(TFT) HTH initiation during movement is not so easy...

[Christopher Fuhrman <fuhrman8or@yahoo.com>]

And I thought forced retreat was the deadest of the dead horses...

HTH initiation seems to be a topic of past discussions, and it's got
me pondering a bit while working on this for the online Melee. I
skimmed through a couple of threads, as far back as 1999. Many people
speak of how it can spoil missile attacks, pole-weapon sets vs.
charge, etc. However, I'm surprised that nobody mentions the
relatively limited conditions for initiating HTH which seem to make
it less of an issue. Quoting Advanced Melee (p.15):

[quote]
A figure may move ONTO an enemy figure's hex, initiating HTH combat,
if (a) the enemy has his back to the wall, or is lying down, prone,
or kneeling, or (b) the enemy has a lower MA, or (c) the attacker
comes in from the rear, or (d) the enemy agrees to HTH combat.
Initiating HTH combat is considered an attack.
[/quote]

For example, a pole-weapon charge would only be spoiled if the
attacker (b) had a higher MA than the defender, (c) came from the
rear, or, strangely, (a) the enemy has his back to the wall.

Of these conditions, (c) is the most logical, (b) seems to imply that
speed is an issue, and (a) is a very strange condition that could be
ignored. Too bad no documented examples exist in the rules to clear
up the ambiguity. [related note - I like those Heroscape rules
because they have lots of scenarios to explain rules, as it should
be].

Also, even if the conditions to initiate HTH during movement *are*
met, there is still a chance (2/6) that the defender can deny
initiation after a die roll, except if the attack is from the rear
(see the rules for full details). My point is that initiating HTH is
not that easy, and I don't see a need for house rules to balance it
as many others have proposed on the list in the past.

The only strangeness is to why "(a) the enemy has his back to the
wall" has anything to do with HTH. The other things seem to make
sense, more or less.

Finally, I added this topic (along with the other questions that have
been posed along these lines) to the Wiki: http://tft.brainiac.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Rules.EnteringHand-to-handCombat


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"