Passing to Rearward stance in the middle of a fight

[Joaoperru]

Hi all!

Let me explain my riddle.
We are a fellowship of 5 people, 4 meele types and 1 pure ranged.
Pick the case in which we fight 11 foes. Our ranged pal cannot go to rearward stance cause they outnumber us more than twice.
So he starts the fight in melee (in which he sucks).
After some rounds of combat we kill 2 enemies. Now we're not outnumbered anymore more than twice.
He desperately wants to go to rearward stance, but he is still engaged cause he didn't kill the foe engaged with him.
At the beginning of the new round, during the setting of the stances:
1) he can choose rearward stance, cause there are at least two other players in close combat stances and the enemies dont outnumber us more than twice anymore.
2) he has to stick to melee cause he is already engaged. So to "free" him he has to wait till the foes are less than characters, so one player goes and kills the foe on him, freeing him from the engagement (oh gosh...that could take ages).

Read a lot of solutions here, like escaping from combat than rejoining in rearward stance... i'm asking how the original rules are played (or understood...).

Sorry for my english

Thanks in advance!

[Indur Dawndeath]

Very simple. You can chose stance at the beginning of every round. So your ranged fighter can chose rearward as soon as the conditions are met.

Cheers

[Butterfingers]

Yes, that was one of things our group (and me as LM) have had some difficulty adjusting to as well: the Companions get to choose their stance at the beginning of round, and only then the enemies are assigned. And this is done every round. And the opponents of the Companions can change every turn too, they aren't 'locked in close combat' as such, right?

Who gets to pick their opponent depends on whether the enemies outnumber the Companions, or vice versa. LM chooses if there are mor enemies than Companions, or Companions choose their enemy if they outnumber/equal the enemies. And again, this is done at the beginning of each round, and may in fact change during the fight. That's how we now play it.

[Joaoperru]

Yeah i understand, but as many people here pointed out, on page 174 it says:
"A character is engaged when paired in close combat with at least one opponent. A combatant remains engaged until he defeats all opposition." So it seems that you are sort of locked. Things change only when people or enemies start to die or escape...
But maybe there are more ways to read such a sentence. What does it mean "all opposition" for example?

As an example at page 174-175 it reads: After a bitter fight that left two Wild Wolves and two Orc soldiers on the ground, Trotter is still shooting his bow and the Bride and Caranthir are still engaged, respectively
fighting the Messenger of Lugbúrz in a Forward stance and the remaining Orc soldier in an Open stance. Lifstan is Weary, as killing the Wild Wolf has worn him down considerably: he chooses a Defensive stance and joins the Bride as she duels with the evil minion of Mordor.

So it seems that you are locked...

[Butterfingers]

Really? Ok I hasten to add that we're using the slipcase edition, so rules might have changed, or possible we're doing it wrong?

[Joaoperru]

Yes, people call it the first edition. The sentence i'm referring to it's in the revised edition.

[Butterfingers]

In my LM Guide it says: "Players choose their stance before a combat round sequence starts - they change their stance simply by choosing a different one before the following combat sequence." That's it, and it doesn't mention getting locked with anyone? But like said, that's the old edition. But I don't see any changes in the addendum to it either?

Does the revised edition have an equivalent passage to the above, and what does it say? It's under "Engagement" in the old LM book.

[Joaoperru]

I added an example in the post above maybe after you read it. As an example the revised edition says:

"After a bitter fight that left two Wild Wolves and two Orc soldiers on the ground, Trotter is still shooting his bow and the Bride and Caranthir are still engaged, respectively fighting the Messenger of Lugbúrz in a Forward stance and the remaining Orc soldier in an Open stance. Lifstan is Weary, as killing the Wild Wolf has worn him down considerably: he chooses a Defensive stance and joins the Bride as she duels with the evil minion of Mordor"

Reading it with in mind the *new* rule that says that "A character is engaged when paired in close combat with at least one opponent. A combatant remains engaged until he defeats all opposition" seems like the Bride and Caranthir have to stay in melee with the same foes as before, while Trotter keeps his rearward stance to shoot arrows. Lifstan, who now is free of enemies, can choose which target to attack next because now the PCs are more or equal than the number of enemies... and chooses to go and help the Bride with her foe.

[Butterfingers]

yes, it sounds a lot like that based on the example...

This would really turn the entire combat rules upside down, the turn sequence, tactical considerations, called-shots etc.

[Joaoperru]

We have tried just one combat in 5 against 9 enemies, so i don't have your combat experience obviously. But the change here is just the fact that you cannot exchange enemies between PCs. Turn sequence remains the same as with called shots obviouosly. A player can only change target if he kills the one/two/three he is fighing.
And i think that in the case in which a player has two foes on him and others have none, they can "pull" one of his foes on them. That makes sense.