Slitherine

I had to rule today on whether knights were able after impact to expand onto a flanks of enemy non knight battlegroups where there were restricted spaces. Both occasions happened during the same bound, with different battle groups. Although I know that feeding in is regarded as a gradual extending of the fighting, the fighting was stepped along the line of conflict. In the first instance, there was only aprox 1cm available as a gap, as there was an enemy unit to the side and behind the front of the knight unit. There was no suggestion of cheese or geometric ploys, with both players having played few games previously. The other knight unit had a 20mm gap to the side, with a friendly LH unit to the side. As the wording of the rules is that additional stands "move" it presented me with a quandry. In the end, the knights expanded where the 20mm gap was friendly, and were not allowed to where the 10mm gap was enemy. Comments welcome.

kadeshuk wrote:I had to rule today on whether knights were able after impact to expand onto a flanks of enemy non knight battlegroups where there were restricted spaces. Both occasions happened during the same bound, with different battle groups. Although I know that feeding in is regarded as a gradual extending of the fighting, the fighting was stepped along the line of conflict. In the first instance, there was only aprox 1cm available as a gap, as there was an enemy unit to the side and behind the front of the knight unit. There was no suggestion of cheese or geometric ploys, with both players having played few games previously. The other knight unit had a 20mm gap to the side, with a friendly LH unit to the side. As the wording of the rules is that additional stands "move" it presented me with a quandry. In the end, the knights expanded where the 20mm gap was friendly, and were not allowed to where the 10mm gap was enemy. Comments welcome.

Not quite sure what you mean. Troops can only expand in melee if there is physically room to fit them in. Unlike conforming, other troops cannot be shifted out of the way to make room. There is no rule allowing them to be stepped forward beyond the front of the adjacent base of their BG to avoid an obstruction. Otherwise, there is no restriction (other than the size of their base) on the size of gap they can expand into.

However, if fighting foot, it is foolish to expand into a position where the knights' break off is blocked - as they will drop a cohesion level every time they fail to break off when they should. I did this at Warfare vs Pete Dalby and had my knights routed despite them winning every round of combat and not losing a single base.

Note also that conforming comes before expansion.

A diagram would help here. Was there a base width space on the side of the front rank element to expand into, or was the nearby BG in the way? My understanding of the "feeding more bases into melee" dynamic is the expansion is representing the flow of troops to the edges of the combat, and isn't related to the actual physical movement of a specific element. As long as the element in question conforms to the restrictions listed in the Feeding more Bases section, and there is room to expand, I would say it's legal. If there is not enough room to expand, i.e. less than a base width gap on the side of the bases in contact, then it can't be done.