The official Rules Errata from Games Workshop contained the following rule change:
About Face!
A formation can turn to face the opposite direction at any point during its move, without using any of its movement allowance.I think that this rule change has a lot more impact on game play than anticipated. I am fairly certain that GW was thinking of the case of Formations with a few number of companies - or a formation that is not "spread out", because this changes the entire move mechanic where the "most expensive move a formation can make" is now a 90-degree rotation, where it used to be that the "most expensive move" was a 180-degree rotation (i.e., an About Face).
The blue line shows the "relative cost" based upon the old rule where the red line shows the "cost" based upon the new rule for rotating formations. By "relative cost", this means that the formation's type (infantry vs cavalry), its size and current configuration of companies within the formation dictate the amount of move distance required to make the rotation and a value of "1" means that is it 100% of the cost to rotate around to an about face direction. (See the previous post where a formation of a single company's cost to rotate versus a 3x2 formation of 5 company's cost to rotate … remember that the second's was 3 times as costly.)Notice that the reason that the red line (under the new rule) is smaller is due to the fact that it is less efficient to move 91-180 degrees, but more efficient to instead perform a "no cost about face" and rotate back to the desired angle and then perform a second "no cost about face" to return to the original facing direction. in fact the most expensive rotation move that could be made is a 90-degree turn to the right or to the left.
Furthermore, there was not specified limit to the number of times that a formation could perform and "About Face!" move - which means that a spell caster could effectively cast simultaneously from both the back and the front of the formation (with respect to measuring). This really becomes an issue with the "long" formations (e.g., 1x5 or 1x6 formations).
Imagine this formation that is comprised of 6 companies of Minas Tirith Warriors and Gandalf the White are positioned as shown on the left. Assume that he casts a spell and then the formation performs an "About Face!" and then he rolls and passes his focus roll - and then casts another spell (now 360mm [just over 14"] away from where he was located originally), rinse and repeat.
To quote from El Macho from Despicable Me 2: "Are you kidding?!?"This could be really annoying, really quickly … especially with those frustrating Spells of Ruin and Spells of Command … Imagine the frustration that a Mastery Level 3 Wizard like Saruman could inflict! Isengard you ARE my bane!
I think that the way to fix the "holes" that were introduced by this rule change would be to limit the number of "About Face!" moves that a formation can perform should be limited to one per turn, and require the companies to retain their orientation within a formation - and literally turn around. For Example:
This would mean that the wizard in the front company would only gain a distance advantage of 60mm and would not be nearly as annoying as the alternative. Is that too much to ask, considering that using a rotation about the center of the formation would cost 24.25" of movement? I mean even a Heroic Move with a Hornblower would only give this formation a total of 21" of rotational movement - still not enough to fully rotate around to an "About Face!".
LINKS TO OTHER RANDOM POSTS
- GW WotR Unit Cost Controversy
- What About Banners and Hornblowers in Profiles?
- Legendary Formations and Their Point Costs
- The "About Face!" Errata - More Game Changing than Expected
- What Would a WotR Blog be without a Discussion of Epic Strike?!?
- Blog Introduction
- WotR Army Roster Sheet - Available for Download
- WotR Army Roster Example 1000 Point Gondor Army
- Ideas for iPad Simulator of WotR
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