I too have some thoughts about
zendor’s situations (nice diagrams by the way).
I’d like remind people of the following two precepts.
Page 2 paragraph 9:-
Geometric Principle #1: “Although each element base is depicted as a rigid rectangular block, this does not imply that the troops it represents are necessarily in such a block or do not vary their position.”
And page 9 paragraph 9:-
Historical Promise #1: “Troops that would contact in real life do so in the game so that moving a front edge into contact with enemy always results in combat.”
(If we are allowed to ignore these two precepts when we feel like it, why are they written in the book?
Could someone please draw up a list of all the things that are written that we can ignore when it suits us)Zendor’s diagram 1Why can’t the the 3Ax element labelled ‘A2’ contact the flank of the 3Kn element labelled ‘B1’?
Diagram 10 on page 20 gives examples of where such flank contact is not allowed due to a lack of movement.
If ‘A2’ had sufficient movement to bring its left front corner into contact with the enemy left front corner, but a lack of space prevents this, why should the contact not be allowed? (see
Historical Promise #1 above).
“Sir, why are we not charging into the knights open flank?”
“Because warrior Fred on the far left of our line cannot make contact with knights left front corner.”
“But the rest of us can sir. Couldn’t warrior Fred and his mates close up a bit?” (see
Geometric Principle #1 above).
Consider the implications of not allowing this move.
Suppose that element ‘B2’ were some piece of impassible terrain, such as a waterway, city, fort, camp, or table edge.
Position your front edge just a single millimetre short of a BW from such an obstacle, and you can never be flank attacked!
What a marvellously cheesy and totally unrealistic exploit for all you gamey tournament players…
Zendor’s diagram 2Why shouldn’t the victorious 3Kn element labelled ‘A1’ not pursue into the open flank of element ‘B2’?
The rule on page 12 paragraph 11 says they do:-
“Pursuit contact [12.11]: If a pursuing element’s
front edge contacts (an) enemy or its front corner contacts an enemy front edge, they line up immediately as if contact was by a tactical move, but the resulting combat is resolved next bound.”
In this case the moving victorious 3Kn does not have the physical space in which to line up…
…so the stationary 4Bd element labelled ‘B2’ must do so instead (see
Historical Promise #1 above).
“Sire, why are we French Knights not pursuing the beaten enemy?”
“Because Sir Fred on the far left of our line cannot make contact with this new enemy’s left front corner.”
“Quite right”…”We should all halt”…”We don’t want to leave him out”…”I didn’t want to pursue anyway”…
Seriously, does anybody think this is realistic?
Zendor’s diagram 3Ho kay…I can see the logic of this one.
Using
Geometric Principle #1, you could argue that in reality an element is much less deep than our bases show them.
So the ‘rear’ edges are not actually in contact, so no overlap is counted in these cases.
Final thoughtsNowhere in the Great Holy Purple Book is there a commandment that says:-
“Thy shalt throw all common sense out of the window and switch off your brains when using these rules”.
Some potentially useful player aids can be found here, including the latest June 2017 FAQ and the Quick Reference Sheets from the Society of Ancients:-
fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
