Strait Between Honshu and Kyushu

[jay102]

The strait between Honshu and Kyushu is displayed as a white hexside(not river's purple). Does it trigger a shock attack to cross? Common sense tells me that a strait is wider than a river so it should incur the penalty if not harsher, but how does the game engine handle it?

[Alfred]

Can't find any comments from the devs re this.  Not surprising as it would be an extremely rare play in the game.  Someone like Bullwinkle who in an AI game used Soviet forces to capture HI bases might have direct first hand experience.
 
I seriously doubt you would trigger an auto attack.  The hexes in question (104,57) and (104,58) happen to be both a narrow strait and terrain which allows land movement.  Not all narrow straits also allow land movement.  From a design POV, the real point of having narrow straits is to affect naval operations, not land operations.
 
On the other hand from a design POV, river hexsides (whether normal or navigable rivers) are meant to affect land operations.
 
Think of a white hexside as indicating a contiguous land in one dimension, and water in another dimension, with both dimensions existing simultaneously.
 
Alfred  
 
 

[geofflambert]

When you have parallel postings (as in this case) is Alfred necessarily correct in one while being incorrect in the other? Let me consult Dr. Heisenberg.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Can't find any comments from the devs re this.  Not surprising as it would be an extremely rare play in the game.  Someone like Bullwinkle who in an AI game used Soviet forces to capture HI bases might have direct first hand experience.

I seriously doubt you would trigger an auto attack.  The hexes in question (104,57) and (104,58) happen to be both a narrow strait and terrain which allows land movement.  Not all narrow straits also allow land movement.  From a design POV, the real point of having narrow straits is to affect naval operations, not land operations.

On the other hand from a design POV, river hexsides (whether normal or navigable rivers) are meant to affect land operations.

Think of a white hexside as indicating a contiguous land in one dimension, and water in another dimension, with both dimensions existing simultaneously.

Alfred  

To the best of my recollection from 2+ years ago this is correct. Not only is no shock attack generated, but the railroad works between the islands as well. The white hexes at Shimonsoeki are there mostly to allow fleet units to work both up from the south (exiting the Pacific) and to the north to operate in the SOJ. The strait rules are for naval ops/CD etc., not to make moving LCUs require amphibs. If the strait is very wide the devs had the option of not using a white hexside. IOW, requiring ferries or true amphibs. Example is between Bataan and Manila E-W.

As best I can remember I moved entire Red tank armies by rail from Kyushu to Honshu on the RR.