Art De La Guerre

[elsleyra]

Must an Ambush marker be placed entirely in ambush terrain or out of sight of the enemy?
(Question from a new player)
‘Placing ambushes’ (p77) requires that “Ambush markers must be placed in terrain that allows troops to make an ambush” or “the marker must be out of sight ...”. The two earlier points specify the distance in UD from their own table edge that ambush markers can be placed for various combinations of table sectors and troop types.
During a recent game it was noted that a piece of ‘ambush terrain’ did not extend at least 1UD towards the table edge from the specified limit for ambush markers. (The terrain edge was just over 6UD from the base edge, so there wasn’t 1UD from the edge of the terrain to the 7UD limit for light troops in the central sector, but there was enough space so the Light Infantry could be placed entirely in the terrain.) There was a difference of opinion over whether or not a unit of Light Infantry could ambush in that terrain. The opinions were that the ambush was not allowed as the marker could not be placed entirely in the terrain and, alternatively, that the ambush could be placed as the Light Infantry could be placed entirely in the terrain (and so be hidden) with only a part of the ambush marker extending beyond the terrain. We played that the ambush was not allowed, but seek confirmation that this was correct.
As many unit base depths are less than 1UD, a variety of similar scenarios – with troops able to be completely hidden, but ambush markers not able to be ‘completely hidden’ could be imagined.

[Za Otlichiye]

I think the most natural reading is the whole ambush marker. I also think it is important to keep things simple. We already have the issue of what is the command range of a commander in ambush (for the purpose of deploying the rest of their command). And we have to remember to check the deployment of hidden ambushers against their visibility before the opponent's move. (I'd suggest it could be eliminated in the interest of simplicity.)