MOVEMENT TYPE 3: RECONFIGURATION MOVEMENT
Any time that a formation is comprised of more than a single company it has the potential to reconfigure the companies within the formation into a new configuration. Some configurations are more strategically advantageous while others are more efficient for mobilization or dealing more direct damage to an opponent.
Within the current rule baseline, GW basically considers this type of movement to be effectively "free". For example, here is a snippet of the rules from page 32:
Ironically, right after specifying the rule as written above, within the caption for the image at the bottom of page 33 they immediately put another "informal rule" on the reconfiguration movement:
It seems that they intended reconfiguration to be part of the Move cost, but didn't have a good way of measuring the movement other than saying that no individual company can move further than their individual Move Value.
It looks to me like there wasn't much more than a passing thought put into the implications of this type of movement and what it would impact and how people would try to play it. In fact, they just try to glaze over all the types of movement by simply putting in an over-arching rule on page 32:
That's actually easier said then done ... especially if the formation has more than 4 companies within it! The difficulty arises when trying to keep all those movements in your mind and make sure that none of them break the rules. There have been several instances when I have attempted to move a formation and one of the companies broke the Move Value and then I tried to "put them back in their original position" to try to do it again!
In fact, we have found that the easiest way to move a formation is by first reconfiguring the formation to the desired configuration (up to the maximum move distance available to the formation), second deducting the cost of the reconfiguration from the total Move Value to determine the remaining available distance, third rotating the formation to the desired angle about the center of the formation (up to the remaining maximum move distance available to the formation), fourth deducting the cost of the rotation from the remaining available distance, fifth traversing the formation in a straight line to the desired final location (up to the remaining maximum move distance available to the formation).
Now for the "nitty-gritty" detail of reconfiguration movement...
The distance consumed via reconfiguration movement is highly dependent upon the base size of the companies, the current configuration, and number of companies within the formation. In fact, if the formation has a lot of companies within it, it will be substantially more expensive to reconfigure than a formation that only has 2. Also, the more companies within a formation the more permutations of reconfigurations are available - giving multiple cases that need to be considered for each variation of those permutations (no wonder GW did not try to go down this path, lol). Starting with the easiest case available - a formation of infantry comprised of 2 companies. There are only 2 possible permutations of configurations of which these 2 companies can comprise. (Note in each of these examples, company #1 is the command company that would hold heroes, banners, hornblowers, etc…). I have noticed that it is often useful to have a copy of the most common reconfiguration maximums so that I can quick reference them when taking my Move Phase - maybe I will include a cheat sheet for that at then end of these posts.
One thing to keep in mind is that the formation as a whole inherits the most expensive move for each company within the formation. That is to say, since company 2 has moved via the reconfiguration 4.93" already that means he only has 1.07" of movement remaining - and even though company 1 has not moved any distance, he must remain with the rest of the formation and cannot move more than 1.07", either - the most expensive move of 4.93" is inherited to company 1. Suddenly, the extra 1" move bonus from horn blowers is seeming more-and-more useful.
I think a lot of the confusion for the standard GW rules comes from the fact that players only consider forward motion to count against the Move Value; however, since the reconfiguration keeps the command company in place and the other companies are the ones that are "doing the movement", they actually contribute to "backward" movement first and then the remaining movement can be used for rotation or translational movements.
Considering what we have above, here. If the player had a formation of Minas Tirith Archers that were in the 1x2 configuration (the one on the bottom of the picture) and they wanted to maximize the number of archers that could shoot during the Shoot Phase (i.e., if they were in the 1x2 configuration then company 2 would be support and not direct meaning 9 dice to roll - but if they are in the 2x1 configuration on top then all archers can contribute meaning 18 dice to roll!) But look - the rules say that if a company moves more than 1/2 its Move Value during the Move Phase, they cannot shoot … and reconfiguring from 1x2 --> 2x1 for the archers requires a 4.93" of their 6.0" move … meaning that they cannot reconfigure and shoot during the same round! This puts a new spin on things - considering that it slows down the game and requires more strategic planning for formations' configurations. In fact, it almost makes sense to arrange archers in the nx1 configuration during deployment since reconfiguring could require multiple rounds to get flat again.
For formations comprised of 3 companies there are three permutations of configurations that can exist. Let's go through each of these three individually (Case 3-1, Case 3-2 and Case 3-3).
So, for Case 3-1 it appears that the worst case movement is Company 3. So reconfiguring in this fashion would require a Move of 4.93".
For Case 3-2, the worst case is Company 2 ... so again this would require 4.93" of the Move Value to perform this reconfiguration.
Now, this is interesting ... in order to reconfigure from 1x3 <--> 3x1 the distance required for the reconfiguration movement of Company 3 is 6.41"! This means that this type of reconfiguration movement is
not possible for a formation of 3 companies that does not have a hero that can call "
At the Double!" or a
Heroic Move (they simply do not have enough Move Value to perform this reconfiguration - and they would have to do two separate reconfigurations over two rounds [reconfiguring via case 3-1 first round and then via case 3-2 on the second round).
As you can guess - the necessity of requiring "
At the Double!" or a
Heroic Move is only going to get more common with the larger formations comprised of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or even 9 companies!
INFANTRY RECONFIGURATION SUMMARY (thus far)
GOING FORWARD
In part 3 I will cover another set of the
infantry formation permutations (probably 4 and 5 companies per formation) and then in 4 I will cover 6
infantry companies in formation and look closely at the examples provided on page 33 of the book. Then 5 and 6 will probably be covering
cavalry formations and their Reconfiguration Movement Limits.
LINKS TO OTHER PARTS OF THE WFMC PROGRESS SERIES
LINKS TO OTHER PARTS OF MOVEMENT TYPES AND LIMITS SERIES
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 2-3 Companies [Part 11/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised for 4 Companies [Part 12/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 5 Companies [Part 13/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 6 Companies [Part 14/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 7 Companies [Part 15/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 8 Companies [Part 16/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 9 Companies [Part 17/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Movement Example 1 from Page 33 of WotR Rulebook Analysis [Part 18/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Movement Example 2 from Page 33 of WotR Rulebook Analysis [Part 19/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Movement Example 3 from Page 33 of WotR Rulebook Analysis [Part 20/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Summary of Cavalry Formations by Company Size [Part 21/23]
- Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Restrictions of Reconfiguration by Formation Name Summary [Part 22/23]
- Using WFMC to Verify Movement Examples [Part 23/23]
