Can vim syntax priorities be reversed?

Question

Here is the entry for :help syn-priority.

PRIORITY                        *:syn-priority*

When several syntax items may match, these rules are used:

1. When multiple Match or Region items start in the same position, the item
   defined last has priority.
2. A Keyword has priority over Match and Region items.
3. An item that starts in an earlier position has priority over items that
   start in later positions.

It appears that rule 3 seems to override rule 1.

Is it possible to make rule 1 take precedence over rule 3?

Here is a concrete example of the undesirable behavior. Using the following syntax file, it seems that nTODO has a higher priority than boldme.

syntax clear
syntax case match

syntax match nTODO /^\s*!!.*/ 
syntax match boldme /\*.\+\*/

highlight nTODO  ctermfg=Yellow
highlight boldme ctermfg=Red

Example input to match on:

This *line* has one word Red.
!!This line is completely yellow.
!!This line is also *completely* yellow, but I want one word to be red.

Answer 1

You're after the nested-match facility, see :help syn-contains

   :syntax match boldme /\*[^*]\+\*/
   :syntax match nTODO /^\s*!!.*/ contains=boldme