Offboard entry question

joee

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when Offboard units may enter, west, north OR, south, Does all the off board units have to enter the same entry edge, or can some enter from north and some from south?
 

jrv

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when Offboard units may enter, west, north OR, south, Does all the off board units have to enter the same entry edge, or can some enter from north and some from south?
It depends on the exact wording of the entry instructions and who wrote them. If it is a publisher that is careful about such things, an unadorned "or" means "exclusive or", i.e. all units must enter from one edge. This is, I believe, the current convention. In english "or" can be used in either sense, inclusive or exclusive, and if your scenario is from a publisher that is not careful about such things, the instructions could mean either.

JR
 
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A_T_Great

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Often the publisher will write that all units must enter the same board edge. If that is not included, I not use that restriction.
 

klasmalmstrom

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On an official scenario (of later date at least) if one can enter along multiple edges the instructions usually reads something like this:
"Enter on Turn 3 along the north/west edge(s), with all Personnel as Cavalry:"


If it is one or the other it usually reads something like this:
"Enter on/after Turn 1 along the east or west edge of board 37 (see SSR 4):"
 

boylermaker

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If it is a publisher that is careful about such things, an unadorned "or" means "exclusive or"
IMO, if it is from a publisher that is careful about such things, there is no unadorned "or" in the first place (and probably no unadorned "and" either). Either rewrite the sentence, italicize 'or', or (best) use "either ... or".
 

jrv

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IMO, if it is from a publisher that is careful about such things, there is no unadorned "or" in the first place (and probably no unadorned "and" either). Either rewrite the sentence, italicize 'or', or (best) use "either ... or".
I agree with the intention, but I'm not sure about the implementation. Which one does an italicized "or" mean? If you are a non-native english speaker, how do you look up italicized "or" in a dictionary to determine that? I'm not sure "either ... or" is much better. I personally feel that all such cases should spell out what is meant, e.g. "the German player may choose one of the north, east or south edges on which to enter his reinforcements," or "reinforcements enter on the north, east and/or south edges." I believe that MMPs current convention is that unadorned "or" (italicized or not) means "exclusive or", one of the choices but not more than one. Scenarios from TAHGC and other publisher's scenarios may not follow that convention.

JR
 

boylermaker

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A brief skim through my official scenarios makes it look like MMP appears to (almost) always use either "and/or" or "or"; so my assumption is that "or" is "exclusive-or", although I agree that it is not an option I would approve of if it wasn't the official parlance.

I'm interested in why you don't like "either ... or"--I have been laboring under the impression that both denotation and connotation of that phrase is exclusive-or. Some googling has turned up that I'm right about the denotation, but of course if people here disagree with me, I'm wrong about the connotation.
 
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