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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 3974564" data-attributes="member: 3146">There probably is not a definitive answer on this, but it's worth noting a few things:1. combatants often circle each other at the start of a fight. Once the battle has joined, it is no longer even particularly common.2. Combatants only circle each other in the manner you are describing in single combat. Packs of lions don't hunt that way. (The textbook method for a pack of lions to hunt is for the males to stampede a herd of herbivores to where the females lie in wait, let the lionesses jump out and kill some of the weak or slow animals and then eat). Nor did armies fight that way when it actually came to fighting. Their manuevers were (especially in the ancient world) generally a lot more linear. Yes there were flanking and encircling manuevers, but those were more generally one flank of the an army marching around or smashing through a flank of the opposing army to strike the main force in the rear or in the sides than the kind of mutual circling you suggest.All that said, I suspect that the reason combatants might circle each other is that it is much harder to defend against an attack from the rear, and it is also more difficult to attack from the side. If two people are in a fight and one begins circling, the other needs to turn to face the opponent or he will be attacked from behind. Since both opponents would like to attack from an advantage like that, both simultaneously circle and turn to avoid being circled.Once the opponents are in weapon reach, however things are different. Depending upon what, if any, rules govern the fight, one opponent might try to close and get inside his opponent's reach rather than circle. Another might try to move in closer yet and grapple. If one opponent backpedals, the other opponent may follow in order to retain the advantage and initiative.Now, how about in D&D? D&D has trouble modelling this because it does not have facing. In fact, D&D's combat model is much better suited to skirmishes with a few combatants on each side than to single combats. (Though I recently did play out a D&D single unarmed combat that followed a remarkably similar trajectory to a couple UFC fights I once watched). Adding facing would make D&D more interesting as a single combat game, but more cumbersome as a skirmish style game. Pick your poison.</blockquote>

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