Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Tom McMillen]

We had a little oddity come up yesterday at one of Bill's pleasant little gaming days (thanks Bill!) that is probably old news but struck us as wierd(No, it wasn't in one of my games. &) )
So a column of regulars expands out 2 elements to its left, then goes into skirmish and contracts on the left hand element, so in effect 'leaps' 2 elements to the side. I know what yer thinking - can't expand and contract ih the same move, but the rules take pains, apparently, to specifically allow this. They state that you can not make two fomation changes of the expansion and contraction form in the same move, and that the contraction for forming skirmish is specifically not a contraction formation change.
This of course, is somewhat counter intuitive, as regulars doing the 'sissy shuffle' only get to move an inch (can't get out of the way of those directly behind them), and can not do this 'leap' itself, can only do it if also changing from ordered formation to skirmish.
Of course, this has signifigant ramifications- as a 3 element column of regulars can mask something behind them, then leap out of the way to allow a charge. The thought of a column of troops having a maneuver that allows them to be a column of troops 100 feet to their left raises an eyebrow.
Did we miss something, or is this intentional? - Tom

[joncleaves]

I can only assume that this is a rules question and that the 'this' in the last sentence is a steady regular body eligible to form skirmish changing its number of ranks after having already perfomed the maneuver change frontage. If so, the answer to that question is yes.

As for sissy shuffle, leap, counterintuition and raised eyebrows, you are on your own....

Jon

[Tom McMillen]

>>>As for sissy shuffle, leap, counterintuition and raised eyebrows, you are on your own....

Jon>>>

I did not mean 'sissy shuffle' in any sort of derogatory sense. That was always the term, at least around here, for the Regualr maneuver of turning to flank, moving an inch, then turing back forward. Rather than go through those machinations we would just say ' I'm shuffling this unit left' and slide it over an inch.
Thanks for your reply. - Tom

[joncleaves]

You're very welcome, Tom.
And I did not take it derogatorily. I just had to work through some stuff to get to what I thought was the rules question and wasn't entirely sure I was helping you. I am very glad I did.

Jon