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Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
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Author:  Slythar [ Sat May 28, 2011 6:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
I wrote this out to simplify to the rules. I've read and discussed the rules many a time and believe this to be definitive.

How to Use Defensible Terrain

Entering and Exiting Terrain can only be done during the move phase and if warranted in the fight phase.
You cannot charge from defensible terrain.
If your formation is larger than the capacity and is normally allowed to enter said feature than treat it as exposed difficult terrain. No defensive bonus.

Entering to Occupy Defensive Terrain

Terrain feature must be empty.
One company must be touching the feature.
All companies must be within 6" of the feature.
Once occupied the formation receives a defense bonus and has ended its move.

Exiting a Terrain Feature

If enemy is within 6" roll for courage. If failed you cannot exit.
One company must be touching the feature.
All companies must be within 6" and be in a legal formation.
Cannot move further but can charge as normal.
For purposes of shooting is considered to have moved at half rate.

Shooting/Spells Cast from and at Defensible Terrain

Range is measured from the center of the terrain.
Defenders can trace line of sight from any point on the feature
Defenders use half the capacity and round up the number of companies for direct fire. The rest are considered support.
Defenders are always shot at the front.

Charging Defensible Terrain

All charging companies touching are directly fighting. The rest are considered support.

Fighting Defensive Terrain

The defender always fights from the front.
Defenders use half the capacity and round up the number of companies for direct fighting. The rest are considered support.
The defender can assign those companies to whomever is in contact with the feature.
The attacker receives no extra dice for charging.
If the defender loses the fight and is not steadfast on the panic test then as an addition it exits the terrain as per the rules for 'Exiting a Terrain Feature'. If it cannot legally exit than the formation is destroyed.
The attacker can then immediately occupy the charged feature if empty.

References
spiders & terrain
WotR: Charging from defensive terrain
Author:  ForgottenLore [ Sat May 28, 2011 8:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
Looks basically right.

You should add a note in "Entering and Exiting Terrain can only be done during the move phase." saying only voluntarily, or referencing the "Fighting in Defensive Terrain" section since it is possible to exit a terrain feature in the fight phase if driven out.

You might also go through and clean up the grammar in a couple places.

Finally, you should probably mention that there is some debate about whether a formation has to be too large to fit in order to treat the terrain as difficult instead of defensible. The rulebook says

Quote:
However, any formation is allowed to move through an unoccupied....
implying that well, any formation can do that, but that quote is in the section about "Our numbers are too great" implying that only large formations may do that.

My local group has decided that any formation may do so, as it makes no sense that 25 elves can march though a forest but 24 of them MUST take up defensive positions. You also have large formations that take casualties and are suddenly small enough to fit, do they suddenly occupy the formation and get the def bonus?

So there is a rules argument to be made and we think it makes more sense so that should probably be mentioned in the summary.
Author:  jscottbowman [ Mon May 30, 2011 1:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
"Within"

I have often wondered at this statement, when moving into or out of terrain

See below diagram

Image

Clearly one company is touching the terrain feature. But is the second company 'within' 6" of it?

Does it mean the whole company base must be inside the 6" zone, or is it just so long as part of it is in the zone.
Remember this affects both moving into and out of terrain (in terms of occupying terrain).
(It obviously doesnt affect formations just moving through the terrain and not choosing to occupy it.)

Interested in your thoughts
Scott
Author:  ForgottenLore [ Mon May 30, 2011 2:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
"Within" pretty much has to mean that just some portion of the company must be less than 6" away. It would be impossible to fit more than a company or two in the required space around irregular shaped terrain otherwise.
Author:  Beowulf03809 [ Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
ForgottenLore wrote:
Finally, you should probably mention that there is some debate about whether a formation has to be too large to fit in order to treat the terrain as difficult instead of defensible. The rulebook says

Quote:
However, any formation is allowed to move through an unoccupied....
implying that well, any formation can do that, but that quote is in the section about "Our numbers are too great" implying that only large formations may do that.

My local group has decided that any formation may do so, as it makes no sense that 25 elves can march though a forest but 24 of them MUST take up defensive positions. You also have large formations that take casualties and are suddenly small enough to fit, do they suddenly occupy the formation and get the def bonus?

So there is a rules argument to be made and we think it makes more sense so that should probably be mentioned in the summary.


I think this is an example of "where" GW put the rule causing unnecessary confusion. We play the same in that any formation may move thru the terrain if otherwise legal. Some of the situations that develop otherwise are really stupid and this just seems like a common sense issue that gets clouded by placement in a book.
Author:  Jobu [ Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
ForgottenLore wrote:
You should add a note in "Entering and Exiting Terrain can only be done during the move phase." saying only voluntarily, or referencing the "Fighting in Defensive Terrain" section since it is possible to exit a terrain feature in the fight phase if driven out.


Technically this is true, more specifically there is only one way to exit a terrain feature, whether one is forced or one leaves voluntarily.
Author:  Xelee [ Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
Beowulf03809 wrote:
ForgottenLore wrote:
Finally, you should probably mention that there is some debate about whether a formation has to be too large to fit in order to treat the terrain as difficult instead of defensible. The rulebook says

Quote:
However, any formation is allowed to move through an unoccupied....
implying that well, any formation can do that, but that quote is in the section about "Our numbers are too great" implying that only large formations may do that.

My local group has decided that any formation may do so, as it makes no sense that 25 elves can march though a forest but 24 of them MUST take up defensive positions. You also have large formations that take casualties and are suddenly small enough to fit, do they suddenly occupy the formation and get the def bonus?

So there is a rules argument to be made and we think it makes more sense so that should probably be mentioned in the summary.


I think this is an example of "where" GW put the rule causing unnecessary confusion. We play the same in that any formation may move thru the terrain if otherwise legal. Some of the situations that develop otherwise are really stupid and this just seems like a common sense issue that gets clouded by placement in a book.

Absolutely. To do otherwise is to just make things harder than they need to be. WOTR is meant to be quite a simple game, focused on the choices you make, not rules peculiarities.
Author:  Celebdriel [ Thu Jun 02, 2011 6:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
Just one thing worth pointing out - Catapults, etc. occupying defensible terrain have a 360 degree field of fire, (if I read the rules correctly) which makes for a much better option than the limited field of fire if deploying them on the table. Only one drawback - Natures Wrath
Author:  Beowulf03809 [ Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Quick Guide to Defensive Terrain
Spells are an amazing way to take out siege weapons anyway (Strength from Corruption works great if evil), and even if they are not in a defensible terrain feature they can still be nailed by Natures Wrath. I think protecting them in a feature can really work well as long as you don't need that feature for your core troops. We don't use siege weapons too often so I haven't seen this in practice yet so this is just conceptual.
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