Slitherine

A question that came up during a battle last night.

Two lines of heavy foot approaching each other, one with light foot in front of it. The lines get to within 3MU of each other and the guy with the LF wants to do a 180 turn with them followed by simple advance to move them out of the way. The way I read the rules is that they are too close so a 180 followed by a SIMPLE move is no longer possible as it's now a DIFFICULT move and it would take two turns to move them, one to turn and one to move. Have I got it right or have I totally missed the point?

Obviously if they were charged they could evade out of the way but they were preventing their heavy foot from charging.

The key here is that a difficult move is not by definition complex. Moves are either simple or complex, difficult advances are only complex for other undrilled troops.

You would not believe how many times what ended up as difficult forward moves was redefined and reworded. The final solution is not perfect but is better than the other options considered.

If you replace the word difficult with say Aardvark and then reread the sentence, while it will read very strangely there will be no chance of confusion.

So, after aaardvark...aardavark....aardvark, the LF turn 180 and move as a simple move, no CMT needed, done in the same manouver phase.

What it all boils down to is that the "difficult moves" line on the simple and complex moves table is the first box under "Advances." Note that these are "Simple" for everyone except "Other Undrilled," so all Skirmishers, Drilled troops, and Undrilled Cv/LCh are exempt.

So the Skirmishers can turn and move off normally (subject to restricted area rules on p74 if they are within 2 MU of the enemy, which just means some part of their final position has to lie directly in front of the "pinning" enemy BG).

Now, if the HF are undrilled and they don't have a commander with them they need to pass a Complex Move Test to make any move except charging the enemy since any move would be a "short move" because they are already less than 3 MU apart.

Mike

MikeK wrote:Now, if the HF are undrilled and they don't have a commander with them they need to pass a Complex Move Test to make any move except charging the enemy since any move would be a "short move" because they are already less than 3 MU apart.

And, of course, they can't charge the enemy this turn because their own LF are in the way. (Unless they are shock troops and fail a CMT not to charge, in which case they will burst through the LF to charge the enemy HF).

I think I get it. Just because it's a difficult move doesn't mean it's not a SIMPLE advance.

Dyeeles wrote:I think I get it. Just because it's a difficult move doesn't mean it's not a SIMPLE advance.

Yes, the key is in FoG "difficult" and "complex" are not synonyms. But your sentence will be better so: "just because it's a difficult advance (difficult forward move) doesn't mean it's not a simple move".

Mario

This might help:

http://www.madaxeman.com/main/Explanati ... in_FoG.php

from Pithy'R'Us...