Quote:
Originally Posted by phiwum
I hadn't really thought about your final option: if you start engaged, you can still enter HTH in the movement phase via a shift. I can't see any explicit reason this would be forbidden.
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Actually on a closer reading of the rule, I think you'll see that is
not true.
Yes, under option (o) an engaged figure may explicitly shift 1 hex (or stand still) "during the movement phase", and subsequently during the combat phase, on its turn to act, "it moves onto the hex of any adjacent enemy" to (attempt to) initiate HTH combat. This is explicitly a two-step process. The "shift" referred to during the movement phase is clearly the same "shift" as mentioned everywhere else in the rules, the movement to an
empty hex still adjacent to the enemy with which you are already engaged. It's clearly stating you cannot enter the enemy's hex
yet, on movement, but you can do so later during the combat phase when it's your "turn to attack". Of course for all you know, that enemy could get clobbered or shot dead by a friend with a higher adjDX than you, acting after the movement phase (because that's when she can) but before
you get the chance to attempt to initiate HTH.
But assuming you do get to attempt and succeed at initiating HTH as your action in this situation, interpretations of SJ's wording differs among us. Some would say you
still get to make your HTH attack (option (t)) or attempt to draw a dagger (option (u)) right now, in this same combat phase. I interpret it otherwise. You used option (o) this turn to get this far, so I say using another option, (t) or (u) in this same turn has to be off limits. I would make the player wait until the combat phase of the
next turn before using one of the options (t, u, or v) available to folk in HTH.
Despite not getting to actually "attack" until next turn, there's still an advantage to waiting until you're engaged to get into HTH. You don't have the restrictions the rules impose when a disengaged figure comes running in to initiate HTH as a Charge Attack under option (b). Under option (b) you're limited to attempting HTH on figures with a lower MA, or from behind, or who are already on the ground. Those limitations don't exist under option (o) for engaged figures, and that's a critical difference under the right circumstances.
But if you are disengaged and faster, or disengaged and coming in from the rear, you do get to attempt to initiate HTH on the movement phase -- you end movement in the enemy's hex (a stated and explicit exception to the normal rule to stop the moment you enter an enemy's front hex),
and if the attempt to initiate HTH succeeded, then roll to hit in a HTH attack during the combat phase of the very same turn. (The latter is also somewhat debated, but in my opinion I think the intent of the rule is clear.)
The root of any confusion with HTH is that in these early Melee rules, SJ went back and forth using the words "movement" and "attack" both as technical terms for phases and combat options on the one hand, and as colloquialisms on the other. Where he's not using those words conversationally, I wish he'd capitalized or italicized or something every time he used them as formal terms for game elements.