For SJ, where's the Move and Defend and option?

[RobW]

Originally Posted by Chris Rice

In the example above, you're in the Trolls rear hex and therefore unengaged and you choose not to move. In the Troll's movement phase it spins round so it's now in your front hexes and you are engaged.

In your action phase you can select Defend since you are now engaged.

I don't see a probalem with that. Engagement is dynamic and changes during both movement and action phases of a turn.

I certainly agree with your last sentence. But it is emphasised 3 times in ITL that it is engagement status when your turn comes to move that counts for available options. And re your suggestion on engagement status when it comes time to act -- which btw I think is entirely reasonable, playable, and produces sensible outcomes in all the cases I described -- nowhere I can find does it say or imply that engagement when your turn comes to act might be determining.

And worse, the recently released pdf proofs for the upcoming "player aid" cards use similar wording, and the same option letters. In fact, it says on one of the cards you choose from yellow options if you are disengaged when your turn to move comes, and the pink ones if you are engaged when your turn to move comes. So they've not just copied and pasted, they have deliberately reworded, to express in yet a 4th way, that it is when your turn to move that is meant to be determining. There's no option for defending among the yellow cards. The blue Shift and Defend card says you can shift or stay still. Shifting is elsewhere defined in ITL p103 as something you can do when engaged and your turn comes to move.

RAW are very clear, it's just that in this instance they are bugged. Yuck! Everyone should be encouraged to do something other than RAW in this case. Given the existence of these "player aids" it is probably simplest to do the Skarg trick of saying when SJ says "turn comes to move" (4 times), read as "turn comes to act"! And then reword in your minds that Shift and Defend doesn't really mean "Shift" and Defend, but just "Move 1 hex" and Defend. And then, if you like, that "move 1 hex" actually means move 1/2 MA, but only if you want to get really, like, crazy man.

One thing that the "player aids" might clarify is that Dodge is no different from any other option (ie p102 the confusing "move while dodging" wording has been removed), but we can leave that for another thread.