Slitherine

(where is a base width gap)

After impact and a round of close combat, Base of the (now) three-stand battle group is in contact with the enemy battle group represented by .
Base is within 2” of the enemy battle group represented by .
Can the player contract Base to behind Base to fight in melee, or is it pinned so cannot contract?

The BG in close combat is not affected by any restricted area. Restricted areas only apply to normal movement in the maneuver phase. Feeding bases into melee does not count as normal movement.

I am confused by your diagram. I can't tell how many bases are in each BG. I can't tell which way they are facing. I can't tell where 'behind' is. And which BG does belong to?

First of all, could never contract in its own battle group and be placed behind another BG. It would be placed behind a base in its own BG.

If and are enemy BGs facing the same way or opposite directions, then the appropriate rule would be "Side Edge to Side Edge Only" on pages 76 -78. In that case you could turn 90 degrees to face the enemy and draw them directly into melee without going through the Impact Phase. Turns are allowed in Restricted Areas. Of course, then your flank is exposed to the BG which will then become the BG.

FWIW, page 75 says that a BG may move into overlap position against a BG and ignore the RA of all other BGs to do so. On the other hand, page 74 says the Restricted Area applies to 'normal movement only' (not defined). It says you can conform to an overlap position against another enemy BG as long as it ends its move at least partly in front of the BG whose RA it was in at the start of the move. If the conform takes it out of the RA of the 3rd BG , then the conform can't be done. I, personally, think these two pages contradict each other.

What is going on with this site? I could have sworn Phil had a post on here and now it is gone.

If is all one BG, then, yes, it can contract 1 file to feed more bases into melee.

RA's only prevent normal movement in the Manoeuver Phase as per the 1st sentence and last bullet on page 74. It would only affect a BG wishing to use an Advance, Double Wheel, Expansion, Contraction, Turn or 2nd Move. RA's don't affect 'feeding more bases into melee'. The confusion (as noted in my previous post above) is the 'conform' issue.

Also look at viewtopic.php?f=43&t=10008 for a nuance or two.

The slitherine servers got infected. JD was drinking red wine. At least we weren't playing games. They lost a day of moves.

Rumour has it we've lost at least one of Dave's posts, so it's not been all to the bad.