The problem with rivers...

[76mm]

I haven't played much TOAW yet, but am trying to figure a few things out...

For instance, how do rivers work? I'm used to rivers being on hexsides, but in TOAW they run though the middle of the hex; so if a unit is sitting on a hex with a river in it, which side of the river is it on? Does it derive any defensive benefit from attacks "across" the river? Or do units need to be one hex back from the river hex to benefit from it?

Similarly, when creating maps in the scenario editor, if you put a town in a river hex, it is shown as sprawling across both sides of the river...if I want a town to be on only one side of a river, do I need to set it back one hex from the river?

[Panama]

Ah yes, the age old question. Why did Norm do it this way?

The attacker is penalized for attacking from a river hex. So any direction he attacks is as if he were crossing the river. The defender receives no benefit other than the attacker being penalized for attacking from a river hex.

For all practical purposes the entire hex is the river. You can't travel up or down parallel to the river without paying river crossing costs. If a road runs along the river in the same hex as the river every hex is a bridge whether it is or not and all that implies. So be careful when you make a road run along side a 'super' river. I set them off the river a hex.

If you want a city to be on one side of the river or the other it has to be offset by a hex. Not very realistic but talk to Norm about that. [;)]

Civil Engineers like to build roads and railroads in river bottoms since they are usually nice and flat so in the real world there are many, many roads and railroads that parallel rivers.

[76mm]

OK, thanks for the clear response. A bit goofy but not a game-breaker as long as the maps are designed with these issues in mind.