Art De La Guerre

[AlanCutner]

A club mate asked me my opinion on conformation after he'd been told of a ruling at Ascot (I wasn't there).

Situation below where ABCD are in combat with 1234.
ABCD
_123

Unit B is destroyed in its own turn (so unit 1 cannot pursue) leaving
A_CD
_123

My club mate was told unit 1 would have to conform to unit A unless it moved away from the combat in some other way. My opinion is that this is wrong. P51 (Conforming units already in contact) seems to be the section requiring such a conformation, but only applies to units not in melee or already in a position to provide support. It is providing support to unit 2 so does not have to move away, even to fight unit A.

Which is correct?

[Snowhitsky]

1 is already in melee as a support. It does not need to conform.

[Hazelbark]

[AlanCutner]

Thanks both. I thought it pretty clear, but was wondering when told of the Ascot ruling.

[Ramses II]

Umm, I think the situation is slightly confused by earlier discussions and DT rulings, which could be the cause of the recent ruling at Ascot.

There was a similar discussion in 2019 Here :-
http://www.artdelaguerre.fr/adlg/v3/forum/viewtopic.php?p=98494#98494

Using the current diagram to describe that ruling from the DT, Unit 1 was advancing into contact while units 2 & 3 were already in melee. In that particular case it was ruled that Unit 1 would have to conform on A, rather than being allowed to choose to remain in support of unit 2.
The rules have not changed between V3 and V4 regarding conforming in this particular situation, while the major difference here is that Unit 1 is already effectively in melee with enemy unit C.

This is obviously confusing at best.
I will check with the DT.

[Za Otlichiye]

May it conform?

Page 50 bullet 1 seems to say it "Can", but page 51 Conforming units already in contact seems to exclude it.

---

Why would it ever want to? Consider if unit A is in flank to flank contact...

[Ramses II]

OK, so I checked with the oracle, and this is the official response.
Please note, this may wall not be how people have played in the past, so please check against the rules.

Conformation is treated differently depending on whether this occurs after charging, after moving into support, or when in contact after a melee; and there are separate sections of rules to cover the three cases. Furthermore, Charging is deemed to take precedence over moving into support.

Question #1 Conformation units already in contact

In the original case on this thread, units A-D charged units 1-3 but unit B was destroyed leaving the situation
A_CD
_123

Now it is the turn of units 1-3; does unit 1 have to conform on A ??

Answer
No. (see the definition of Conformation units already in contact P51)
Unit 1 is in support of unit 2 while not being in melee with any enemy, so it is not forced to conform on A, but may do so if the player chooses to do so.

Question #2 Conformation after a charge

Suppose units CD are already in melee with 23, while unit 1 was in range to provide support like this
A_CD
__34
_1

In the turn 1-3, Unit 1 moves to provide simple support to unit 2, ending up in corner-to-contact with enemy units A and C as in the original diagram above. What happens here ?

Answer
When unit 1 moves into into contact with Unit A, it MUST conform with unit A using the rules on P50, as charging is deemed to take precedence over providing support. This was determined in the previous post.

Note
A unit is deemed to be moving to provide support if it is not already in contact with the enemy unit and that enemy unit is not already in melee. In this case it conforms according to the section "Conformation to give support" on P51.

[vexillia]

[Ramses II]

[vexillia]

[vexillia]

Having thought about this a bit more:

[Ramses II]

In essence, yes. 

Given  the earlier diagrams, if unit 1 will contact enemy A and C simultaneously, and thus will be deemed to be charging and conforming on unit A, then the whole charge / evade process takes place.

This may result in A evading, allowing unit 1 to conform into support of its friends, or unit 1 may roll short and be unable to reach. 

Equaly, because it is a charge move, it will prevent unit 1 from using normal movement to arrive at the desired position because charge moves are straight after any initial direction change. 

[vexillia]

Thanks. This is definitely a tricky one worthy of an FAQ.
_________________
Martin Stephenson

[KevinD]

What if 123 charge A_CD?

A_CD
_123

What happens?

(Does 1 remain in support of C or conform to fight A? Does it matter if the A_C gap is exactly 1 UD or < 1 UD?)

Does it matter if 123 already did a 1 UD shirt to the left before they charged (so if 1 conforms on A it will be shifting 2 UD left in total)?

Does it matter if before the charge the distance between the nearest points of A and 1 > 1’s charge distance? (If for example before the slide to the left, CD was exactly at the charge range of 1 and thus (by the Pythagorean theorem) A starts beyond 1’s charge distance.)

[Ramses II]

Since units 1-3 are charging into contact, they follow the rules for Conformation after a Charge.

Case #1

If units 1-3 are parallel with A-D, unit 1 must conform on A if it makes contact during the charge irrespective of the gap between units A and C, or the initial movement of the group.
The same will be true if unit 1 is forced to conform into contact with Unit A by units 23 conforming onto units CD. This will represent the extreme case of conformation since it will cause unit 1 to slide up to 1.5UD (0.5UD caused by units 23 sliding left, and then 1UD required because unit 1 would then be in contact with unit A).

Case #2

If units 1-3 are angled such that unit 2 contacts D, this is covered by P50 top diagram, where the units will slide right, since unit 2 will be the first unit entered the ZoC of D. Thus looking like this :-

A_CD
__123

Case #3

If units 1-3 are angled such that unit 3 contacts D but unit 1 cannot reach A, then the conformation will follow p50 bottom diagram, with units 23 conforming on units CD, while unit 1 stops short of A looking like this.

A_CD
__23
_1