A Place For Everything

Introduction

A place for everything and everything in its place, or so the old saying goes. This applies to wargames rules just as much as anything else.

Rules writers face many options when placing key facets of the game. Sometimes they make a bad choice.

I was mulling over my last few Art de la Guerre (ADLG) games, when I stumbled across a striking example of misplaced rules.

ADLG is strange

I was trying to understand why I struggled to calculate melee scores between unarmoured units with two handed weapons (2HW) and units with armour.

After a lot of searching through the rulebook the penny finally dropped.

I won't bore you with the details, but the effects of Armour and 2HW are designed to cancel one another. For this to happen they must be applied in order with 2HW first. Getting it wrong can give a very different outcome from that intended.

If you've had any mathematical training you'll recognise this as an example of noncommutative (arithmetical) rules. That's why I was having problems.

All the right notes

Armour and 2HW are two of five special abilities in ADLG that must be applied in sequence. It's described clearly on page 17 of the rules at the beginning of the three page section entitled "Special Abilities".

On pages 60, the eight page section on "Melee" begins. On page 62 there's a section entitled "Melee Resolution". On pages 62 & 63 there's a section on "Melee Modifiers".

None of them refer directly to the sequence on page 17!

Not necessarily in the right order

So there you have it. One of the most important features of the rules, how to apply special abilities to a melee, isn't in the section on melee!

No wonder I couldn't find it quickly! It was over forty pages away in another section entirely. A cross-reference linking the two might have helped.

The author chose to introduce the sequence very early in the rules, but I firmly believe the sequence belongs later on with the more "instructional" section on melee resolution.

In general, I'm of the opinion that definitions and instructions are best kept apart. But, that's just me being picky.