Art De La Guerre

[elmoro]

Sunday we had a tournament here in Rome and a question arose.
A player had a very long column of mounted troops. He weeled 90° with the front base. How the other troops behind should be placed?
It seems very strange that the column stayed straight, because there would be a radical change in the position of the last base of the column...

[Hazelbark]

p 29 wheeling

see first paragraph and first bullet.

^
1
2
3
4
wheel to left

<1234

You measure the distance the front corner of 4 moves in a straight line.

[Ramses II]

The rules say that the formation wheels as a block, but also stipulates that no unit may exceed its maximum movement. This is fine in the given examples where two units wheel through 45 degrees but Elmoro is asking about a much larger formation eg. 6 HI units, wheeling through 90 degrees. Rules As Written (RAW) this would result in the leading unit moving 1/2 UD to one side. They cannot be moved as a block with the other units stretched out in a block to it's rear, as the rearmost unit would have galloped ~4 UD forward contrary to the prohibition on exceeding the unit's movement capacity.

Personally I tend to leave the units shuffling forwards wheeling some to the appropriate side and touching on the inside of the wheel. But Elmoro is asking if this is correct or whether there is another solution, perhaps by having the rear part of the column sliding 1/2 UD in the opposite direction (which would allow the positioning one or more units directly behind the leading unit).

Thoughts?

[Hazelbark]

The rules are clear

the front can only wheel what the rear units front corner moves. So the longer the column the less possible the wheel can be.

[Ramses II]

So if I have understood you correctly, you are suggesting that the head of the column is displaced to one side by it's movement capacity (2UD for HI) while the rear unit is moved forward by the allowance effectively rotating the entire column while keeping it as a single block.

[Hazelbark]