Art De La Guerre

[Andy Fyfe]

Hi Guys,

Due to geometry when a unit wheels on its front corner the diagonally opposite corner will 'kick out' beyond the 40mm width of the unit base for a period of the wheel.

On p31 of the rules it states:

'Units can temporarily overlap adjacent friendly units during a wheel provided they do not end their move overlapping them.'

However, what about:

- Enemy units
- ZoCs
- The table edge
- Terrain

How are the above interactions played?

It seems odd to me because that is not how a unit of troops would move in real life but I know 'it's a game, toy soldiers etc!'.

Andy

[Three]

- Enemy units - no
- ZoCs - no
- The table edge - no
- Terrain - yes, assuming it is passable and any movement penalties for the troop type passing through it are applied.
My opinion, but since I've been informed that I don't understand geometry, who knows

[Neep]

There was some confusion whether official thinking was considering loosening the prohibition with enemy units, but it never really got fleshed out.

[Andy Fyfe]

[Three]

I tried to rationalise it that terrain, zocs and enemies are fixed, but friendly units aren't. The bases obviously can't be flexible, but they are a game mechanism and friendly units can shuffle themselves about and let other friends through.

[KevinD]

I really dislike the rule that rear corners get ‘kicked out’ during wheeling. (I’m fine with this if this is how they end their move.) It introduced an unnecessary hinderance to playability and is historical absurd. This is simply not how units wheeled - look at how D&C is done or any historical manual which covered wheeling - it’s also not a way even untrained people naturally behave - it is entirely an artifact of the fact that we use rigid bases. We should just measure and adjudicate where the front edge is moving during wheeling.

I also think this is how most people actually play - for example do they allow units next to a water feature to wheel even though their rear outer corner gets wet or troops moving around the bend in a road to be treated as being on the road even if their rear outer corner leaves the road?

[Zoltan]

Generally I ignore the "kick-out" effect. So a unit that is flush with the table side edge can wheel inwards towards the table centre without fear of its arse falling off the edge of the world, or an idiotic opponent claiming that being so close to the side edge prevents the unit wheeling. As indicated by KevinD's military manuals comment, anyone who has spent time square bashing knows that the tail of a wheeling unit does NOT "kick-out". This concept is an artificiality of the figure base construct.

[Andy Fyfe]

[navigator]

personally .. if someone wanted to turn an elephant 90 degrees and then wheel... id shoot them and rule against them! Dancing elephants, whatever next ! Personally id go with a common sense approach and let wheels happen through edge of table, terrain etc but maybe not enemy troops... page 11 on game etiquette has some neat solutions