Mass Combat insights

[ravenfish]

I interpret Deliberate Defense as saying "you get +1 (or +2), but don't forget, you still get Defense Bonus because this is a defense maneuver", both because that is how I naturally read it and because the alternative would seem to render it overpowered compared to other maneuvers.

I don't think "defense bonus from favorable terrain" was meant to establish a category separate from defense bonuses, but merely to remind the reader of what defense bonuses are (the separate listing of defense bonus from terrain and from fortifications only occurs later on in the context of sieges, and even there only in the context of evaluating different factors that add up to make a single defense bonus). Note also that Defense Bonuses only occur in a pitched battle or when attacking a previously prepared encampment, so the "terrain" bonus probably already includes some amount of artificial constructions crafted before the battle (for example, the sharpened sticks the English set to disrupt cavalry charges in the Hundred Years War), which likewise argues against treating it as something completely separate from fortifications.

Therefore, I would go with option A.

[condor]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

I interpret Deliberate Defense as saying "you get +1 (or +2), but don't forget, you still get Defense Bonus because this is a defense maneuver", both because that is how I naturally read it and because the alternative would seem to render it overpowered compared to other maneuvers.

(...)

Therefore, I would go with option A.

Good points. I am inclined to interpret this way also.