ORIGINAL: PaulWRoberts
One aspect of TOAW that has always been unusual is that rivers/canals/etc exist in hexes rather than along hexsides.
I remember debates about this is the past, but I've forgotten the details. Can someone give us of the rundown: what are the issues, and are there any downsides to the way TOAW does this?
How does TOAW decide which side of a river a land unit in the hex is on? How do the combat procedures take into account the defensive benefits of rivers, and how are cross-river attacks handled? etc.
Has anything changed here in version IV?
Thanks!
To be honest the way TOAW handles rivers through the hexes does nothing but add confusion and illogical conclusions to TOAW. Moving down the river costs you as though you are crossing the river with each hex you enter. That is just stupid. It's as though you are crossing the river time after time after time as you travel down it instead of staying on one side.
Then there is the lack of logic when attacking from a river. It costs +2 to enter a river hex without any ferrying aid. At that point you have crossed because it cost you the additional movement to cross. But if you are going to attack someone after you entered the river hex you are still hit with a .7 value to your combat. Why? The points to cross the river have already been expended. Doesn't that mean I crossed the river? Now, after I've expended movement points to cross the river, I have to attack across the river I just crossed???
It would be more logical to apply movement points for crossing a river when you leave the river hex. As long as you are on a river hex you still have not crossed it. Only after you leave the river hex is the river crossed. That would make attacking across a river make more sense. And if the defender is on the river hex they have not yet crossed it either. If you attack a defender while they are on the river hex they are still on the same side as you. That would add some much needed logic to the river through the hex issue. Otherwise you have to make excuses like the river has a bend in it...in every hex...all the way up and down the river...that the defender is defending in. But only when there's a defender there. Otherwise the river runs through the hex as straight as an arrow.
One more point. If I'm on a river hex and the defender is on an adjacent hex of the same river I'm hit with a .7 attack value because I'm attacking from a river hex. So I guess the defender is somehow assumed to be on the other side. Yet if I attack the same defender that is on a river hex and I'm NOT on a river hex I am not penalized at all. Somehow the defender is no longer on the other side of the river. Where is the logic???
Even more screwed up, the defender has paid movement points TO CROSS THE RIVER in the second example!!!!
AFAIK Norm and now Ralph use C++; so it's a question of coding. I never cared for the naval aspect (it's well known here) and as for the river hex. If there's an option to use it, sure, why not? But again, I am not a coder.
