Good catch on the inconsistency.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackrabbit_slim
So here's the deal--shouldn't Wulf shift so his back will be towards the wall?
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Well it doesn't say why Wulf wanted his back to the tree/wall or not, and one could imagine various reasons why or why not.
On the one hand, having your back to an obstacle means no one can get to your rear hex, but if this is a one-on-one (which maybe the real Wulf isn't sure of - after all, he just killed another Roman), there's rarely a way to get there while engaged, anyway.
On the other hand, if you have nowhere to back up to, then there are disadvantages:
1) There is a rule in the original Melee that if you can force a retreat on a foe (by hurting them on a turn they don't hurt you), AND they have nowhere to retreat to, they have to roll 3/DX or fall down. For some reason, that rule seems absent from the new basic Melee/Wizard.
2) There is still a rule that if your "back is to a wall", someone can attempt to initiate HTH combat with you from the front, which normally you can't do unless you have higher MA than they do. And this would actually be a good thing for Flavius to do to Wulf, because Flavius has armor, HTH damage is low, and HTH gives everyone +4 DX, so Flavius would tend to hit a lot more often than he does on foot. (No idea if Wulf or SJ were thinking this, but there it is.)
3) If Wulf were contemplating Disengaging, he'd be able to do that if he had a way to move away from Flavius, which he wouldn't if he were stuck against a wall.