Art De La Guerre

[Za Otlichiye]

If a player fails to place a village, and there is no river or sea on the table, can they choose a river or coastal zone as the replacement for the village?

And of course the next question, if they can but fail the selection roll, may they then choose the village for another try?-)

Is it implied that when a terrain piece is moved it must maintain its orientation? (i.e. it may not rotate)

[daveallen]

You need to read the placing sequence. There is no terrain on the table at the time of terrain selection.

To answer your questions:

Yes.

No.

Yes.
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Putting the ink into incompetence

[Za Otlichiye]

I'm assuming that if you can, in fact, replace a failed village placement with a river or coastal zone, you do not get it guaranteed, but must pass the selection roll.

Since narrowing the field would be rather important to some match-ups, the defender could select both a coastal zone and a village to maximize the chances of getting the zone down. I'm guessing that this is not allowed, but I don't see it explicitly.

Come to think of it, the terrain limits are presumably still in effect. So if both combatants are in Steppes and select 4 pieces, you might find your choices very limited if a river fails the selection test.

[MC_Delicatessen]

I think you can select a coast, a village and an impassable if you want to maximize your chances of narrowing the table (if the region allows).