The handout from the Palm Beach Photographic Workshops large format course (I forget the name of the photographer who taught the course) says to focus on the far, then tilt to bring the near in focus with a base tilt camera, and to focus on the near, then tilt to bring the far into focus with an axis tilt camera. I have no idea why the difference depending on the tilt mechanism but since I have an axis tilt camera I've always focused on the near, then tilted for the far, and it works fine for me.