Art De La Guerre

[KevinD]

Suppose the enemy “approaches within” (p 77) 1 UD of your ambush marker and you are forced to deploy it on table (and if hesitant this will be the first opportunity you have to place them on table (p 80)). This means the enemy and ambushers will (often) be in each other’s ZOCs (assuming everyone has ZOCs extending into the appropriate terrain).

Assume the enemy is move as a group in line whose front edge is parallel to the edge of your ambush marker and “overlaps” both ends. (This is perhaps the most usual case when the enemy wants to occupy the terrain piece.)

Assume your ambush contains 2-4 MI and/or LMI (only). (The problem below goes away if you have any troops with a base depth less than 1 UD, for example LI, HI, or mounted other than elephants and chariots.)

How exactly do you place ambushers the ambushers?

P 77 says one unit must be on the marker and the rest must form a group and be no closer than 1 UD to the enemy. Clear enough. So one goes exactly on the ambush marker, say facing the enemy. However if you place a unit to the left or right of the one on the marker it is less than 1 UD from the enemy and thus it is not allowed to place. The only allowable formation thus seems to be a column (and hopefully the terrain piece is deep enough to allow this.)

(a) Is this what is intended?

(b) Or is it allowed to place units to the left and the right?

and if the answer to (b) is yes, how is this done?

(c) Is the enemy moved back to exactly at 1 UD and hence outside of ZOC? Or

(d) Is it allowed to place the ambushers with 1 UD of enemy in this case, and thus form a line parallel to enemy approaching your ambush

Thanks.

[Za Otlichiye]

Within is less than or equals, so everyone is at 1UD and there is no problem.

[Ramses II]

Don’t forget that normally, you may reveal the ambush at any time. So if the enemy will infringe the area that contains your ambushing units, you stop the enemy advance, reveal the ambush and then move the enemy up to one UD from the revealed units. 

I am less sure how this would work if the ambush is ‘hesitant’, but suspect it would be the same. 

[Mike Bennett]

[Hazelbark]

Yes it is intended.

I had this past weekend. I knew the enemy was in ambush. I was approaching their two markers (1 UD spaced) both frontally and at an angle.

I said when they placed in their turn their ambush in one marker. You may want to reveal the other, because my angle of approach will prevent them from deploying within 1 UD of me and when I am in within 1 UD of marker that will prevent you from being in a line. You will effectively be forced into a column. The person considered and said that was fine. They needed the surprise in my move more than the being in column problem.

So no moving unit is pushed back.

Yes this can mean that an ambush that is enveloped or discovered in an odd way may have a problem.

The goal is to avoid overly legalistic got you situations a la DBM where the game was about rules manipulation not game.

Lessons:
Plan to reveal your ambush in time.
Don't place an entire unreliable corps in ambush where bad things can happen.

Don't obsess about this too much because it is far more marginal than people realize.

[Za Otlichiye]

Ambushers must be able to form a group around the marker that is either out of sight, or entirely in cover at the beginning of the enemy turn.
They must also deploy in a formation that was hidden at the beginning of the turn.
There is a pathological case where a hesitant corps ambush is hidden at the beginning of the turn, but when the enemy reaches 1 UD of the marker, it can no longer deploy that way.