Slitherine

My BG is positioned such that one of its stands is in the restricted area of an enemy BG. Alternately, my BG has enemy in its rear that are within charge range of one of its stands. Should I lose a base due to enemy shooting am I allowed to remove a front rank base and "shuffle forward" with the threatened base thus eliminating the threat? I see nothing in the rules to prevent this but is seems a bit cheesy. Thanks, Terry g.

Based on the wording on p. 116, 1st bullet - you must lose the base nearest to the shooters. If that base happens to be a front rank base, then you can shuffle bases forward to replace it per 2nd column, paragraph directly under 7th bullet same section to maintain contiguity and fill vacated front rank positions. Without a picture, if the nearest base to the shooter is not a front rank base, you might be screwed in this situation.

You must lose a base which is nearest to the shooters. Then you replace it as Christopher says. Sometimes this could work to you advantage in theory but I've never seen that happen in a game.

I should have been more specific. The shooting which caused the base loss was delivered by a separate enemy unit to my front.

However, let me make a more specific example.

I have a BG of 8 spears in two ranks. I am charged frontally by a BG of enemy spears. The Impact Phase results in a tie with no losses. During the Maneuver Phase a BG of enemy cavalry moves up behind my right rear at a 45 degreee angle putting only my right rear base within charge range. In the Melee Phase I lose and also lose a base. I now have to take a CT with an additional -1 for threatened flank and face the prospect of being charged in the rear in my opponent's next turn. However when I remove a front rank base I shuffle forward with the threatened base thus removing the -1 on the current CT as well as the future potential flank charge. Is that legal?

Thanks, Terry G.

I think you could based on p. 116, 2nd column, 3rd sentence in the paragraph under Base Removal as it says "Non-front rank bases must be used if any are available, and can be from any part of the battle group."

IMO the CT minus is not removed as it is there at the time of the test.
In melee you lose a fighting base and replace it with ANY rear rank base so you can shift the one that is in charge reach. Not cheesy, good thinking

The way I read the rules, Phil the base removal comes before the CT because if the removal causes the BG to drop to 75% or 50% this is taken into account during the CT.

Terry G.

In V3, Terry you are correct. Base removal comes before the cohesion test.