Moving "Large Monsters"

[arch8ngel]

Although the rules certainly cover that the direction of the figurine certainly doesn't matter, covering movement could get a little cloudy.
When the Zargon (or Morcar) player is controlling a common orc, he'll usually have the orc facing the hero he's attacking. Again, the rules say nothing about doing this, but it's how normal people play.
Asides from the length (which effects movement spaces) there aren't that many issues with the Giant Wolf; on Zargon'sturn, he will most likely be moving and attacking in the direction of his head (which does indeed overlap into a 3rd space).
But then we have the Frozen Horror, (whose standard model is a bit shorter than 2 full squares) his facial direction is lengthwise. The Zargon player could move him in the facial direction, which indeed takes up 2 spaces. Unlike the wolf, whose hind legs would move up a space, covering the square where the front base had previously been, the Frozen Horror would/could cover 2 new squares that were previously adjacent to him. I would imagine this would also only count as 1 space... although none would care much regarding this argument, the Frozen Horror only makes his appearance in 1 quest, so whatever one decides to do for movement in that one room, it will likely go no further.

The wolf can "sidestep" the same way you could with the Frozen Horror, in my opinion.

Moving whatever you select as the "anchor point" 1 tile, is still just moving the anchor point 1 tile.

(and the rules state directly that large monsters can attack any tile that contacts their base, regardless of facing, including diagonals)

[Kurgan]

The EQP has quite a few quests that use the Giant Wolves, and I'm adding a few more monsters that are two squares long, so this helps. The great thing is that now if you have more than 4 heroes, you can "surround" these monsters pretty easily, and they won't be able to escape... but they can still attack the Heroes on any side, even diagonally touching. But in such a situation can they "flip" around and escape?

Let's say you have it like this:

[h].....|
[m][m]|(wall here)
[h].....|
assume there are free squares on all sides of those figures ("m" is the monster, "h" are heroes) except they are next to a wall on the right "I". Can the monster flip to the squares adjacent to the wall, away from the heroes, or would you have them be "stuck" there?

[h]..[m]|
.....[m]|
[h]......|

or is this a legal move for the monster?

[h]......|
......[m]|
[h]..[m]|

The "anchor point" sounds logical to me, but let's face it, even if your head is on one side of your body, you can still "back up" or "pivot." Then again in this game, we don't allow diagonal movement (except in that weird "around the corner pit jump"). Maybe that's the key right there, we have to allow weirdness like this just to keep things consistent, or we allow mechanical anomalies to stop the flow of play. Oh, you're blocking the path of my legs, I can't move now, despite the rest of my body being free!

Or how about this:

....[h]........|
[h][m][m][h]|
........[h]....|

Can the monster escape by moving or not?

I'm inclined to say they should be able to, just with normal movement. In practice this would mean "large" monsters would be harder to surround. What do you all think?

Then what about this? With 5 heroes (or if you prefer, 4 heroes and a mercenary), surrounding the monster, is the enemy trapped?

....[h]........|
[h][m][m][h]|
....[h][h]....|

[arch8ngel]

I think all of those pivots and potential escape situations you diagram would all be valid moves for the monster.

But I also think it is missing the spirit of the game to get too hung up about the exact mechanic of the 2-square bases rotating.

[Maurice76]

I'd rule them all as valid moves. Each of the two squares of the monster moves 1 tile and the two squares remain connected at all times.

[devarionarias]

Yeah, same here. I'd house rule them all as valid moves even though it's not spelled out precisely in the official rules.

The only situation I rule the monster being "pinned" in place is if there are no adjacent squares to it's base, So for example, lets say a wolf tries to attack a hero who is in a square between a table and a wall, then on the next turn another hero comes up behind and attacks the wolf, leaving it no adjacent spaces to move around and effectively pinning it in place. (See rough diagram below). The way I house rule movement is that the large monsters can attack on diagonals, but can't move diagonally, so even if a diagonal space is empty, they are pinned in place.

[Kurgan]

That makes sense.

[Goblin-King]

Yeah, this is what I tried to say when I suggested moving essentially just one square, and the second square just drags along

[mitchiemasha]

Looks like we can all agree on this one.