John Murphy Legate

Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1625
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Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 7:47 pm Post subject: TACTICS: depth versus lateral mobility |
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This is a spin off the discussion about pinning the enemy back using
hordes of LC, which came out of my worn out Polish posts.
But it is also of interest to me, oddly enough, in my HYWE list.
There is a lot of talk by some pretty astute folks about using lights
to pin the enemy back as far as possible into their own side of the
board.
I believe this perhaps mis-states the benefit of this action, and
leads to an automatic course that is not always the best. But I am
treading on shaky ground here so maybe it could be hogwash...
The benefit _I_ see to "pinning the enemy back" is simply preventing
him from moving <laterally> due to the terrain placed in his own side
of the board or simply his inability to march with the 45-degree
wheel restriction and the 240p distance from your pinners required.
This permits selection of a group of enemy to fight in isolation
without reinforcement.
However, wether you fight on your side of the board or his is really
immaterial otherwise. In fact, in many cases it is preferable for
some armies to use the terrain on their own side of the board to
control their flanks.
The depth factor really also impacts the distance at which enemy
skirmishers are supported by shock troops coming up. By compressing
the enemy skirmishers back onto his shock troops you deprive him of
the opportunity to leave his lights hanging for you to pluck. On the
other hand if it is the shock troops you are after and you have
nothing to realy collect the lights then yes it is desirable to make
this seperation as minimal as possible.
Also, sometimes the central board space can also be controlled by
projected missile power without the need to move up and pin literally.
Any thoughts on where one might go with this theory, better-stated?
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