Art De La Guerre

[KevinD]

Suppose as the defender I only want a village if I don’t get a waterway. The rules allow me to select any non-WW/River terrain piece if I fail to get a Waterway (p 74), so I plan to try to take a village in that event, and if that fails something else besides a Waterway, River or Village (p 75).

So in sequence it is:

1. First I must select the Compulsory piece, right? (Placing sequence, p 74)

2. Then can I select and dice (4+) to get the waterway. (p 74)

3. If I fail that roll I can then select and dice (4+) to get the village.

4. If I fail both the above rolls then I select another piece. (p75)

5. And finally I select 1-3 other pieces of terrain leaving me with the Compulsory plus 2-4 other pieces (one of which may be a WW (50%) or village (25%).

Correct?

[SteveR]

You are correct in all respects, with one exception I believe.

What you have laid out is acceptable, however I do not believe that the selection of a water feature or village necessarily must be before all other non-compulsory features. You could pick out one of those first if you wish, in my opinion.

Similarly I do not believe the word "must" if you fail the selection of a feature necessarily means another one is required if you have already selected the minimum required number of features.

However my opinion is of little weight and in practice it seems much better to roll first to see if you get non-guaranteed features before making any other selections.

So it does not matter.

Personally I always try for water first, then a village.

[Zoltan]

@Kevin

I think you are way overthinking this and I don’t understand why you are trying to lay out such a prescriptive sequence. It’s really very simple.

If you are the defender you “get” a compulsory piece of terrain (there’s really no “selection” in the sense of you weighing up which piece to chose from the list of available terrain options).

Now chose 2-4 other pieces, in any order you like. Common sense says you dice for the uncertain pieces before choosing the “guaranteed” pieces.

Terrain selection should take 1 minute max, as you’ve already mentally noted your preferred terrain (as either attacker or defender) when drawing up your army list. You know the terrain your army likes or how terrain fits into disrupting your opponent.

[Za Otlichiye]

[KevinD]