here, it only makes sense for the result to skew towards fighting the legions.
