Slitherine

These are probably basic ideas for many of you, but I thought I should ask about the rules of "legal formations".
Here are some questions by example
Thanks

If I have a four Kn BG, can I arrange the Kn as:
a) 4 across, all in one row?
b) 4 "down", in a column one base wide?
c) In a 2 bases by 2 bases square?
d) Two rows, with 3 Kn in the first row and 1 Kn in the second row?
f) In three rows, with 2 Kn in the 1st row, and 1 Kn in the 2nd and 3rd rows?

If I have an 8 HF BG, can I arrange the HF as:
a) 8 across, all in one row?
b) 8 "down", in a column one base wide?
c) In a 2 bases across by 4 bases down rectangle?
d) In a 4 bases by 2 bases rectangle?
e) Two rows, with 5 HF in the first row and 3 HF in the second row?
f) In three rows, with 3 HF in the 1st and 2nd row, and 2 HF in the 3rd row
g) Some other configuration I did not think of?

Claudius wrote:If I have a four Kn BG, can I arrange the Kn as:
a) 4 across, all in one row?
b) 4 "down", in a column one base wide?
c) In a 2 bases by 2 bases square?
d) Two rows, with 3 Kn in the first row and 1 Kn in the second row?

Yes for all of these.

f) In three rows, with 2 Kn in the 1st row, and 1 Kn in the 2nd and 3rd rows?

No, this is an illegal variant of (c).

If I have an 8 HF BG, can I arrange the HF as:
a) 8 across, all in one row?
b) 8 "down", in a column one base wide?
c) In a 2 bases across by 4 bases down rectangle?
d) In a 4 bases by 2 bases rectangle?
e) Two rows, with 5 HF in the first row and 3 HF in the second row?
f) In three rows, with 3 HF in the 1st and 2nd row, and 2 HF in the 3rd row

Yes for all of these.

g) Some other configuration I did not think of?

Two rows with 6 in the first row and 2 in the second.
Two rows with 7 in the first row and 1 in the second.

You seem to be enumerating allowed formations by 'number of ranks'; it's probably simpler to do it by 'number in the front rank', since there is one legal configuration for each possible width of the BG.

Best wishes,
Matthew

To put it another way: every rank must have the same number of bases as the front rank, with the possible exception of the final rank, which may have fewer bases than the front rank. E.g. 2,2,2,2 is legal but 2,2,2,1,1 is not or 3,3,2 is legal but 3,3,1,1 is not. Likewise 7,1; 6,2; 5,3 are all legal, but 3,5 is not because the final rank has more bases than the front.

rogerg wrote:To put it another way: every rank must have the same number of bases as the front rank, with the possible exception of the final rank, which may have fewer bases than the front rank. E.g. 2,2,2,2 is legal but 2,2,2,1,1 is not or 3,3,2 is legal but 3,3,1,1 is not. Likewise 7,1; 6,2; 5,3 are all legal, but 3,5 is not because the final rank has more bases than the front.

This is the mnemonic trick I use as well. I also remind myself that a BG that can always be an extra rank deeper than it can fight in order to maneuver more effectively--e.g. an 8 base BG of Spanish MF impact foot could be 3-3-2 rather than 4-4

Thank you!