Art De La Guerre

[SteveR]

So I had a situation come up today which caused me to wonder about a rule.

I had a unit which which needed to be shifted to allow a friendly unit to conform into combat.

Page 52 specifies that this is done "the minimum distance necessary in priority to the rear then to the flank"

In this case the unit being shifted would only have to slide sideways about 1/4 of a UD to make room.

The shift to the rear would be almost a full UD (it was medium foot)

So does the "priority" in the sentence quoted take precedence over the smaller distance requirement? And the shift must be to the rear?

I suspect this is crystal clear in the original French.

[Neep]

Well the alternative is that flank or rear is a tie-breaker if both are the same distance, so it seems pretty unlikely.

[Longtooth]

Neep is correct. Individual stands are to be shifted as little as possible. The text concerning side/rear only applies in the case of a tie breaker.

Jesse

[SteveR]

Jesse, thank you for vindicating me.

You say that Neep is correct, but then contradict him


I see most players shift stands as little possible as the primary means of adjustment, but the English text (at least) seems to call for the direction to be the one to use first.

[AlanCutner]

[Neep]

LOL. When I reread my post I realized I left an ambiguous antecedent but thought it wouldn't cause trouble. In a fluid situation, I don't think you can reliably decide that there's 11m behind and 10.5mm to the side.
Rereading the rule, I believe it's quite in keeping with both the letter and the spirit to move back to an obstacle, slide clear to the flank, then move back again. You have to minimize the number of shifted units, too, so I think you just work it out with your opponent.

[lionelrus]

[Hazelbark]

[Neep]

"Different strokes for different folks"