Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[jamiepwhite]

In a couple of games lately, we've had the following situation come up at Steve's gym.

A foot unit armed with bow or other long distance missile weapon is facing at 40 paces a unit of regular steady light calvary. During the counter phase, the regular light calvary makes a counter and elects to turn around and walk away from the enemy missile weapon armed unit. At the end of counters, the regular light calvary unit is now 240 paces away from the enemy missile weapon armed unit and facing away, towards its own rear area. During prep fire the missile weapon blasts away, usually shooting the light cav for four or five fatigues. Steve has pointed out that the unit isn't allowed to rally away from the enemy unit since it's rear is facing the enemy unit at the moment. We all think per the rules that making the unit waver is correct since it shouldn't be rallying back towards the enemy.

This seems contrary though to the spirit of the game in that the unit is actively moving away from the threat and game mechanics are punishing the unit for trying to act in the realistic manner (i.e. rallying away from the enemy unit which isn't permitted in a rally back). Can something be done about the phrasing in 6.36 so that a unit already moving away from the enemy can rally back in the direction it's already facing?

SOmething like
"A unit facing away from the nearest enemy unit may treat it's front as it's rear for determining the direction of the rally back move."

Thanks,

Jamie White

[Mark Stone]

Well, Jon will speak up on this one I'm sure, but if you dig through the archives you'll find several discussions on this and related topics, including a rather spirited exchange between Jon and myself with the odd outcome that I think we actually agree with each other... which doesn't matter so much since his opinion trumps mine anyway.

But. What I remember is this: the general philosophy of FHE seems to be that units which put themselves in stupid positions suffer the consequences. If you leave your LC in a position to be approached to 40p by enemy missile weapons, then there is precious little a counter can do to save you. You turn around, move 200p, find yourself at 240p facing away, get shot for 2 or more CPF and indeed cannot make a recall move. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, do not recall closer to any known enemy within 240p, and do not avoid the waver test your maneuver has earned you.

I'll note that the situation, as I recall Jon explaining it, is even worse than that. Your LC might be at the hinge in your line, and making a recall away from the enemy directly in front of it might bring it ever so slightly closer to enemy along the other axis of the hinge that is within 240p. If so, guess what: no recall for you, take the waver test instead.

This all seems a bit unorthodox the first few times you play it literally the way the rules are written. Over time, though, it starts to make a lot of sense. You learn to dress your lines properly, you learn that getting outflanked causing you to put a hinge in your line is bad, and you learn that light troops don't make good hinge troops. All of this seems remarkably historical and realistic. If, on the other hand, you are the aggressor with an advantage against your opponent's light troops, you learn that this is an opportunity to exploit. If your opponent mis-plays his lights and puts them out of position, you can make him pay the price. Again, this seems quie historical and realistic once you start thinking it through.

Light troops are great at screening off, and when used properly can often tie up well more than their own numbers in enemy troops. But they do have their vulnerabilities, and that includes needing clear, well defined, protected paths in which to execute recall moves. If you fail to manage spacing and placement properly, and don't leave yourself a literally valid recall zone, you will pay the price in the form of a waver test.


-Mark Stone

[joncleaves]

I assume we are talking recall. Rally back is a 7th term. If you react to this notion with "who cares?", please don't expect me to care about the question.

I am not planning any change to this rule. Mark generally outlines the idea, with some details not 100% correct. He has the philosophy dead on, though. The Warrior rules are designed to be unforgiving to ahistorical unit manipulations.

Basically, in the time frame of a "bound", what Warrior recognizes as a unit has four basic options for removing itself (or at least attempting to) from danger: counter, retire, recall, evade. These are all different versions of the same thing. With rare exception, you can only do one because there is only "time" to do one.

An LC unit moving away from an archer unit is using all the time it has to get as far away as it can. If it doesn't get far enough away, it gets shot.

As an aside, one really bad 7th habit is for veteran players to feel entitled to the option sometimes given to those shot for 2 CPF in prep. Actually 2 CPF from prep is a waver test in 100% of cases and is the basic result. Many units in many situations are given an "optional" shooting response, but not all. Just because one type unit gets an option in situation A but does not in situation B does not mean they are being denied something they should be able to do. That is 100% deliberate.