Thoughts?

"ONLY infantry.....may be deployed at the beginning of the game." "Everthing else is held in reserve." Granted "is deployed" would have been clearer, but nowhere does it say "Only infantry may be deployed OR held in reserve at the beginning of the game."

Units without the reserve rule may not be held in reserve EVEN IF THE OPTION IS THERE, unless the scenario specifically tells you to.

If British may=must, then the whole rule system won't work. Start reading the rules and replace may with must and see how long it takes for you to agree.

You'd be claiming that infiltrators must set up just outside 18", that bikes must turbo boost every turn, etc.

Try this scenario Gaz:

There is a law that says "Everyday, every citizen must put his hand and 2 other things in his blender and turn it on. This must be done at 7:00 am. On mondays only their hands may be put in the blender at 7:00 am, the other 2 things must wait until at least 9:00 am, before they can be placed in the blender.

The exception for the latter does not constitute an exception for the former.

may¹  (m)
aux.v. Past tense might (mt)

1. To be allowed or permitted to: May I take a swim? Yes, you may.
2. Used to indicate a certain measure of likelihood or possibility: It may rain this afternoon.
3. Used to express a desire or fervent wish: Long may he live!
4. Used to express contingency, purpose, or result in clauses introduced by that or so that: expressing ideas so that the average person may understand.
5. To be obliged; must. Used in statutes, deeds, and other legal documents.

Any of those defintions of the word may could possibly be used in this case, and not all of them would allow a choice to be made in the matter (particularly 1 and 5).  

"In a mission using the Escalation rule, only basic infantry units that do not have dedicated transports are allowed or permitted to be deployed at the start of the game, unless the mission rules state otherwise".

if basic infantry unit, then deploys first turn

if basic infantry unit with  reserves rule, then deploys later than first turn if x. x= player's choice.

if basic infantry unit given reserves rule by scenario, then deploys later than first turn if x. x= scenario conditions.

AS has been said the scenario only states that infantry are the only units allowed to deploy "normally". It does NOT say that they are allowed to be held in reserve if they don't have the rule.

your premise one was printed so that rules lawyers like us would know what to do with the units that do not deploy regularly. 

your premise one was printed so that rules lawyers like us would know what to do with the units that do not deploy regularly

What if there was a second rule that said Police Officers must ALWAYS wear their uniform?

Similarly a rule that says "only units of type A may deploy" means "If a unit is deployed, it is type A" and it means "if it is not deployed, then it is not type A." But it does not mean "all units of type A must deploy."   But as you just said "if it is not deployed then it is not type A", AND there IS a rule that says all units of type A must deploy, and there are rules that say when units of type A may be deployed irregularly. Nothing in the escalation rule says that type A units may break this first rule, outside of have the other rules.

Escalation specifically mentions which units are held in reserve regardless of having the reserves rule. Anything that may deploy, must, per the basic rules. Anything that may deploy, but has reserves as a rule, can be held in reserve per the basic rules.

I can see already that you are going to refute that these bullets mean a player MUST deploy units. If you take that refutation to be true, then nobody EVER HAS to deploy anything and the game become unplayable, and the resrves rule becomes meaningless.

The reality is that you aren't allowed to deploy contrary to the set up rules unless a mission rule states otherwise (reserves, escalation).

If escalation said Infantry units without a transport MUST be deployed at the start of the game then those unit type that DO have the reserves rule wouldn't be able to use it, and we'd be having this debate about that.

This is correct; They are specific rules: specific to the scenario. Reserves and Escalation are exceptions to these rules, and as such exceptions they clearly define how and to whom these exceptions are applied.

The fact is there is no "deployment rule". Deployment is unique to each scenario, and therefor you can't deviate from the deployment procedure listed in each scenario, except when prompted to by the scenario exceptions and the rules they provide.

When the Scenario says to take turns deploying units in this order, until all units are deployed, that is what you do. If the scenario has Escalation as a rule, then effectively all units except infantry without a transport gain "compulsory reserves". Since escalation does not go on to state, or even imply, that infantry without a transport gain the "voluntary reserves" rule, then you have to default back to the set up rules for their deployment.

Again, the usage of the word "may" instead of "must", is to make sure that an infantry unit without transports can take advantage of any reserves rule it may already have.

BASIC PREMISE OF SET UP:

If the unit does not have the reserve rule in any of it's forms, it is deployed at set up.Apply exceptions here. Until the word "may" has a defintion in the game meaning "Has reserves", infantry units without transports deploy normally.

The problem with your premises is right here: "all units that are not basic infantry are not deployed" does not necessarily also mean "all units that are basic infantry are deployed". Basic infantry could be either deployed or not deployed, but your premises do not tell us which one applies to them. Your premises only tell us what happens to units that are not basic infantry. I'm not saying there are more than two different "states" of deployment or availability, I'm simply saying that, by your premises, which "state" applies is not defined.

The argument flows something like this: "all fruits that are not apples are not on the table" does not mean that "all fruits that are apples are on the table". The table could be completely empty, but we are not given enough information to say one way or the other.

EDIT: In order to complete your argument, you need a fourth premise that proves something like "All units not specifically stated as being unavailable for deployment are, by default, available for deployment". Without this fourth premise, we do not know the availability of units that are not specifically declared unavailable, they might be available or unavailable for some other reason.