Move-phase

## the phase

In the movement-phase of a turn, the player choses in which order her own living units move, and then performs movement for each unit, one after the other, while a unit itself moves step by step. A unit does not need to move in a straight line and may change direction after a step.

## points of movement

Each unit has now a number of points of movement as set up before the first round, units with zero points of movement can never move under any circumstances, but any unit that indeed has more than zero points of movement may move to any position within its reach, this is, any position it can reach, or even not at all.

## paths

Units move over paths directly connecting two positions, there are single-lined, double-lined and triple-lined paths, which have a cost of one, two or three points of movement.

Directly adjacent positions without paths between them cannot be moved to (directly); there is no “jumping over holes” or the like.

## obstructions

Units move step by step until reaching their final destination, while units are not only not to be placed or step on positions directly occupied by other entities, but also not on positions *directly adjacent* to positions occupied by other entities, since they take up space.

In the depiction above, all positions a unit cannot move onto or over are marked with a ◇ or ◆.

So, let's say, a unit comes from the depiction's 6 o'clock left of unit D. It would be able to move one step at 12 o'clock next to unit C, and then another step at 2 o'clock, but after that, it could go no further, for there are no unobstructed positions between either unit A and E or E and D.

## reach

A unit may move to any positions *within its reach*, which is any position where the cost of all the paths connecting its starting-position and destination does not exceed the number of points of movement the unit has.

In the example above, you have a 225 on the left. (In this depiction, numbers on positions mark the [minimal] cost of movement for the unit to reach the position in question.) It can easily go over a first and then a second single-lined path, and should it reach the cluster of double-lined paths to its right, it would still have 3 points of movement left, so it could absolutely move over a first double-lined path, since 1+1+2≯5, *but* it cannot (!) move over another double-lined path, since the cost of paths moved over so far would be 1+1+2=4, so, with the 5 points of movement the unit has, 5-4=1 point of movement would be left – not enough to move over another double-lined path with a cost of 2.

### Rule of the First Step

There is, however, an exception to this rule of cost:

Every unit with more than zero points of movement can always make the first step over any path directly connected to its starting position, no matter how expensive this path is and even if other paths would be available the unit could use also.

The reason for the existence of this rule is to prevent obstructive board designs, this is, the design of boards that prevent slower units from entering areas otherwise accessible to faster units exclusively.

In the depiction above, positions affected by this rule from the point of view of the 252 on the right are marked with ◆